Boss Micro BR

The BR Micro exceeds my expectations. It is one of the most important musical tools I have. It is right up there with the metronome. My primary uses are for maintaining an audio diary of my playing and slowing down MP3s to help me learn tunes. If it were to break or be lost, I would replace the Micro as soon as possible.

My recording includes both 4 track and MP3. I originally did not think I would use the 4 track much, but it has become an important favorite because I have learned that I can use the Micro to record a jam track to one track, a rhythm track to another track, and a melody track to a third track. It took a bit of fiddling to learn to use the 4-track recording, but once learned it was quite intuitive. These 4-track recordings, as with other recordings can be copied to your computer via USB, but you have to really look for the instructions to do it in the manual.

The results of the 4-track recordings are surprisingly excellent.

The whole thing is like magic.

This is adequately described in other reviews. I will note although the built in microphone is surprisingly good, I actually record with the Micro most of the time by using the Ext input source with an external microphone. The mic is a Shure SM57, with a low-to-high impedence transformer between the mic and the Micro. I wish I didn't need the transformer to do this, but at least it's possible to hook up a good external mic.

It sounds good to me. The results I get with 4-track recording are very good.

Battery power is standard. I strongly recommend getting the optional AC adapter because it consumes a lot of power. Boss recommends this too for the same reason.

The manual is pretty well written as a reference manual. The things you need to know are in there. Plan on reading the entire manual twice to get the most out of the Micro. It's worth the time.

I'd buy another one. Since I bought mine, Tascam has introduced some competing products. My recommendation if you are interested in this type of device is to search for the competing products and carefully check the features to see which one offers the features you want. The Micro fits my needs and wants very well, but your needs and wants may be different. Take the time to study the options.

Digital 4-track recorder about as big as if an alarm clock and an Ipod had a baby. It's right in the middle. This is my first 4-track and it took me about 2 days of messing with it to have about 80% of functions down, for the rest it's stuff that I don't need to use yet such as the mp3 practice tool. DOnt' care about it so why know about it? Anyway, the built in effects are pretty decent and the gutiar tones are useable. If you want a portable practice tool with pretty good tones, get a pocketPOD if you want a portable 4-track with usable tones, get this. Seems sturdy enough, I will probably put a screen protector on it though to be safe.

USB 2.0 - drag and drop...pretty standard

Pretty solid preamp, as stated previously, it has decent tones and decent effects. I would NEVER run line out into a PA to play out with but it's good for sketch pad ideas. I run a flextone III XLR to 1/4" and bypass onboard effects and it sounds pretty darn good that way but if I don't feel like running 10 cables, the onboard stuff is good enough. The drum tracks are pretty decent too. Doesn't sound real natural but then again THIS IS FOR DEMOS!! Anyone mad that it doesn't sound like the new Coheed album is an idiot. DEMOS people...good demos though.

AA batteries or the boss psa adaptor. I've been using the adaptor because I haven't left home with this little guy yet but I've read that you get about 6 hours battery life...I plan on buying rechargeable batteries for it. I hven't messed with the phantom power microphone business either. I've read and heard clips online and it seems to have good sound or whatever. Again, I bought it for guitar and bass with the vocals in the back of my mind...I know the onboard mic is actually pretty impressive. I had the input sensitivity pretty low and I had headphones on and it picked up my gf sneezing in the other room haha

I'm not sure of technical specs. Don't care to be honest.

No software, it's ALL built in. Mixing is easy as heck. hit record and the track you want to record and hit play. If you don't like the take...repeat process. When you're happy press rhythm button and find tempo and start adding drums that change on whatever measure you assign them. When you have all 4 tracks full but need more, bounce the tracks down to one V track and open up 3 more tracks. Master it all and convert it to MP3 all on this little guy. Very impressive.

I would recommend this to others for sure. It's not the BEST thing in the world but it is very cool for me and others like me who want to start recording demos and writing but don't want to HAVE to use the cpu to do so. I have reaching over my les paul for me mouse and having to sit too far back from the desk to reach but not too close or I'll hit my guitar on everything around it. Sucks, I wanted something I could place anywhere and have freedom. What's neat is you can take the tracks without mastering them and copy them on your cpu and put them into a program if you w ant to...at least I think you can...I haven't tried yet but it makes sense eh?

