Equipment Review
Product Reviewed:
BR-8
Made by: Boss
Cost: $649.00 American
Submitted by Ian Singleton
Rating: 
Features:
8 Track recording with 64 virtual tracks. COSM guitar amp models, extensive on-board digital effects for instruments, vocals, and line-in effects. 44.1 sample rate, records in 24-bit digital glory. Dedicated guitar/bass imput, also RCA-type line in and line outs. Optical output for burning CD's. Records to 100MB Zip dics.
What I liked:
The ease of operation is second to none. Anyone with past recording experience will make this hum right outta the box. The sound quality is pristine; 24-bit and 44.1 sample rate make it CD ready. The on-board effects are many and generous. The acousitc guitar simulator is great, with many varied sounds of acoustic offered. the routing is easy and will not fry your brain or make you record with the manual on your lap for the next 3 months, ha ha. This is a portable, awesome, and suprisingly powerful unit.
What I didn't:
Let's face it, eight tracks just isn't enough anymore; certainly not enough for me. I'm sure next year a 12-track version will come out...Also, the 100MB Zip discs devour recording time! NOT COOL. You get only 50 minutes of time, for the "standard" (i.e. BEST)sound quality. Further choices only gain you 10 minutes more of total time. So, we're talking 6 freaking minutes PER TRACK, over 8 tracks. Boss apparently doesn't think we make mistakes, or multiple passes! lol.
So, I operate mine on the premise that ONE zip disc, which costs about $8.00, will be for ONE song. Ouch. But then again, no internal hard drive to LOCK UP or fry. The bass guitar simulator is lame. You cannot riff rapidly or it loses the lower octave sound. A real bass will have to do. The on-board chromatic tuner is, to me, suspect and I find myself going back to my Digitech 2101 rackmount effects unit to tune. The glaring problems with this unit isn't sound quality, or ease-of-use. It's the stingy format and restrictive number of tracks. By the way, Boss, beef up the Zip capability and add some tracks for version 2.0
User Tips:
Have a secondary recording unit available, like 8 track ADAT or reel-to-reel, or even mini-disc. Fill up the BR-8, then dump that down to your secondary unit, and continue construction the song. Or, conversely, fill up your adat with bass and drum tracks, rhythm guitar, etc, and dump that down to 2 tracks of the BR-8. This will leave you more recording time to attain perfection.
Of course, you may "bounce" down to any number of tracks desired, but with a scant 50 minutes of recording time divided by 8 tracks, there's NO ROOM FOR ERROR...
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