Roland Va 76 Zip Drive Software
My problem is that the zip drive has stopped functioning. Roland has reduced this feature on the VA 76 to 1 fill button. Audiofanzine on Facebook.
We recover the quality of the sounds of Roland (I also have the Korg it also sounds good in trs sysnthtiques, but Roland is much better for pianos and violins, guitars and other). For sytyles is quite traditional, but by manipulating a few custom settings you get to do the original too.
The features are easy to access and enjoyable to work with. I don't like the Zip Drive. I should have realized that this machine requires it's zip drive to be working for all the functions to be worthwhile. I don't like the sounds of the piano function. The weight is a bit much for me but it is built strongly and can take a fair amount of shipping around. I'm pleased I purchased the VA-76 and have had much success on stage with it.
SP-808 is very unique sampler, it uses Zip drive like RAM (!) I think Roland made a big mistake on using Zip drive as a data storage. To make things worse, SP-808 works only with Zip disks, and it cannot sample anything without Zip disk inserted.
Can it be used as a effect box? Buyer Beware with Dealextreme.com. They are accepting orders while indicating the product in stock but it is not. Their style of business appears to be take accept the order, take the money, and then get the product from a supplier.
I would much rather a sustain pedal, wouldnt you? In all fairness, it should be pointed out that although knobs and buttons are missing, none of the actual synth functions have been removed (whew!). The touch sensitive screen does a great job of gluing it all together, so far.
I only bought from Dealextreme because I couldn’t find the product elsewhere, but I’m sure there are other options available if necessary. I’ll just look harder. Again, buyer beware with Dealextreme!! If I could give negative stars to these people I would. Now back to enjoying music. SImilar issue here: SP-808 was in deep storage for a little while (umsix years to be exact). Hooked the optical to my system and the ZIP loaded all banks and played the samples!
The touch sensitive screen does a great job of gluing it all together, so far. I really have not had the instrument to a high pressure gig yet. Only then will I know how intuitive and well laid out the unit truly is, but so far I have no reason to doubt it, it is more about my ability to overcome the learning curve of such an intriguing instrument. Time will tell just how well that touch sensitive screen will hold up under the duress of constant road wear. Also one weakness that all my Roland keyboards have displayed over the years is the need to clean the contacts.
In addition I picked up the SD to IDE adapter as well because both the CF and SD apparently work. These are very cheap from Deal Extreme although the company is very slow to ship I must say. In addition, I will be installing both CF and SD card adapters into the Roland SP-808EX for testing and hopefully they will work. There are reports of CF card drives that work in the Roland SP-808 but no confirmed reports of exactly which drives or adapters. This is a huge thing if a CF or SD card adapter can be found for the Roland SP-808 Sampler.
If someone could figure out how to manually put the zip drive into sleep mode, that would be cool. “Niko, i don’t think that unit will work, it seems to be a SCSI. We need IDE /atapi” Well clearly I can’t shove this down your throat, but this is in fact the drive you seek. If you were smart, you would do a little homework before discrediting data. So for all the people who would actually like the answer to the sp-808 cf reader mystery, I’ll say it again: You either have to buy an old stock blue MPC 2000xl with the reader in it, or go here and buy one for the extortionist price of $225: Have fun. So I am thinking that I will use the zip drive chassis, when KipKay removed the actual zip drive out of its enclosure it was a simple ribbon cable that was attached. So we just need to figure out what the ribbon does, ya know what each wire was for so when we add the cf reader we can match the cable wiring.
Roland SP-808 Recently I picked up a few used Roland musical items that I rather like but use the zip drive format. I found a Roland VS-840EX in mint condition along with two Roland SP-808 samplers at rock bottom prices. The Roland VS-840 already was an EX version and I upgraded the two SP-808 samplers to the EX software version using OS midi files found online. Both the Roland SP-808EX and VS-840EX are excellent for triggering samples.
Zip Drive Software For Mac
I forget the unit is on sometimeslaugh. An SD Card Adapter is a definite “must” upgrade for the Roland VS-840. Highly recommended. UPDATE #2 – I installed this SD Card Adapter into the Roland SP-808EX and it unfortunately didn’t work.
Seeing as how the VA 76 is constructed pretty much the same as its predecessor, I suspect I will be performing surgery in 2 years or so. 
I just hope the floppy disk holds up and the case screws dont strip too soon. In all honesty, I was using a lousy case and after a long hot gig would often just jam the board anywhere it would fit in the back of the truck. Getting bounced around on top of a wheel well probably is not recommended.
It wasn't like that in the begining. Also, if you find yourself working in bright daylight, you can forget about trying to see anything on the screen.