Roland VS-2400CD - The No-Hassle Pro Studio

Aug 6, 2003 12:00 PM, By Laura Tyson

A D V E R T O R I A L

Need a good excuse to record your band? Roland just came up with the best one: the new VS-2400CD 24-Track Digital Studio Workstation. The VS-2400 is a complete digital recording, mixing, and CD-burning workstation with 24 tracks of 24-bit digital audio, a 48-channel automated digital mixer, two stereo effects, and more.

The 2400 has pro-level specs and features, including motorized faders, a 96 kHz sample rate, and full 5.1 surround-mixing capability. The best part is that you can connect a VGA monitor to the 2400’s built-in VGA output and use the included mouse for software-style waveform editing. Compared to its big cousin the VS-2480CD, the VS-2400CD is smaller and lighter, so it’s easy to take from gig to gig. And it’s significantly smaller in price—a feature sure to put a smile on any musician’s face.

Roland's VS-2400 hard-disk recorder is a complete digital music-production workstation, providing 24 tracks of 24-bit digital audio recording, a 48-channel automated digital mixer, two stereo effects processors, a built-in CD burner, and more.

Captured Live
Because the VS-2400 can record 16 tracks at a time, it’s perfect for recording a full-size band, including drums, bass, guitars, and vocals. That was exactly the task I faced on a recent Saturday in April. I was hired to cut a demo song for an alt-rock band from upstate New York.

Rolling all the qualities of Green Day, Weezer, and Jimmy Eat World into one, the band Lester wanted a professional demo for a local radio contest. Their lineup included drums, bass, and two guitarists who sang lead and background vocals. They wanted the demo to sound like it was recorded in a professional recording studio, but they lacked the professional recording-studio budget. I knew that the 2400 could handle this assignment with room to spare, so I placed it in the back seat of my two-door coupe and made the drive to the band’s home in Rochester, NY.

We agreed to meet on a Saturday morning at the drummer’s nicely equipped basement studio. The environment was perfect: wood floors, brick walls, drapes scattered here and there, and a token lava lamp in the corner. Because I had done most of the preproduction work on the 2400 in my hotel room the night before, all that I had to do was fire up the 2400, connect and position the mics, and set levels. I gave the drummer a set of headphones, turned on the 2400’s built-in metronome, and went about positioning mics and setting levels as he warmed up.

Out of the box, the 2400 has eight XLR inputs, each with switchable phantom power. The unit’s 24-bit mic preamps are super-high quality, so I didn’t need to bother with external mic preamps. The R-BUS port on the back of the VS-2400 provides the other eight inputs. For the Lester recording session, I connected an optional Roland SI-24 Studio Interface to the R-BUS port to get eight more XLR inputs. In addition to the eight studio-quality mic preamps, the SI-24 offers motorized faders and a handy joystick for doing surround panning. It also looks really cool.

The final setup included mics on the kick, snare, and toms, with a pair of mics for overhead cymbals. The bass and both guitars were connected direct, and we still had plenty of inputs for vocals—but those would be overdubbed later.

Each analog input on the 2400 has a full-featured channel strip, including a 4-band EQ and a compressor. I kept the EQ off but turned the compressors on for the kick, snare, and bass guitar. The gain-reduction metering in the compressors makes setting them up a no-brainer.

The VS-2400 has two stereo effects processors; I used these to insert Composite Object Sound Modeling (COSM) guitar-amp modeling on the guitar inputs. Applying the JMP-Stack preset on the rhythm guitar made it sound as if he was playing through a stack of Marshall amps. I handed the effects-editing controls over to the lead guitarist, and he dialed in his own tweaked version of the SLDN Lead preset for his sound. Knowing a good thing when I heard it, I saved his setting to the VS-2400’s User Effects bank as Jason’s Guitar Sound. It would come in handy later on. In both cases, I inserted the amp modeling on the 2400’s mixer in such a way that the guitarists would hear the modeling in all its glory as they played, but without printing the effect. That way, I could mess with the sound later during mixdown.

The band pleaded for a quickie last-minute rehearsal of the tune, so I gladly relented and used the time to make sure that all the levels were good and to fine-tune the headphone mix. Soon, everyone was warmed up, tuned up, and fired up, so we started recording. This was the easy part, as all I had to do was keep an eye on the levels. Once the rhythm parts were laid down, I excused everyone except the lead singer, and we tracked the vocals. By mid-afternoon, we had cut the background vocals.

As anyone can tell you, time progresses at a different rate in the studio; before I knew it, we had recorded all the tracks, overdubbed all the vocal parts, and it was time to pack up. Anyway, I needed to get back to New Jersey to feed my cats.

The VS-2400’s back panel offers mouse and keyboard inputs, a direct out for a VGA monitor, optical and coaxial S/PDIF digital I/O, an assortment of analog outputs, a footswitch jack, and two R-BUS ports.

