Roland VS-2400

[T.C. Elliott]

I've found one local with the monitor. Asking price is 599.00 US. I know I can talk them down some. Anybody use one of these things or have an opinion about it. Anyone notice anything to beware of? Supposedly it's mix in the box etc, but I mainly use my BR900 to record and then convert to WAV and mix in Reaper. I imagine I'll be looking to do the same with this (if I were to buy it.)

Anybody know of alternative 8 (or 16) track recorders that might be better for my needs? Thanks in advance.

[T.C. Elliott]

Any other 8+ simultaneous recording options that you'd recommend? I'm looking, but they don't really make it easy to compare things on the internet.

[64Guitars]

I don't know much about the VS series, but from the look of it, I'd say the VS-2400 is probably a pretty decent recorder. Of course, it's 10 years old, so it's not going to have USB 3.0, control surface capabilities, etc. In fact, I don't think it has USB at all, and it stores everything on the hard drive (it doesn't use flash memory). It doesn't have much of a drum machine. In fact, they don't even call it a drum machine; they call it the metronome beat box, though it does have bass drum, snare, hi-hat, etc. In general, though, the VS series recorders are much more advanced than the BR series. So, even though the VS-2400 is 10 years old, it still has many great features that are not available in BR series recorders. Given that the original price of the VS-2400CD was $3,295, I'd say that $599 is a pretty good deal.

What is it about the BR-900 that you hope to improve on? Is it just the number of tracks that you can record simultaneously?

I think the TASCAM DP-24 looks great for the money, and it's a fairly new product so it has more modern features like USB 2.0, flash memory storage, etc. It can record 8 tracks simultaneously and play back 24 tracks. It doesn't have a drum machine but it has MIDI In and Out, so you can sync it to an external drum machine, or just do your drums on the computer instead. My only reservation is that TASCAM was recently taken over by Gibson, which makes me worry about TASCAM's future.

[SteveB]

Personally, I'd go with the Tascam.
What's the point of shelling out for 10-years old technology.
I can't see Tascam going anywhere soon, and that partic unit (DP24), looks surprisingly portable.
I saw a VS2400 (with monitor) a few years ago in my local music shop.
With the cables and everything, I think you'd need a small van to move it around.
Anyway, TC, good luck with your choice. 

[Farrell Jackson]

Anybody know of alternative 8 (or 16) track recorders that might be better for my needs? Thanks in advance.

Hi T.C. You might check out the Zoom R16 or R24 recorders. They are reasonably price and I think they have the features you are looking for. Here's a link to a S.O.S. review of both products.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/articles/zoom-r24.htm

I'm still using a Fostex VF160 that is at least 10 years old now, maybe older, and it keeps on ticking with good results. It only records at 16 bit but I can record 16 tracks at the same time with it. If it were to start acting up the Zoom R24 would be my choice for it's extra tracks, stand alone recording, and P.C. friendly interface. Just another option to check out.

Happy hunting!

Farrell

[SdC]

Anybody know of alternative 8 (or 16) track recorders that might be better for my needs? Thanks in advance.

Hi T.C. You might check out the Zoom R16 or R24 recorders. They are reasonably price and I think they have the features you are looking for. Here's a link to a S.O.S. review of both products.
....
Happy hunting!

Farrell

I've tinkered with the R16 for a weekend, and coming from the Boss/Roland field it is a REALLY annoying device: the fact that the inputs are hard-routed to specific tracks results in endless plugging/unplugging of mic's and instruments. (eg. input 1 can only be recorded to track 1 or 8, input 2 only on track 2 or 9 etc.)

[7thson]

Anybody know of alternative 8 (or 16) track recorders that might be better for my needs? Thanks in advance.

Hi T.C. You might check out the Zoom R16 or R24 recorders. They are reasonably price and I think they have the features you are looking for. Here's a link to a S.O.S. review of both products.
....
Happy hunting!

Farrell

I've tinkered with the R16 for a weekend, and coming from the Boss/Roland field it is a REALLY annoying device: the fact that the inputs are hard-routed to specific tracks results in endless plugging/unplugging of mic's and instruments. (eg. input 1 can only be recorded to track 1 or 8, input 2 only on track 2 or 9 etc.)

That's one of the awesome things about the BR-800.  I plug in to one input and when I'm done recording a section on one track and select a different track for a different part the machine takes me to the next open track.  No fuss, no muss.

[64Guitars]

I've tinkered with the R16 for a weekend, and coming from the Boss/Roland field it is a REALLY annoying device: the fact that the inputs are hard-routed to specific tracks results in endless plugging/unplugging of mic's and instruments. (eg. input 1 can only be recorded to track 1 or 8, input 2 only on track 2 or 9 etc.)

And you can only plug an electric guitar or bass into input 1 because it's the only input with a Hi-Z switch. So that means you can only record electric guitar and bass to track 1 or track 9.

However, I've just had a quick look at the R16 manual and it's not quite as bad as it sounds. There is a Track Assignment feature which lets you assign the previously-recorded audio from one track to another. So, for example, you could record your electric guitar to track 1. This will create a WAV file which you can then assign to, say, track 5. You can then set track 1 to NO ASSIGN which will force it to create a new WAV file when you start recording. So now you can record another guitar or bass track on track 1 while monitoring your previous guitar track from track 5.

Another way you could do it is with the Track Swap feature. Record guitar on track 1 then swap it with track 5. Now track 1 is empty (assuming track 5 was empty before the swap) and you can record another guitar or bass part to track 1 while monitoring the previous guitar part from track 5.

Not as convenient as a BR but certainly usable. And you don't have to unplug/plug any cables.

[T.C. Elliott]

Thanks all. I went and spent my extra cash on silly things like doctor bills so I'm back to looking for a cheap midi controller and not a new recorder... again.

Re: needs. Yeah, it is mainly having 8 track simultaneous recording that I'm looking for. I don't much care for the drum machine in the BR900, although I do use it more often than not when doing a drum track to play along with. But I plan to do more drums in Reaper then import as a WAV to the 900 to record to if/when I get a decent midi controller that will actually work on this here laptop. (Tech ignorant when it comes to midi, but I'm starting to learn.)