Boss Micro BR

DWBass · #1 09-24-2006, 03:09 PM

Whoa, have you guys seen this? This is perfect for me as I like to do quick bass demos and am using Acid Pro on my PC and it gets tedious sometimes. This looks like a nice alternative.

MikeBass · #2 09-24-2006, 10:50 PM

There's been talk of it already.

Fellow TBers...your thoughts on the new Boss Micro BR!

MikeBass · #3 09-24-2006, 10:57 PM

And then there's this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/H4

Different, but IMO I think for field recording it may be the way to go.

The Boss looks as if it may be better for the ideas that spring up and you don't want to fire up your computer and stuff.
Plus it doubles as an MP3 player that you can plug in and play along with or pick a drum pattern and go to town.
Kinda like a sketch pad.

Either way, both are making it hard on me to decide which to get.

DWBass · #4 09-26-2006, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MikeBass

And then there's this:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/H4

Different, but IMO I think for field recording it may be the way to go.

The Boss looks as if it may be better for the ideas that spring up and you don't want to fire up your computer and stuff.
Plus it doubles as an MP3 player that you can plug in and play along with or pick a drum pattern and go to town.
Kinda like a sketch pad.

Either way, both are making it hard on me to decide which to get.

This is nice too but I like the aesthetics of the Boss better! I'll be getting one!

Implosion · #5 12-31-2008, 04:53 AM

Digging up the dead.

I got the Micro BR and I'm in need of some technical support. I thought that I would try to use it with my guitar in the following way: guitar -> micro br -> power amp -> bass cab. The one thing that makes me doubtful is the micro br -> power amp connection.

Micro BR specs:
Nominal Output Level
PHONES / LINE OUT jack: -10 dBu
Nominal Output Impedance
PHONES / LINE OUT jack: 33 ohms
Recommended Load Impedance
PHONES / LINE OUT jack: 16-100 ohms (PHONES), LINE: 1 k ohms or greater (LINE OUT)

Power amp specs:
Input sensitivity @8 Ohms ................ 1.24V(4dBu)
Input Impedance .......... 15k Ohm Unbalanced,30k Ohm Balanced

Out of these facts I have come to the conclusion that the micro br doesn't send a strong enough signal to the power amp in order to use it's full capacity. Right?
What should I use to boost the signal to line level with out coloring it in the process? Some sort of a pre-amp?
Is there any danger or a possibility of component failure if I were to plug the br straight to the power amp without anything in between?

derrenleepoole · #6 01-06-2009, 10:38 AM

DO you mean as an EFX unit, or to play back tracks and drum parts etc?

Implosion · #7 01-07-2009, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrenleepoole

DO you mean as an EFX unit, or to play back tracks and drum parts etc?

With guitar as a preamp-modeling+effects type of use feeding into a power amp. No playback or drums. I know I'll find out just by trying, but because of the holiday season I haven't been to our rehearsal space for nearly a month so I thought I'd ask some general information about the subject.

BobOnBass · #8 01-07-2009, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWBass

This is nice too but I like the aesthetics of the Boss better! I'll be getting one!

Just to warn you, i use the Boss for my band and the only thing i'm not to happy with is the amount of actions it takes to get a new fresh track ready for recording. You need to do all the settings again (source, input level, sensitivity), sort of frustrating when your in a creative proces...
Would i buy a recorder now, i'd sure be checking out the software side of them better. This one i just bought on the net without actually testing it first. That said, for the price it's still great i think.

B.

manicbassman · #9 01-07-2009, 02:33 AM

the micro-BR is a guitarists tool... there's very limited bass support. The few effects patches for Bass are very simple and the equaliser support is biased to guitar frequencies. It can't remove the bass from an MP3 like it can remove the center instrument (usually guitar)... it can slow mp3s down and loop, but it doesn't sound very good and is difficult to loop. It's designed to repeat between two button presses, not an entire song and can't automatically repeat a single MP3 (you have to set the startpoint and endpoint by hand). I find playing my bass through it is not very satisfying... It's not very easy to have your instrument loud in the mix compared to the MP3 or recording you're jamming to...

I mainly use it now for field recording and recording practice sessions and song ideas & riffs I come up with and for that I use either the built in microphone or a proper stereo microphone.