As easy as it is to use, I wish that it were just a little bit easier, like not such a learning curve...it took me 2-3 days to be able to make a half decent recording without the SAME drum loop over and over. haha needless to say that first day's recording sucked.

The Boss Micro BR is a portable 4track recorder. It has input meters, onboard guitar effects, plastic casing, a little bit bigger than an ipod.

USB 2.0

1/4 inch guitar input
1/8 inch mic input
1/8 inch headphone output

AC or 2xAA battery
phantom power for some mics, not true 48v.

All internal processing.

Stand alone. Not able to be used as computer interface.

The Micro BR is a cool little box. It's most usful as a portable guitar practice tool with headphones. A great little schetch pad for musical ideas and a cure for boredom in places where you can have your guitar with you but not much else. I bought it for traveling so i could play guitar in my hotel room and be able to record any cool ideas without any hassle. The BR does all of that and more. I would buy another one for sure. The only other unit that is similar is the Zoom H4 but it does have drum beats like the BR does. I wish the USB port could be used a direct recording computer interface. It only functions as a data port for backups. Hey, at least it does that. The dudes at Boss put alot of amazing stuff in that little package. They did a great job!

Well, it this is a 4 track (with 8 virtual tracks each) recorder that also plays MP3 files, has a full compliment of effects, a fairly complete rhythm section and a mastering toolkit -- all accessed via a total of 20 buttons. That's bound to mean a learning curve but it isn't as brutal as it could be.

The recording section of this little jewel is indeed pristine. It is MUCH better than my prior 4 track recorder (PXR4) made by Korg. The effects were also a pleasant surprise in that they sound pretty darn good. The rhythm section is limited, but usable for demos or new ideas and such. COSM seems to have actually improved over the years, or at least that is my impression so far.

So far, so good...seems solid for what it is.

Never had to deal with Boss/Roland. As I now own several of their products, none with even so much as a hiccup, that in itself is a good sign of quality.

Well, for $229 you get one hell of a portable recorder that will also function as a field recorder in a pinch AND it is an MP3 player and phrase trainer to boot. Dang, what else could you want for that price? SERIOUS bang for the buck in a very crowded market

You need to read the manual on this one, but once you get used to it, you can get around the difficult menus.

Mostly bought it to play MP3 in slow mode, but was surprised how good the sound quality was when recording my guitar. Pretty cool. On slow play back though, anything below 50% is really distorted, so go with a PC package if you have to go slower.

Not very reliable. Half the time it boots the software indicates i have an unformated card. I have to turn it off and back on until it recognizes the card. The software crashes when playing back songs (the power button doesn't work when the software crashes - i have to take the battery out to turn the machine off). The software locks up most of the time when connecting a USB cable. The software has crashed in other situations also. Not very robust.

For me, i should have bought the TASCAM GTMP3 player. I just thought (and someone recomended it) that the MicroBR would be just as good and you would have the added bonus of being able to record stuff. If you mostly want a trainer, don't buy this one. Having said that, when it is not crashing, it is fun and very portable.

I have had my Micro BR for 2 years, I loved it from the day I first used it. The operating system is not hard to use at all, its very simple. Most guys and ladies will need to go through speed tutorial section and anytime you don't know how to do something its easily looked up. It comes with a very well written manual that is mostly pictures and extras anyway so its not as much information as it looks. Turn off the TV for about 20 minutes and skip through the manual reading the parts you need to learn and you will have this thing mastered, or just keep being aggrivated because you've never used a stand alone multitrack and refuse to read a few pages.
I realize if it weren't for the problem of customers not reading manuals and not comprehending simple operating systems, Roland/Boss could have easily made this unit a full 16,24 or 32 tracks, not just 32 tracks virtual (which you can use 32) by changing the code very little in the OS and also the allowed size of the SD Flash card media. If this thing could take a 32GB card and had 32 tracks I would throw out my laptop, I like it that much. Speaking of laptop there is a free editor available online by a third party (not boss/roland) that is a little more complicated than the Boss BR OS so more advanced users may want to get it. Search G**gle for 'Boss Micro BR editor' or '....sound editor' and you should find it. ss

