BOSS Micro-Br review
IMPORTANT NOTE: I have transferred the detailed notes in this blog to the intermorphic “BOSS Micro BR” forum which I have set up . It should be easier for people to track comments and find answers, as the forum can be searched. I would be very happy if people on this blog wanted to join the forum and post there.
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE: The above site is now temporarily closed (see here) – hence reposting the details below, again. However, for reasons stated here I am currently dissallowing comments, sorry.
Original MicroBR Review
Detailed useage comments on the Micro-Br, which I bought as a mini portable recorder and loop arranger. As there was a lot of stuff I wanted to know about it that I couldn’t find out from the docs online, I thought these notes might be of interest to other people. If you have any questions about it, I could see if I could have a look and add a comment to the notes below.
Links: Overall | Observations | Software Requests | Hardware Requests
Overall
Is it cool? Yes it is great and I love it – it is a useful, powerful, well thought out and tiny multitrack recorder (kudos to BOSS). It is about the size of 2 packs of cards side by side, is very light and feels great in the hand. Initially a bit tricky to get your head around the button controls (and the manual – you can find that here, it is worth having a look at it before you buy!). Some nice sound FX (see the BOSS video demo here: http://www.microbr.co.uk/) and drumbeats (with different kits) make this a useful and versatile battery powered tool for mobile music making. Use high power batteries such as rechargeable 2500 mAh NiMH as the batteries get a bit of a hammering. You can use it a a portable Guitar stomp box as well (and because you can also record on it and it has rhythm pattern arrangements, for me it wins over the M-Audio Black Box, which is nevertheless also cool but not battery powered). My main gripe about the Micro-Br is about the use of a proprietary file format and not being able to (easily) load in my own loops or use (in desktop sequencer) the recordings I make with out first converting on the device. A few small tweaks (see below for some suggestions – BOSS firmware update? [hint 
] ) could really make this excellent little unit even better!!
Observations
- Compatible SD Cards.
- Will it work with a 2GB SD card?
- Can you record a line in or external mic signal to one track at the same time as a guitar to another track?
- Can you set a count in time e.g. 2 bars before the recording starts?
- Can you load up the SD card with WAV loops and use these in your mix?
- Can the SD card be read/written to from an SD card reader?
- Can you edit the drum patterns?
- Voice recorder (dictaphone) mode where additional recordings are just incrementally auto-numbered?
- The sensitivity on the inbuilt mic seems a little low
- I keep feeling the need for an included mini step sequencer
- The unit’s “insert” fx chain can only be used once, but you can assign where it is used
- You can only stereo link tracks 1-2 and 3-4. You cannot link other combinations.
- When in MP3 trainer mode, you CAN still apply the selectable FX to your guitar (or other input) as you play along. That is cool
- How useful are arrangement capabilities?
- It plays MP3 files very well, and they sound great.
- Are there only 4/4 drum patterns?
- Song tempo cannot be saved in a track using preset pattern or arrangement – but….
- A/B Looping works great, and is easy to set up.
- Can you time stretch while playing a loop?
- Can you record in MP3 trainer mode whilst playing an MP3?
- The buttons are really useful for one hand operation
There is very little info on what is compatible, and so you are left wondering whether or not a card you might buy will work in it or not – and being cost conscious, I wanted to buy the most economical SD cards . Well, I tried one of “economically priced” Veho 1GB 133x Hi Speed Secure Digital Cards in it and it seems to work fine. I would guess all high speed SD cards will work.
Sadly no, not that I can see. This should be something that the unit allows, as you can record line / ext input in stereo (i.e. to 2 tracks at the same time). I have had an idea I need to check – it might be possible with an external (battery powered!) mixer / or preamp and cable y-splitter to record a guitar through one channel of the line in and a mic through the other.
Not that I can see, although you can “auto-punch in” at a particular time (which I guess does the job), or make a song arrangement where you have some count in bars at the beginning. However, this would a useful feature I think, though. NB: Note that you can auto-punch in (and auto-loop that) where it loops back to 1 measure before the punch in point.
Sadly no – it stores the recorded audio data in some special consolidated track data .DAT format. Although it seems to be possible to convert (import) individual WAV files to the V-track data format on the device, it would be so much better if it used/saved (even only if as an option) to WAV files directly – meaning you could also easily copy your recordings on/off the device without first exporting them. IMHO this is a big limitation, and as the unit can (in MP3 trainer mode) play MP3/WAV files, I don’t know why they don’t allow it. Andre La Plume kindly notes below that Roland provide a desktop tool for conversion – http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=699.
Yes. It was not clear from the docs as to whether the SD Card was strangely formatted and the ONLY way to get to the data on the card was via a USB / PC connection. Because you can read the SD card in a card reader (well I can), then it is possible to use that instead of USB cable connection. However, note that the recordings you make (unless you convert them on device or make them in MP3 trainer mode) are in a proprietary file format.
No. Shame really, as they would seem to be MIDI like. Maybe Boss can release info on the format so that you can make/use your own. And why not?
Yes, you can in the “MP3 training mode” where you can make up to 99 recordings that auto-number (sequentially). This makes it handy and fairly easy to use it in dictaphone mode. However, would be good to have more than 99 limit.
…. sorry, that is a feature request, below
You cannot have a different FX chain applied concurrently to different tracks (unless off course you record “wet”, i.e. the fx applied to the input when it is recorded). It is like a global (but assignable) effect. It may be too much to expect otherwise (I was hoping!), but it is worth noting as it means that you cannot record in mono (dry) and then apply different fx to different tracks in a final mix (and so benefit from stereo FX on each track – if that makes sense). NB: The different effects seem to be linked to the 4 different input modes (Guit, Mic, Line, Ext), but you can change the input mode and then apply the effects available in this mode to any recorded track.
Very. I copied onto it an MP3 of a song I am working on, and then extracted the song into Track 1 V1 (virtual track) – the conversion took some time though, and for some reason seemed to create about 6 copies, stack end to end. When copying/moving things around it took a bit to keep track of where I was, as there is no visual display of the song layout (just e.g. current bar position). But, I was able to move and copy sections of the song around to come up with a much better song structure. With just the buttons and screen they have, it is quite useable (once you get the hang of it) and well implemented, if a bit fiddly. But, if the Micro-Br is all you have with you, it still does the job, and works well.
See below for playlist suggestion, as this could be a great MP3 player, too.
Sorry, it only plays 4/4 drum patterns – except that there are a range of metronome beats from 1/1 to 8/1, 1/2 to 8/2, 1/4 to 8/4 and 1/8 to 8/8 (and all integer beats in between, i.e. 5/8, 5/4 etc). Pattern extensibility is another good reason BOSS should have made the format open, or used MIDI files.
… You can set the tempo of a track IF you first create an original arrangement (pg 83 of the manual). How did BOSS not think that someone would want to save the tempo when you record a track WITHOUT first having to create an original arrangement? Unless you create an original arrangement (and you can only save 5 of these of max 50 steps each) then you have to remember the tempo you record each song at, and when you open the song, reset the tempo…. unless you record the tempo track, that is, but that wastes one (or 2 if stereo) tracks. Oh well, at least there is a work around (thanks to Dre F and al).
In normal mode there is no discernable gap or artifact (in vtrack mode), and so it is seamless (as far as I can tell). In MP3 trainer mode you have to set up the loop points to the nearest second (touch), and there is a small pause. In normal mode, you can get very fine manual control on the loop points (down to sub-frame even). You can also save the loop points for a song in normal mode.
Yes, but you have to be in MP3 trainer mode
No. You need to first import the MP3 to the normal mode. You can import a stereo MP3 to 2 tracks (i.e. stereo).
If you are fiddling with the unit in one hand (not looking at it), then the fact that the buttons stand proud is actually very useful. Provided you can feel for which side is what (I can get confused with that), then it is easy to determine the buttons (e.g. for setting A/B loop points)
Software Feature Requests for Roland/BOSS
- Firmware upgrade or ROM upgrade
- Use a standard (non-proprietary) file format
- Allow simultaneous recording of both Guitar and external or line input (i.e. one to L, other to R)
- Allow use of user’s own MIDI drum patterns
- Track solo/mute (e.g. maybe long hold of TRK button)
- Settable count in time e.g. 2 bars before the recording starts
- So that you can one-handed “go back to start” more easily, change the software so that holding down on the stop button will do that.
- A simple monophonic MIDI step-sequencer e.g. like Zoom PS-04 .
- A “shift down one octave” capability for recording bass lines (or step sequencer).
- Sound FX specially for Bass guitar recording?
- Support for MP3 playlists
- Allow saving of song tempo
Keep the unit updated and provide customers some new additional software functions like M-Audio do, e.g. for BlackBox.
So users can easily drop their own WAV loops onto the SD card and use them, as well as allowing recordings to be _saved_ to a standard format (e.g. WAV or MP3)! Yes, it seems possible to convert (import/export) recordings/files to track format on the device, but this is clumsy. Even a desktop converter would be a help! Perhaps even consider using e.g. OMFI so that the mix can be transfered to desktop, and then used directly in a sequencer like Sonar. NB: If this was possible to directly use/work with WAV files, then the unit could be hooked up to a Pocket PC with USB Host, and the PPC used to edit WAV files and send them back to the SD card for use in the mixer.
