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(More customer reviews)I have been looking for a device that would allow me to multi-track record with the utmost convenience. I have used my computer with a USB sound card to record in the past. I have found it takes me up to ten minutes to set up to begin recording with the sound card. And then, I get bogged down by the numerous options in the recording software. By the time I'm done, I've missed an evening to spend with my wife, and the inspiration to record in the first place has been encumbered by the technology.
My needs are simple. I'm just recording classical guitar solo, duet, and ensemble, but I want a reasonably nice recording. I want set up to be fast. The Micro BR meets these needs.
The Micro BR has four input types for recording: guitar, built in mic, stereo line in, and stereo external condenser mic (with 2.5 V plug-in power). The sensitivity of each input can be adjusted to match a wide variety of equipment. Insertion effects can be added during recording, when bouncing tracks, or when mastering down to a stereo recording. There is a wide variety of preset insertion effects. You can also add reverb to the monitored sound, or to the recording of bounced tracks or mastered tracks. You can play back four tracks at once and record two tracks at once. Each track supports eight "virtual" tracks. These are really just alternative choices to use for a track. You can edit tracks by moving sections of sound, copying sections of sound, or erasing sections of sound. You can also set punch-in and punch-out points for fixing small mistakes. When recording in "normal" mode, you have three choices of formats which are Boss proprietary. In MP3 mode, you can record stereo 64, 128, and 192 kbps MP3 or WAV. In MP3 mode, you do not have the multi-track capabilities nor can you use reverb effects. When doing multi-track recording, after you have mastered down to stereo, you can export to MP3 64, 128, 192, or WAV formats. You can then hook up the device to your computer via USB and copy your production. You can also back up song data to your computer for all the virtual tracks, song patches, and other settings to be recovered at a latter time. The device also is a powerful guitar modeler. There is 80 guitar preset insertion effects. I have not used these guitar effects.
I am very pleased with this little device. Recording quality is really good. Sampling rate is 44,100. AD and DA conversion is 24 bits. Stored recordings have 16 bit samples. Noise on the external mic input could be better, but it is better than any sound card I've used. I have also found the built in mic to be pretty good. It lacks some bass presence, but I've found I can compensate for that on the mix down with the equalizer and boosting the low frequencies. The noise on the built in mic is very clean. I have not noticed any latency problems. One thing I really love about this device is that it is completely silent. Before, I had to move away from my computer to avoid fan noise. This made for awkward ergonomics of playing and controlling the computer. Battery consumption is high. I would recommend rechargeable batteries or purchase the separate DC adaptor. I would also recommend a larger SD card. The 128 MB one provided is good for a few songs. When using multiple tracks, including mastered tracks and copying to MP3, memory goes fast.
This may seem extreme, but this one device has obsoleted my previous hardware and software. I've packed away my minidisk recorder, my USB Audigy 2 NX, and uninstalled Cakewalk Home Studio. I can do everything I need on this one little powerful device that fits in your shirt pocket. If I want to get audio into my computer, I can capture it with this device where ever I want and just use the USB to copy it on my computer digitally. I have also found the Micro BR is great for recording audio of family events. When doing this, I just record in MP3 mode since I really don't need to mix. But while recording in MP3 mode, I have figured out how to apply processing in-line with the recording. I added a limiter to remove clipping and set the 3 band compressor to take out very low frequencies which can distract a recording where you are trying to capture voice. I just use the built in mic which works great for this purpose. The entire family recording setup fits in my shirt pocket. The Micro BR rocks.Review Update
3/2/2009
I still love this thing. Micro BR still rocks. But if I could change a few things, given my recording goals, it would be these things:
1) Have mute for tracks. Lowering the volume to 0 is a pain.
2) When recording from guitar and built in mic simultaneously, be able to put guitar on one track, and mic on another. This seems to be a simple oversight by Boss.
3) A Bass Cut effect to kill very low frequencies. This might be a bit out of the price range for the Micro BR, but it would be nice.
4) Be able to apply more than one guitar effects from compressor, chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremolo/pan. When you edit the COSM GTR AMP effects algorithm, you have to choose the FX type between compressor, chorus, flanger, phaser, and tremolo/pan. You can only pick one type. You can effectively combine them by bouncing one effect after another, but this takes extra time. Again, this wish is probably outside of the Micro BR price range.
5) Have a bass guitar modeler. This is available on the BR-600, the next model up. It allows you to play bass guitar using a regular guitar. Again, this wish is probably outside of the Micro BR price range.
6) Have some 3/4 time signature drum patterns. They are all 4/4!
Since my original review, I have bought a transducer pick up for my classical guitar. I have since played with the guitar effects. I am not a good judge of how well these effects sound, as I am not an electric guitar player, but the guitar effects modeling is pretty extensive for something so inexpensive. You could easily pay much more for just for a guitar effects box that doesn't even do multi-track recording. You could spend days just playing around with all the effect algorithms and parameters.
Here are some tips for using the Micro BR that I have learned since my original review:
1) When you switch inputs, the available effects bank switches with the input. So for guitar input , you have guitar bank, with built in mic input, you have mic bank, for external mic and line input, you have line/ext bank. I didn't realize this for a very long time, but you can switch the bank and choose between all four banks for all inputs. All you have to do is move the cursor all the way to the left. The cursor will be on GT, MC, LN, or EX. Now just do -/+ VALUE to change the bank without changing the input. The manual does not explain this. This allows you, for example, to use an Enhancer and 4Band Equalizer (which are on the mic bank) on a guitar.
2) The external mic is a little noisy. You can suppress this noise by using the Noise Suppressor effect while recording. Move from EX bank to MIC bank as explained in 1), and then shut off all other effects except the Noise Suppressor. This will kill quite a bit of noise from the external mic without altering the sound.
3) For recording just an acoustic guitar, try combining a pick up with the built in mic. You would need an acoustic guitar with a pick up for this. Place the built in mic about one foot from the bridge. You can do this without an external mixing board. You can mix the two with the input levels to get the balance you want. This ends up sounding really full and natural. I'm quite happy with this. You can balance in just enough of the pick up to make up for the missing low end of the built in mic. This is now my standard way of recording my classical guitar with the Micro BR, and I have experimented quite a bit before settling. Set up for this is very fast.
4) Take notes of what you are doing with your tracks and virtual tracks. You will forget.
5) Don't talk to your spouse about the 5 million things the Micro BR can do. Your spouse will not care.
Have fun!
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