Boss BR-1200

Learning to use the 1200 takes a little work. I read the manual, watched the dvd, and got in and turned knobs, pushed buttons, and just played around with it. It can be a bit confusing---I'm always referring back to the manual to figure out how to do something. The dvd that you can buy online is helpful but it moves pretty quickly. The manual could be better but once you figure out the basics the 1200 is not too hard to use and get excellent sound. I wish they had a manual/dvd that took you step-by-step through recording, mixing, and mastering using the various capabilities the 1200 has.

Pretty happy with the sound although I do get a hum at times--ground loop problem I think. I can run my guitar through my RP-7 and the hum stops. I use mainly acoustic plugged directly into the 1200, some electric. The COSM effects are pretty good but I only use a few settings.

No problems so far, had it over a year.

I talked to support about the hum and they just suggested the obvious stuff--di box, etc. I did have some applications questions that they handled quite well. Overall, decent support.

I play mainly acoustic blues/rock/ballads, some electric guitar, some dulcimer. The 1200 more than meets my amatuer needs. I enjoy working with it; I do wish the manual were better and some of the controls a bit less complex/confusing. Boss could probably make a lot of money by putting out a "BR-1200 For Dummies" manual. I'd buy it! I'm glad to have the 1200. I've had a lot of fun with it and would probably buy another if this one disappered.

I have loved this product for a number of years...it has helped me define and record my own original music in ways suitable to a degree for a guitarist. I have a few major gripes though! The first is Roland's shite hard-drives that crash all the time. Now when your loosing hard worked out or even fluked recordings its a real pain in the arse. Imagine just laying down the best solo you've ever done and BAM! the thing crashes! Its happened both on my boss recorder and my roland fantomx6 keyboard. There should be no excuse when we are all living in the 21st century. I toss my laptop around all over the place - its hard-drive has never crashed. Its something that has brought tears to my eyes. The second issue I have with this unit is the lack of dedicated stero guitar inputs. You expect me to use only the COSM effects? C'mon man I have a podxtl too and I might want to record with it or my amp using two mics. I can't do it well on this thing. Why no proper stereo guitar inputs? I dislike the limited avaliable hard-drive space. Again when paying so much for a product like this one would expect to have more than 20-40G of memory. Ive almost got more memory on my mobile phone! Why dont they allow people to install computer hard-drives or their own CD burner? I know they have their reasons but this product would be even better if there were better ways at storing and sharing data. I also dislike the syncronicity between other roland products. My fantomx keyboard has digital cable outs...my boss recorder has aux inputs... I can't match them so if I want to record a realtime keyboard part onto the boss to layer guitars etc over I have to mix it to PC and then bounce it over to the boss via aux! I loose the digital clarity. One last thing I miss about old analog decks is the ability to punch in tracks during mix down etc. I can't do this well with the boss. Other than those issues, I have loved every other part of this product.

Overall I think it's pretty easy to get a decent sound but it does require a little adjusting and tweaking the controls. I haven't mic'd an amp but only plugged my guitar directly in the unit and used one of the preset patches. Also, haven't edited a patch but it's very easy to edit a preset patch to create your own. Probably most users will use one of the 120 or so factory presets.

After you select a decent tone, adjust your input levels, and volumes, press record then play and you just recorded your guitar tone. Your recorded track requires a little adjusting from the various controls to make them sound right: fader (track volumes), adjusting the pan controls, compression, and equalizer. Also you can add delay/chorus and reverb to broaden your tone.

After you get your guitar track recorded. Select various preset drum loops to put together an intro, chorus, verse, and ending using the rhythm arrangement which is what I do. You can program your own drums if you know what you???re doing but that seems difficult. This is probably the most difficult part. You can add a bass line the same way and add or change the bass rhythms pretty easy. The nice thing about the drum loops is that they are real drums sounds. If your good with drum machines than just plug your drum machine and you???re done.

Another feature is you can import tracks from CD's. There is CD/Write button that you can click on to import tracks to the BR-1200. I???ve copied various backing tracks from the 'Hal Leonard Play Along with CD's' and then added the guitar and vocal parts myself.

Also, I???ve recorded my guitar and a mic together fairly easy just had to adjust the volumes. This unit records only two-tracks at once so you will not be able to record your band very well. Get the BR-1600 to record your band which handles 8 inputs at once.

After you get all your tracks recorded you'll have to bounce them on one of the stereo tracks and mix them down (adjusting volumes), then master/burn them to CD which is real easy.

Easily get can get a hard rock tone! Some of my favorite bands are AC/DC, Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, Rush, Zeppelin, etc.. Also, like playing along with backing tracks and power tab from all kinds of music ranging from accoustic, punk, classic rock, hard rock, and metal. Can easily get any tone you want.

I plug directly into the BOSS and my main axe is a Gibson Les Paul Supreme.

So far it's been very reliable

I enjoy playing hard rock and enjoy strumming chords. Been playing actively for over 10 years, played shows, and recorded demo CD's, and mainly play cover tunes. Getting to the point where I want to start exploring originals so this was the next step for me.

Wanted to get a studio for my laptop like (M-Box) but my wife bought this for me for christmas and after reading all the reviews this is exacly what I needed. The only disadvantage is that this records at 16bit 44kz which is CD quality but similar products like the Tascam 7488 records at 24bit 44kz and the Zoom records at 24bit 48kz. I'm not sure this will make a difference but will see. Computer based systems record at 24bit 96kz or even higher at 24bit 192kz but they require much more involvment and strong CPU processing speeds. So far I've been very happy and been inspired to start arranging my own songs.