So that e.g. a Mic and guitar can be recorded simultaneously to different channels.
… So you can use other than 4/4 patterns for a start!
…Or, put the stop and rewind buttons closer together …
For Bass lines or even melodies… in which case also support use of user loaded DLS wavetable (please )…
As mentioned by Andre Le Plume
Perhaps like an XSPF (http://www.xspf.org/) playlist
Hardware Feature Requests for Roland/BOSS
- Volume sliders, please.
- Some kind of short term 48v phantom power
- Include a simple MIDI synth and MIDI input/output
- 8 Channels recording/playback
- Drivers to allow it to be a live audio input device (over USB)
This would be VERY handy…. as I cannot see what use the “2.5v powered mic” is of any use for (and is not suitable for mics requiring phantom power). Yes, it would use more battery power, but if you are using rechargables, does that matter? Having something portable is more important.
So that you can capture / play MIDI data.
Like the way Black Box can be used].
January 16th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
[...] BOSS Micro-Br review [...]
January 17th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Checking that moving this to a page is OK…
January 19th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
In regards to 17, you can saved the track tempo but you need to do it as an arrangment (AR) instead of a pattern in one of the user defined track. And this doesn’t take an extra track up—the rhythm track is separate from the 4 other tracks.
January 19th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Dre F, thanks for the tip, but can you explain further? I tried setting the Rhythm to an arrangement (instead of pattern) and then saving the song params (Stop + Rec). However, the tempo did not seem to get saved with the song file. Are you instead suggesting recording the drums to a track (as an audio file)? Hoping you can further clarify for people…. Thanks!
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:05 pm
I got one of these last week here are some of my feature requests:
I plan to use it mostly as a training tool, it seems to work great, Getting it to play MP3s or WAVs from point A to B is very intuitive and the slowdown/speed up function works well.
Support long filenames and MP3 ID tags, for some reason it only support the first 8 filename characters which requires you to rename files to thing like abjessca.mp3 for “Allman Brothers – Jessica.mp3″. I can believe the code for doing this could be big or complicated, especially compared with the Guitar effects of multitrack recorder.
Also it doesn’t support VBR MP3s so I’ve had to re-rip some of the tracks I’ve transferred, This is a minor inconvenience since you wouldn’t use this thing as a dedicated MP3 player.
I’ll probably have more later, I’m just getting started.
January 23rd, 2007 at 11:08 am
Thanks for this review. I’ve been looking everywhere for more details on this gadget. Good job. But I have a few questions still.
1.) How well does the A/B looping work? Can you make a seamless loop to play over? Is there a pause in the loop before it repeats? Can you make fine adjustments on start and end of loop, or is it just by touch?
2.) Can you time stretch while playing a loop?
3.) Can you record while playing back an mp3? Or would you have to convert the mp3 into the Boss format, split into 2 separate tracks, and then import these 2 tracks onto the MICRO to accomplish this?
4.) You can record onto one track while playing back the other 3 AND the drum machine, correct?
Sorry if these questions have already been answered somewhere – I read all the above though.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Thanks Steve, useful comments. Chris:
1) A/B Looping works great, and is easy to set up. In normal mode there is no discernable gap or artifact (in vtrack mode), and so it is seamless (as far as I can tell). In MP3 trainer mode you have to set up the loop points to the nearest second (touch), and there is a small pause. In normal mode, you can get very fine manual control on the loop points (down to sub-frame even). You can also save the loop points for a song in normal mode.
2) Can you time stretch while playing a loop? Yes, but you have to be in MP3 trainer mode
3) You cannot record in MP3 trainer mode whilst playing an MP3. You need to first import the MP3 to the normal mode. You can import a stereo MP3 to 2 tracks (i.e. stereo).
4) Yes, correct.
HTH!
January 24th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Thanks for your response! Wow. Did I miss Observations 18 to 20? I must be blind!?
I have some comments and a few more questions if I may…
“In MP3 trainer mode you have to set up the loop points to the nearest second (touch), and there is a small pause”
- The small pause is disappointing, and it sounds like it would be difficult to be precise in getting the phrase or loop you want, even if there was no pause. Even my Tascam CD-GT1 plays back a nice seamless loop, though it too suffers with the on-the-fly touch loop setting. But I can at least with practice usually get just the A/B loops points set right on target, so that the rhythm stays intact and doesn’t skip a beat. And no pause between loop points! But at least in normal mode as you say it works better.
- And not being able to store the tempo to the song is ludicrous! That is astounding to me. That really would seem to hurt my ability to enjoy this thing. Or is it not a problem as Dre F tried to explain in a previous post?
- Q’s -
1.) The USB is surely 2.0 right? Not too slow I hope.
2.) Would you elaborate on the quality of the onboard mic? You say it seems a little low on sensitivity. Can this be easily compensated for? How would it compare to say a SM-57 or 58? I’d like to hear anything you have to say about it.
3.) How is the compression? Can I make a decent vocal track with the onboard mic and internal compression?
Thanks for you time again,
- Chris -
January 25th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
To try and clarify how to save the tempo—When you go into rhythm section and switch it to the arrangment mode there’s two options—usually the first you’ll see is something like this:
AR: P01 ROCK1
or what not—move the cursor to the “P” and click the + sign to move up to S01 EMPTY00… or something—and then click on “EDT” (Track 4) and then “STP” (Track 1) and you can then create your own arrangement and adjustment the tempo in there. Then everytime you load that song up it’ll play that arrangement. Not sure if that makes sense or if I’m misinterpreting—but I’m able to construct patterns myself with intros/verses/fills/endings which always reload at the same tempo.
Enjoy – and thanks for the tips I”ve picked up reading through this.
DF
January 30th, 2007 at 2:19 am
I have a percussion/drum track on my laptop which is .wav or .mp3. Can this be uploaded to the Micro BR on say track 1? Do i need software to do this?
January 30th, 2007 at 8:54 pm
Hi Alan. Yes, you can do this fairly easily and do not need any other software. Simply copy the file to your MicroBR (SD card). Then, using Edit and Import, import the file to whichever vtrack(s) you want – i.e. mono or stereo (which takes 2 tracks though). Download the manual from the link in the “overall section”, and look on page 108 in section 7. HTH!
February 1st, 2007 at 10:33 am
Hi Alan
Tim’s right – you can import your wav or mp3 onto a track. As he says, you put it into the micro br in mp3 mode then move it across from there.
It’s worth noting that the Micro br does not seem to use wavs in its multitrack capability (in its tracks) so you may as well convert your wavs to mp3s before moving them onto the micro br – you save on space that way
February 2nd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Hi Tim,
Mike from Amsterdam, that’s me, bought a micro br solely for recording dj-sets on location. Since there’s only the commercial bla bla from Boss on the net i really appreciate your effort to explain as much as possible about the Micro.
It has helped me choosing from the wide variety of devices.
Since i’m a total rookie on all it’s other capabilities, my q’s en remarks will come up later.
But a big T for thanx on your sharing of info!!!
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Hey Tim,
Just a large “Thank you” for this blog. I picked up this recorder last week and this has already been a welcome adjunct to the manual. Another thanks to Dre. F for the tempo setting instructions. I am working on trying to create a lead-in measure (or measures) so if it works i’ll post.
Theoretically there are empty Pattern rhythm tracks, so couldn’t one be inserted at the beginning measure or two “after” the recording has been finalized? That is to say, using step recording? Sounds logical, so if anyone has tried this let me/us know. I’ll give it a shot this weekend (Feb. 2).
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Can someone post a small song file in the properitary format? I want to see how that Roland tool for converting the song files to WAVs works out. I’m looking at picking up one of these as a scratch pad and I want to see how easy it will be to use their tool and port my sketches into Logic.
February 4th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I just wanted to drop by and say again, like the others, that I DO appreciate this blog and review of the BR micro – the lack of info on this thing is driving me mad. I’ve been hoping to find some DEMOS that people have made with it, and I want to hear how some of the drum patterns sound especially. There’s NOTHING out there! What gives? Also, I like details, however seemingly trivial, so that I can form as complete an image and understanding of a device as possible. I’ll be stopping by often to see whats been posted, so lets keep it going!
And btw Tim, your acoustic instrumental guitar work is fantastic.
February 4th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
hi,
just two shorts:
“Will it work with a 2GB SD card?”
this is simply because boss used an old style sd-reader.
can’t be fixed by firmware, it’s a hardware thing.
these readers use the first gig of the card regardless oof cardsize.
“Song tempo cannot be saved in a track.”
you’re totally wrong here. just follw the manual.
set up an arrangement for the song with at least one step and set (right in the arrangement!) the tempo. save and lo! you’re done.
the tempo at mainscreen is “temporary” (pun intended:-).
February 4th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
btw:
there is an excellent tool at the boss site, that allows you to export all 32 tracks from the br to a pc in one go and import two tracks to the br.
this is a nifty one: http://www.bosscorp.co.jp/products/en/_support/dld.cfm?ln=en&dsp=0&iCncd=687&iStcd=4
its made for br900, but works just fine with micro br.
running on mac as well.
February 5th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated. Glad this blog is of help..
Yes (thanks al), it does seem that you can set the tempo of a track IF you first create an original arrangement (pg 83 of the manual). But, come on BOSS, I don’t want to have to figure out how to create an arrangement (you can only store 5) to be able to save the tempo. Most of the time I use it for just jotting ideas, so why can I not save the tempo of a track when I am just using a with a preset groove or arrangement?
