Roland 1680 to Protools via Projectmix i/o

[teleguy2]

Anyone know how to do this? Or know where it's posted?
I've been using a 1680 for several years and I've finally made the leap to PT with the help of a friend.

Can anyone give me some basic steps to easily (or as easily as is humanly possible) transfer my tracks over into ProTools with minimum loss of quality...and I am a complete newbie with ProTools, so try not to speak in abbreviations and codes if at all possible.

My drummer set up the system for me (he runs a studio and is good at it). All I know how to do is get sounds into ProTools and move faders up and down. I'm learning, but I also have two kids and work full time (NOT in a studio), so I'm on an extreme learning curve.

So, any help you can give a brother would be much appreciated.

Peace,

Steve

[beggehorn]

Sounds like a great question to ask your friend...

Nice to see you round these parts teleguy2

[teleguy2]

anyone?
anyone?
Bueller?

[TBF Entertainment]

I came from a 1680 also. There is no real easy way of doing it. Only 2 ways.

1) Use the main outs and the Aux outs for a total of 4 outputs. You will just have to fly them in 4 tracks at a time. Then at the end Make sure to line them up. Actually, what i haven't tried was to sync to ProTools. That may work also so you don't have to line them up manually. Also, you are now analog, so you will have some noise. But i haven't really heard a difference.

2) Use the Digital Outs from the 1680 into ProjectMix. You stay in the digital domain, but you only have 2 tracks at a time. Takes a longer time.

Let me know if I can help you with anything else.


tbf

[teleguy2]

TBF,

Thanks! Just today on the VSPlanet forum I also received this advice. Does it make sense/sound legit to you? I'll repost it here for a comparison/contrast of information.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You can send tracks out from a 1680 via:

* the digital outputs, two at a time
* the RCA outputs, eight at a time

Before you send any tracks out of a VS into a computer, you'll need to "mark" them, such that you can line them up in the computer program you'll be working with. Take a stick click or something - one short noise - and copy it to the same time coordinates at the beginning of each track. (You can mark one track, then copy a clip from that track to the same location on every track using the Copy menu).

To send tracks out the digital output:

1. On the track menu of the VS, pan the first track hard left and the second track hard right.

2. Turn down the output volume on all your other tracks.

3. Make sure you are routing the output to the digital outs.

4. Hook the VS digital outputs to the digital input of your i/o device, making sure that the sample rate is the same (for example, if you recorded the tracks on the VS at 44.1, the computer needs to be at 44.1 as well).

5. Arm the tracks in the computer.

6. Press "play" on the VS.

Voila! Now repeat this process for all your 1680 tracks.

The process is the same for the analog outputs, except that you use the Direct Out switch on the Master Block to send the contents of tracks 1-8 and 9-16 out the RCA outputs in the back. You can skip the part about panning the tracks - when you use the direct out method, panning doesn't matter.

Hope that helps.

And here's a link to that post and it's ongoingness.
That OTHER message board.

[TBF Entertainment]

It sounds good, except for the 8 outs. The most I could find to do was 4 outs. How did he get 8 outs? There is no way, to my knowledge to use all RCA outs, each with only 1 track going out of it.

Otherwise, yes, it sounds right.

TBF

[ramkid]

The best way is if you can find someone who has a VS2480, a Delta Rbus card and M Powered on a Windows computer and have them transfer the files via Rbus directly into M Powered. I have this setup, but I run M Powered on a Mac and for some strange reason, Mac M Powered will not see the Rbus card. But if all else fails and you don't have to many items you want to transfer, I could help you out. PM me over at VSPlanet, I am mackid over there.

ramkid