#1545551 - 09/26/17 02:56 AM
VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
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WinyardPro
Planeteer
Registered: 08/28/02
Posts: 3947
Loc: Great Southern Land.
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virdis@virtualscsi.com
Dear VirDIS customer:
We’ll be making an announcement soon regarding an upgrade offering to VirDIS both for Hard Drive and CD-R emulation types that will review new enhancements, bug fixes and major new feature implementations. To that end please respond to this email so we can validate your current address or provide us with a new one for you. If there are any other changes to your information like phone number or physical address, please include that as well.
Many thanks for being a loyal VirDIS customer!
Bill Casey
=== VirDIS® & VirtualSCSI™ Target Mode Solutions ===
Advanced Storage Concepts, Inc. (409) 762-0604
>>>>>>> ------- Founded 1982 -------- <<<<<<<
1001 Marine Drive virdis@virtualscsi.com
Galveston, TX USA 77550-3203 http://www.virtualscsi.com
Screenshot of latest
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#1545941 - 09/29/17 05:49 PM
VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: WinyardPro]
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Slabraton
Planeteer
Registered: 12/16/12
Posts: 16566
Loc: California
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I would've been a "loyal VirDIS customer" if they had ever responded to my requests or answered their damned phone.
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#1545952 - 09/29/17 07:44 PM
VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: Slabraton]
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uptildawn
Planeteer
Registered: 12/15/01
Posts: 9073
Loc: on land
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I would've been a "loyal VirDIS customer" if they had ever responded to my requests or answered their damned phone.
"They" are pretty much one person, with a major day job to concentrate on, so maybe cut the guy a bit of slack... (although I understand what you mean).
_________________________
uptildawn
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#1545958 - 09/29/17 08:00 PM
VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: uptildawn]
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mobofsquirrels
Debaser
Planeteer
Registered: 09/23/10
Posts: 791
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If you're going to be a business, then be a business. Otherwise, it's a hobby for which you charge people money. That's fine and all, but after years of setting up expectations for a stand-alone release, then consistently letting people down, it's kinda hard to cut the guy slack. With the new SD option, I see no need to even bother with ViRDIS.
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#1546039 - 09/30/17 06:34 PM
VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: mobofsquirrels]
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Dave_
Planeteer
Registered: 09/14/10
Posts: 91
Loc: Maryland DC suburb
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I'm a customer and have exchanged emails with Bill within the last year yet I did not get the email blast in the OP. If YP hadn't posted it I probably never would have known. No complaint, just fact.
It's a great product and Bill provides excellent support, but it is a side thing for him from which we stand to benefit. I'm willing to cut the slack.
Mob - I'm out of the loop. What's the "SD option?"
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#1546077 - 09/30/17 11:33 PM
VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: Dave_]
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mobofsquirrels
Debaser
Planeteer
Registered: 09/23/10
Posts: 791
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There's a thread that has instructions for using an SD card with the 2480. Basically, you buy this card with a SCSI connector and an SD slot. The 2480 recognizes it at a SCSI drive. I've been using it for months now and it works perfectly, and you can use VSWE to convert VS-files to wav. It's pretty awesome, and all together it cost a little over $100.
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#1546089 - 10/01/17 01:44 AM
Re: VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: mobofsquirrels]
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Dave_
Planeteer
Registered: 09/14/10
Posts: 91
Loc: Maryland DC suburb
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There's a thread that has instructions for using an SD card with the 2480. Basically, you buy this card with a SCSI connector and an SD slot. The 2480 recognizes it at a SCSI drive. I've been using it for months now and it works perfectly, and you can use VSWE to convert VS-files to wav. It's pretty awesome, and all together it cost a little over $100.
Thanks. I'll look into that, though I'm pretty happy with the way VirDIS is working for me right now. But it's nice to have an alternative.
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#1546872 - 10/09/17 02:43 AM
Re: VirDIS users please read! Re: Pending announcement.
[Re: mobofsquirrels]
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WinyardPro
Planeteer
Registered: 08/28/02
Posts: 3947
Loc: Great Southern Land.
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If you're going to be a business, then be a business. Otherwise, it's a hobby for which you charge people money. That's fine and all, but after years of setting up expectations for a stand-alone release, then consistently letting people down, it's kinda hard to cut the guy slack. With the new SD option, I see no need to even bother with ViRDIS.
Before I comment on this post let me start by saying, (if people can remember back that far) Roland charged a fortune for any external media that would interface with the SCSI on the Roland VS series, the Roland VS CDRII/III for example. On that premise let me say the following:
The SD card option is for some users but not all. The $100 isn't just $100 is it. 128 GB SD will set you back some more plus all you are getting is backup to SD Card and that's it.
I couldn't do with this, there's not enough storage for my purposes and there are quite a few people in the same situation.
What you don't get with the SD Card option is, 1TB plus of storage cheap, easy file transfer (renaming and file tranfer, move, copy, cut) , CD-R/DVD-R recovery, ability to send the files anywhere in the world via the cloud, .WAV import/Export, SD Card and thumb drive storage with write/copy directly, save work on any storage that a PC can use. Also, the thing that I see as a real advantage is that you can create a CD-R Master that is in the format of an 'Image File' which means you can listen to the CD-R Master whist it's on the PC Hard Drive before you decide to burn this to a CD-R, you can then do this with the PC DVD burner or send it to a mastering house that will use the CD-R image file, all via the internet.
