Roland VS-2480CD - Manual (Page 6)

1—Introducing Control Surface Mode
6 www.RolandUS.com Roland VS-2480 Control Surface Mode Guide
Connecting the VS-2480CD and Your Computer
To control your sequencing/recording software from the VS-2480CD, you’ll need to
connect the VS-2480CD to your computer. Control Surface mode uses MIDI for two-
way communication, so you can connect the VS-2480 to a computer using:
• R-BUS—In order to use R-BUS, your computer must have an R-BUS-supporting
PCI card installed. You can use a Roland RPC-1 PCI card, included with the Roland
Studio Package Pro, or available separately. Connect the RPC-1’s R-BUS jack to an
available R-BUS jack on your VS-2480CD.
• MIDI—To connect the VS-2480CD to your computer, the computer must have a PCI
card with MIDI IN and OUT jacks, or be connected to a separate MIDI interface
with IN and OUT jacks. Connect the VS-2480’s MIDI OUT jack to the computer’s
MIDI IN jack. Connect the computer’s MIDI OUT jack to the VS-2480CD’s MIDI IN
jack. (Control Surface mode requires two-way MIDI communication.)
We describe how to select your R-BUS or MIDI jacks for control surface
communication on Page 16.
Preparing for Control Surface Mode
Assuming you’ve installed the sequencing/recording software on your computer, and
that you’ve connected the computer to the VS-2480CD, you’ll need to:
• configure your computer for VS-2480CD Control Surface mode.
• configure the VS-2480CD as a control surface.
We’ll describe both of these procedures in the next two chapters. Once everything’s set
up, we’ll discuss activating and working in Control Surface mode in Chapter 3.