1880 audio quality

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2001 12:51 pm

Heya,I've been shopping around looking at the stand-alone units, and I like the feel and layout of the VS1880. I've also been looking hard at the Yamaha AW-4416.One thing I have noticed, working only with the demo songs in these units, that the VS's EQ seems to be more useful than the AW's. The AW's EQ has an audible effect, but it doesn't really do much...even at extremes it seems weak compared to the EQ on an analog console. I know demo songs aren't the best basis for a comparison, but I do think one can get a gist of what the machines to to audio. The demo song on the AW sounds cold and sterile, in fact it sounds somewhat like projects I've played on that were mixed in an 02R (the basis for the AW's mixer stage). Thin and kinda canned-sounding. I never liked the sound of my B-3 after the 02R got done with it, and the engineer driving it is a talented audio guy.The demo in the VS1880, however, sounded quite fat, and the EQ seemed to "do more" even though it's less sophisticated than the 4416.Seeing that I can get an 1880 with CD burner *and* a decent mic preamp/voice processor for what the 4416 costs, would that be a usable rig? The 4416 has its own attractions, but the 1880 was quite easy to get around once I messed with it awhile. I kinda like the way it's set up. Anyone ever A-B these machines with identical sources?Tnx... Cool

TP

Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2001 9:54 pm

Hi, I have never really messed with one of the AW's, but I do have a Roland VS-1680 workstation w/ both efx cards and a CD burner. I personally think it sounds good. If I'm not mistaken, the VS demo songs are actually recorded with the VS.. unlike every other one that just dumps pre-recorded material in. (I'm not 100% sure, but I recall hearing that somewhere...)You are right about getting around on it, though. Once you get the feel of how its set up, the VS is easy to use and includes all the features you would expect of a DAW (Time compression/expansion, EFX [with the cards, of course], editing [cut, copy, paste], automated mixing [no moving faders... more VCA style], etc...). The EFX cards give you everything you need like compressers, gates, reverbs, delays, chorus, flanging, phasing, lo-fi, amp simulators, parametric eq, split band compressor (mastering toolkit) etc... etc.... etc... you get the idea. If you are interested, I might be trying to sell it in the near future in order to go with a computer based system (I really like the VS, but just want something different) It's all in perfect condition (I've only burned 15 or so CD's with the burner!) and I also have the hardshell case and a Sony portable mini-disc with S/PDIF optical input that is neat to bounce down to so you can take your mixes with you NOW instead of having to burn a disc (it is a little slow at that). The VS is also loaded with the most current software which gives you an extra 2 tracks to bounce down to (16 tracks plus a stereo pair)Hope this helps!Drop me a private message if this sounds interesting or if you know someone else who might be in the market!-Chris

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