Wrt to using WAV files, thanks for the tip on the tool, which sounds great! However….. I still think BOSS should originally have programmed the MicroBR so that you did not need to use conversion tools – rather it was possible just to use standard WAV files (just a process/complexity thing for me, sorry).
If I get a chance to upload something I have done with some tasty guitar, then I will do; but I am never satisfied with any take, so tend to put that off!
February 5th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Thanks Chris for the kind comment on the guitar – I try… I saw Michael Hedges play live twice (lucky me!) and he nearly put me off playing for life (he was _so_ incredible, was like a gale nearly blowing out a candle).
I am pretty certain the unit is USB 2 btw, but have not done tests on that. I am not really qualified to comment on mics and compressors – I leave will leave that to any more knowledgeable people to answer! HTH
February 8th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
“I don’t want to have to figure out how to create an arrangement (you can only store 5) to be able to save the tempo.”
the storage of 5 arrangements is *per* song, not overall. this schould be more than enough, me thinks.
February 8th, 2007 at 9:56 pm
Hi guys,
I have a big problem with looping. Let’s say I am choosing a preset Drum pattern and I want to loop measures 4 to 6. I choose bar 4 and press the A/B button than I goto bar 6 and press the A/B button again.
The loop will not start on the first beat ?
If I loop the song starting with the first bar it will work though. Did anybody experience something similar ?
Greetings Jan.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
you are (sorry!) right.
the micro has no “real” loop.
it’s juts a function for going back and replay, not a loop.
if you want to do loops, you have to copy and paste the sequence.
February 10th, 2007 at 2:26 am
Hello
Just got the BR today, great web site, your advice has helped me with saving the rhythm track tempo and changing the rhythm parts in the song..
Still shame theres no count in. By the time you’ve pressed the play key to record and got strumming you’ve missed most of the first measure. But arranging the rhythm pattern solves this problem, bit inconvienient though.
The unit really does drain batteries. I’ve just used it today for few hours and the batteries are pretty much dead.
Still its convienient, small and records well and has the looks. Just wish the drum patterns were better, there was a count in before recording and there was better phantom power for mics.
Dan
February 10th, 2007 at 11:26 am
dan.
there an easy way for count in (perhaps you found this one out):
set up an arrangement and start with two measures metronome before starting the drums, thats it.
really bad about the drums: no 3/4 or 6/8 beats (hey, there are bluespeople out there!).
the battery prob is easily solved with rechargeable batteries 2000mah will cost 5usd and play for 5 hours.
February 13th, 2007 at 12:57 am
Tim, thanks so much for this blog, it’s absolutely CRUCIAL as the manual leaves a lot unexplained. I got my br today and plan to lock myself in tomorrow and figure out how this thing works. I’m sure I’ll be back on here with questions.
btw, if you guys need a file converter to change everything to mp3, just google “db poweramp.” It’s free.
February 13th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Hey, thanks for the great reviews, one thing I want to know about is the MP3 Trainer: I see you can loop and slow down, but can you change the ptich so you don’t have to retune? Thanks
February 16th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I purshased a stereo mic that works great, its the Sony ECM-DS70P. But you must remember to turn on the “PlugInPower” setting (pg. 109) to get it to work. Also there is a file manager already for the BR. Contact me and I’ll send the link. Likewise let me know if you know of any other apps for the BR. Jam On – bRAD
February 17th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Hi Chris, I think the question about “can you change the ptich so you don’t have to retune” has been answered, and it would seem to be a “no” I think all it includes is time stretch, not pitch shift. HTH, Tim
NB: Yep, I use DB poweramp, too
February 19th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I would like to connect my synthesizer (Alesis Micron) to the BR. Do you know whether it would be best to plug it into the 1/4 inch guitar input or should I plug it into the small line-in input. I believe the guitar input is high impedence but I don’t know what the effect would be.
I would like to record both guitar and keyboards (not simoultaneously) so this capability will probably determine whether I buy the micro BR. Thanks for any insights you may have on this and thanks for the excellent and informative blog.
John
February 19th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Hi John, I am not an expert on impedances (maybe someone else could answer that), but I would imagine that your synth would have a line output which would naturally go into the line input. However, you can set up which input you want to use (i.e. which is “active”) via the input button, and set the sensitivities for each kind of input. As you are not wanting to record simultaneously, then I don’t see a problem (but then I may not be understanding correctly what it is you are asking!). HTH, Tim
February 19th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I just got the Micro BR and it is great for my piano practice. Play along with an original recording or a drum pattern and then record left/right hands separately. Works really well.
While the built-in mic works fine, it is mono and doesn’t have the range or sensitivity of a good external microphone.
Recently I’ve heard people mention the builtin mic preamp is noisy. Is that true? If anyone has had luck with an external stereo-mic (such as AT 24 Pro, AT 822 or otherwise), I’d be very interested in feedback.
February 21st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Just to give an update on connecting a synth to the micro Br… I went ahead and purchased the BR… I can connect my synth to the 1/4″ guitar input socket and as long as I turn the ‘effects’ off, it works fine. The sound is not quite as full as what normally comes out of the synth. This is probably due the the stereo capabilities of the synch vs mono of the guitar input. Although I connected the synth to the BR via a 1/4″ two-to-one converter (taking the two stereo lines and merging them into the single BR guitar input), I have not confirmed whether it is picking up the stereo aspects of the synth (it will probably just merge the 2 channels into the mono guitar input)… anyway, bottom line is the guitar jack can be used for more than just the guitar. I will now test the stereo line-in and see if it improves the sound.(I probably should have tried that first — I agree Tim, it is probably the better way to do it)… either way, my wife won’t see me for days now that I have this sleek little gadget
…
Next I have to figure out how best to record my drum kit. My plan is to run 4 mics into my mixer and run the stereo out line from the mixer into the line-in on the BR. (easier for me to record drums vs use the rythm features I think…)
I’m trying to see how much this little beast can do. It would be great to lay down a variety of drum tracks as a basis for song ideas before taking the BR up to the cottage or wherever and then writing the guitar and synth parts…
BTW, I use a 2.GB sandisk SD card and it seems to work fine although it sure is irritating that the BR has 1 GB addressing limitation – odd…
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:51 am
Ok guys you have to help me out here to use the BR series wave convertor with my micro br. I hooked it up and selected Micro_Br as the drive and when i do it says “Not BR series memory card.” I’m just using the 128meg one it came with, any idea what i’m doing wrong?
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:02 am
Weird, I got it working….I just had to restart the app after connecting the BR not before. Bug! lol
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Question: pg. 50 of the manual says ‘BR allows the simultaneous playback of 8 tracks’ — I understand how to play back the 4 tracks but how would I play back 8 tracks (I’m guessing this means you can play back tracks 1 to 4 and also V1 to V4 simultaneously?? Can anyone clarify??
thanks,
February 23rd, 2007 at 3:11 am
Well the song file format can store 8 tracks and 8 virtual ones per track. I think the rhythm tracks use a stereo linked track 7+8 in the song file, but I am not positive. So it is either a typo or the BR can play the same format as its older brothers it just won’t let you do anything to tracks 5 thourgh 8.
February 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
…could also be 2 ‘live’ stereo line-in tracks (or single ‘live’ guitar-in) + 2 stereo rythm tracks + 4 tracks (regular or V) = 8 tracks…
February 24th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Lots of guys here trying to do much more clever things than me! As a complete novice my simple problem is I simply can’t figure from the manual how to bounce tracks 1-3 on to track 4 to free up some more recording space. Advice please?
February 24th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I just got this puppy and it zings. Had a little trouble getting use to the interface, I believe that someone from a foreign country did the tech notes so it was a little hard to understand at first. Once you figure it out it is simply amazing what it can do. I recorded a song using the guitar port for my keyboard and the onboard mic for vocals…hooked the phones jack out to the mic in port on my computer…recorded the tune using audacity…saved it as a wav file…then e-mailed it to my buddy. This is truly an amazing piece of technology.
February 25th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
“really bad about the drums: no 3/4 or 6/8 beats (hey, there are bluespeople out there!).”
Yes, apparently they don’t waltz in japan.
March 4th, 2007 at 6:23 am
First day with the BR..the guitar effects are awesome although I can’t seem to play a rythm track on here. Pg 31 of the manual, when I get to step 7 and press play, it just plays the mp3 sample song included. Can anyone give me a hand and tell me what I’m doing wrong here?
March 4th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Re: mic having low sensitivity …I don’t know if someone mentioned this before, but I’ve found if you adapt a mic to fit into the guitar input you seem to have better control on the volume. Plus you can use the effects. Yay!
March 4th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
FYI If you go to the boss/rolandus site they don’t have a working link to a pdf version of the manual, I found that if you create a “backstage pass” account on their website you can then access the manual through Suppport>Product Manuals. Its handy if you’re over at a friends place and forgot the manual. Also, Mike S I’m not sure if adapting a mic to plug into the guitar input is such a good idea because each input is geared toward a specific impedance, I’d recommend a little preamp instead. Just my 2 cents.
March 5th, 2007 at 12:35 am
Hi James, sorry, my links had stopped working, now fixed. The link to the manual page should now be OK (and it was hard to find this link for some reason).
