Page 2: Roland VM3100

Effects & Dynamics

Above the Fader section is a printed table showing the four primary parameters of each of the main effects processors. These tabulated functions relate to four 'soft knobs' between the table and LCD panel. To the left of the table are two buttons accessing the effects processors, and to the right is another button (Patch Select) which cycles through the pre‑programmed effects groups: Reverb, Delay, Voice Multi, Guitar Multi, and User.

The effects processors can be used as either a conventional send and return system (there is a dedicated effects return level control to the right of the table), or as an insert to any selected channel. Both models of the mixer have 21 reverb algorithms of various kinds (including gated reverbs and a variety of different halls and rooms), six assorted delays, nine combination effects for voices (programs like limiting with equalisation, or chorus with compression, for example), another nine similar combination programs for guitars, and five more for keyboards (including some ring modulators). However, the Pro version of the 3100 incorporates an additional set of five reverbs, two choruses, two pitch‑shifters, six RSS effects (Roland Sound Space pseudo‑surround processor), nine simulators (mics and guitar amplifiers), six dynamics effects, eight parametric and graphic equalisers, five assorted phaser, flanger and chorus effects, 50 and 60Hz hum cancellers, a centre canceller (for that karaoke effect), and some clever multi‑band isolators and filters intended for use by DJs.

This is a comprehensive list, but it's certainly not quantity at the expense of quality. All of the effects work well — particularly the delays and phasers/flangers. The reverbs are pretty usable too, although they don't have the quite the same degree of naturalness or genuine variation that might be found in a dedicated mid‑market stand‑alone unit. Being realistic, you can't really expect such quality when the all‑in price of this console‑plus‑effects is as low as it is. Nevertheless, this system is certainly no dog, and it represents real value for money. For the kind of end‑user and application this mixer is aimed at, all of the effects are fine, and with plenty of adjustable parameters for fine‑tuning if required.

If manually configuring the console is not your cup of tea, there are also a number of presets available for basic setups like four‑track analogue recorders, sub‑mixing, PA desk, mixdown, digital 8 ‑track recording and so on.

The two compressors are accessed by using the shift function on the Effects buttons. They can be patched as inserts into any of the analogue or digital input channels and linked together for stereo operation, allowing insertion into any odd/even pair of channels, or the stereo mix output. Five parameters are available — threshold, attack, release, ratio and make‑up gain — and the LCD shows either graphical representations of the control knobs, or a transfer graph. Unfortunately there is no gain‑reduction metering at all, which is a great shame as it makes setting up the compressor a rather hit‑and miss affair. A software bug also prevents the graphical displays from updating when the soft key labels are displayed — as they have to be in order to switch the compressor in and out of circuit for judging the effectiveness of the processing. Fortunately this is not a problem which affects the menus of other facilities (the review machine was running software version 1.00).

In use, the compressor worked well, although a programme‑dependent release would have been useful on occasions. User settings can be stored in memory and a whole set of preset configurations are available. I think users should be very wary of falling into the trap of always using presets without understanding how and why they have been determined, although at least it is possible to examine the preset configurations and fine‑tune them as necessary, for those so inclined.

In Use

Overall, the VM3100 Pro performs very well and, once you are familiar with the operating system, is relatively easy to use. The equalisers sound typically digital, but are perfectly functional for all but the most demanding of professional requirements. The compressors are effective with flexible routing, and the effects are really very good indeed, given the asking price.

As with all digital mixers, operating the VM3100 involves a fair amount of cursoring around and adjusting of parameters via the data wheel, rather than individual controls, but as on Roland's VS‑series digital multitrackers, operation is at least fairly logical.

However, there are a few aspects of the VM3100 which concern me. The most serious is in the way the mixer interfaces with a stereo digital recorder. Roland have only provided a digital return to the monitoring section, so the implication is that the mixer should be used with a digital master recorder. Connecting a stereo digital recorder to either of the consumer digital outputs to record the stereo mix works, after a fashion (more on this in a moment), but in order to listen to the return from the digital recorder, the mixer has to be clocked from it. Selecting either digital input to the monitoring automatically forces the mixer to accept the external clock source as its master clock, so that when the mastering device enters Record mode, the situation develops where the recorder is locking to the mixer (to record its digital output), but the mixer is locking to the recorder to replay into the monitoring. The result is a wordclock howlround, one seriously unhappy mixer, and a great deal of silence!Without a sample‑rate converter being incorporated in the monitor return (which is unlikely at this price level) or there being one on the input of the external recorder, there is no obvious way around this problem. In a professional system a central word‑clock generator would be used to synchronise the digital replay machines and mixer — but the VM3100 is not equipped with an external word‑clock input, as are few digital recorders of any format, and none in the semi‑pro market!