The editing of drum tracks is difficult and it's difficult to save the tempo of a song (there's a firmware bug and a workaround on the micro-BR forum)... how on earth guitarists get along with it is beyond me and as far as I can tell from reading the very terse manual, it is not possible to edit or create your own drum patterns. Also, the existing patterns are just listed in the manual as cryptic names and they're all in 4/4

Also it is very finicky about SD cards... It only supports up to 1 Gig... and they're getting harder to find these days... It's also uppity about the format of any MP3s you want to play back... it only likes MP3s that have been sampled at 44.1KHz.

It doesn't support subdirectories for storing MP3s in and doesn't display the tags only giving you the first 8 characters of the filename...

derrenleepoole · #10 01-07-2009, 03:40 AM

Manicbassman; some really good and useful insights there, cheers. I've just got one for Christmas, am I'm primarily using it as a notepad for quick musical ideas etc. The 1gig card support is worrying as I've just ordered an 8gig one! We'll see I guess. I'm also a field recording artist, and the low/small footprint makes it an ideal choice to fit in the breast pocket while I use my Binaural in-ear microphones. Am I right in thinking that the file recording format is specific to the Boss BR, and anything recorded needs converting to WAV or MP3 etc for exporting? I haven't really had chance to us it yet though, so it's all still new and shiny....

BobOnBass · #11 01-07-2009, 04:24 AM

Hey Derren, since you use it for quickies, do you have better experiences regarding the settings i mentioned a few posts earlier? Because especially for quick recordings that would be a total drag, or maybe you leave it on factory settings...
Would love to know cause i still hope i'm overseeing something here and maybe you could brighten my day!

Cheers Bob.

Implosion · #12 01-07-2009, 04:44 AM

I also use BR to record ideas/riffs/etc and I don't find it hard or slow to use because I'm satisfied with the factory presets. I just create a new track, choose a preset for guitar/bass, find the right tempo with the metronome, adjust the input roll and record. Less than a minute from powering the thing up. Twenty secs I would say if you leave the metronome out of it, but I don't recommed it. If you are recording two instruments at the same time of course the input level adjustments need some attention, but I just record one track at a time.

The BR's drumtracks are pretty useless IMO, so I've imported complete d-tracks for recording.

manicbassman · #13 01-07-2009, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrenleepoole

I'm also a field recording artist, and the low/small footprint makes it an ideal choice to fit in the breast pocket while I use my Binaural in-ear microphones.

ooohhh must get some of those... far less conspicuous at gigs & open mic nights... just have to stand still though...

Quote:

Originally Posted by derrenleepoole

Am I right in thinking that the file recording format is specific to the Boss BR, and anything recorded needs converting to WAV or MP3 etc for exporting? I haven't really had chance to us it yet though, so it's all still new and shiny....

page 97 of the manual... you can record directly to wav or MP3. (If using the built-in microphone or a mono source it records in stereo with one channel blank) That's how I record at gigs, practice & church etc. just set the microphone up in position, set the level so it isn't clipping and then just record the entire service... cut the music out for saving using Audacity. At 192 kbps and mp3 with a 1 G SD card, you can record over 11 hours solid... or 94 minutes in wav. I normally go for wav unless I know it's going to be longer than an hour and a half in a session.

I like to save the music so I've got backing tracks to practice against in future...

derrenleepoole · #14 01-07-2009, 03:29 PM

Manicbassman; The binaural headphones are a superb piece of gear to have. They're so inconspicuous, people don't realise what they are so act normal around you

I paid £260 for mine 6 years ago, but they're now available for £120. They're OKM Soundman Classics, and theres a set for sale on eBay at the moment.

Binaural recordings offer superb playback through headphones, I have some recordings you can download from here to hear for yourself. Remember, please use headphones. Enjoy.

manicbassman · #15 01-07-2009, 04:16 PM

Article on making a "stealth" binaural microphone using an old pair of headphones and two Radio Shack microphones...

http://art.simon.tripod.com/stealth.html

I've also found another sight giving instructions for making your own in ear binaural microphones using earbud type headphones as the case and electret microphones, but google claimed it was a known Attack site so I am providing the link at follower's risk... best browsed using Linux and Firefox (for that super safe experience...

) I wouldn't think of using Internet Explorer on Windows

If you must use windows, then for deities sake use Firefox with noscript and adblock plugins both enabled as apparently the site was found serving adware with a driveby attack (you didn't need to do anything, it just hit you)

http://www.phonography.org.uk/homema...crophones.html

I've saved the page off locally so I'm going to try this using some microphones from my local Maplins store. I may subsequently post a howto guide but it'll be quite a while.

ps. I can email a safe webarchive of that page to anyone interested who PMs me with their email address (not sure if I can send attachments in PMs or not)