March 5th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Mike:
I have found that regardless of how you record a track, you can go back and change the input for that track and then have access to the related effects. For instance, I record my acoustic guitar through the Mic without effects. Then when playing back, to put the guitar effects on the guitar, I change the Input to GTR and then I have access to all the Guitar effects. Can work the other way with vocals.
Hope this makes sense.
March 5th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Graeme Ogg:
No one has answered you for a few weeks – not sure if you are still having bouncing problems. To get into Bounce mode push the Exit and Utility buttons at the same time (it says Mode beneath these two buttons). When the screen says Bounce then you are ready to go. It will take all the recorded tracks and put them where you specify. Use the Cursor to move to the right side of the top line and then the “+” and “-” keys to select T4-V1 and then press Record and then Play. It will record the already recorded tracks to Track 4- V1. If you don’t want all the tracks to go on this bounce – then put the volume of the unwanted tracks to zero before recording on the Bounce.
Hope this helps.
March 6th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Thanks to Ken Barry for advice on bouncing. I’m getting to grips with it. Any idea what happens if you set left/right stereo pan on tracks 1-4, bounce them to a V-track, then do 4 more tracks with L/R pan settings? Will it distribute all tracks left-to-right as originally set, or just mash 4 together on the left and 4 on the right when mastering?
March 8th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
ps to Ken Barry (hope I’m not trying your patience here). I was intrigued by your technique of applying GTR effects to an acoustic guitar recorded through the mike. I tried adding one effect on track 1 for rhythm and a different effect on track 2 for the melody, and they both play back individually OK but if you “save” the song with the effect location set to TR1, the effect set on TR 2 disappears. And vice-versa. Have you found how to save different “GTR” effects to both “MIC” tracks or is that being too ambitious? When you get started with this little beast, you just want to take it further ….
March 11th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Graeme:
Yes you are right that you only get one track. I bounce the tracks one at a time with the effect then add them all together vor the final bounce.
I haven’t tried any stereo stuff yet, but have a stereo mic on its way and will post my experience when I have some.
Ken
March 11th, 2007 at 5:15 am
John, same problem with you, how can we play -say- Virtual track 1 & 2 of track 1 simultaneously like the manual said.
I still can’t figured it out, any solution?
I tried to ‘bounced’ it (dunno if I’ve done it correctly), but the recording in V2 still can’t ‘combined’ with V1….
I really really need this solution….
March 12th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
piterh:
You can’t play simultaneously two virtual tracks of same track, like V1 and V2 of track 1. If you need to combine two virtual tracks under same track, copy first the other one to a virtual track that’s under a different track, and then combine these two. For ex. you want to combine V1 and V2 of track 1, copy V2 to a free V-track under any of tracks 2,3 or 4. Then combine this V-track with V1 of track 1. I hope this was not too confusing…
March 13th, 2007 at 1:17 am
thx Petri…
…. and…. how to combine???
I don’t see any option to combine….
only COPY/ MOV/ ERS / EXP / IMP…. which one should I choose?
thxxxx…..
March 13th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Piterh:
Oh, sorry. With combine I mean BOUNCE. Select the BOUNCE mode by holding down the EXIT-button and pressing the UTILITY-button so many times that the BOUNCE-indicator lights. Then select those tracks you want to combine(bounce) together. Choose the destination track and V-track. Adjust the volumes of those tracks. If there’s tracks with sounds you DON’T want bounce, turn the volume(LEVEL) down all the way to 0 on those tracks.Then go to the start point, hit REC and PLAY, and you’ll here the tracks that are bounced together. When it reaches the end point, hit STOP. Then select the track and V-track you bounced the tracks to, go to start and hit PLAY. Now you should here the tracks you’ve bounced together. Good luck
March 13th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Ups, a typo:
Now you should here the tracks you’ve bounced together.
I ment of course you should hear the tracks…
March 13th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
As the effects are user programmable, has anyone yet got any effects they’re willing to share, or seen any sites where these are shared? I’m really loving the Micro-BR, (once you’ve turned the extreme delay off several of the guitar effects)
March 14th, 2007 at 5:09 am
OK, say.. I’ve recorded my voice in V1 of track 1 and I recorded my guitar playing in V2 of track 1 as well.
How can I combine/bounce these 2 Vtracks in the same track?
Is it possible to do this?
THX bro!
AFAIK, we can only bounce from 2 different tracks (eg. track 1 & 2 to
March 14th, 2007 at 5:23 am
sorry….. not finished yet…..
AFAIK, we can only bounce from 2 different tracks (eg. track 1 & 2 to V3 of track 3).
Am I right?
March 15th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Re earlier postings about adding electric guitar effects to an acoustic track during playback, then bouncing to another V-track to save the effect. I now find that even if you are recording with the “Input” setting on “MIC” you can fool the Micro BR into applying an “electric guitar” effect directly at the recording stage. Select “Effects”. Select “ON” (TRK1). Use left cursor to select “MC” (top left of display” and use “value” to switch it to “GT”(guitar). Leave “Location” (LOC) at the default “Input Normal” setting (p64 of manual). Scroll through the effects to the one you like, then exit. Note: do NOT change the basic start-up “Input” setting to “GTR” or you will only get silence! Record the track as normal. You hear the effect through the headphones and it is permanently welded on to the track. Repeat for other tracks and each will retain its chosen effect, no need to bounce-save. Incidentally, I treated myself to a $100 condenser mike and it wasn’t as good or sensitive as the excellent built-in mike, so I took it back .
March 15th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Graeme:
Great find – this is a much better and easier approach to using effects than my post.
Thanks,
Ken
March 17th, 2007 at 3:58 am
hey guys, i’ve had my micro br for months and i do agree it’s amazing for what it is. i’m waiting too for a firmware update and for other features mentioned to be implemented.the Built-in mic is AMAZING as well! BTW do any of you know which amp the guitar patch Blues DV is imitating? Cause’ it’s one heck of a tone!
March 17th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Kevin:
I wrote to Roland/Boss to see if they had additional information on the effects, like what are all the settings, and their response was that what was in the manual was all they had. It was actually a very piss poor response. I guess it would only take a few hours to document them all, but I agree that it would also be nice to know if they had a particular amp in mind when they did the effect. Doubt we will get that!
Ken
March 17th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
A very quick refinement to my previous entry. If you use “-/+ to select “GT” as the Effects input, then immediately try to use “-/+” again to scroll through the effects list, it will scroll through the GT/MK/LN/EX input options instead. So select GT, then press EXIT, then press “Effects” again and you can scroll the effects list using “-/+”. By the way, the sensitivity of the onboard mike goes through the roof with some GTR effects, you need to set sensitivity to 0dB and crank the input volume down to about 50 to avoid feedback and picking up every whisper in the room.
March 17th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
can you burn to cd after exporting to computer
March 17th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Hi Ken, Thanks for the fast response. Man, that does suck not knowing what. Hopefully I can find that tone in the BD-2 Pedal.
George: You can technically burn anything on to a cd after you export it. But if you want to play the cd in a cd player then the file thats exported has to be either a .wav or .mp3, your cd burning program should take care of burning the mp3 or wav file into the .cda format.
Also is it possible for one of you guys to start a separate Micro BR site or a forum so all the information discussed here can be catalogued and it’ll be easier to address questions. Thanks!
March 17th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
To George – Yes, no problem. If you are a Windows user, after exporting to the PC, leave the Micro connected via USB (or via a card reader). Open Windows Explorer, click the “+” beside “My Computer”, click on “Boss Micro”, and that will bring up the “MP3″ and “Roland” folders. Double-click the MP3 folder..Your song will be called something like “T12V2_01″. Drag and drop it to a suitable folder such as “My Music” (Right-click the title and click “rename” to insert a proper song title if you want to). Then simply put a CD in your D drive and drag and drop the song title from “My Music” to that drive in “My Computer” You should get a “balloon” at bottom right of the screen saying “Files ready to burn to CD”. Click in the balloon and the CD burn wizard opens. The default setting will create a CD to play on normal CD players rather than a PC drive. Click OK then click “Start burn” and the CD will be automatically written and ejected. NOTE: writing in CD player format will “finalise” a CD-R disk so you can’t put any more on it later, but disks are dirt cheap anyway. Sorry I can’t advise Mac users but I’m sure it’s a similar process. If you have a CD burning program like Nero you can use that instead but there’s no real advantage to it.
Another reassuring point for beginners like me – if you “master” a song, which you MUST do before transfer to PC (even if you don’t want to make any mastering adjustments) otherwise you get each track exported as a separate file!, then you decide it isn’t quite right, the mastered version seems to be held in a separate memory buffer for transfer to the card, so provided you haven’t done “Erase Song” to make room for the next project, the original unmastered version is still there as Song 1 (or whatever) and you can re-do a track, rebalance volume levels or whatever, then use “mastering” again to save and export the revised version. Much better than having to start over from scratch!
March 17th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Thanks for the info — I’m interested in purchasing one of these babies- I currently have a Sony MiniDisc Player/Recorder, just bought an MBox and a Boss RC-50. I’m mind boggled, can’t get my head around all that needs to be learned, so I’m returning the RC-50 and may also return the MBox if this little recorder will fit my needs (I don’t need many tracks). I’m a solo acoustic singer/guitarist — Here’s what I want to do, maybe one of you can give me advice:
1. Can I feed this through my PA system and “play along” with the player/recorder?
2. I have one song that I recorded professionally using an extended loop, so I would like to play it live using either a pre-recorded “TV tape” or use the Micros “loop” capabilities.
