Boss Micro BR

I love how all the bad reviews were by people who weren't bright enough to figure this thing out. It's one thing to take in all available info and make a judgement, but for these inexperienced types who want to take this out of the box and magically have an album recorded, there seems to have been a bit of dissapointment.

Included is a 130(approx.)page manual that clearly explains how to do EVERYTHING with the unit, as well as the wealth of tutorials and info on the net. Morse code seems pretty overwhelming at first too, but take the time to learn it and you might change your opinion. Remember people, this is a pocket recorder, not a full DAW, take it for what it is. But even for something this small it is essentially a portable studio.

If you have half a brain and are technically able, you should be recording multi track songs within a half hour of taking this thing out of the box. And NO, it does NOT take forever to set up a song to record. Unless by forever you mean 15 seconds.

As far as recording quality from the inputs goes, I was quite happy. Virtually no noise to speak of, and overall really decent sounding.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the built-in mic. It records way better sound quality then you would expect considering what it is.

The effects did seem a little predictable, but they were still great. I don't think BOSS was trying to create a bunch of unique guitar patches here though, they just wanted some solid, tried and tested effects to add to this already loaded device. Mission accomplished.

I haven't had it long enough to give an accurate rating here, but knowing BOSS I'd say I'll have this device for years to come.

Haven't needed any as of yet.

Hopefully that doesn't change.

In my opinion, this is an unbelievable value at just over $200 CAD. Sure they could have made it an 8-track, or added a juicer attachment but come on, it's already loaded with capabilities. There's no need to be greedy, this device will do most everything 99% of it's users are looking to do with it.

Very highly recommended, and would definitely buy this again.

When I opened it... and seen how thick the manual was, and all in english too... I thought, this will take forever...

I sat down in the night, and i just pressed buttons, trial and error.. its the best method, and then use the manual to fine tweak. It isn't a ??10,000 recording studio... its a notebook for ideas... so you just have to work with it.. But I can totally understand why people find it daunting... ya just, like with anything.. have to take the time

Everything as far as connecting is easy and straight-forward, guitar input, mic, line-out, headphones/speakers and what not, and the sound is fine, use a decent pair of headphones, or a nice set of speakers, maybe 5.1 style, or even 2.1 styled, and ya get a good enough sound for recording. But as for just using headphones thats fine.

The effects vary, some are great, and some are not so great, but you can always edit them, play about change amp Mods, compression, reverb, delay etc... so I guess you can always find something you'd might like. Coulda done with more Bass effects though, proper dedicated bass effects. not just 3. But like I said, editing is a great gift, so if ya have the time/effort, you cna make something

I don't know, its plastic, but its Boss, so I have faith in it lasting. Ive got a warranty, and a case for it.. So i'm pretty sure, itll be safe in my pocket whenever.

Not had to deal with Boss/Roland customer support.

If you want a good priced, 4 track... good to get ideas down, and enjoy... have a drum machine to jam too, a great learning tool, and a pretty neat device for all your ideas, and even mastering them for demos, this is perfect... Some people hate it, each to their own... I got it because I'm on the move alot, have a few bands, like to record all our ideas and what is going on. and for this it works perfect. Thanks for reading

Not that easy-- the interface is a rather confusing menu based affair that is not particularly intuitive at first. You'll get it, eventually, but not without scratching your head many many times.

First: The think has LITTLE OUTPUT VOLUME-- you can never get enough volume out of this thing with any kind of heaphones. Piddling small sound- and if you are trying to use in a noisy or moderately noisy environment, just forget it.

Good sound quality, somewhat more pristine than other small palm sized units I've owned and/or still own-- i.e. Korg Pandora and Pandora PXR4 recorder, (pre-2008), Zoom PFX9003-- in its own way.

It records excellent quality-- however

IT IS VERY LIMITED in regards to effects and sounds-
the device reminds me of a beautiful MODEL-- who looks good, but doesn't do that much

and thus the fun factor is somewhat limited to the standard guitar sounds everybody has heard a gazillion times---

If you think the Micro BR is cram packed full of choices-- you are wrong. The effects are relatively very limited compared to the other devices above- either of which have pretty astronomical- which can be found for a FRACTION of the price of the MICRO BR. You get amp simulators, speaker simulators, 4 band EQ, Bright option, noise reduction,and ONE EFFECT at a time- compressor, chorus, flange, phase, tremelo/pan, and Delay (AND JUST TRY AND FIND The Delay effect ! hahah!) --- AND THAT'S IT BABY.

