A few days ago I asked about connecting a Shure Beta 57A mic to my HP
Pavilion ZT3000 laptop but somehow the thread disappeared from my Outlook
Express before I had a chance to follow up.

First of all big thanks to those who responded. Basically I was told that
the preamp in my laptop is crap and I should get a console in between. So
far so good.

My sister has offered to sell me her Roland VS1680 for that purpose and it
is apparently fully functional DAW as well, including a CD-burner and 2
optional sound effects modules. She says it'll be in perfect shape and "real
cheap" because she's getting a $$$$$ Yamaha with higher resolution.

Now the questions a

Will it do the job with the microphone?

What is the best way to connect such a device to a laptop?

If I get it, I also want to be able to record any source that comes out of
the laptop's headphone output. But I suppose a digital stream would be
preferable but my laptop only has an analog audio out, USB and firewire
connections.

Is it an obsolete piece already?

What's a "real good" price for it?

Sorry if I'm a pain in the ass.

Thanks again!

Pete

The Roland VS-1680 is a complete recording solution - it'll record 8
channels simultaneously and play back 16 tracks - with two 'extra'
tracks for mixing down, and the effects cards offer pretty much anything
you'd need, including reverbs and delays, decent guitar amp sims, and
multi-band compression as part of the 'Mastering Toolkit'. I didn't see
the earlier thread so I don't know what your particular application is,
but with that unit you don't really need to connect to the laptop at all...

That said, the VS-1680 has two XLR mic inputs with not-so-great preamps,
6 line inputs plus two SPDIF digital inputs. The analog-to-digital
converter has 16-bit resolution and the internal signal path is 24-bit.
The follow-on model VS-1880 has 20-bit converters. Most equipment
these days have 24-bit converters, but the 16-bit converters still
maintain a decent signal-to-noise ratio.

You could certainly use it as a mixer and either connect two of the 8
analog outputs or the master outputs to the line inputs of the laptop.
If there's a digital input to the sound card in the laptop, you could
connect the SPDIF outs of the VS to the computer and stay in the digital
domain. SPDIF outs have both 'RCA' and optical connectors.

Mine is still in use as my 'portable' recording solution. I saw a
VS-1880 with built-in CDRW for sale recently at GC and considered
upgrading - it was about $600 with no effects card.

HTH,
Dan Ash
White Plains, NY






Peter Steppe wrote:
A few days ago I asked about connecting a Shure Beta 57A mic to my HP
Pavilion ZT3000 laptop but somehow the thread disappeared from my Outlook
Express before I had a chance to follow up.

First of all big thanks to those who responded. Basically I was told that
the preamp in my laptop is crap and I should get a console in between. So
far so good.

My sister has offered to sell me her Roland VS1680 for that purpose and it
is apparently fully functional DAW as well, including a CD-burner and 2
optional sound effects modules. She says it'll be in perfect shape and "real
cheap" because she's getting a $$$$$ Yamaha with higher resolution.

Now the questions a

Will it do the job with the microphone?

What is the best way to connect such a device to a laptop?

If I get it, I also want to be able to record any source that comes out of
the laptop's headphone output. But I suppose a digital stream would be
preferable but my laptop only has an analog audio out, USB and firewire
connections.

Is it an obsolete piece already?

What's a "real good" price for it?

Sorry if I'm a pain in the ass.

Thanks again!

Pete