This review is from: BOSS Micro BR BR-80 Digital RecorderI'm really digging this little recorder. I've had it for about 2 weeks now and once I got past its limitations I'm really starting to use it a lot. I've tried a few portable multitracks over the past year (Micro BR 4, Boss BR800, & Zoom R8 to name a few) and they just didn't click with me. The R8 came awfully close to winning the battle - I still have it and may hold onto it, but so far the more time I spend learning to use the BR-80 the more it seems to be the right tool for me. Long story short: If you're looking for an awesome practice tool and something to quickly jot your ideas down with or simply just create a rough outline of a riff or song before it disappears from your brain completely, definitely check the BR-80 out. If you're looking for professional sounding recordings to share with the world or hoping this will replace your current DAW and plugins, go get your head checked! A $299 device that's slightly larger than an iPod isn't going to make that happen. At least not in 2011.Pros: - The size. It's a no brainer when comparing to other units. I can keep this in my backpack at all times and have it out and on at a moment's notice.- I'm a long time Boss GT floor board user and have grown to despise the higher gain COSM models, but the amps on the BR80 aren't all that bad. Still very mid-rangey but if you lay off the gain, play with the eq, and dial back your guitar's volume knob about 15-20% the higher gain models can sound really good. Cleans are great.- Battery life seems great. 6 hours with regular batteries, about 3-4 on my rechargables so far.- Less is more. Having used Sonar and ProTools for years now it's nice to just plug into something, hit record, and go to town. Aside from the learning curve nothing really gets in the way of getting drafts of your ideas onto this thing. If you don't like it (I didn't at first) keep at it and READ THE MANUAL. Give it a fighting chance. Burn some calories. You might be pleasantly surprised. I sure am.- For what they are (remember this is a small little $299 rectangle running on 2 AA batteries), the drum sounds aren't all that bad. You have 8 kits to choose from and there should be something that is at least close enough for what most users will have in mind.- The onboard mics are great. I live in NYC and it's fun sometimes to switch them on when I'm walking around and capture random audio in the city. They're very sensitive to wind as well as anything that might be in their way at all (such as fingers near them if you're holding it while recording).- Eband is really cool. I'm not too crazy about the backup band stuff but there's a drum folder full of drum-only loops that are much more realistic sounding and fun to jam to.Cons:- Scroll scroll scroll... we live in a world of menus and this device is no exception. You can pretty much get all of the essential operations done without too much scrolling, but when it comes to editing tracks or punching in be prepared to get your button pressing and thumb dialing on.- If you like odd meters (which I do) and want to use something other than metronome patterns for rhythms be prepared to invest some time importing your own midi loops to this thing. Also on the odd meter note, you can change up time signatures and tempos in the rhythm track in each song.. this is something I wasn't able to do on other units, at least not with a lot of extra effort bouncing tracks and whatnot.- You need to download software from BOSS (it also comes on the included memory card) to convert tracks to .wav if you plan on importing them to your PC (and vice versa). You can't just plug in via USB and drag-n-drop. Totally lame. Just like the total wankers they use on their painful demo videos, Boss is really behind the times with this aspect. Come on, it's 2011... go with the standard, man! I'm learning to deal with it but overall it's just another pain in the arse step getting in the way of creativity.- The reverbs are horrible. If you use it for anything more than a very subtle enhancement it's very sterile and sounds incredibly "pixilated" (that's the best word I can think of to describe it). This is disappointing but not a complete deal breaker if you're just using this as a sketchpad. If you're looking for lush verbs on your solo acoustic guitar tracks, fugeddabaddit. I wish I could take my Zoom R8 reverb and drop it into the BR80.- No power supply. Not a big deal if you have a lot of rechargeable batteries but be prepared to shell out more cash for that as well as a carrying case of some sort. - The little nubs on the navigation dial aren't the most comfortable on thumbs when you have to scroll through a large amount of data.The only real issue I've had so far is dropouts while recording and getting a DRIVE BUSY! error message. I'm positive this was due to the crappy memory card I inserted (it comes with a 2G but I wanted more space). I bought a new higher speed card and have had zero problems since.If you're going to be lugging this around a lot I'd seriously consider buying a case of some sort for it. I bought the BOSS sleeve/pouch kit and although it's a bit spendy it gives a really nice solid feel to the recorder and buttons (and protects the thing, of course). I've been using BOSS products for over 20 years and never had a problem due to their "built like a tank" approach. I'd like to think the BR-80 will live up to that but it's too early to make a fair assessment. Unlike any of my BOSS stompboxes I would be weary of knocking this thing around too much. Protect your investment and BUY A CASE. $40 seems like a rip off and it kind of is, but it's much better than potentially paying $299 for a replacement unit. This BR80 is definitely a keeper in my opinion. If you're looking for a quick, portable, decent sounding solution to document the music ideas in your head you should definitely consider trying this out. If you're looking to c...
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