Boss BR864 owners

[bizzaro]

I am curious to know how much better the Rhythm funtion on the BR864 is than on the BR532? Can you program different time signatures with drum sounds? The 532 only would gives drum sounds to 4/4 time. Is the BR864 much better overall.
Are the bass FX better? The best way to record bass on the 532 is clean.

 

[brianrost]

Yes, the rhythm function is much improved on the 864. Check out the manual online: Invalid Link Removed

Can't say too much about the bass effects. I prefer to record with light compression only, the amp sims seem OK if you have need of that sort of thing. I've never used a 532 so can't tell you if they are any better.

 

[paniak17]

I have this problem with my Tascam PortaMK02, if i record directly into the board, it makes the tone "rubbery" and sounds like it has all of the highs and mids turned up. How does it sound recording directly into the board on this model?

 

[bizzaro]

Thanks for your response Brian. I tried to download the manual the other day and for some reason it didn't work. I will give it another shot as I may upgrade to the 864. The old unit(532) only gives you a metronome with a ding for the first beat on anything but 4/4 time.


17................I said I like to go direct with my bass to record on this unit, no FX or amp simulator, as the FX for bass on this unit aren't very good. I just eq my bass and play clean.

 

[brianrost]

paniak17,

The 864 has a nice high impedance input (1 Mohm) for recording guitars and basses so it doesn't suck out the low end the way your Tascam with it's lower input impedance does.

However, there's a cheaper fix than buying an 864: use a direct box!!!

 

[Dr. D]

If you were going to go to a br-864, why go to an outdated model unless it is for the price. right now they have the boss br-900 which is a combo of the br-1120 & the br-864 with many enhancements. I even has bass guitar simulation with the rythm section Including over 400 patterns. I am upgrading to the br-1200 should be here friday.

also the 900 has voice pitch correction.

P.S. you can download the manuals from the roland uk website,

 

[Svengali Debris]

I'm not familiar w/ the old Boss BR but I think the 864 drum and COSM effects are terrible. You can load in wav/aiff files and create custom kits but I never bothered because programming odd time is a nightmare and you're stuck w/ mono. Here's my "I-can't-afford-to use-my-hard-drive" bandaid for the issue of drums w/ the BR-864 if you have a PC:

I have Cool Edit 2.0 on my PC, I've searched the web for all the free loop wav.s I can find that I like; there are tons of sites. Create a stereo loop in Cool Edit (you can chop 4/4 and long passages into interesting odd time loops..... sometimes), mix it down or save it as a wav. Convert to MP3, burn to CD and record the CD thru 2 tracks on the BR. I'm sure you could find freeware that does the same thing as Cool Edit.

It's convoluted and inefficient but it works for me until I get Reason.

Jeff

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[bizzaro]

Sven, Thanks. That is a long way to go for what I am doing right now. So are odd time signatures inherantly trouble? I am glad you told me about the 864 not having the ability to use other than 4/4 time with drum sounds. I tried to download the manual several times and I just get error messages when I try and open it. I can do the method you use with the my old BR543. I don't mind the effects for guitar on this unit , but the bass effects are totally useless, though it does record bass pretty well clean, no effects

 

[rockapede]

On the BR1180 my band has, I hate the bass models. However, some of the clean guitar models sound very good with a bass. One that comes to mind is called clean tubes (I think).