Back at the House
Back at my farmhouse a day later, I cleared a space on the dining room table for the 2400 and hooked up a VGA monitor and mouse. With the monitor and mouse, the 2400 behaves and looks just like a computer-based recording system, albeit without all the extra hassles and baggage inherent in a general-purpose computer. As a dedicated recording system, the 2400 offers sheer, unadulterated power, so (for example), I never have to worry about bogging down the CPU with too many effects and EQs running at once. With the coaxial digital output of the 2400 feeding my Roland DS-90A 24-bit Digital Studio Monitors, I was ready to start mixing.

Everything sounded even better than what I had remembered from the original session; it was almost perfect. The final touch would be the addition of a scorching lead guitar solo played by a guest soloist. With the band’s approval, I recruited the talents of a well-known LA-area guitarist.

Because the 2400 can import and export WAV files, I can collaborate with musicians anywhere in the world. Distance is no longer an issue when it comes to getting the best players for your songs. All that you need is a VS-2400 and high-speed Internet access. I simply exported a mix of the tracks as a stereo WAV file, minus the original guitar solo, and I emailed it to the guitarist. I gave him free rein to go crazy and record as many solos as he wanted; the VS-2400 has room for 384 tracks per song. His assignment was to crank out the solos, save them as WAV files, and email them to me. I would burn the files to CD and import them into the VS-2400. He pulled the mix into his own system and recorded a staggering 23 different solos; some guitarists never run out of ideas! He then emailed the files to me (thank goodness for broadband Internet), and I burned them to a CD and imported them into the VS-2400.

Inside the 2400, I stacked the solos into virtual tracks under tracks 18 and 19. That way, I could listen to each solo in place against the original tracks and decide which one to use. Even better, I could copy the best parts from each solo to assemble my own “comp” track for the guitar solo.

Next, I used the mouse to assemble the guitar solos at the right location in the song. On demand, the 2400 will snap audio phrases to a grid, so it’s easy to line audio up to bars and beats. The waveform views showed me exactly where each riff started and ended. Like the audio equivalent of Dr. Frankenstein, I had soon created the ultimate monster guitar solo.

It was time to evaluate the vocal tracks. My 2400 has the optional VS8F-2 Effects Expansion board installed, so counting the two built-in boards, I had four stereo effects to work with. The vocal tracks were originally cut through an AKG C3000 condenser mic, so I started out by experimenting with different flavors of COSM Mic Modeling before settling on the Vintage Condenser model. Adding a tiny amount of the Large Hall reverb gave the vocal parts just the right sound.

In the Mix
I was now ready to mix the song and burn a CD. With the touch of a button, the 2400’s motorized faders switch between tracks 1 through 12 and tracks 13 through 24. I could also mix several tracks with one fader, thanks to the Group Fader mode. I set the levels for the drum tracks, assigned them to Group 1, and then assigned the rhythm guitar parts to Group 2. I kept everything else on individual faders, so I had my entire mix right under my fingertips. I turned on the Automix feature, letting the 2400 listen to and memorize my fader movements as the song played, then I played it back, hands-free. The best part about Automix is that the 2400 does the work for you, letting you sit back and focus on the way your song sounds instead of worrying about when to fade in the background vocals and such.

I was almost ready to burn the song to a CD and send it to the band, but I wanted to make sure the mix was as loud and punchy as some of the music I’ve heard on the radio. First, I mixed all the tracks down to a stereo master from inside the VS-2400’s Mastering Room. Then I inserted the Hard Compression preset of the Mastering Tool Kit. Was that enough? Will this mix sound as punchy and as loud as, say, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous by Good Charlotte? There was only one way to find out. I slapped my copy of the Good Charlotte CD into the 2400’s CD tray, and used the track-ripping tool to bring the song in question into the 2400’s Real Time Spectrum Analyzer. The Analyzer immediately revealed that my mix had too much mid-range and not enough high end, as compared with Lifestyles. A few strategic tweaks of the Mastering Tool Kit fixed that. Satisfied, I burned my mix to a CD.

And the Winner Is…
Whether Lester wins the radio contest or not, the VS-2400CD is the real winner when it comes to recording your band. With its musician-friendly price tag, there’s nothing else that even comes close. It provides professional recording and production tools in a sturdy, reliable package that morphs into a computer-like recording system when you connect a mouse and VGA monitor. You get the ability to record, edit, mix, and burn CDs anywhere at any time with total reliability and hassle-free operation.

So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start recording!

Roland Digital Recording Product Specialist Laura Tyson has a degree in music engineering and technology from the University of Miami. She began using digital recording systems in 1986 (with New England Digital’s Synclavier) and has been nonlinear ever since. Numerous recording and mixing projects on Roland V-Studios now keep her busy.

Product Information
VS-2400
portable digital studio
$3,295

Contact Information
Roland Corporation U.S.
tel. (323) 890-3700
Web www.rolandus.com