Boss BR-532

how was it out of the box you ask... i think it was about a week before i started getting comfortable with it.... getting really grovy sounds out of it and began to understand the whole thing....and remeber some of the things you discount at first come forward latter and surprise you as to how deep this thing really is ..

good sound system in this thing lots of options very tweekable
i went through a grey period a blue period a redhot period a star spangled molly period even a good golly period.. and it was all fueled with the presets and tweeks in this box a whole lotta scope..

its a tough old buzzard of a thing a little big and akward for my tastes but i have gigged with it in the open air on batties and it does all right packs up okay too..

never had any trouble with the unit

i use the BR-532 to travel to other planets [on keysboards]
with guitar and voice ..i also vist new orleans and the mississippi... new england coffee houses and the big areanas of the 60's and 70's with it.. .its a time machine sure..
its a looper in a way...but its not so much an instrument in it's self you need to be always feeding it signals and sounds...
sound that can be cut and moved arround.. til your memory runs out....its a memory box where you grab hold of time and shine your attentions on various parts of it.
..its like a box where you can touch and manipulate things that could never be touched or molded before..its like this big old studio building shrunk into the size of a laptop....full of rooms and corridors full of amps and mics and effects.and magical gizmos.

.and you are its owner. its god...it gives you a funny feeling when you look at it...

The 532's sound is great. Its my other equipment I worry about. The editing is the fun part. I love using the A/B to coppy measures that are extreamly long but exactly the same. I took a couple peaks at the manual but there is no greater mentor then yourself. If you take time to familierize yourself with the buttons and knobs (which wont take long at all), you will be creating great music and having fun doing it in no time.

Even though the 532 was designed for guitarist, I us my multitrack recorder with my keyboard and laptop. As long as you record with a low input level, the playback will sound LIVE. The line effects are wonderfull. The effects add qualities which my keyboard n'or my laptop never produced. When I am producing and recording, I dont try to sound like no one but myself. Plus, the BR532-doesnt creat the sound-brings the sound together. Some of the mic effects are only usefull for MCs and performers who like to produce skits.

This is my first (and only for the moment) digital recorder. It's the only recorder I can depend on. But if you want me to be literal, I must say it beets using my stereo's taperecorder. If I were on a gig, the 532 would BE my backup.

I never needed their assistance.

I use my BR532 to record my hiphop and RnB tracks. My friends who (thinks they) are focussed rappers comes by the house, all the time, to lay tracks. I love their sound when it is played back. However, their lines are wack. I own a YAMAHA DJX-IIB, a HP notebook with XP professional, and a Sony bookshelf stereo. Although though my setup isn't professionally in tact, my recorded results always have a radio sound when it is on CD. If my recorder was to be stollen, I probably would have to choose between replacing it or keeping my cable on. It will be hard to choose. I love all the feature that my BR532 have to offer. I have the 32MB card that comes with it. What I hate even more about it is eventually I will force myself to purchase a 125MB Smart Media card. I did compare rge BR532 to other BOSS products. This won me over because of its low price and size. I really wish it had a usb port in addition to the card slot and I wish it had a MIDI in so I can controle it with my keyboard. When recording, it's metronome always keeps me in check. The .wav to BR format would be a lot more usefill if ALL .wav formats could be formatted into BR.

There are a few oddly placed buttons that can frustrate you but I like the clunky old-school box mentality and after a while you begin to work quite quickly. If you've used any boss/roland drum machines, you'll be familiar with the overall approach to functionality.

There's nothing wrong with the sound quality considering the cost and size of the unit. Don't expect too much and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I've recorded tracks that could only be improved in a professional studio and depending on how clean you can get the sound, you may be able to walk into a studio with most of your track pre-recorded on the br-532.

It's not an ideal world and there is a frustrating fault with the BR-532. A 'card read error' has occurred twice and I've completely lost a couple of major productions. Just get a card reader that talks to your computer and keep a file of tracks; a back-up. It's essential. Don't be lazy: you must back-up continuously. I am living breathing (weeping) proof that back-ups are required. I've given the machine a low rating because I don't believe any fault is acceptable and after two incidences of the same problem, I'm a little scared every time I start a new project. We all have the right to believe our intellectual property and time are worth more than any piece of equipment, so losing a track with 60 parts is pretty heartbreaking. Back-up!

I've never used the customer support because the only problem I've had is with memory cards; the rest of the functions work beautifully.