This multitracker really does have pristine sound without harsh digital high end. The converter is what raised the cost on this and its well worth it. I can't ever tell any difference even when I copy, export, import, bounce and master (commands/functions) on this unit. It is really great that they included the drum tracks. They are 4 beat rock mostly but they are a starting point or good enough if doing a AC/DC or Cars style track. There is even a house beat 4 on the floor. Yes you could use this all day long with a 303, 808 kick, a mic and a synth for those techno, goa, drum and bass fans. If you are into hardcore metal, get some double bass drum tracks and go wild like I do. Multitracks guitar easily and sounds excellent, separation of tracks (sound) at mixdown is a 8.5 of 10 which is great. I don't give 10's to much equipment, ever.

I have had mine for 2 years and use it literally every day. I am using the MP3 player on the weekends and the multracker all week. One OTHER thing this unit does which is like having a whole different machine entirely from the 4 track is allow you to not only play MP3 but record them. You can record your favorite radio programs (metal?) as MP3 and then using this MP3 players functions, isolate the guitar track, it removes part of the channel/frequencies so that the vocal,drums and bass don't stand out the guitar does, or anyone of those stands out and the other don't depending on how you adjust it (a simple slider function on screen). After isolating the guitar track you can then slow it down (or speed up) the part without any pitch change. Theres no mummy talk. It is the same pitch, just slower and learn your favorite new gutiar leads. After you finish learning the lick go to another spot and do the same or dump your entire 5 -10 hours of metal (you recorded as a mp3 file) onto your computer via USB cable and then burn it to CD as MP3 or convert to Wav. You can even dump it to your iPOD or other MP3 player. You can do the same with your multitracked projects and put them in MP3 format (for those who haven't read the manual) you use the export funtion in the multitracker, then press MP3 button, go to the MP3 section and import the track as MP3. Plug into the computer via USB cable and burn a cd or dump to your iPOD. Its reliable man. I do use it everyday. Its been on for over 2 years plugged in at home or running on two AA batt. when out and away from AC power. By the way, batterys- I use rechargable batteries that you can now get at any grocery store, the charger and batterys combined cost about 20 bucks and will last you 2 years if you use a lot. I got about 300 charges out of each battery, the charger is still working and I just got new AA's. Recharged (not new duracell disposables) last about
3 1/2 to 4 hours with the screen brightness (contrast) turned down to about half as bright. This will save battery power big time!

I have never had to deal with Customer Support for any Boss/Roland product and I have guitar pedals, multitracks, synths and other gadgets. Roland is famous for a reason. They make good stuff. Put some of those pads you put on the glass of coffee tables on the bottom corners and side/top corners of your Boss Micro BR if you use it away from home a lot. You can even get clear round ones the size/diameter of a No.2 pencil. If you drop it (and you will sooner or later) the pads will keep it from cracking up the display or worse. I have dropped mine on cement 2 times with pads already on it. No problems except the back is scratched up pretty bad. Mine has a lot of wear and tear. Why have it if I am going to put it in a display case. I use my equipment hard. This thing is a lot tougher than it looks.

This is a first for making a multitrack in micro size. When I got it sight unseen I was thinking it was going to record the tracks and that would be about it. The Boss Micro BR COMES WITH THE ROLAND DIGITAL EFFECTS LIBRARY called CSOM effects. These are amp modeled, amp and speaker cabinets modeled, microphones modeled, digital effects like reverb, delay chorus flanger tremolos, etc...All these effects are available whether you are playing a guitar track to the built in drums or doing a bass line and need a compressor, or a vocal line/ backing vocal lines and need reverb or delays. I can't beleive roland didn't make this more know in their advertising. The CSOM effects are phenomenal and truly give the unit CD quality multitracking right in this little box. You don't need to copy everything over to a computer to polish it off and edit it, you can, but won't need to. It has excellent effects and editing and all the effects have tweakable parameters to some extent. Also, the maximum size SD card it is supposed to recognize is a 1 GB. I have actually formatted a 2 GB on my laptop and then put it in the Micro BR and it did not require reformatting(initialize is the command on the M-BR). When I checked the recording time by having 'remaining' set to on in the main menu under 'utilities' and recorded a track, it showed the remaining time left on the card. It was over 16 hours. More than that was availble in the MP3 mode of recording (2 track stereo only). That is over 4 hours available if you had four tracks running constantly!. Think about that on a box that fits in your hand. Its the size of a cigg pack. You get CD quality mutlitracking, 32 tracks/takes to choose from, you can bounce tracks 1,2,3 to track 4 and then re-record over 1,2 and bounce to 3 and re-record over 1 and 2 and you will have 7 to 10 tracks final master! In digital quality with digital effects that sound excellent. And 4 hours of it, multitracked in a box this small. Its one of those reverse engineered things found on a UFO back at roswell. When you use it, and realize what is in it, and how small it is, its freaky man.

