Doing distance recording

[John Lacey]

A friend of mine has sent me some trax to record some steel on. I'm using a Roland VS1680 to do my recording on but am having problems interfacing with the computer. What is the cleanest and most efficient way out of my computer to place the trax and then return them to the computer for transfer? I've used Soundforge as a software before and it still seems to work but I'm confused as to the ins and outs of the 1680 to the computer. I also have a Edirol UA-25 interface but it's never worked very well. Should I just chuck the 1680 and record using my me70 as a preamp? It works pretty well. I just need to catch up to date on the technology so it's clean and efficient. Ideas? Suggestions?

[jolynyk]

John, I've never had luck with 1680,I don't think you can hook the 1680 to a computer.. so I got rid of it, & got a Korg D3200. It has a USB to connect to my computer.. You could get a Zoom, or use any of the available DAWs out there, e.g. Sonar, Pro Tools, Audacity, MTS (Multi Track Studio), Cubase.. I'm sure any of them would do the recording you need, you will need an Interface. I bought an Alesis (io4) on ebay for around $70.. works well..
If you have Band In A Box, it comes with Real Band which is a good to record with..

[Jack Stoner]

Computer based is the way to go, if the PC is capable. I started with a tape then went to the hard drive recorders. But, when I migrated to computer based it opened up so much more.

My home recording studio uses Sonar X2 recording software. There are many good USB connected interfaces, such as the Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 that is good for a starter.

I've "tracked" steel for several. My last one was for a studio in New Zealand.

[John Phinney]

If you have the VSCDRII external drive for the VS1680:
1. Burn the track you've been sent to a CD.
2. Place the burned CD into the VSCDRII and import the audio into a session in your VS1680.
3. Record your psg and export those tracks to the VSCDRII, put a blank CD in the CDR first.
4. Put the burned CD with your psg tracks into your computer, find the files and send them to your client.

I used a VS1880 with a DIGI001 and Pro Tools for a few years. You need to sync the VS1880 with Pro Tools via MIDI and match the sample rates if you want to transfer the audio thru SPDIF. Nowadays I'm "all in" on Pro Tools and the VS1880 mostly sits. I've recently figured out how to use it as an outboard headphone amp for singers that insist on hearing reverb when they track, but otherwise it sees little use. I have a VSCDRII that I would be willing to sell to you if you're interested, but you should be aware that you must have the most up to date firmware installed in your VS1680 for it to work.

[John Lacey]

I've got a VS burner so yes I could do that and send the client a CD back, but I was trying to upgrade to keep it more or less on the computer and wondered which interface was being used today for that purpose.

[Gary Shepherd]

Put them on a DVD and let him worry about it.

[Tony Prior]

well, long distance sessions require a couple of things...

A way to send wav files BACK to the client . This can be an internet DROPBOX or your own FTP site.

and..record in a format they can use easily, WAV is the preferred format as it can be imported into most any DAW session. A single track file can easily be 50 meg in wav format....


When a client sends you a track it should be in a format YOU can use easily, such as MP3.....import the entire file into your system, do not cut it or shorten it. Let the track length be the ref length as it will line up perfectly upon return.

These are very important details as you may have to do some edits..

there are ALWAYS edits !


good luck, make life easy...