If you play electric instruments and don't feel like joining the herd of electro-sheep, this thing will suit you perfectly. I played with Cubase for ages, then got the BR-532 and never looked back. The internal effects are very nice. I produced something that sounded like Slayer V Deicide with an acoustic bass through the boss effects. Use a 128 smart card. Don't muck around with the 32 unless you're a learner. I've been playing in bands and producing music for 20 years and I must admit that this is one of the best things I've bought. It's a real shame about the 'card read error' problem (which Boss/Roland take no responsibilty for, of course). Just back it up and you'll be fine. When choosing between software or hard-disc, remember that you can potentially record 32 tracks on this little baby, so don't think of it as the old school 4-track; it's much better than that.

Easy to use, but includes some limitations.

Not bad, but not great either. Even in the highest quality recording mode (which is compressed at about 2.3:1), the recorded sound lacks the crispness of the original. Specifically, I found that the high end is compromised. I only owned this unit for 2 hours. I recorded directly from an XV-88 and was disappointed at the sound quality. I was monitoring through a high quality system.

Overall the contruction appears solid. The card slot cover, however; is plastic and hinged and undoubtably someone will end up breaking it with no problem. I own a lot of Roland gear, and their reputation for products with longevity is well-deserved.

Good, once you get them.

I purchased this unit to have a portable recorder to take on the road in order to obtain remote content for studio projects. I believe I made a poor choice based on my needs...for guitarists this may be an amazing unit, but for me it was disappointing. I returned this item and ordered a Yamaha AW16G. The yamaha was twice the price, so it's not a fair comparison, so I'll hold judgement.

Bottom Line:
Sound quality that is good but not great.
A lot of features for the price.
Not for the serious recording dude.

Specs are available at roland.co.uk

Obviously with any new kit some time should be taken to get to grips with it [the Boss SD-1 is the only exception =0) ]. I have had some previous with 4-tracks which benefiited me in that I was able to start recording in a few button presses. Should you be a compete novice to recording then you will need to read the manual and experiment.

To their credit, Boss have made this unit as painless as possible though. Its well laid out and the manual is very clear. Once you're clued up, there's no stopping you. Naturally, editing fx patches, using the Rhythm Machine. and getting the most out of the virtual tracks are a little more complicated, but the tutorials in the manual will get you started.

My only concern is the memory capacity. If you expecting to do some serious creative layering, then get a 128mb card. Even with a 128mb card, Ive ran out of memory everytime and so a card reader is also useful. That way you can back up the data from the card to free up tracks. You can also convert it to a .wav file for CD burning. The best solution would be a built in Hard Disk, but for the price and sound of this unit you cant really complain.

I am most impressed with this unit. Its very near CD quality. Producing your tracks does take practice - you wont get it first time. But after several attempts at recording my creations, Im beginning to produce some very credible results.

The onboard effects are usable with the exception of the distorion [crap]. For distortion I mike my amp. Reverb, compressor, trem, delay and chorus [and other mod effects] are very good and can be used for all mike as well as guitar. Thumbs up for the bass simlator - not all of us own a bass or have access to one. The rhythm track is also a bonus even if it does sound a little too electronic.

The unit produces an extremely clear recording. However, you will need some other equipment so that the quality carries across to the final mix.

A GOOD MICROPHONE - use a crap mike and you'll get a crap recording. Its doesnt have to be expensive. A Shure SM57 or Beyer TGX48 or TGX58. Shure also dot he PG series, which Ive heard good things about. Unfortunately the Boss unit can only record 1 mic at a time, so its not "drum friendly". However, a mike mixer is inexpensive and very useful.

The built-in mike is ok, but does pick up the clicking of the buttons.

HEADPHONES / MONITORS - Again dont need to expensive. I DO NOT recommend monitoring through headphones. Everything seems to sound good through headphones, but can sound radically different [EMPTY!] through a stereo after mix down. Use the headphones to perform takes, but monitor the mix [after every take] through the line out to a stereo [AUX] or purpose built monitors. That way you get no surprises, and youre hearing how your finished song will sound on your CD player.

A GOOD EAR - LISTEN AFTER EVERY TAKE. As some point you WILL need to bounce, and whilst this can be re-done you need to have the right tracks to bounce in the first place. So you will need to be patient and not settle for the slightest error as it will stick out.