Like all good little electronic toys, this baby does have a learning curve. Within an hour though, you can be laying down your ideas. I still havn't figured out virual tracks and I don't plan to. Used as a scratch pad to remember that groove on guitar or some half-baked lyrics (usually using the mic)I find it easy, compact, and just plain fun.

I like to use this with my micro cube. The added effects are great, or I can plug in a mic to the cube at the same time, using the Micro's effects for guitar and the micro cubes for the vocal/harmonica. Hi Fi? No, that's not the point. Just ideas and watching people smile. I power the cube from a nine volt solar panal for trips out in nature with friends. I download the daily ideas from the Micro, but have rarely used the tracks for recording. It did shine in the aspect of recording a party. The built-in microphone worked great, and I did use those tracks as background for some songs.

A few "busy" messages that locked it up. But just reset, or R and R the batteries. I use the leather case and have been very glad I did when it was dropped a couple of times. No problems.

No opinion

This is a great recorder for my style. I like to go out and practice/create or play in the great outdoors, and then bring the ideas back to the studio. IMO it is perfect for this. In a pinch, I might try to use the four tracks, but I have no use for the virtual tracks. I been playing for 40 years, classical, jazz, Rock, techno, and even written some country, for my needs this has been a perfect fit. Easy to bring along, set-up and record. If I forget this on a drive-about or hike (works well with the Martin Backpacker),I really miss it. I would have to get another if it was lost or stolen.

Basic 4-track recording and meteranome use is very easy, I figureed it out without consulting the manuel. Where I think it becomes more dificult to use is editing the effects and deeper editing of the tracks. The main reason it becomes difficult is the fact that the thing is so small and protable that you can not see alot of information on the screen at once, but in my opinion, the device is eas to use for everything you get with it.

The recording quality is great once again the size of the unit makes up for lack of xlr's with phantom power. The cost also excuses the lack of xlr's. I am not a huge fan of the amp modeler I prefer Line 6 Pocket Pod (to maintain portability). I also have a Line 6 Pod 2.0 and Pod xt Live. The mastering efects on the unit are nice. For the price and portabilty, the condenser micon it workes great. I use a guild GAD-25 and it sounds great through that little mic. I am wanting to try a drum set on it(I know it will not be great but it would be good for rought demo's).

One word BOSS.

I have no clue, BOSS.

I have been playing for about 15 years now but that soesn't mean I am any good at it. I live in a small apartment and I son;t have the room anymore to have my mixer and mic stands out to record everything the best way possible. This has been a great tool for me to demo new songs while my family and I look for a bigger place to live. I can fit the boss micro br, a pocket pod, two short guitar cords, a strap, ear bud head phones and my e-bow all in my guitar case with my Les Paul studio and I can fully demo songs where ever I go. It would be hard to go back to not haveing one now that I have gotten used to being able to quickly record my ideas.

Fairly easy to use. If you're use to electronic gadgetry, then playing around with this thing should take you minutes to figure out. If not, RTFM...read the freaking manual!

Pretty easy to use. Plug your guitar in, plug it into your amp using a 1/4" cable adapter ($5.00 at most audio stores or music stores), turn it on, select your desired effect. Start jamming.

