I am looking hard at the VS 100...seems to be priced right. I like the standalone part and integrates well...what are your thoughts and feelings or experiences with it? BOTH pro's and con's please!
 
Thanks in advance!
 
David

Hey David,
 
I started out using an Alesis 8 mixer with USB, added an Alesis IO|2 to start recording at 24 bit, and have a couple of smaller guitar specific USB interfaces.  I also have an Oxygen 49 keyboard that had some control surface functionality.  I run X2a and all of my synths, effects, etc. (except for Guitar Rig) are Cakewalk products.  As a general rule, these do the job that I needed.
 
My wife was looking for a present that I might be interested in and I decided that I wanted to try a Cakewalk (well Roland anyway) product as an audio interface and asked her to get a VS-100 for me. 
 
I have been using this for about a month now.  I have to say that it records nicely for me, had a lot of flexibility for a small interface, and I really do like the control surface.  I also find that I am using the on-board recording capability more than I expected.  I am still getting to know it, but I like everything that I have done with it so far.
 
The person on these forums who has had the most difficulty (from his perspective) with the VS interfaces is "John T"  You may want to consider PMing him for his opinion.  He is doing a lot more commercial work and has greater demands on what an interface should do than I do.
 
All I can say is that I am tickled with mine so far and would highly recommend it for home recording.
 
Glen
 

David,

I haven't used my VS as a standalone unit and therefore can't comment on that.

I have however used it as both a control surface and audio interface for both X1 and X2 for the last year and a half. Running at 24bit 44.1 it sounds very good and the control surface is very intuitive (and for me the transport buttons feel very 'real,' akin to an old 2" multitrack or digi machine).

Whilst I still use W7 I was pleased to see that drivers have been released for W8 as it shows that Cake - Roland are still supporting the product. I do question how long this will last however, it seems to me that the future focus is on touchscreen for control in combination with a separate audio card. Just a thought...........

I am sure of you got one you would not regret it.

I have used my VS-100 as a stand alone unit. I recorded video and ran the audio separately to the VS-100 and saved it on the SD card. The cheap camera mic on the video camera was not very good. SO this was a great way to get better audio for live video recording.

that being said here are a few limitation I found as a stand alone.
1. The VS-100 has 6 inputs. All of the inputs only work when it is plugged into a computer. When it is a stand alone the two inputs on the front are the only ones that work. 

2. As a stand alone you can only hear one prerecorded track when overdubbing. So if you recorded 3 parts you can only hear the last thing you recorded when overdubbing. (only in stand alone)

3. The SD card slot also acts as a card reader for your computer. When this function was activated I could not use it for recording. you can switch that function on or off. took me a while to figure out the problem.

Those were the only drawbacks I found. It is great for live recording or getting a stereo track when it is stand alone. So the video application worked well. but you cannot record more then 2 tracks at once as a stand alone.

I think it really shines as an Audio interface plugged into the computer. I get great recordings and the preamps are very good. The quality of recording with it plugged into a computer is very high. Act works well with this too. I have had zero issues with it.

It is built rugged and it is ready to be taken on the road. It is very reliable. 

I take mine with me when I travel to record demos and I am more than happy with it. Fits in my travel bag and sounds great!

1. The VS-100 has 6 inputs. All of the inputs only work when it is plugged into a computer. When it is a stand alone the two inputs on the front are the only ones that work. 
 
You should be able to go into the Utility section and select "Mix"as the WAV-Rec Source - this should give you all 8 inputs available to record in stand-alone mode.
Unfortunately it records only to a stereo mix, so no local multitracking :(