3. I read that you can cancel out one part of a song — like karoke — I have a song that I recorded professionally with 5 part harmony. I’d like to cancel out the main vocal and sing along with the rest of it when I perform live.
4. How is the tuner?
Do any of these questions make sense? I will be grateful for your kind reply. THANK YOU!
March 18th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
A question about the powercord…has anyone used a ‘non-official’ 9V power cord? The manual states that you “must use a BOSS PSA” cord or the world will end. Is this for real? Or just a bluff to get another $20 out of me?
I have a few dozen 9V adapters from various pedals. Is the BOSS 9V special?
BTW: Just bought the MicroBR, mostly thanks to the great info on this site. Thanks!
March 19th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
I did a quick search and couldn’t find it mentioned, hope it’s not obvious but can you use your own effects pedals between your guitar and Micro-BR? I know it includes nearly all the effects you could ever hope for, but it’s easier to turn my pedal on or off mid performance.
March 19th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Hi all great stuff on here. Just got mine yesterday and seems to be pretty easy to get going. One thing tho… try as i might I can’t seem to find a way to adjust the levels when playing along with an mp3. I’m playing bass so i need a little bump to cut through or be able to turn dow the mps and turn up the instrument signal. From what i gather I’d have to pump up something in the levels of the Patch i’m using? any thoughts? I could send the mp3 to 2 tracks and lower them in the mix but then i lose the slow down feature when i take it out of the mp3 player.
Oh and i miss the sliders from my Korg PXR4. I wish the could have even done pop up pots like on my tacoma thunder chief.
But i love the upgrade from mpeg 2 to MP3. And the Mac software support is killer too.
thanks for all the great information.
March 19th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Well, just went running with my Micro BR for the first time using it as a vanilla MP3 player. Sounded great, except that there were some card read errors a few times. Stopped to see if the card jiggled loose or something, but it didn’t look like it. Not quite what I was hoping for there, but maybe I can jam a small piece of paper in the battery slot to keep the card firmly wedged in.
March 20th, 2007 at 3:02 am
DavidL, I don’t know if the Boss psa is special, but here are the specs for my US version.
IN: AC 120V 60Hz 9W
OUT: DC 9.6V 200mA
In the picture on it the inside tip is ‘-’ and the outside area is ‘+’.
The plug size is about 3/8’s of an inch.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:19 am
David:
I am using a non-Boss power supply from a pedal that works fine – just make sure that the polarity is correct.
Paul:
I use in line effects all the time, work fine.
Ken
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:37 am
Looking into buying either Microbr or Zoom H4. Been reading downloaded manuals. Any opinions about these units’ pros and cons? Re: Microbr…
I want to record my guitar and vocal simulaneously on 2 diff tracks. Manual says i can’t record both internal mic and guitar input on separate tracks, and impies that line/mic input only takes stereo line (ex: from CD player) or stereo mic (with or without 2.5 v supplied). Can i feed an external mic or two (ex: MD421s) into this box via some sort of adapters? To record guitar and voice to 2 separate tracks, must i go thru an external mixing board (panning full L/R) into the stereo-line-in?
Odd to me that you can’t seem to use some combo of 2 of these 3 inputs: internal-mic/guitar-in/1-side-of-line-in. Or can i? Unit’s ability to convert stereo-line-in implies the unit has 2 A/D converters, so why not allow mix-n-match?
Can i add EFX during mixdown (ex: reverb)? If so, does that effect come out in stereo on the master?
Are there any other brands that have competitive products (under $500)? Any on-the-way?
Any help would be appreciated.
March 24th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Hey all!
Just got a MicroBR and have been enjoying it quite a bit. Thanks to all the tips on here, the unit has proven to be very easy to use for what I’m trying to do.
One thing that evaded me for quite a while was how to fade a track in and out. I couldn’t find it in the manual or online. I even saw a review on one of the larger on-line retailer’s web site that said it lacked this capability.
I finally figured it out, so I thought I’d post it here in case anybody else is struggling to figure it out:
Go into mastering mode when you’re ready to convert to mp3. Do whatever you normally do here (settings, etc). Then press the record button. Press the utility button. The screen should now show “Master Volume: 100″. Make sure the cursor is under the 100 and change the volume setting very low (0-25). Press start button. Immediately press and hold the + button to raise the master volume to your desired setting (for example, back to 100). Let the song play through to your desired fade starting point, then press and hold the – button down to zero. Press the Stop button. Proceed with the rest of the mastering process (rename, etc) as you normally would.
This produced a pretty decent fade when I tried it. I hope this saves somebody else a few days of head scratching.
Bob
March 25th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I tried the Micro Br in the store using a bass guitar. I thougt it would sound better than it did. Is the Micro Br equipped for use with a bass guitar?
March 25th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I ran into “Card Write Error”, Micro froze up and I had to re-initialise card, which seems to work OK again but I lostsome painstakingly recorded tracks. I have (experimentally) saved individual tracks to PC before now but can’t find how to feed them back to the Micro and re-assemble them as component tracks of a single song. The manual, as ever, is obscure and confusing. Anyone successfully managed to do it? Help appreciated. Interested to read Bob’s fade technique. I’ve been doing fade-outs by slowly turning my back on the mike!!!
March 27th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Hi All
Thanks to all who have posted their instuction to do so many things not easily obvious via the manual.
So I can copy an arrangement and set the tempo of my song more or less??. The only question I have right now is after I copy the arrangement I find I have to go each portion of the arrangement and change the tempo of each section ie intro v1 F1 V2 etc. to my new tempo. If I copy an arrangement and it is originally at 120 bit now i want to change it to 100 does that mean I have to go to each portion or section of the arrangement and and change the tempo from 120 to 100 one at a time? Am i doing something wrong? Should I be able to change the entire copied arrangement to my new tempo in one fell swoop or some other easier way?
Thanks for all of your help.
Grainer
March 27th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Hey you people,
This is a very interesting site/blog thingy with stacks of information. I’m considering getting one of these (found a guy that gets it to me for $AU 400 if anyone is looking for a deal in australia).
For me I only want to do some basic recordings from my digital piano and microphone (any hints as to which Shure mic would be best???), which seems to be easy enough looking at other peoples comments, and double as a small mp3 player.
I’ve only seen a few comments wrt mp3 player, is it easy enough to use (ie change songs etc as needed from itunes on PC)?
I would also like to know if it is easy enough (after wav conversion) to edit using PC software (ie start fininsh times, alter notes etc?
Overall, it seems that most consumers are happy (some a little picky, but why not!!) with this little gem.
March 28th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Has anyone used the Micro BR for recording a live band?
I’d like to use Micro BR also for recording my rock band’s rehearsals. Volume during the rehearsals is equivalent to a rock band playing in a small club so the recording device should be able handle quite loud volume. Can BR do this either with it’s built in mic or by using e.g. Shure SM-58 or equivalent dynamic mic attached straight to the device?
March 29th, 2007 at 12:47 am
had the boss a few weeks now..cant get drum rythm recorded with my chords and vocals..its really bursting my head ..as the reason i got the wee silver sweetie was for such stuff…surely its possible or easy enough to record a good drum beat along with my dirty metal chords???
April 1st, 2007 at 4:46 pm
kevin and Ken Barry asked about which amps are modeled in effects patches. It depends on the Preamp Type selected for the patch (see page 70 of the Micro BR manual).
JC-120 – Roland “Jazz Chorus” (model JC-120)
CLEAN – Fender Twin Reverb
CRUNCH – don’t know
MATCH – Matchless DC-30
VO DRV – VOX AC-30TB
BLUES – don’t know
BG LEAD – MESA/Boogie combo amp
MS 1 – Input I on a Marshall 1959 (Plexi)
MS 2 – Input 2 on a Marshall 1959 (Plexi)
MS 1+2 – Inputs I and II on a Marshall 1959 (Plexi)
SLDN – Soldano SLO-100
METAL – don’t know
METAL D – don’t know
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:26 am
HI JUST AQUIRED THE MICROBR BUT RUN OUT OF BATTRIES FAST I HAVE A OLD BOSS PSA AC ADAPTOR MODEL PSA-220\9V 200mA WILL IT WORK PL HELP.
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm
hi already posted a comment regards the power adaptor april 2nd.
April 4th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Hi,
A Boss PSA Adaptor works fine on the Micro BR. I use my old one and it does the job. In fact it’s the only one Boss say you should use, though I bet there are others that will work as well.
The manual that ships with it is very unhelpful – mine had a separate 3-page list of errata (!) and it’s riddled with gobbets of incomprehensible Engrish.
Re mics – I wanted a mic for it and one shop told me that I’d need to get a dynamic mic, another one (who seemed to know better what he was talking about, to be honest) told me that a regular mic like a Shure SM-58 or 57 won’t work because the BR uses – or at any rate, has the option to use – plug-in power, and that I’d need to get something like the MXL Desktop Recording Kit or other mic suitable for recording onto a laptop.
I’m new to recording so am not an expert, but I imagine you could use the BR to record your band. (I’m very happy with mine despite above criticisms.)
