Roland V700 studio compatibility

[Keysplayer]

I'm considering purchasing a Roland VS 700C studio as a surface controller for my studio. I'm currently using a Behringer X- Touch. The X- Touch is no longer working,  so I need to replace it. Would the VS700C be a good choice since it was designed to work with Sonar?  Is it compatible with Sonar Bandlab? Will it work with Windows 10?  Not sure if Roland has updated the drivers.  Can you use just the console or do you need the VS 700R? My other choice was a Presonus Faderpoint 16

[StudioNSFW]

I absolutely love my VS-700.  It is completely compatible with CbB (as if it were designed for it even...) .  You can use just the console ( I started with just that). Only drawback if you go that route is that the headphone jacks and Input jack on the VS=700C will not work without the Rack unit.  I predict you will want the rack unit soon enough if you start down the path - the built in Fantom Hardware synth, 8 great pre-amps and lots of I/O options in general are all great. When mixing and tracking, moving output  effortlessly between my headphones, nearfield and farfield monitors is  just awesome.   And again, it works perfectly with CbB

The drawback is that Roland basically abandoned the users, despite the fact the system was not all that old when Windows 10 shipped, (And retailed for over $6000 when new) they never bothered to go through the Driver signing process with Microsoft so the last "Offishul" drivers are Windows 8.1. That said, several people on the forum are using the system on Windows 10 machines using the steps here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/How-to-use-V700-win-8-driver-in-win-10-also-applies-to-some-other-Roland-drivers-m3206046.aspx. 

With careful shopping on Reverb and eBay I ended up with the whole system for just under $800. 

Edited April 26, 2020 by StudioNSFW

[Jonathan Sasor]

On 4/25/2020 at 12:37 PM, Keysplayer said:

I'm considering purchasing a Roland VS 700C studio as a surface controller for my studio. I'm currently using a Behringer X- Touch. The X- Touch is no longer working,  so I need to replace it. Would the VS700C be a good choice since it was designed to work with Sonar?  Is it compatible with Sonar Bandlab? Will it work with Windows 10?  Not sure if Roland has updated the drivers.  Can you use just the console or do you need the VS 700R? My other choice was a Presonus Faderpoint 16

The 700C does not require the R to work as a surface, though you do lose any of the inputs/monitoring present on the console without the rack unit. The driver is not officially supported on Windows 10, but it's a fairly simple process to modify it to run on Win 10 as has been detailed elsewhere. 

It will definitely work in Cakewalk by BandLab (I run a full VS-700 system every day), you just need to make sure you have the control surface plugin installed which can be downloaded if you don't have it already.