When Roland introduced the original VS-880 Digital Studio in 1996, few had any idea that an affordable, self-contained, all-digital recording workstation would meet with such an unprecedented level of success. But several short years later, the V-Studio has become somewhat of a de facto standard in affordable digital workstations, opening the door to powerful recording, editing, effects processing, mixing and mastering, and audio CD burning to more than 120,000 users worldwide. And that number is growing daily!

This year, Roland has truly completed its V-Studio vision by offering an expanded line of products designed to keep everything in the digital domain, right down to a digital connection to Roland's new nearfield monitors, the DS-90 24-bit Digital Reference Monitors (for more, see sidebar).

The Roland lineup for 1999 includes the professional new V-Mixing System, the compact V-Mixing Stations, and the new COSM Speaker Modeling Technology. Not only are these new products designed to work seamlessly with each other, but by using products like the V-Mixing System and V-Mixing Stations, Roland's innovative V-Studio concepts become available to a wider audience of digital recording product users like ADAT and TASCAM MDM owners, computer-based musicians, and users of any gear with digital ins and outs. Advances like COSM Speaker Modeling, which allows audio output to sound as if it's playing through a variety of the world's most popular nearfield monitors or even TV / boombox simulations is already onboard many of Roland's newest products, making connection to the “reference standard” DS-90 monitors easy and clean. With this year's new V-Studio introductions, for the first time, users can keep everything all-digital, from the initial microphone simulations to the recording, processing, mixing, digital monitoring via speaker simulations and CD-R mastering.

The VM-3100Pro ($1295 list) is a high-quality digital mixer with a 20-channel / 8-bus design and 24-bit resolution via Roland's best A/D and D/A converters (inputs 9-12 employ 20-bit A/D conversion). It features powerful digital mixing capabilities including the ability to store and instantly recall complete mixer “Scenes” which contain all mixer settings, EQ, signal routing and effects settings, as well as full MIDI compatibility with an external hardware or software-based MIDI sequencer for realtime automation. This professional-quality mixer also offers an RMDB II port with 8 in/8 out 24-bit digital audio transfer, and optional ADAT / Tascam T/DIF communication via a DIF-AT Interface Box. The dual onboard stereo effects processors include high-quality dynamics processing, studio reverb, chorus, delay, guitar/vocal/keyboard multi-effects, COSM Mic Simulation, Speaker Modeling technology and more.

The VM-3100 model ($995 list), on the other hand, offers a 12-channel / 8-bus design with 24-bit resolution (inputs 9-12 employ 20-bit A/D conversion) and a single stereo multi-effects processor with compression, reverb, delay, various multi-effects and more. Like the VM-3100Pro, these built-in effects are virtually noiseless, and their settings can be stored and recalled along with other mixer data via Scene memory.

Moving up to the next level in digital mixing: The V-Mixing System is the world's first affordable separate-component digital mixers, featuring breakthrough design and innovative new effects in the tradition of Roland's acclaimed V-Studio workstations. Comprised of the VM-7100 (basic 38-channel $1995 list) / VM-7200 (basic 48 channel $2795) V-Mixing Processors and 94-channel VM-C7100 ($2995 list) / C7200 ($3695 list) V-Mixing Consoles, the V-Mixing System gives users many configuration options between console and processor, yielding up to 94 channels of digital mixing and eight stereo effects processors when fully expanded.

The first thing users will notice about the V-Mixing System is that it's a separate-component system, employing an all-digital console with quiet motorized faders and an expandable 3U rackmount processor which contains all the inputs, outputs and effects. The V-Mixing Processors come with two stereo multi-effects processors, and can even be expanded with three additional VS8F-2 Effects Expansion Boards for up to eight stereo or 16 mono channels of automated effects processing. In addition, the V-Mixing System offers Roland's best 24-bit A/D and D/A converters, extensive “Scene” memory including electronically controlled input gain, onboard mix automation with quiet motorized faders, 24 fader groups, dual-channel delays, 4-band parametric EQ plus channel HPF, and Surround 5.1 mixing capabilities. The V-Mixing System also offers a Realtime Spectrum Analyzer which can be used with an onboard noise generator and oscillator to adjust for the acoustics of any given studio or live sound venue. You really get the sense that Roland’s engineering group pulled out all the stops on this one, don’t you?

Central to the V-Mixing System is its flexibility in component configuration. A 25-fader VM-C7200 or 13-fader VM-C7100 console can be used to control either one or two VM-7200 or VM-7100 processors, and a processor can be controlled via one or two consoles. Up to 94 channels of mixing are possible using two expanded VM-7200 processors and a VM-C7200 console. Internal flexibility is provided via liberating "FlexBus," and "virtual patchbay" functions. FlexBus allows for 12 individual busses to be freely switched between auxiliary and recording functions. The input/output routing is much like a "virtual patchbay," allowing users to define a destination channel for each input.

As usual, space doesn’t permit us to tell you everything about these great Roland products (darn!), so please pick up the phone and call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer for additional information (lots of it!) and your special Sweetwater pricing (you’ll be astounded!) on the Roland V-Mixing System that makes the most sense for your specific needs.