April 5th, 2007 at 12:55 am
I use (2) 2500mAh NiMH rechargeables. Get 7-8 hrs battery life.
April 5th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
All,
Just happened on to this site after googling “micro br tweaks”. Absolutely helpful! As a br newbie, I’ll have more questions inevitably, and hope to contribute tips in the not too distant future.
thx,
Joel
April 6th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
This site is a savior…thanks Tim for putting it together. That being said…for all those having trouble with saving tempo and drum effects…I found kind of a work around: After you initially set your tempo and have what ever drum kit you like set…go on and record your vocals and instruments as you normally would using existing tempo setting. When you have every thing down you can go to bounce mode and play with different rhythm arrangements (pressing +/- buttons to change between different parts of an arrangement) until you get it like you want. Now comes the fun part…press record (while still in bounce mode) and alter the rhythm patches real time (while the song is playing). When you finally get it right hold the stop button and and press record button to save the now existing song complete with saved arrangement…convert it to MP3 and from there you can use time stretch feature to speed it up or slow it down to your liking. A lot of hoops to jump through on this thing but I still love it.
April 6th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Now I have a stupid question ?. Once a song is converted from a wave file to an MP3, when converted back to a wave file, are the different track settings saved and editable?.
April 6th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
In reference previous post. I made a boo boo. Play with your rhythm while still in the normal mode and go to bounce mode when you think you have got the real time arrangement down. I hope this is not like “turn right…CRASH…in 15 seconds” for those of you that do not get to this after reading the above post
April 8th, 2007 at 10:30 am
What an excellent box of tricks this is!
However, a couple of points – mybe someone can help:
1. The guitar tuner doesn’t appear when I choose Effects, then Utility (page 106 in manual). Can’t see why this shouldn’t work. Any ideas?
2. When i use a good sony battery mic, or indeed the packaged mic from Thomann, there is a hiss. The internal mic seems to produce the best quality results even if the signal seems a bit low sometimes. For recording environmenstal sound it is great. So why the hiss?
3. I’m going to try a Rode battery powered mic that i have (alt to Phantom power if needed) ihn the guitar input to see if that is a cleaner signal.
4. I got the leather case – yeah, it’s too expensive, but it does provide a bit more security than the felt bag
Hope someone can help with the tuner problem.
Mr Wud
April 8th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
re: Mr Wud
I believe you have to be in the mp3/trainer mode to use the tuner. The only reason I am mentioning this is that several times, while getting used to this little puppy, I found myself on the wrong screen trying to make something else work ie: attempting to change tempo volume from utility mastering screen duh.. Hope this helps.
I eventually gave up on the mic issue and just strapped the microbr to the end of my mic stand.
April 8th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
In reference to concerns about the power supply issue I just found an old adapter to a GE tape recorder plugged it in and it didn’t explode and seems to work just fine.
April 8th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Thanks for the response, but unfortunately I still can’t call up the tuner – using the ‘effects’, then ‘utility’ buttons. Can anyone confirm the correct use of the instructions on page 106 to open up the guitar tuner? Is it working at all?
thanks
Mr Wud
April 8th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Hi, anyone spotted similar behavior?
I was getting Unsupported Card Error when playing back songs in MP3 mode. Strange, the error was displayed for each MP3 song in about 80% of the playback length. This was happening with the original SD card, although I’ve checked different ways it really wasn’t a faulty card. The error seemed to have disappeared only after I re-encoded all the MP3’s. So far so good. But I’ve uploaded new MP3’s into the device lately and did some quick FF, REW, Stop and Play to find the spot in the song I was looking for and, suddenly, I got the error back (I think this time it was Card Read Error) and the gadget hung. Completely. Had to remove the batteries to reboot.
April 8th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
The tuner issue was in the errata section of the manual. You push Effects and Rythym at the same time.
April 9th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
cheers for that. I suppose i just should have pressed a few more bottuns – can’t find the detail you mentuioned anywhere in the docs, but thanks
April 9th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
cheers for that. I suppose i just should have pressed a few more buttons – can’t find the detail you mentioned anywhere in the docs, but thanks nonetheless. It does work. Any views on the hiss from external mics?
Mr Wud
April 10th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Hi all – here’s some news – you CAN record guitar and the built in mic together – you just hit Input, then with the input options press GTR and MIC together and both are activated. The limitation is that they are combined so the level and sensitivity are locked to each other – but I used the volume control on my electric guitar to balance ‘em out. Further, when you go to record you can hit 1+2 and record them to stereo. I haven’t experimented much beyond this – maybe you can pan them when you record. But i was wll pleased to discover this as I use the BR mainly as a songwriting sketchpad/demo tool and this is very useful!
April 11th, 2007 at 12:58 am
WRT the CARD READ ERROR, I’ve had it occur only when playing MP3s downloaded from Limewire. I think it may be a quality of MP3 issue, the card reader might not like certain bit rates of MP3, or some downloaded MP3s could be a bit dodgy.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Hi! I thought it wasnt just me that cud not work this BR! Please can anyone explain in english how to do the v tracks and when u do why it seems I can only record into the same track no 1? also When you import an MP3 which I can do now! BUT when I make a new track I cant seem to get it into this track as it only gives about 6 options of where to put it? even though ive 9 songs on the BR? Also to reply to question about the BR mains adapter, I paid a fiver which was the advice of shop wher I bought it and its fine! please help if you can .Mary (st helens)
April 12th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I’ve just carefully balanced the volume levels on 4 tracks then “bounced” them according to the instructions. Playback of the 2 virtual “bounce” tracks together showed the volume balance between the original 4 tracks is fairly seriously altered, for example the original track 1 (guitar) is now almost drowned by the original track 2 (voice), . Almost like the bad old days of over-dubbing on tape! Do you need to be careful which tracks combine when bounced, or does bouncing 2 tracks on to one on the BR degrade quality, despite the claims for digital recording?
April 15th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Stereo Mic hissues. Is there a workable solution for dissolving the hiss?
Many Thanks for all the good info on this blog!
April 19th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
[...] Tim as it turns out is also a bit a guru when it comes to the Boss Micro BR, the review he wrote has probably the biggest thread outside of Boss. [...]
April 19th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
To Mary – Record on TR1 by pressing Record button then TR1 then “Go”. For track 2 press Record then TR2 then Go. And so on. To select a V track, with the main display showing, press any “TR” button. You should get the recording level display. Keep pressing the right cursor to get past that, continue past the stereo panning display and the next display will be the V tracks. Confusingly, “V1″ on the display actually means “TR1 (v1)”. Move cursor to select an unused TR1 v- track (empty square) To see available v tracks on TR2, press TR2. Etc. The last v track selected for each TR will be the one used for mastering the song unless you go back to v track display and select otherwise.
For putting MP3 data on to a track see p 108 of manual (sub-heading says it is for MP3-to-audio conversion but that is actually on p107!!) I can’t confirm if it works as advertised, To go to the song you want to add to, press Utility – SNG – EDIT – then use “+/-” to change displayed song number. Any help to you?
April 19th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
On the mic hiss question:
I haven’t bought the mic yet, but a “plug in power” Sony ECM type stereo electret, plus turning on the “plug in power” in the options should get clean results according to what i read on the roland/boss site.
I’ll post when i try this out, also i’m going to try using my Edirol R-1 as a stero mic front end to the Micro BR
April 19th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
One more thing…
People have been concerned about only having five non-preset arrangements, but the good news is that it is 5 per song, and lotsa songs, so that’s actually quite a few.
for my wishlist, wish i could rename those patterns to something useful! ah well…
Rick in SF
April 25th, 2007 at 4:05 am
Can you record yourself playing along with an mp3 file? That is, can I play along with a “play along” CD, and then listen back to my playing (with the rest of the instruments)? This would be a terrific practice tool if this is possible.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Hi David. Depends where the CD is
. If you transfer an MP3 recording of the song, and use the MicroBR in normal mode, then yes! If you use in MP3 mode, though, then you cannot play your track and record your playing at the same time. If you really mean you are playing the CD itself, then you could either play the CD through some speakers and record that through the mic and your e.g. guitar through the guitar in. Or, you could use a stereo line in splitter and put the CD to one channel, and e.g. guitar to the other. So, I guess there are a number of possibilities depending on what you want to do. HTH!
April 26th, 2007 at 3:28 am
David, what I’ve done is to record a CD backing track using the line in source, with no effects, then it’s sitting there as a BR track ready for you to record along with.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Aha! Thanks, Tim, and Jacko! Not knowing the differences between “normal mode” and “mp3 mode” yet, I think I can plan at least on using Jacko’s method to achieve what I’m trying to do. (And no, Tim, I’m not talking about actually playing a CD. Wise guy!
) Thanks to both of you for the quick reply. I guess I’ll be ordering mine soon then.
April 28th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I have not figured out how to transfer the songs on my Micro BR to my mac. Do you have any suggestions? Also, I spent hours trying to get it to record both from the mic and my guitar, and find it very inconvenient that it can’t be done. Good work; these are great suggestions.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Hello, its difficult to find independant info or reviews anywhere else on the net. I am planning to buy one of these this week, I have a couple of basic questions.
I have a non-Boss power supply which I use for my pedals, is the power supply this thing uses the same as a supply for pedals?
Has anyone tried recording an electronic drum kit? The drummer in the band has one of these so was interested to know any results.
