Astounding, as it seems, Roland has released a plug-in expansion board for the popular V-Studio with support all the way back to the VS-1680. This board allows third party and high quality Roland plug-ins to run within these units just like the included standard plug-ins. So far developers like Antares, IK Multimedia, Massenburg and Universal Audio are all making their most popular plug-ins available for the V-Studio platform.

The VS8F-3 expansion board uses 56-bit processing and sampling rates up to 96kHz, depending on the V-Studio hosting the board. Each VS8F-3 can run up to two plug-ins. Roland bundles five high-quality plug-ins with each board: a Mastering Tool Kit, Stereo Reverb, Pre-Amp Modeler, Vocal Channel Strip and Tempo Mapping Effect. After installing the included update software, the VS8F-3 board plugs into your VS-2480, VS-2400CD, the new VS-2000CD, and coming soon, the VS-1680, VS-1880 or VS-1824.

Other developers coming to the party are: TC Electronic with their TCR3000™ reverb; Cakewalk® will offer SoundStage™ for designing the perfect acoustic environment; McDSP will also join with their Chrome Tone Amp; and Sound Toys will offer their SoundBlender Intelligent Harmonizer. More plug-ins will be announced in the coming months.

For much more about this great addition to your V-Studio, contact Roland Corporation U.S., 5100 S. Eastern Ave., P.O. Box 910921, Los Angeles, CA 90091-0921, (323) 890-3700 or visit www.RolandUS.com.