Roland Complete Guide to the VS-1680 and Its Mastering Features

Mix 16 tracks down to 2 tracks (Mastering Room)

From the 256 V-tracks you can now select any two tracks, and mixdown to these two tracks as you play back 16 tracks simultaneously.

Added mastering tracks

Until now, you had to use an external DAT recorder or MD recorder if you wanted to mixdown a song that used all sixteen tracks. For example if you wanted to produce an original audio CD, you needed to first mixdown to an external recorder (DAT or MD), and then re-record that song onto the VS-1680.

fig.2-01

	VS-1680
	Track 1--16	Digital Out
				DAT
	MIX	Select	MASTER OUT
	L R	L R
TR1	MIX
	Sw
				MD
		MASTER	DIGITAL OUT

Now, “Mastering tracks” equivalent to this external recorder (DAT or MD) are provided on the VS-1680 itself.

fig.2-02

VS-1680

Track 1--16			Digital Out
	MIX
		Mastering	Select	MASTER OUT
	L R	Track	L R

TR1	MIX	TR15-16
	Sw	TR16-16

Mixing down to the mastering tracks

Here’s how to select the mastering tracks, and perform a mixdown.

NOTE

The operation of playing back 16 tracks while you mixdown to the mastering tracks (two tracks) is significantly affected by the speed of the hard disk. For this reason, depending on the structure of the song data (sampling rate and recording mode, or when punch-in/ out is used frequently, etc.), or depending on the drive that you use, the display may indicate “Drive Busy,” and the operation may not take place correctly. In order to take full advantage of the

VS-1680’s potential, such as the number of tracks that can be recorded/played simultaneously, and the recording capacity, we recommend that you use a hard disk which capacity is 2.1 GB or more.

1.Press [MASTER].

2.Press [PAGE] so that [F6] indicates “M.Tr,” and then press [F6 (M.Tr)].

fig.2-03

MASTER

DIGITAL OUT

Any two of the 256 V-tracks can be assigned for use as the mastering tracks. With the factory settings, V-track 16 of tracks 15/16 (i.e., 15-16 and 16-16) are assigned as the mastering tracks.

For example, you can play back V-tracks 1-1, 2-1, 3-1...15-1, and 16-1 (a total of 16 tracks), and record the result on V-tracks 15-16 and 16-16 (a total of two tracks).

3.Press [ENTER (YES)].

4.Press [], [], [ ], or [ ] to move the cursor. Use the TIME/VALUE dial to specify the value for each parameter.

fig.2-04

MEMO

When the Recording mode (VS-1680 Owner’s Manual, p. 58) is set to “MAS (mastering),” you can play back V-tracks 1-1, 2-1, 3-1...7-1, and 8-1 (a total of 8 tracks), and record on V-tracks 7-16 and 8-16 (a total of two tracks). Tracks 9–16

cannot be used.

8