If you prefer to jam to your favorite song, the easiest way to do this is hook up your Micro BR to your computer. The memory card will come up as a "drive" on your computer. Copy your MP3's to the MP3 folder (very critical). A 1GB card will hold over 3 hrs of music so that should be plenty. Or just go buy more 1GB memory cards. By the way, a 1GB SD memory card is the maximum size the Micro BR will take. Next, select the song using the MP3 player, press play...and jam along. Pretty damn cool! If you want to practice figuring out a song, you can use the "time stretch" feature by slowing the song down to say 80% WITHOUT changing the pitch. Pretty damn cool!

Now the main reason I bought the Micro BR was the recording features. It has 4-tracks along with 8 "virtual tracks" for a total of 32 tracks. You can then select the best of tracks and "Master" or "Bounce" it down to the final cut. Pretty damn cool! Now as for the "Rhythm" feature, it comes with quite a few drum tracks that are nice, but need some work or modifying. The Micro Br allows you to edit them and create your own tracks. Again, pretty damn cool!

So after playing around with the Micro BR for a couple of days, its a guitarist dream come true. Its marketed as such so don't expect a full recording studio or guitar modeling system. ITS NOT! For ~$200 bucks, its intended to give you portability with the main features you need to record or compose a song on the fly. The 80 built-in effects should cover pretty anything you need to record a song. If you looking for a recorder with modeling effects ranging over 200, the Micro BR isn't for you. Go buy another device. Seriously, 80 effects and you're still not satisfied? Get real! Plus, you can modify the built-in effects. Pretty damn cool!

So is this for the novice guitarist? Yes...and no. You hate that, don't you? But seriously, if you have an ounce of how to work this sort of stuff, you'll be okay. Again guys, for $200 bucks, you get more than you could ever need for such a small device. The size alone is easy to transport. Its about the size of a HP calculator and weighs less than 1 pound. Pretty damn cool!

Give it time. Learn it. Take it with you to jam or check out guitars at your favorite music store. It comes with a built-in tuner (I wasn't too happy with it as it only allows you to tune down to 435Mhz or up to 445Mhz...what's up with that?). Plug in and jam!

I rated this an 8 due to the limits on the tuner as I tune down quite a bit especially on 12-strings. Plus, the first time you power this thing up, its a bit intimidating but you get used to it after a few hours of playing with it. I would have given it a 9 (nothing gets a 10 in my book) if the tuner were nicer and if getting from feature to feature were a bit easier or more intuitive.

Gee...for $200 bucks, I can't complain. Its quite, sounds better alone than my crappy Fender modeling amp (I over-paid for my Cyber Champ). I play a Strat, unmodified, and it sounds great. No complaints.

Is this something I'd put up against higher-end, higher priced models? No. But for on-the-fly recording, jamming, practicing, portability, and ease of setup and use, its worth it.

This is my third BOSS device. The other 2 are still working and are as tough as tanks. No problems with those so I hope this bad boy works out just as well.

I bought the higher-end AA batteries for it but will eventually pony up the money for the PSA electrical adapter from BOSS. Word of caution, BOSS included a "warning" flyer inside the box that highly recommends using their PSA adapter and not a generic power adapter. You may risk damage to the unit if you use the wrong power adapter. Is it just a marketing ploy to get you to buy their product? I don't know, but I'll buy one anyway. To me, it lease doubt out of it.

Never used them. Don't know.

I gave it a 9 just due to the features and true marketing of "a guitarist dream come true". I love it! Makes perfect sense to me. A truly portable recording unit the size of calculator. Easy to use and allows you jam on the fly. I read on another review where he was disappointed with the output volume. Huh? If you're using an amp...turn up the volume! If you're using headphones...are you freaking deaf? Good god man! Either that, or you got a bum unit. Oh...one thing I forgot to mention is you can control the input volume and output volume as well. Pretty damn cool!

Look, if you want a great recording device with all the features you need on the fly, get a BOSS Micro BR. Seriously, how anybody could give this device a low rating is beyond me. Some people just aren't happy with anything. Ignore their rating. If they got a bum unit, then that's a different story. But the Micro BR is a fantastic value!

I love how simple it is to work with it, and how fast you can record. Those who say it??s complicated never worked with a analogic portastudio. The manual is a bit complicated to understand, but after a few tries you,ll get the hang of it.

