Recording - November 2009 - 16

BY JOHN ROSSI III Roland and Cakewalk have established bonds that date back to the mid-’90s when Roland took over all Japanese distribution rights for Cakewalk products. In the ensuing years, Roland acquired the North American distribution rights and most recently acquired a majority share of Cakewalk in 2008. ago in the September 2009 issue. That having been said, let’s learn about the hardware. Installation and configuration Setup was relatively easy, except for one operator error made by me: Upon initial setup I had (wrongly) connected the computer USB connection to the VS-700C is the audio interface that gets audio signals in and out of the computer. If an interface is not meeting the demands of audio fidelity, transparency and latency, the system as a whole will be compromised. No worries—the audio performance of the VS700R is nothing short of outstanding. The VS-700R is 2 rack spaces tall. It has an attractive, uncluttered front panel, whose only controls are an on/off rocker switch and a rotary switch for selecting sample rate. Nine 8segment LED level meters monitor the eight analog inputs and the Aux input from the console. Status LEDs indicate the operation of interface functions: operational connection with the console and computer USB; MIDI and digital I/O signal traffic; audio sync clock source; monitor output activity (both Main and SUB); and the activity of the 10 analog output channels. Cakewalk by Roland SONAR Over the years Roland contributed software synthesizers (e.g. TTS-1, Groovesynth) and audio processors (e.g. V-Vocal) to Cakewalk products including SONAR, Project5 and Kinetic, but the music world still anxiously awaited a truly collaborative project from the new Cakewalk-by-Roland brand. Earlier this year the wait was ended with the announcement of SONAR V-Studio 700. The V-Studio 700 system consists of three major components: the VS-700C console control unit; the VS-700R audio interface/Fantom VS synthesizer; and SONAR Version 8 Producer Edition. The bundle comes packaged along with all the cables and software necessary to connect the system and interface it with a Windows Vista or XP computer. A detailed review of SONAR 8 Producer Edition (the flagship DAW from Cakewalk) is beyond the scope of this article. SONAR 6 was comprehensively evaluated in these pages in 2007. All changes, additions and improvements have been similarly documented in annual reviews for the two subsequent years, with the review of SONAR 8 Producer appearing here just two monthsRECORDING NOVEMBER 2009 V-Studioproduction 700 A comprehensive platform for Windows-based music —and we mean comprehensive! instead of the VS-700R. This error prevented me from loading the drivers onto my DAW computer. A call to Cakewalk support quickly fixed my error and I was off and running. The rest of the installation procedure, including all software installation, went smoothly and I had the system up in running in about 30 minutes. Following installation of the V-Studio, SONAR has to be configured for use with the V-Studio—i.e., the V-Studio must be selected as SONAR’s control surface, and MIDI ports providing communication between the 700C and 700R must be activated in SONAR. One of the first things I noticed when I powered the V-Studio up for the first time was how quiet it is. The fan on the VS-700R is barely audible, increasing the SPL over that of my normal control room din (41 dB) by only 3.2 dB (A-weighted, at 1 foot). Except for my initial USB error, getting the complete V-Studio system up and running with SONAR was remarkably easy. Sound in—sound out As with any DAW-based studio recording environment, the nucleus of the system All of the I/O connections are on the back of the unit, where each element is logically placed. The VS-700R provides ample audio I/O with 19 inputs and 24 outputs simultaneously available when it is connected to the VS-700C console. The VS-700R has eight analog inputs, on XLR jacks with switchable phantom power, and on eight balanced 1/4" TRS jacks that accept line level signals. In addition, an unbalanced 1/4" jack with switchable Hi-Z and gain control is available on the VS-700C for connecting a dynamic microphone or a guitar. The VS-700R’s main outs are on XLR for L/R; Sub Outs L/R and 10 general purpose audio outputs are provided on 1/4" TRS jacks. Eight digital inputs and outputs are provided by ADAT Toslink connectors, and stereo digital I/O is provided as either AES/EBU on standard configuration XLR connectors or as S/PDIF on gold plated RCA (phono) jacks. For users who require more I/O connectivity, a second VS-700R can be added, doubling the I/O capability provided by the interface (as well as providing an additional Fantom VS synthesizer!).

Recording - November 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - November 2009