Post by kevb on Jan 23, 2011 7:30:42 GMT 1
Last year i purchased 1 of these little beauties for £200 and i have to say that it's 1 of the best things i've bought in years.
Heres some info from the Boss web-site..
"8 Tracks & Beyond
The BR-600 provides eight simultaneous playback tracks, but there’s more to this recorder than meets the eye. Each of the eight tracks also contains eight V-Tracks (virtual tracks), which gives you quick access to 64 tracks of recorded material. Record dozens of takes, then choose your favorites for mixdown.
BOSS FX
Sweeten your tracks with the powerful effects built into the BR-600. Derived from BOSS high-end recorders, these quality algorithms can give even the dullest tracks maximum impact. Fix mistakes and master your mixes. Included in the effects suite: COSM guitar and bass amp models plus chorus, delay, reverb, and EQ for every channel. Pitch correction is provided as well.
Drum Machine Onboard
Need drums? The BR-600 has a drum machine built in. Assemble your perfect backing track from nearly 300 high-quality drum patterns built in, or program your own from the velocity-sensitive pads. Rock, pop, blues, country, R&B, Latin, and more — choose your style and you’re instantly groovin’.
Field Recording
Wherever you go, the ultra-portable BR-600 is ready to record. It can operate on six AA batteries, for starters, so you don’t have to sweat the AC connection. Best of all, a quality stereo microphone is built in, so you can point and capture audio on the spot, quickly and easily. Whether you’re recording band rehearsals, capturing ambient sounds, or you name it, the BR-600 is all you need to get the job done with zero hassle.
CompactFlash
The BR-600 records its CD-quality digital audio direct to Compact Flash, the international standard for reliable, portable storage. A removable 128MB CF card is included, which provides approximately 65 minutes of recording time (one mono track). You can easily expand your recording time by purchasing optional CF cards."
Now thats out of the way i can say that it is very good once you get your head round how best to use it. Though you do need to study the manual a bit before jumping straight in. The menu isn't too bad but can get a little fiddly at times, but once mastered you can do alot very quickly. It has a USB interface so you can transfer music to and from the unit very quickly.
There is a mastering option to downmix your songs but i found that it was a little limited. So i basicly use it to record the music and sounds that i want and save them, then transfer the individual tracks to my PC and use Krystal to mix. Now you might say £200 for something that doesn't do all that you want might be a bit dumb, but when you think in comes fully loaded with ALOT of Boss's world famous FX's then for a guitarist it starts to make sense as to get a Boss FX pedal with all the FX's would cost near £200 anyways. Thats why its such a Bargin.
Also the 2 on board mics are very very good and the fact you can run it on 6 AA's makes it perfect for quickly capturing live gigs or rehersals.
But the fact it uses CF cards is a bit of a downer and it only handles up to 1GB cards but thats not much of a problem if you use it like i do.
Basicly i switch it on, select new track, find a good drum pattern to suit the song i wish to record, record the music i want onto 1 of the 64 V tracks, get a basic idea of how the songs going by using the mixer. Once i'm happy i have all the music i want i transfer the tracks (default set to WAV) over to my PC to save them (more storage on the PC so you can empty the CF card once your done) then load the tracks into Krystal for final tweaking/editing and then master.
You can hear the results by checking out the songs on my "For a Second (Too Late)" EP
Heres some info from the Boss web-site..
"8 Tracks & Beyond
The BR-600 provides eight simultaneous playback tracks, but there’s more to this recorder than meets the eye. Each of the eight tracks also contains eight V-Tracks (virtual tracks), which gives you quick access to 64 tracks of recorded material. Record dozens of takes, then choose your favorites for mixdown.
BOSS FX
Sweeten your tracks with the powerful effects built into the BR-600. Derived from BOSS high-end recorders, these quality algorithms can give even the dullest tracks maximum impact. Fix mistakes and master your mixes. Included in the effects suite: COSM guitar and bass amp models plus chorus, delay, reverb, and EQ for every channel. Pitch correction is provided as well.
Drum Machine Onboard
Need drums? The BR-600 has a drum machine built in. Assemble your perfect backing track from nearly 300 high-quality drum patterns built in, or program your own from the velocity-sensitive pads. Rock, pop, blues, country, R&B, Latin, and more — choose your style and you’re instantly groovin’.
Field Recording
Wherever you go, the ultra-portable BR-600 is ready to record. It can operate on six AA batteries, for starters, so you don’t have to sweat the AC connection. Best of all, a quality stereo microphone is built in, so you can point and capture audio on the spot, quickly and easily. Whether you’re recording band rehearsals, capturing ambient sounds, or you name it, the BR-600 is all you need to get the job done with zero hassle.
CompactFlash
The BR-600 records its CD-quality digital audio direct to Compact Flash, the international standard for reliable, portable storage. A removable 128MB CF card is included, which provides approximately 65 minutes of recording time (one mono track). You can easily expand your recording time by purchasing optional CF cards."
Now thats out of the way i can say that it is very good once you get your head round how best to use it. Though you do need to study the manual a bit before jumping straight in. The menu isn't too bad but can get a little fiddly at times, but once mastered you can do alot very quickly. It has a USB interface so you can transfer music to and from the unit very quickly.
There is a mastering option to downmix your songs but i found that it was a little limited. So i basicly use it to record the music and sounds that i want and save them, then transfer the individual tracks to my PC and use Krystal to mix. Now you might say £200 for something that doesn't do all that you want might be a bit dumb, but when you think in comes fully loaded with ALOT of Boss's world famous FX's then for a guitarist it starts to make sense as to get a Boss FX pedal with all the FX's would cost near £200 anyways. Thats why its such a Bargin.
Also the 2 on board mics are very very good and the fact you can run it on 6 AA's makes it perfect for quickly capturing live gigs or rehersals.
But the fact it uses CF cards is a bit of a downer and it only handles up to 1GB cards but thats not much of a problem if you use it like i do.
Basicly i switch it on, select new track, find a good drum pattern to suit the song i wish to record, record the music i want onto 1 of the 64 V tracks, get a basic idea of how the songs going by using the mixer. Once i'm happy i have all the music i want i transfer the tracks (default set to WAV) over to my PC to save them (more storage on the PC so you can empty the CF card once your done) then load the tracks into Krystal for final tweaking/editing and then master.
You can hear the results by checking out the songs on my "For a Second (Too Late)" EP