The other major worry is that the digital outputs appear to have a fixed word length of 24 bits. Any Minidisc, CD‑R, older DAT machine or other 16‑bit device recording the digital output would necessarily truncate bits 17‑24 and, without suitable dithering in place, the 16‑bit mastered result will suffer quantising distortion and granular reverb tails!I contacted Roland UK about these concerns and they admitted their existence, and suggested a couple of workarounds for the first problem, although whether these will prove effective for you rather depends on how you like to work. One solution would be to employ the mixer's Scene snapshot memories to set up two modes, one for monitoring the mastering recorder's output (mixer locked to incoming master recorder), and the other for outputting to the recorder (mixer on internal clock and the digital 2‑track return deselected). However, using Scenes to switch between monitoring and recording uses up your scene memories, and is still not as instant or convenient as simply toggling the 2‑track return switch on an analogue mixer. This isn't really a very satisfactory solution in my opinion.

An alternative suggestion is to bring the 2‑track return for monitoring your master back in through a spare pair of analogue inputs and, using the very flexible routing arrangements in the VM3100, allocate these straight to the main monitoring output. Again, the easiest way to do this is to set up a couple of snapshots, one configuring the mixer to monitor the stereo mix buss output in the usual way, and another configured to monitor the analogue returns. It would obviously be essential to ensure the analogue inputs were not routed to the stereo mix buss, otherwise an audio howlround would occur! Furthermore, the whole workaround rather rests on having a spare pair of analogue inputs in the first place. It's not like you have a surfeit of these to start with on such a compact mixer, and surely the separate 2‑track return concept was invented in the first place precisely so that you could avoid having to use up precious inputs at mixdown? Having a dedicated 2‑track return facility in the monitoring, but being unable to make full use of it, is a little irksome; a much better compromise would be a software change to allow the 2‑track return button to select either a digital or analogue stereo input.

Having a dedicated 2‑track return facility in the monitoring, but being unable to make full use of it, is a little irksome...

On the subject of the digital output, Roland admit that signals will indeed be truncated to 16 bits if the VM3100 is connected digitally to any 16‑bit device (in other words, many of the things you might want to connect it to!). However, their VS1680 also lacked proper 24‑ to 16‑bit dithering options on its first release, and these have now been made available to the VS by means of a 'mastering package' software upgrade. As the VM3100 is derived in part from the VS1680, it might be reasonable to assume that such an upgrade could follow for the 3100. Bear in mind, however, that there is no news of such an upgrade yet, and without it the VM3100's facilities for mastering digitally to (say) CD‑R, are rather flawed.

None of this, of course, affects mastering via the analogue outputs of the mixer. You can still master to a digital recorder (DAT, Minidisc, CD‑R and so on) using your recorder's own A‑D converters to produce a correctly dithered signal for the recording. The recorder's digital output signal can then be returned to the mixer for off‑tape monitoring, and the mixer will be happily clocked from the recorderwhich would be running under its own (hopefully stable) internal clock. This solves both the bit truncation and word‑clock howlround problems, but it does mean your signal is converted to analogue when it leaves the mixer and then back to digital as it enters the recorder, which you may feel defeats the point of having a digital mixer in the first place! This is, however, a matter of personal taste, and may not bother you if you feel the end results are of sufficiently high quality, or if you master to analogue tape anyway!

Whilst it is highly unlikely that a version of the VM3100 will become available with asynchronous digital inputs — the ideal, if expensive, solution to the problem — software updates allowing the 2‑track return button to select a stereo analogue input, and to provide the necessary dithering, should be fairly easy and quick to implement. If these updates are released, this will be a smashing little mixer which would deserve to do very well indeed.

Until then, the bottom line is that although rather flawed in its intended role as the hub of a small digital studio, the VM3100 still represents reasonable value for money. If you consider the mixer as a simple, flexible and well‑specified analogue console (analogue in and out, that is), but with good built‑in effects and processing, MIDI control and 32 snapshot memories, it remains an attractive proposition for a great many potential users.