Finally, this was asked befroe but not answered… has anyone use the BR to record rehearsals through the live mic?
Thanks to all
April 30th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Hi Suth. I cannot answer the questions wrt powersupply or drum kit, but I can sort of help a little on the last one. I recorded a “mix” live using the internal mic, the direct link to this is here, and the blog link is here.
I found the mic acceptable, if seemingly a little low on sensitivity – but the volume levels (of the presentation) were not loud, mind you. If you are recording loud music, then that should not be a problem
, but you might want to try using the inbuilt compressor/limiter. I tried recording loud music before, and found the recording overloaded – but that was because I found getting the sensitivity level right was a bit fiddly. NB: The inbuilt mic won’t record in stereo, mind, but you could use an external stereo mic or the input from a portable mixer. HTH!
May 1st, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Hi there everybody. Got my MicroBR 2weeks ago, and after a lot of experimenting i’m beginning to suspect the “LINE IN/MIC(STEREO)” connector only accepts a stereo signal when you use the LIN input selection. It seems to be a mono input when using the EXT (for external mic’s). Am I righly disappointed or just doing something terribly wrong?
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
It’s me again….
I just discovered what it is I did terribly wrong. In the effects section I selected a microfone effect. And these are supposed to be used with the built-in mic. Thus are all MC-section effects mono. This forced the output of my extenal stereomic to mono….
Thanks for reacting just slow enough to let me correcting my own mistake….
May 5th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Hi,
I just got my Micro BR and it’s pretty fun.
One thing bugs me: even if you only record, let’s say, 10 seconds, when you press “play” it will continue after those 10 seconds and never stops. I would like the unit to stop when reaching the last thing recorded! I know I can do the A-B loop trick but I would really prefere an “automatic B” at the end of the song!
Also the fact that you can’t save a tempo for a song without making an arrangment is really annoying. I hope they will fix that in a firmware update!
Thanks for that blog entry, it’s really useful!
Julien
May 13th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
How can I apply EQ to each track independently?
Hi,
Thanks to all who have been so generous to give tips of use for this neat little recorder.
OK, my question. I am a singer songwriter and I use the BR generally to records while writing and building songs.
My regular work flow has always been simple – Lay down a few tracks, Set the volume of each track, Pan each track, give each track whatever reverb it may need and of course EQ each track – independently. It’s the EQ I am having trouble with – I don’t seem to haver the ability to EQ each track independent of the other – I only seem to be able to apply EQ to 1 track. I.E. When I apply EQ to track 2, I hear the effect nicely , but when I then try the to apply EQ to track 4, track 2 become undone having no EQ anymore.
This is what I do:
I choose EFFECTS and LOC, I’ll pick a track I want to apply EQ to, say Track 1.
Then when I get the EQ I like, I try to go to another track with the LOC (say Track 2) to EQ it, only to find that the EQ I applied to the first track gets applied to the new track and unapplied from the first track. As if the machine is saying “only ONE track can be EQ’d buddy!!”
One thing I tried was to apply EQ to the original recorded track and then bounce it to the V2 of the same track with the hope it would “wet record ” the EQ along with the voice or guitar I recorded originally. It worked once so I know it’s possible , but now I am not able to do it.
I wish BOSS would simply add the ability to EQ each track easily and independently of each other.
Either I am missing something or the manual is not clear .. Either way, does anyone know how to accomplish the simple task of EQ’ing each track independently of each other – easily.
many thanks in advance ..
js
May 14th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I just bought one off of ebay for around $180. Thought I was getting a good deal until I found out that a component (diode or cap)connected to the AC jack was fried, so I’m on NiMH 2500 batteries, and waiting for an estimate on Roland/Boss servicing.
Other than that, the unit is pretty cool. Recorded a rehearsal at 192KB/s onto a SanDisk 1GB card, using Core-Sound Low-Cost Binaurals.
Then, I attempted to record a rehearsal using the same mics to MT2 format. The application to import the recordings to .wav worked out fine.
Problem: I think I had the Power Off feature set to 5 minutes and the thing would stop recording midstream. If that’s what happened, then that’s kind of lame, IMHO.
I’m still learning, so obviously, this could be attributed to user error. I now know the clear diff between “Power Save” and “Power Off.” settings!
Another thing: I’m wondering if the pre-amp is really lame on the external input jack, because on both the 192kbps mp3 recordings, and (subsequently converted) MT2 recordings, the bass if really boomy and muddy. Moreso than equivalent recordings on a standard mini disc recorder that i have.
Thoughts?
May 15th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Too bad there isn’t a discussion board on the Boss or Roland site…this one seems to be dead….
May 15th, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Not quite, but I just don’t know the answers to some of the latest questions (re preamp and EQ), and have not had a chance to use the MicroBR for a few weeks! If anyone else wants to answer, please do!
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I tried a Dane-Elec 2Gb card. It wrote the ‘Roland’ folder to it but otherwise it didn’t work. Don’t know its speed.
I recorded some live mp3, stopping the BR at each song and noticed the battery indicator ‘increased’ as the backlight level lowered. Unfortunately there’s no 0 sec setting so don’t know if its the backlight or the stop/start(write) action which is drawing more power than the mp3 128kb/s record mode.
May 22nd, 2007 at 7:28 pm
>>Jackie Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Has anyone used the Micro BR for recording a live band?
I’d like to use Micro BR also for recording my rock band’s rehearsals. Volume during the rehearsals is equivalent to a rock band playing in a small club so the recording device should be able handle quite loud volume.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I moved the core-sound low cost binaurals further from the walls to record a rehearsal yesterday, and this cut down on the “bass frequency coupling,” and the recording (of a quintet of guitar, drums, bass, tenor sax and vocalist) went pretty well, recording at 192kbs mp3. I’m still trying to find a sweet spot on the peak level of recording though. So right now, I’m thinking my problem with “boominess” had more to do with mic placement rather than the pre-amp.
However, I haven’t used the built in mono mic yet, and don’t know how good that is at handling high sound pressure levels, such as with a rock band – i’m doing jazz, so it’s not quite as loud, generally speaking. Peaks at “two bars” on the input LED “VU meter” seem to be too low. I’m also not completely clear as to how I should approach adjusting “Sensitivity” level settings vs. simply “Input Volume” settings. Any insights would be appreciated.
And, finally, I’m glad this discussion is still alive.
May 23rd, 2007 at 9:20 pm
shucks no edit function…
FYI, “core-sound low cost binaurals” are stereo external condensor mics. They sound great for rehearsals:
http://www.core-sound.com
May 24th, 2007 at 7:02 am
Hi Tmon. To access/change sensitivities, press the input button (seems to work in either Normal mode or MP3 mode. Use the cursor key to move between the editable fields, of which Sens can be one (sometimes you see reverb, too etc) and then use the -/+ value buttons to change the value. Note that you select the actual input with the TR1-TR4 buttons. HTH!
May 25th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Tim,
Thanks. Actually I do know how to get to the sensitivity and input level gain adjustments, as well as “target tracks.”
What I am trying to learn is how to determine optimal sensitivity settings relative to input level settings when using my core-sound low-cost binaural mics for recording via the “EXT” jack…
My current theory is that if you are recording loud stuff, turn the sensitivity down, but if you are recording quiet stuff, then maybe you don’t want to turn sensitivity down. Now, wtf am i supposed to do if recording material with wide dynamic range? I guess it’s all about experimentation……
May 30th, 2007 at 4:42 am
OK, here’s my new methodology: Turn input volume to near 80%, activate the input and have band members play the loudest thing you might run into, such as a hard snare hit at the same time as a guitar power chord strum. Adjust the sensitivity to where the peaks on the LED top out around the fourth or fifth bar. This allows for both headroom and room to increase the input level a bit, as in a situation where the current loud song is peaking just right, but you want a bit more gain on the next song, which is a ballad.
It’s still a learning process for me, but this approach worked on my last gig, where I was recording to 44.1/16 Wave files, which btw, sounded a lot better than the 192kHz mp3’s i have been recording at rehearsals….
June 2nd, 2007 at 4:40 am
I would like to buy an electret condenser microphone for the Micro BR. I read that people recommend the Sony ECM DS-70P. But I also read about the Sony ECM MS-907 and the Audio Technica AT 822 and AT pro 24. Can someone tell me which one has the best response? I don’t know what to buy. Than you!
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:15 am
http://www.core-sound.com
June 14th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
How do i more than 1 track from trainer to mp3 mode.. i can only pass 1 track =X
June 14th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
How do i pass more than 1 track from trainer to mp3 mode?.. i can only pass 1 track =X
June 18th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Newbie Observations, and a question for the
Gurus:
First off, thanks to ALL of you for creating this
resource!!!!
Brought my new BR to its first gig on Saturday, and
recorded four sets on a 2gb Sandisk card. Each set was
separately recorded as one continous “song,” which is the
only way I can possibly record with THIS band, which plays
one song after another with very little “dead air.”
I used my old Sony Electret Condensor Stereo Mic
(ECM-MS907) with plug-in power OFF, which worked
just fine with the BR input set to “EXT.”
I still have much to learn about setting proper input and sensitivity levels – but overall, what I got on Saturday
sounded pretty good for a first effort, and is
usable for my purposes (creating a “practice disc.”)
