Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

[Gr8Scott]

I know it's not state of the art etc and it's not as portable as the BR-Micro, but it has double the number of channels and it's not hard drive based so it's totally silent. I've been trying (throwing cash at) making a portable recording setup so I can take a guitar on the road (not a gigging road but a travelling for my job road) with me and manage to compose some nice diddies while I'm at it. The recording quality seems to be quite good and deathly silent. Lots of features too. Maybe Boss will come out with a new model in a month that makes mine look absolutely anemic, but I'm digging it so far. Very thin and flat and the knobs/sliders don't protrude out to get knocked off etc.

The one thing that irks me is that it seems to be persnickety about the compact flash cards it uses. It only seems to like 1 gig cards max in size. That irritates me a bit as it would be really cool to be able to throw a 2 gig card in there and be able to record some 130 minutes worth of 8 track creativity on it. 1 gig cards give you 65 minutes of 8 track glory. Couple that with 64 virtual tracks and it's quite a sweet deal really. It's feature laden (more so than the also very sweet micro BR) and it has COSM processors and modeling built right in just like it's litte brother. It also has a dedicated (but not terribly sensitive) drum pad and drum track that doesn't eat up one of your tracks. Couple that with the bass patches to make a guitar sub for a real bass in a pinch and you have a whole band at your disposal. It's one heck of a scratch pad.

The part I like about it is that I don't have to bring a guitar effects pedal, laptop and external sound card on the road with me anymore. I also don't have to deal with latency or software glitches that cause my computer to crash and my level of irritation to rise. It's now possible to just flip the sucker on, press the red button and sing melodies/harmonies into the mics and compose strictly with vocals until one can set up instruments etc and do things right.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

Tested the built in stereo mics a bit today at lunch. They are pretty hissy sounding with a fairly high noise floor and a low flutter kind of sound in the background, but their sound is very detailed and even. You have to play with the input level of the mics to get a low enough noise floor to be tolerable. Good enough for tracking ideas as is and with careful management of the input level it can be quite good. I can plug my shure SM57 in for real vocal tracking if I so desire. The SM-57 will be much lower in noise and it compliments my voice much better.

I played around with the drum pad also and it's cool as well, but I can't figure out how to get it to track at the moment. I'll have to hit the manual to figure that out. The drum sounds are pretty decent and will work very well for my non-drumming self. I'll see about programming tracks on the drum pad also once I hit the manual. I'll also work on checking out the COSM guitar and bass patches once I have time to break out a guitar and plug/play. I have an ibanez bass at home plus a small Digitech BP-50 to record real bass tracks with, but the built-in bass patches will probably do well for travel work.

The sound quality is very very good. I'm impressed so far. Definitely a worthy investment and man is it a powerful and compact tool for recording. It's the most powerful portable one stop shop for a recording guitarist that I've ever seen for the money. CF cards that hold 1 gig are so cheap that I have no problem buying a couple extra to use for recording ideas. 520 track minutes (65 minutes of 8 track recordings) is not too bad a trade for $35 a pop. If I record lots of virtual tracks for each song, that's where memory gets pricey and cards start flying. If Boss came out with a version like mine that took 4 gig cards or more, I'd immediately sell this one and buy it even if I had to double the price that I've already paid.

I paid $350 taxes included at GC and got the power adapter thrown in for free (I haven't tried that out yet as I've been running on batteries). I paid much more than that for all the miscellanious stuff I've been using to make a computer recording setup myself and it doesn't work at all because of incompatibility issues. Maybe one day I'll work up enough nerve to post a clip here. You folks are much better players than I am and it's tough for a hack bedroom player like me to stick my fumble fingers stuff up among the giants like Rid, Butch or RobertS (I don't think Butch or Robert often posts clips but those dudes can seriously play)

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90041&page=2
The above link is to the review that I used to base my decision to purchase this item on. Very detailed and accurate review. I've found every word the reviewer typed to be of significant value.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

Thanks for the compliment.....

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

Thanks for the compliment.....

It isn't just a compliment, it's the truth mang. If I lived in Ohio, I'd be paying you for lessons. Same as if I lived in the greater DEEEtroit area I'd be bugging Roberto to show me how to play and throwing cash at him until he gave in.


Took the Boss on the road with me yesterday for the first time. It was neat to not need the laptop or even plug it in for that matter. I just fired up the Boss and immediately got to work on looping a short bass riff I recorded at home in a few minutes. Now that I've recorded a loop, I can do it again with no problem now and no need for the manual. After looking at the buttons, I also figured out how to program the autoinsert feature to work given how the loop button works. I tried to figure out how to loop using the laptop and recording software, but even with the manuals it's too complicated for me to use. The BR-600 was more intuitive and worked perfectly the first time I tried it. The manual takes you step by step through the whole process. If I screwed it up, there was always the undo button to back me up.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

It isn't just a compliment, it's the truth mang. If I lived in Ohio, I'd be paying you for lessons. Same as if I lived in the greater DEEEtroit area I'd be bugging Roberto to show me how to play and throwing cash at him until he gave in.


Took the Boss on the road with me yesterday for the first time. It was neat to not need the laptop or even plug it in for that matter. I just fired up the Boss and immediately got to work on looping a short bass riff I recorded at home in a few minutes. Now that I've recorded a loop, I can do it again with no problem now and no need for the manual. After looking at the buttons, I also figured out how to program the autoinsert feature to work given how the loop button works. I tried to figure out how to loop using the laptop and recording software, but even with the manuals it's too complicated for me to use. The BR-600 was more intuitive and worked perfectly the first time I tried it. The manual takes you step by step through the whole process. If I screwed it up, there was always the undo button to back me up.

Great to hear you've got a portable setup now! I know you travel a lot.

On that note, I'm out of Blacksburg, moved to Washington, D.C., so my chances of catching up with you at The Wine Cellar are greatly diminished as I'm out of your path of travel now.

Have fun recording! I just got a Line6 TonePort GX ($69 guitar-specific TonePort, needs laptop, no XLRs) and I'm having WAY MORE than $69 worth of kicks out of it!

Party on,
-Hunter

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

Great to hear you've got a portable setup now! I know you travel a lot.

On that note, I'm out of Blacksburg, moved to Washington, D.C., so my chances of catching up with you at The Wine Cellar are greatly diminished as I'm out of your path of travel now.

Have fun recording! I just got a Line6 TonePort GX ($69 guitar-specific TonePort, needs laptop, no XLRs) and I'm having WAY MORE than $69 worth of kicks out of it!

Party on,
-Hunter

Correction. Chances of running into you have greatly increased. I go to DC a lot, but I'm often so busy that I work late and end up sacking out early.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

Correction. Chances of running into you have greatly increased. I go to DC a lot, but I'm often so busy that I work late and end up sacking out early.

:friday:

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

You need to hook up with Theodie and Brisk. They aren't too far from you I'm sure. You living in the Fax?

 

[DMR]

Re: Picked up a Boss BR-600 yesterday.

Just did a search and came across this thread. I just ordered the Br-600 tonight for $285 off ebay in mint condish w/ adapter and extra 1 Gig card. I'm pretty pumped to get the thing. i'll have to hit you up if I need any pointers that I can't find in the manual.

You still liking it? I wanted to go the standalone route because I can't afford to get into the more expensive PC setups right now. in the future i'm sure i'll upgrade but for now this unit will work for my recording needs, which are kind of basic right now.