I use it to record ideas and jam sessions with my band (the built in mic is great for that).The guitar efects aren??t great, the reverb is awful, but for recording an idea fast, it??s more than enough. You can always use an external pre amp, i use a line 6 POD and it works very well.

Well, it??s a boss so i expect it to last.

Never dealt with them,never had to.

I play guitar for ten years now, from folk to metal, from acoustic to eletronic and i found a great way to record your ideas fast and with excelent audio quality. If lost or stole i would buy another one imediately. I like specialy the portability and the easy of use, i only wish it came with a power suply and a powerfull memory card.

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!

Plenty of features from recorder to MP3 player. Looping, effects, etc. Even use it as a portable amplifier. Fairly easy to use although best to read the manual to familiarize yourself with the buttons and what they do. First try I got good sound from this unit. The manual covers all everything one needs to know.

Excellent for such a small portable unit.

Seems to be built well. All buttons are smooth and precision. Only time will tell.

na

I am very pleased and impressed with this unit. I considered the Zoom H4 and some MP3 players, but I was after a small recorder unit. This unit is feature-function rich. IMO it doesn't look toyish like the Zoom. It's look sharp and feels solid in hand. I like the fact that it uses a removable SD memory card unlike the Zoom unit. I've since installed a 1 gig card for increase song capacity. I find the battery life is very good. This unit suits all my needs perfectly as a portable, practice unit, for play along with songs or rythyms, and for recording snipes of song ideas. It's conveniently small enough to carry with you. I hhave have a gripe with the unit, it is that this unit only supports MP3 and WAV formatted files so you'll need a converter utility to convert non-MP3 or non-WAV files to one of these two formats in order load the songs into the unit. You will also need a USB cable with a mini type B plug on one end. Using the USB interface is a breeze as this unit is plug and play. The unit/card is immediately recognized when connected to a PC.

It may take a while to get used to, but once you do its really not too bad. Ive read some complaints that it was complicated but that was only the first hour or two.

For this price and size, i think Boss did a pretty good job. The sound seems somewhat digital and it lacks a bit of warmth, but hey its not an amp. For on the run recording its very useful especially since it can run off 2 double A batteries. The built in mic was surprisingly good. I read on other review about the sound being thin on single coil pickups such as strats, but i have yet to test that. I tried with duncan passives and EMG 81s and the sound seems pretty good, except a bit too sensitive.
The built in effects are good, other than the reverb.

Seems to be working fine so far. Great for practice at home if you have annoying neighbors.

Never dealt with

Overall, for this price its a good buy. Give it a try before you buy though.

it's easy to a degree but not to go all out on

i suppose the micro BR doesnt quite have studio quality sounds but alont, it sounds pretty good and plugged into a computer, a little better

it always works so its dependable

i am having a little trouble transfering and listening to the songs on my mac powerbook i dont think i have any software installed? so i cant listen to it on my computer...but the portability is great i bring it in my car everyday

Yes, I read all the reviews below, but I thought I was cleverer. Just create a "song" with all your default settings and use that each time. Nope. No way to save under a new name. You have to start each new song from scratch and switch off all the default effects (some are recorded to the track - some are in the monitor/phones only. Fun to figure out.)

I also thought it would be great as a notepad for capturing ideas, but by the time you're set, your idea is gone.

And you cannot just select a 4/4 drumbeat (or even just a metronome) and jam to it because next time, the drums and guitar are out-of-sync (unless you stick to the standard tempo). The only way to get it to remember the tempo is to create a complete drum track(!?!). Yes, really. Major inspiration killer.

Sound quality is good but built-in mic picks up switch noises, and if you have not turned off the reverbs first, you start each take with a reverb pulse triggered by the record switch click.

It's back in the box and I'm going to give it away, so I probably will never find out.

What Roland/Boss did here is create a cut down version of their bigger desktop recorders. Consequently, the complexity is still there without the feature set to justify it. It's small but not really portable because you have to take the manual along. It's not really good for capturing spontaneous inspiration because its too complicated to get set. It's not really an MP3 player either because it only runs 3 hours on batteries so you need a power supply.