You do get Reverb additionally (room or hall)- yeah, but you just try and find it in the menu-- good luck. And it sounds like absolute crap. I found it eventually.

So in summary-- Your basic guitar effects from twenty years ago, with generally good quality.

Nothing to jump up and down about. In my opinion, the versatility of this thing is HIGLY OVER RATED.

I will NEVER sell my Korg or Zoom palmtop recorder/effects. I would seriously consider selling this.

Who knows. Probably good.

Again blank.

Average. For the money-- get something much more fun, more versatile at half the price, like an older Pandora or Korg on ebay and hang onto it.

If you need the tiniest multitrack recorder made, okay, this might be the ticket.



Neil Slade
<a href=http://www.BrainRadar.com>BrainRadar.com</a>

Manual a must, but not as hard as some of the other posters make it out to be. The way I learned it was to "master" the major functions one at a time. Once you learn how it works, it's pretty simple. It???s taken me about 2 months of use (once a week) to get comfortable with pretty much all the features and this thing is loaded! BTW, it is very simple to get the unit to keep your drum tempo. Read the manual ???cause it???s all there.

I was expecting a little more from the effects processor because I own a GT-6 and love the tons of ways you can tweak your own sound. The presets are only decent, but definitely good enough for scratch pad stuff. The sound quality for recording surprised me. I was so used to an $80 Olympus digital recorder that I bought to record band practices (that thing sounds terrible - fizzy and thin). I was expecting a little better from Boss . . . and they delivered! I recorded a practice going direct from the board to the Micro BR while simultaneously using the built in mic for ambient sound. I was amazed. Recently I played a piece, I put together, for a professional musician friend of mine and he was surprised that I only used presets and a cheap Jackson Dinky ($200 guitar I bought to have a floating Floyd and to keep my American Strat for "gigs"). My friend ordered a Micro BR that same week.

Only one complaint. The headphone jack moves ever so slightly in the casing. Seems like no big deal but I made the mistake of using the unit on soft surfaces (car seat, couch, bed, etc). So when I would press on buttons there would be stress on the output jack. After a couple of months the connection went bad and the sound would cut in and out. I originally thought my cable was the problem. Turns out it was the unit's jack! I was so bummed. I would buy another unit in a heartbeat but money is tight. So I took a chance and opened to unit to see if I could re-solder the joint. It looked like too delicate an operation so I used an epoxy and a spacer to keep the jack still. Works perfectly now. Phew!

I've owned a bunch of Boss stuff over the years. Never had to contact them. Love their products. I hope I never have to contact them. This time I was blessed to have found a simple solution on my own.

I researched mini-recorders for about a month and narrowed it down to the Zoom H4, the M-Audio Black Box, and the Micro BR. I finally went with Boss because of my track record with their products (especially the GT6). I play Christian praise music and love all kinds of music but I have a passion for hard rock and metal. I've been playing for about 25 years and got a small bunch of equipment. But for this article, I will only mention that I use my Jackson Dinky and Fender Jazz bass with the Micro BR. I wish I had a unit like this when I first started because it's a great practice tool - like having a full band in a box - and the multi-track studio is absolutely fostering my creativity. It's so much fun, I will stay up to about 2am to make time to record even though it makes me drag a bit the next day.

As a beginner, the Boss Micro BR is NOT easy to use for recording. I had to go online to figure out how to Bounce and Master as the manual seems to assume the user has some background knowledge. I did find a great forum on this unit http://microrecorders.org/ that can help you with anything on the Micro BR!

The built in effects are ok, the sounds are decent. I would have to rate them better than expected, althought I don't like the reverb too much. Overall I have to admit the sounds built into this unit are better than I expected.

So far so good, and it IS a Boss, so it should outlive my dog.

Never tried to get support or help, so I have no opinion on this...

This product was purchased to play along to MP3's with headphones on so I don't drive the wife and kids nuts. For that purpose, this thing is a perfect 10. The fact that I have a 4-track recorder, to me is a bonus! I have had this for over a week and have recorded some songs for fun. Sure you ain't gonna take this thing out of the box and start using it right away but with the manual and the online forum, you can be recording tracks, mixing and mastering in a few hours! I love mine and would not be without it!!!

