Roland VG8S-1 EX system version and Process for New Users

Started by wirelessguyny, December 23, 2018, 10:07:50 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

wirelessguyny

Hi Group.

I'm very excited to see that there's an active community here. I could never afford one of these machines back when they were first made but it looks like I'm headed back to the 80s and 90s with Roland and a headless Steinberger.  :)

I recently acquired a VG8S-1 expended model (has a sticker on the pedalboard and S1 is silkscreened on).I was lucky enough to get it with a GK2A pickup and both a M512 card and one other sound pack.

Questions #1 - When I power on with PLAY + SYSTEM held down the unit says System Version 2.04
When looking at the Roland site it just has a rev of 1.01,m so Im curious what others have?
I'm also not sure that my Preset library of sounds is the same as others. My unit starts with A11 StratC&R and A12 StratFpu. Does that sound right for the VG8S-1?

Question #2 - I used the C6 software with a USB to midi connector on my Windows 10 machine and backed up both the system and patches.
I get 64 total patches (A and B) I'm guessing these are the User patches. Is there a way to backup the patches on the ROM Card too, or do I need to over-write the User patches with what's on the M512 card to get that to happen?

Question #3 What have others done? ... I'm thinking of trying to back up the state of the unit and any cards I have and then doing a factory reset so that I'm in a known state instead of whatever adjustments the last owner did.
I've downloaded vLibrary 1.1 from here but haven't started using it yet other than to verify the extract I did above.

I've pulled off a host of patches from the site so I'll have plenty to fiddle around with. Any specific recommendations or gotchas are welcome.

Thanks in advance.

admin

Read the VG 8 FAQ
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=11090.0

and look in the Downloads area and get the VG 8 Library tools and patches

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?action=downloads

wirelessguyny

#2
Thanks. I have already read through both URLs.
My VG8S-1 unit goes to patch d84, so I assume I'm half way there, lol. I think the EX patch would still be necessary to get the unit fully expanded.

Two questions there:
1. Is the only benefit having another 32 patches in Preset memory (versus writing ones to the User of Card store?  (If there's any chance of bricking my unit I'm not sure if it's really worth it.)
2. There was some mention of  Tim Noonan and a method of updating the machine with midi (I presume without the special expansion card thing). I don't currently have cakewalk but I do have the vLibrary app, Midi-ox and C6 midi all loaded.
To answer part of my own questyion here, it looks like the VG8S-1 card is required to be inserted when the mid files for the EX are loaded up from the website. If anyone out there is still lending them I'd be interested.

As I mentioned above, my unit says System 2.04. If the EX version should be 1.01 then perhaps what Roland has on their site IS the latest. I just don't want to over-write anything without being 100% sure.