Boss unwittingly created a new market by introducing this device: a simple portable pocket multitracker. Unfortunately, the Micro BR is not one. Boss must now think again about what this market segment really requires and come out with a Micro BR-2 that addresses it properly. THEN we will have a killer device!

C'mon Boss/Roland, I know you guys can do it!

It's not intuitive as everyone has said, but w/ the manual it's not really that bad. I've certainly seen worse. For the features and the size.. well, it's more intuitive than my Roland VG-8 or VG-88!

As for editing patches, it's very limited. See more information in the sound category

This all refers to the guitar/amp/effects sound, NOT the overall recording quality.

This is where it really loses it for me. It pretty much sounds like a Rockman circa 1984. It's been over 20 years since then. Given the sound quality of the Line6 products (like say the new pocket pod), this is awful. Everyone else that gives it high ratings must be referring to the recording quality or something. Overall I like this unit, but I may return it simply because the sound is SO awful. If you wanna play some Boston, or something off of Surfing With The Alien, then you've come to the right place. It's got Rockman sounds for days. Otherwise, look elsewhere. My old Korg Pandora PX3, which I believe is well over 5 years old, and sounds sterile and processed, sounds better and more natural than this, and there are more effects and they are more editable.

The quality of the effects is medicore. Chorus sounds like Tom Scholz, as stated above. I kept listening to my patches wondering where this reverb was coming from (the unit has no reverb effect that I have found), and realized that it is coming from the feedback parameter of my delay effect. IOW, instead of feeding back the delay into the delay and producing distinct delays (esp. when playing staccato), the delay feedsback in and it gets all smeared rather than distinct and ends up sounding like a really crappy reverb instead!

I am seriously considering returning the unit because of the sound.

When you slow down mp3s, you can hear the digital noise that gets created pretty distinctly. It's not as bad as devices and software used to sound just a few years back, but it's not great. Transcribe! and Amazing Slow Downer on my Mac sound WAY WAY WAY better than this (haven't tried them on the PC yet).

The following is important to know for some, and not mentioned ANYWHERE in the manual:

It won't decode all mp3 types. I haven't delved deeply into this, but I grabbed a bunch of MP3s and copied them to a smart card and popped it in. Several of them got unsupported format errors (they play find on my iPod and on other computers). I can only assume that it doesn't like certain mp3 codecs (I had a Sony mp3 boombox that liked frauenhofer and blaze mp3 encoded files but crapped out on LAME mp3 encoded files - may be a similar situation here).

MP3s, if they do not follow the 8.3 naming scheme, will be renamed to follow that scheme (they won't actually be renamed, but they will be displayed like that). IOW, FooFighters_song1.mp3 and FooFighters_song37.mp3 will be displayed as FooFig*1.mp3 and FooFig*2.mp3, etc.

When you put in a card and initialize it, you will see that it creates a Roland folder and an mp3 folder. You must put all mp3 files in the mp3 folder, and NOT in subfolders, or the device won't see them, whihc kinda sucks and reminds me of the $10 mp3 CD players that you can get at wallmart. Even the cheapest of mp3 players these days will understand some sort of a directory structure.

Like I said, it sounds like an old Rockman. I think that the difference between say "SmoothLead" and "MetalLead" are simply the COSM amp models, and it sounds to me like the different amp models are basically all the same amp model with different EQ profiles selected. Pretty sad...

It's Boss. It'll probably outlast most of us. :-)

Haven't had to deal with them for this item.

My style of music ranges from blues (Freddie King to Jimi Hendrix) to fusion (Mahavishnu to modern stuff like Brett Garsed, Richie Kotzen, etc.) with some metal edge thrown in (Megadeth, Pitchshifter, etc.) for good measure. Been playing for 20 years+.

If it were lost or stolen I'd look for something else. Right now I'm thinking of returning it and getting something like the StaelthPlug, but I really wanted something that I could use away from the PC. :-(

I really feel lik in this day and age, this thing shouldn't sound like a Rockman! I have other Roland COSM stuff (VG-8, VG-88) and they sound WAY better (as expected), but this thing should still be at LEAST on par with a 5+ year old, old technology Pandora PX3.

Maybe I'm being overly harsh, but come on. It's 2007. This thing should at least sound like, say, oh, 1995!