Some of the reviews on here are pretty critical, I think the price of the unit has to reflect somewhat in the ratings. It is a great value and a great way to put a demo together or to practice along to songs. For those that want to figure out songs the slow down feature is excellent as well - I only wish I had something like this years ago!!!!

Just getting started, but its recording quality is great. Ge used to the fact that you'll have to spend half a day with the thing in front of you and the manual in your hand, but after youve got that outta the way its pretty intuitive. Ive not bothered with the finer points of mixing and editing on it (which looks arduous) ,,but thats because its primary job is as a PORTABLE musical scetchpad. It fits in your pocket, has a half decent mic, battery power and is tiny-if your (seriously) homerecording,this isnt a studio in a box (even if it is),but is still the best way of catching sounds when inspiration strikes

Better for recording, less so for realistic effects, Id be far more unhappy if it was the other way round

no probs so far,,not had it long, but apparently theres a full 2 year warranty if you register it online (in the uk at least),,so Boss seem fairly confident. The case it comes with is flimsy but does what its meant to

The primary target audience for this thing is undoubtably guitarists,,but as a guy who collects found sounds for use in breakcore its perhaps even more of a gem. As I say, if youve no use for its portability and ease of use as a musical scetch book your barking up the wrong tree. Boss have smartly added (limited but effective) USB/mp3 options, not to mention a fair stab at a drum machine (essential if just as a varied metronome), effects etc.Actually for me some of the extras are irrelevant, incredible given its size. Biggest 'con'- It doesnt let you record two mono inputs at the same time (though stereos fine,,weird),,,but I have heard internet mention of a way round it via the right adapters, bounce works well,,,look,,bottom line ,,,out and about? touring? spending week or two at your folks who probably dont own a home studio? wanna record sounds in a derelict factory? these are the most relevant questions to be asking,,bearing in mind its decent recording quality and unbelievably good price. Well done boss

I don't know why mostly everyone is saying this is difficult to work with. I would say it is very easy. You have one main screen, a levels screen (click on cursor left) and a track screen (click on any track button). Then if you want to do other things such as edit, etc., you have to go to Utility. It even has distinct buttons for rhythm, input and effects settings. Everything is done by moving a cursor and modifying the values. You can always go back to the previous screen by pressing Exit. It doesn't have dozens of screens in which you might get lost. Normally you can only scroll to a second or third screen, in the case of tracks you can go through the various parameters (levels, pan, rec track, etc.). Transport buttons are perfect. It allows rapid scrolling through values. I do not know how digital recording can be done simpler. The display is great. I have used a roland VS-840 and a korg D12 and everything was logical to me. Just look at the manual of any Zoom digital multitrack recorder, and you will see how difficult it can get. Editing is fairly easy, you can specify the sections by time or measure, or as an A-B point. It autosaves. Programming rhythms is the only feature that could be easier - it only allows you to program up to 50 patterns in sequence, and you cannot combine drum kits or move backwards or forwards smoothly - you only can hear the song from a certain step. If you want to save your tempo, simply program an arrangement of one step with that tempo. Not as complicated as others mention.

As regards recording, the sound is great considering the price and size. I was able to cut tracks easily, even with the onboard mic. The inputs are in general too sensitive, however. As regards effects, this was a let down. I expected sound quality similar to, at least, the VS-840. While the general purpose algorithms (with Compression, limiter, etc.) are OK, the guitar effects are very poor. So generally I use a pocket pod to record guitars. Reverbs are nothing to write home about. So a 9 for recording, a 3 for effects.

No problems so far. Battery life is good.

It is amazing to have such a portable recorder. It is easy to use, and has a lot of features. However, a firmware upgrade is needed to at least:

- Include the possibility to assign marks so that you can jump between sections of a song.
- (very important!) Include the possibillity to store and recall "scenes" or snapshots of the mixer. Particularly because it is a pain to reproduce the settings value by value, and because the input sensitivity forces you sometimes to bring everything down so as to hear yourself when overdubbing.

An upgrade of the effect algorithms would be welcome as well.

Overall, a nice little device that records surpringly well, and has many features. And, not to be forgotten, it's cool. If you think that is not important, then look again at the iPod sales.

Well from what I've seen so far, other reviewers either give this a 1 because they think every electronic device is plug in and play these days and if something isn't they scorn it, or people give it a 5-8 for ease of use, which seems about right.

I'm going with 6 because yes, at first you'll get it, press a few buttons and within seconds be rushing off to the bin to recover the manual. However, take time to read the thing and in an hour or so you should be laying down a few tracks. That's all I use it for at the moment because trying to edit/mix on this thing is way too complex for my small mind.