Realistically VirDIS works now anyway, but what happens beyond this point will be far more than what the VS2480 was designed to answer, but VirDIS has offered a long term solution.
Put the shoe on the other foot, what happens if the SD Card is replaced with UFS or emerging technologies. This is where VirDIS will be long term because even if new hard drives are released beyond SSD it will still work.
SD Cards might be working indeed but I suspect that if gremlins emerge it will be painful. VirDIS has had thousands of hours of testing, interfacing directly with the roland VS units and the VS2480, a lot thrown at it to trip it up. It's a great system that is there to help the Roland VS user it's not a money thing, that said it's up there with some of the most innovative adaptations to the Roland VS DSW.
I get the frustration but a did say to Bill just do the standalone VirDIS II but he wanted to cater to the needs of Win 7, 8 and 10 users to ensure they had card access via PCI/PCIe first, I call the customer service.
That's one thing that Bill Casey does do well is whatever he puts to market he will backup with support.
But once all the user requests are answered in the GUI and interface. That is now actually done and implemented, then a stand-a-lone version is an easy thing to port over.
This is the reason for the announcement so that all the VirDIS users can be informed of the next stage.
I actually don't think Bill has let anyone down, if he's guilty of something it's listening to what customers want in the product and then rewriting code to ensure that it is implemented in VirDIS.
Letting people down would be saying, sales have dried up, I never promised more than a card and XP software, so support has ended - sorry! Which many companies do. Bill Casey isn't doing that! Throw into this that Hurricane Ike which put his whole operation under water set things back too.
Things are moving forward all the same.
Perhaps some people count it as slowness but others see this differently.
The screenshot here shows the GUI and the list of things it can do and is doing:
Screenshot of latest
Key features that VirDIS has in common with an SD Card is:
- Backup data, record and playback (.WAV export via RDAC to WAV converter).
Looking at the two areas VirDIS has vHD & vCD-R
Advantages VirDIS has over an SD Card:
vHD
- Backup data to any media supported by the PC. Record and playback with virtually unlimited data storage, no physical removal of storage media (SD card must be removed and replaced).
- WAV export/import via RDAC to WAV software, no physical media to remove and dock with the PC, all done using VirDIS vHD file format, software requirement only, built into the VirDIS GUI.
- Files can be named & renamed, copy, cut, paste to anywhere on the PC Hard Drive or supported external/portable media (including SD Cards, thumb drive, external portable HDD etc...) including direct recording and playback.
- Files can be stored on the cloud and Roland VS files uploaded from the PC HDD as vHD VirDIS files.
- Plus a few other things including networking and interfacing i.e. using wireless hub, but that's a topic in itself.
vCD-R
- CD Mastering as image, CD-R Writing as image with CD Player functionality, all can be done virtually with CD Playing from PC HDD image until a hard copy is required, also files and be sent as CD-R Master images to the cloud so you can have copies of Mastered Albums on portable storage, the cloud or to any PC supported media.
- ISO format write for Wave Export, VS2480 Wave import.
- VS Archive Backup/Recover from/to Roland VS units, using the PC DVD-Burner, or CD/DVD USB Burner/reader just like the SCSI External Roland VS CDR II/III.
This is why VirDIS is so incredible as it replaces mostly all the SCSI functions that Roland intended for the Roland VS series.
The SD Card on the other hand is just a backup option, but long term how does someone then Master their material from the VS2480? And when the CD/DVD Burners fail in the VS2480 what then? When you consider the cost of External SCSI or SCSI Adaptor Cards compared with what VirDIS replaces it's a much better investment I think. Again, VirDIS is much more than just backup and .wav export, it's preserving what the Roland VS units attached devices did and then adding some amazing features over that, keeping the Roland VS units interfacing with the most recent PC's and the internet!
Even if the media changes it's no issue. So I get back to the premise on my opening statement. The cost of external SCSI media compared with VirDIS makes VirDIS cheap. More than this it adds much more than what the limited SCSI devices in the past could do. Considering Roland sold the Roland VS CDRII/III for over $800 bucks...
Bill has priced VirDIS at a very basic margin, if Roland had released this as an interface after the Roland VS2480 was released I'd recon it would have been around $1500 - $2000. I'm not kidding.
But they didn't have the interface that Bill has to make this work.
VirDIS doesn't have a competitor but does so much to help the Roland VS user. That isn't something to be unhappy about. If people were donating to this or he was raising capital through investors then the VirDIS stand-a-lone would have been completed. But this is not the case and I'm sure that if it was a $1200 product no one would be interested. So this is why the cost must be absorbed for the sake of the end user and it has been a slow process. But all the processes are there, the code is targeting all the functions and the product will be finished. This without using hundreds of users as guinea pigs. They get something that works as VirDIS or VirDIS-II.
At the end of the day many will find it useful.
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