I then decided to use the “export” feature on the BR
to convert each of these LONG songs to the WAV format, to
then ship to the PC for further editing. This probably
isn’t an issue for someone doing a 5-minute multi-tracked
sketchpad song, but for a 45 minute set….YIKES. The
process literally takes hours, and also, the WAV files take
up an enormous amount of space on the SD card. I needed to
ship each new WAV file to the PC after creating, then delete
it from the BR (using the on-board song delete feature – the manual advises you against just deleting the file from your BR from within the PC while it is connected and showing up as
another drive on the computer.)
So – now I have four sets, saved as .wav files, on my PC.
Haven’t decided what software I’m going to try to wrap my
head around in order to break each set up into bite-size
song chunks.
After thoroughly reading the manual, this blog,
AND the posts on the Yahoo BR group (have I missed
any resources I ought to know about?) I can see no
way to “manually increment” the 10 or so tunes which
were recorded as a continual song for each set within
the BR. Have I missed something obvious here?
June 18th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
One more question: How *does* one go about using the
BR as a “stompbox?” Must one be in “record” or
“record standby” modes to play around with the guitar
effects?
June 18th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
I am adding to my earlier post in hopes I can save
someone else from spending an evening like I did
last night – I hadn’t realized that the BRWC program
existed, and did my conversions to WAV from within the
Micro BR. *NOT* recommended. On long files such as the
ones I was using, it took AGES…and I found out later
that I had only saved one half of the stereo pair!!
BRWC 2.0 makes it MUCH faster and simpler.
June 19th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I’m hoping that someone for Roland reads these blogs, because i feel that the unit needs a lightweight attachment that allows you to mount it on a mic stand. Also a simple remote attachment would be handy or footswitch.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Thanks for such a good blog.
I know this has been mentioned already but I’ve read conflicting views across the web.
Earlier it was stated that the unit could see a 2gig sd card but only use 1gig of it.
Later on someone said that this was a hardware issue, old style SD reader etc.
I’ve read elsewhere of others using 2 gig cards with out the 1gig limitation and in fact somebody claimed to use a 4 gig card.
Has anyone fully used anything more than 1 gig?
I need to know this cause I’m a lazy man who won’t get round to transferring stuff for months. For me this device is a kind of sofa based studio (so I don’t have to go into my loft and use a proper one). In fact I feel that this toy could make the lounge based music scene kind of vaguely shift to a slightly different level. Though possibly a downwards one.
Thanks in advance
June 20th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Hi Cakehole
I can confirm I have only ever been able to get it to recognise 1Gb of 2Gb card – i.e. it just sees it as a 1Gb card…. Maybe others have had better luck…. HTH!
June 21st, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Many thanks for this. I will update if I find one that works..
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Hi all. I’ve bought the Micro BR about two weeks ago and I’m enjoying it very much. However, I’m very disappointed with the stereo microphone I just bought for it: the Sony ECM 719. I’ve set input to EXT but I get tremendous hiss and a very very very low gain on the mic (even with sensitivity set to +6db).
At first I thought it was a problem with the plug-in power so I went back out again and got a LR44 battery for the mic, setting the plug-in power to OFF. The results were exactly the same. It seems that this mic has a VERY low gain and I wonder if it’s a faulty unit. I set the gain to +6 on the BR, sat in front of the mic with my acoustic guitar (maybe 2 inches away from the mic) and starting riffing and screaming as hard as I could. the meters never got close to clipping even with the INPUT control set at maximum.
Did anyone have a better experience with this? Should I return it?
BTW I’ve just tried it with battery power and recording into my MacBook (with Audacity). The gain is depressingly low so I don’t think it’s a Micro BR problem. But maybe you guys have some experience with this type of mics.
Thanks for any help.
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Hi everybody I’m planing to use Micro BR for live dids! Can you easy and FAST find the MP3 that you want? Let say ,if they are 300 Mp3 songs! Can i order them the way i want?Or I need additional MP3 player to do the job?
And : Can you switch on Traning mode ,while play MP3?
June 24th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Sorry for the spelling mistakes in the previous mail.
I plan to buy Micro BR because of the features that it has.I hope somebody of you will help me to figure out if this is the right tool for me.
Additionally to what is said that it consists I need some particular features because I need to use Micro BR for live gigs player:
1. to fast and easy find the mp3-file/song?
2. to play the mp3-song one by one (not in a chain)?
3. to put them in order my way, even without playlist?
4. can I use 2GB-card for mp3-file/songs?
5. if I record some audio,in stereo,can I convert it to mp3 on the tool (Micro BR),without to use PC?
I think it does, but
PLEASE help me!!
June 25th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Hi Guys
Thanks for an absolutely fab resource for Micro BR users.
Just got a Sony ECMDS70P condenser mic. Really odd thing is that the mic works great on battery power, but when I use the BOSS psu I get really high levels of hum. Not a major problem since I can run the BR off batteries when using the ECMDS70P. Anyone else had this problem?
Keith
PS
I suspect that the 1GB card limit is down to the card format being FAT as opposed to FAT32.
June 27th, 2007 at 6:29 am
Question:
What are people using to encode/transcode wav files to Micro BR-compatible MP3’s??!?!?!?
I’ve been trying to use Acoustica Audio Conversion Pro to convert to CBR (not VBR) 128kbps (LAME MP3 Encoder version 1.32), but these files do not work in the Micro BR. WTF?
June 27th, 2007 at 7:46 am
to Tmon:try the Lame encoder with freeware NEO AUDIO it works great with microbr,even the VBR-encoded stuff.
Question:how can i reimplant exported song datas-constellation from other users,so that i can use the same setup?
June 28th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Thanks Detharp.
I just tried Sound Forge and that worked. Not as convenient as Acoustica Audio Conversion Pro, but at least the files playback in the Micro BR.
I’ll check out NEO Audio.
Sorry, I cannot answer your question regarding “song datas-constellation.”
June 28th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Keith,
I suspect that the electronics of the Micro BR are pretty low-end and that you get a hum because of some bad grounding internally. If you have a warranty, take it in.
Otherwise you are SOL. After I bought mine from ebay and found out the AC components were fried, Roland wanted $250 to replace the entire interal circuit board, more than
what I paid for the whole thing, and more than what you can get a Micro BR for new. I’ve since invested in 2500M-AH NiMH rechargeables and a Radio Shack AA NiMH battery charger and all is well.
June 28th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
tz, I would try another ext. mic and see if it is also noisy/hissy. Also try as many varied Input/Sensitivity combination settings as you can with each mic. If they are all hissy, it’s probably the built in mic preamp that has a problem. In which case, I would go for an exchange of the unit, assuming you can do so.
I’ve had good luck with my core-sound low cost binaurals and the built-in preamp so far with my Micro BR. Knock on wood.
June 28th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
RE: 1GB limitation.
If you read through the increasingly longer board, many users have confirmed that there is a 1GB read/write limitation on the Micro BR. The Micro BR will only use 1GB of your SD card, even if the capacity of the card exceeds 1GB.
How can we “pressure/lobby” Roland to give us a firmware update to address better file playback options (playlisting) and memory card usage?
June 28th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Detharp,
NEO Audio looks pretty good, and the price is right!
http://www.neonapster.com/na.html
June 28th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
to tmon neoaudio is freeware!theres no price,since i kow,maybe that changed,unbelievable!cu detharp
June 28th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
No, it appears to still be freeware. I was being “facetious” and meant to say that “freeware = good!” Thanks for the tip!
I’m going to try it out…can I batch transcode a folder of .wav files to mp3? That’s what I’m interested in doing. In Sound Forge, I think I have to do each one one at a time. Kind of a pain.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
I just found the other board. We should all start moving over here:
http://forum.intermorphic.com/viewforum.php?f=7
June 29th, 2007 at 5:43 am
to tmon yep iuse the intermorfhic too. and the http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/bossmicrobr/
in neoaudio you can simply use a bunch of songs to encode at a time.e.g.lay in a cd with wav-files,then name the cd(for mp3-format on the screen),name the songs ,mark the songs you like to encode and start encoding.i even encoded my old cassettes and LP’s in vinyl cu detharp
July 2nd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Hi there people, just bought one of these things. I’m a guitar player and am having MASSIVE difficulty getting my head around the whole interface!! I’d appreciate any help you can give me….. like, why, when I just want to play or select a drum part, is it automatically dumped onto my song??
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:43 am
re: Sony ECMDS70P and loads of hum.
Just to update, I had the BR along to my group’s last practice. The hum thing that I experienced at home didn’t happen at our practice venue. I think it may be down to crappy mains power at home. Initial impressions of the Sony ECMDS70P are pretty good. I used it with a 6m extension lead and stuck it in the middle of the practice room. Had to set the sens to the lowest, but I’m quite pleased with the results. As always the drums tend to dominate (aarrrgh!!), but I’ll play about with positioning.
One thing REALLY bugs me. Each time a new song is created the phantom power is off by default. Caught me out a couple of times.
July 7th, 2007 at 12:07 am
Hi,
Thanks for all the great information, it’s helping me get around some of the finer details of this great little gadget.
Can anyone explain the differences in the various “mastering” effects/options that the BR provides. I’m still a bit stumped as to which one to choose, as I don’t know the qualities they provide.
Thanks.
July 13th, 2007 at 8:02 am
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