Considering the price and the sound, the sound quality is actually fairly awesome. The built-in microphone is a touch sensitive, but generally it produces a solid sound quality for on the go recording.

The effects are pretty good except I'll agree with everyone else here, the reverb is absolutely awful. Use it in small amounts if at all.

What can I say? It's BOSS! I'll be getting wrinkled before this thing takes a scratch.

Never dealt with the customer support I'm afraid.

This little gismo isn't all that bad you know. I play most styles, and the recording is consistently good every time, so I'm a happy man. If it were stolen or lost... that's tricky. I think I would get something a little more simple, because I only really want to use it as a notebook and get my ideas down.

I love how the Micro BR looks. It's typically BOSS, really sleek and modern with lots of flashy bits. The value for money, all things considered is insanely amazing. You can get this thing for $150 (USD) if you look hard enough. Thats a tuner, recorder and mixer for less than my microwave!

I must say I wish it had a more intuitive interface, but thats Roland/BOSS for you, making quality products unnessecarily complicated. The one exception is of course the micro pedals which subsequently are vastly popular. Not this though, keep the instruction manual safe!

I'm sorry, but this device IS a great tool for capturing song ideas. As a matter of fact, that may be its best feature! I can pull it out of its bag, plug in my guitar, quickly set up an effect patch and level, and begin with my idea, before it falls of into some void in my brain. 5 minutes at the most, and that would include getting out my guitar, cord, and finding my MicroBR in my case. Take the time to learn how to use the unit.

I wish I could say that post production is as easy to do. The alphanumeric, multifunction buttons are very hard to get a grip on. I have come to realize that what needs to be done is to break out each button's functionality and make a chart. Even when I finally find the right 'path' of buttons to follow, I forget how I got there.

Maybe Boss could do that.

Let's step back a couple of years. Remember the cassette 4-track machines? You bounce once and the sound quality goes down the drain. This unit costs less than $250, and the sound is 1,000% better than 10 years ago, when units were bigger and cost way more money.

The effects patches are cool. Some are overkill, but that's better than less.

I think its a great little unit to carry around and record. I use rechargeable batteries, and 2AA's on a charge can last for hours. Bring an extra pair of you think you'll need them. Mono recording live onto one track can grab about 12 hours of sound!!

The manual is a little vague. It needs to have more visual support and give typical case scenarios.

I'd recommend the Boss MicroBR to anybody looking to record ideas. It is not a replacement for a high end unit, but it does remarkably well for the price.

Too complex for a musical ideas notepad; too small, fiddly and limited for a proper recording system. What is the point of the Micro BR. Boss have either ruined a useful recorder by making it too small or ruined a useful notepad by requiring too much setting up before you can do anything. Christ, by the time you've go it all set up to do something you've wasted half an afternoon and the batteries are flat.
Editing seems very involved to start with, but I guess you kinda get used to it. Don't lose the manual, tho' - you're going to need it. If it was simple to set up and just put down a quick song idea I could forgive (or at least ignore) the rubbish effects, but it isn't and it just doesn't seem to have anything going for it.
I'll give it 2 out of 10 for the fact that it does, eventually, allow you to record multiple tracks.

I might have to give this an artificially low score to make up for all the deaf reviewers who've given it 7 and 8 for sound quality. Unfortunately I can't really give it a score any lower than it deserves as the scoring only goes down to 1. The effects are horrible, buzzy pieces of crap!
Seriously, tho' the actual recording quality, I suppose, is pretty good but you have to use external effects - which kinda defeats the object of the Micro-BR being all small and portable. Sheesh!
OK, I'll compromise: recording quality 8, effects quality -5 so I'll give it a generous 2.

Being Boss it should be pretty reliable and it seems to be reasonably well-made. Add to that the fact that you'll get sick of it really quickly and never touch it again and it'll outlast every man Jack of us.

I'm sorry Boss but to turn out such a useless waste of time and money you obviously don't listen to you Customers. Take a 1 out of 10.

OK, it *is* a multitrack recorder, but you can't use it as a portable multitrack because it's too complex, the batteries don't last long enough for you to get it set up and then actually do anything and the effects suck so loud you just want to throw your headphones away and put cactus in your ears.
You could make use of it with a power supply and external effects, but in that case you can get better, more ergonomical multitrackers for less money... from BOSS!