New, exciting and very, very late - the Boss BR800

[ian2]

Once upon a time, when hair was big and overdrive and chorus were frequently used together, I bought a Tascam PortaOne 4-track cassette recorder. It may have been simple by today's standards, but I loved the immediacy of the thing.

Some years on, after a year or so of neglect sitting in a wardrobe (that's the PortaOne, not me ), the PortaOne was found to have died. Well, it still functioned as a mixer, but that was about it.

I moved to DAW-based recording around 2001, but have started to hanker after the immediacy of a simple, portable multi-tracker again. A recorder that I can take to my amps in my lounge, rather than trying to squeeze an amp into my bedroom. And along came the Boss BR800 or, perhaps more accurately, a prototype of same, together with an announcement that this little gem would be on sale in May (2010) or some such date.

The BR800 has got so much going for it (and I say that, having no connection with the company), including:
* Mains or battery power
* Use built-in mics or external mics
* Phantom power
* Record 4 tracks at once - could record a vocal and multi-miked acoustic simultaneously
* Pattern based drum machine
* Record to SD card up to 32GB capacity
* GT10-style COSM amp sims and effects, including what appears to be the ability to get a surprisingly good bass sound from a guitar.
* £340, in round figures

Unfortunately the projected on-sale date posted by UK shops has been slipping by about one month per month. I can't help wondering whether they've even started making the production model yet. Or perhaps they're waiting for the container ship to be built...

Roland's forum - where I could/should have posted this, presumably after (yawn) registering, has a post from a Roland employee stating that the projected on-sale date is now September or October.

So, I'm getting itchy feet to go shopping for an alternative. However, the Zoom R16's doesn't have a drum machine. The Boss BR Micro seems just too much of a compromise (albeit that it would be awesome as someone's first multi-tracker). The Zoom H4N doesn't record four tracks at once, does it? The Zoom MRS-8 is something I don't think I could get very excited about. I rule out devices that record to Compact Flash, as that medium appears to be passe (you'll have to imagine an acute accent, there ). I don't want to pay two to three times the price of the BR800 for something with more tracks, more simultaneous recording capability and a built-in CD writer.

If patience is a virtue, I think that my virtuousness may improve over the summer... (Perhaps my virtuosity, too, although I think that's unlikely )

Do shout, though, if you can think of anything else that can do what the BR800 can do without costing more than twice as much.

Thanks,

Ian

[bequick_x]

Couldn't you look at some of the older versions such as the Br864, br900? I'm sure they're pretty cheap on ebay these days. Althuogh the Br800 does look pretty cool.

I used to own a Br864 with I absolutely loved and it hep me write some of my first songs

[Tui]

The Zoom H4N doesn't record four tracks at once, does it?

It does.

"In 4Ch mode, you can record two stereo signals simultaneously. You can capture both live sounds via built- in mics and direct instruments via external inputs simultaneously.

• Simultaneous recording with both line input and a microphone.
• Surround recording via front and rear microphone placement.
• Simultaneous recording of both ambient and direct sound sources.
• Record both ambient and direct sounds to add a live feel to recorded performances."

[Zukan]

Why would you use chorus and overdriven hair together?

[Carignan]

Joy for you: The BR-800 is now in stock in many UK and Europe shop. Enjoy and please, let us know you first impression of that jowel.

[ian2]

Joy for you: The BR-800 is now in stock in many UK and Europe shop. Enjoy and please, let us know you first impression of that jowel.

Ordered!

Thanks, Carignan. What with the information in the forum post that I found on Roland's site and the fact that I'd registered with Roland to be emailed when the BR800 was in the country yet hadn't received an email I might easily have waited weeks or months, or compromised by buying something else.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Ian

[ian2]

Some initial impressions for you, Carignan:

The casing is apparently made of plastic and very light - would it survive a drop from a table or chair onto a fairly hard surface, such as wooden flooring? I hope never to find out!

It's a pleasant change to be using a noiseless recorder. It's a fan-less device, but it doesn't seem to get hot.

The virtual buttons of the touch-sensitive top work pretty well, although I occasionally fail to hit the virtual button that I'm targeting.

The built-in mics are very noisy - so noisy that I wondered if they might be faulty. I wouldn't be very happy to record a vocal with them, although they're still worth having for their immediacy and being able to record without needing to carry mics around, if you're traveling. You could always re-record the vocal using an external mic.

There's a noise suppressor (i.e. gate, I guess) which, assuming that my BR800's built-in mics are working as intended, you'd be likely to want to use when using the built-in mics. Trouble is, it seems to typically kick in rather often, because of the high noise floor and, if I'm not mistaken, it tends to distort the signal significantly whilst it's opening or closing.

I'm yet to be convinced that the guitar amp sim effects are an improvemeny upon those of my 2005-vintage Vox Tonelab SE, although the bass amp patches are new strings to my bow, and I've been able to get a recorded DI'ed bass sound that I'm very happy with.

One or some of the COSM algorithms/patches adds body to a DI'ed electro acoustic signal, in order to approximate the sound of a mic'ed acoustic. This seems to work very well - a huge improvement on the DI'ed sound of my APX-6S.

I've tested the phantom power (available only on Input 4) by recording my acoustic guitar with a Rode NT1a. There was discernible noise from the pre-amp, but at a sufficiently low level that I'm perfectly content with it.

I'm quite content with the drum sounds & functionality. You can roll your own arrangements of patterns on the BR800 itself, and you can roll your own patterns on a PC and transfer them to the recorder. (I haven't tried the latter yet.)

Something that has surprised me (pleasantly) is the amount of COSM processing that can be carried out simultaneously.

I still have lots to learn about the thing, such as what scope there is for applying affects such as delay after recording a track. (What I *do* recall, is that when you monitor a track with a COSM effect whilst recording you can choose to have the track recorded without the effect.)

Overall, I think it's a great bang for the bucks. Put one in a time machine with you, go back to 1985 or so, and watch the jaws drop.

Ian