3—Introduction to the VS-2480

54 www.rolandus.com Roland VS-2480 Owner’s Manual

The Internal Effects

What Are the Internal Effects?

The VS-2480 contains a set of individual internal effects processors. As shipped from
the factory, there are two internal stereo effect processors onboard. You can install up to
three additional VS8F-2 Effect Expansion Boards (purchased separately) for a total of
eight internal stereo effect processors.

What Are Effects?

An effect is a type of audio processing that’s added to a sound to enhance it. There are a
variety of effects available in the VS-2480, including:
•

Reverbs

—A reverb adds an ambience to a sound, creating the impression that it
exists in an actual physical space. Some people call reverb “echo,” though
technically that word applies to something else, as we’ll see. A reverb can be short
in duration—so that it sounds like an average-sized room in your home—or long,
so that it sounds like big concert hall. It can also be set to any size in-between.
•
Delays
—A delay causes the original sound to repeat one or more times, often at
levels that get quieter and quieter with each repeat. Long delays help re-create
classic rock ‘n roll sounds. Any delay can also useful for subtly suggesting an
ambience. Another word for “delay” is “echo.”
•
Choruses, flangers and phasers
—All three effects add their own type of swirling
texture to a sound, most often to instruments such as electric pianos and electric
guitar or bass. They utilize subtle delays and/or pitch changes to do what they do.
•
Filters
—A filter removes part of the original sound. This group of effects includes
EQs and things like wah-wah pedal simulations.
•
Compressors, limiters, gates
—These effects, collectively called “dynamics processors,”
alter the volume of the original signal in one way or another. Compressors and
limiters even out volume fluctuations, while a gate lowers the level of a signal—or
shuts it off altogether—when it falls below a certain volume level.
•
Modeling
—Roland’s COSM™ (Composite Object Sound Modeling) process
emulates various guitar amps, microphones and speakers with amazing realism.
The VS-2480 also offers effects that use several of these audio processes at once.

How Does the VS-2480 Create Effects?

Each of the VS-2480’s effects is created by subjecting an audio signal—remember, it’s
just numbers while it’s inside the VS-2480—to a complex mathematical formula called
an “algorithm.” The VS-2480 contains 36 algorithms. You’ll find a list of them in the

VS-2480 Appendices

booklet.
Each algorithm has its own collection of settings. You can save an algorithm’s settings in
the VS-2480 memory as an “effect patch.” The VS-2480 ships from the factory with 250
pre-programmed patches, many of which offer more than one kind of effect. The
VS-2480 also provides 200 memory locations into which you can save your own effect
patches. See the

VS-2480 Appendices

for a list of the factory effect patches.
Effects can be applied to an audio signal in either of two ways, as we’ll discuss in
Chapter 5, starting on Page 81.
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