IMAGINATION - As you do need to bounce to layer track after track, you'll need to work out all the parts of the song to begin with. This takes experience and imagination. I always listen to finished mix and remark on where it can be improved. However, with every song I record I find less and less to remark on.

Made out of "keyboard plastic" and well built. All trimmers and pots feel nice and sturdy. No problems as yet.

Roland posted me a manual so that I could have the full info about the unit before I bought it. I also lost the 2 thumb screws that hold the memory card cover. They sent me replacements for free !!!

Love it. Its not just a "notepad". Because its digital its quick to edit and you dont have to worry about tape quality or noise. If youre just starting out this is a great buy.

Top 3 good points.
Sound quality
Bass sim and Drum machine included.
Ability to tranfer files to PC and burn CD.

Top 3 bad points.
1. Limited Memory
2. Only 1 mic input - cant record more than one mic in one take.
3. No effects send/return

Basically, Iv never really got the sound I wanted out of this unit, guitarwise I mean, editing patches was fairly easy, the manual is quite complex, but you really need to know the basics like using the rhythm guide and putting up patterns etc and makin use of all the tracks etc and your on your way for recording, I dont own it anymore, I owned it for 2 years and sold it to a friend wasnt really my bag I guess,

I used a gibson Les paul ephiphone, the noise was fairly low, some effects are pretty useless in means of quality but u can still get decent sounds out of it overall, I think the chorus was ok, delay was ok, not bad, decent sounds overall, didnt get the steve vai tone though :o?

absolutly dependable, hey it's Boss!! know what I mean

Im a full time musician, recording artist, play mostly intrumental rock/blues, this unit did the job, like I said, not a xtradinaire unit but good! it did the job for me while I had it, iv been playin for about 8 years, the unit can be a little tricky at times but be sure to always have the manual close and you should be ok, you will get used to workin with it with the time, the only thing I disliked about it was the drum patterns which i found uhm a little bit too cheesy for me, but doesent mean you wont like it, but defenitly worth getting if you want to lay some ideas down! no better way, trust me, I give this unit a 8, it does the job

I bought mine used and, apparently, someone spilled chocolate milk on it and I didn't know until it finally died one day. My friend fixed it, and was able to get the schematics for this machine. IF YOU NEED A COPY OF THE SCHEMATICS, EMAIL ME AND I WILL SEND YOU JPEGS:

chrisjonesblue@hotmail.com

It depends on your knowledge of recording to define how easy this unit is to use really. I had a smidgeon of past experience with analogue recording, and I found that immeasurably useful to me. However, without the instruction manual, I'd be lost completely. I've had the unit for about two weeks now, and it really has opened up my eyes to new things. Once you know how to record basic tracks with the on-board effects, use the rhythm guide and (this is the killer) bounce tracks in both stereo and mono, then you've mastered it all basically.

Before buying the machine (it was my first recording kit), I have had ideas for songs, but been unable to make them anything more than ideas. Now I can just lay it down quickly, add to it and enhance everything.

I mainly play guitar and keyboards through the unit, with a variety of weird effects, like the Line 6 FM-4 etc... I find that it records guitar superbly, keyboard less so (the keyboard I have has to go into the guitar/bass input, which messes up the input volumes) and the onboard mic is surprisingly good. I didn't think it would be as receptive or as clear quality, but it saves money on buying a mic I will rarely use.

The rhythm track SOUNDS quite decent, but I find it a bit on the cruddy side, cos I'm not into cheesy drumbeats. However, if standard beats are "your bag baby" then you'll be pleased with it.

A few of the voice transformers produce weird and horrible background noises, which wind me up, but I'm not a singer by day, so I'll live with it. The bass sim also suffers from this kind of digital frippery (lol, what does THAT mean?) and it tracks badly in places. When you are playing it through the input port, it sounds a lot worse than it does on a track though, so I usually just either get a REAL bass or play whatever and go over the bits that sound shoddy.

Plus, the digital output has been really useful, cos I can record straight to minidisc. Also, the Smartmedia card is a really good way to store music. Although the 32-MB standard one isn't really enough to create a full song, you can get a smartmedia card reader for about 15 quid and waz all your stuff on the computer. From here, download the Boss 532 Wav convertor software from the boss website, then run the file through some program like Soundforge, Cubase, Cakewalk etc...you can put your own songs on the internet or CD!!! and the machine only cost three hundred quid! The digitalness may be scorned by some traditionalists, but it's easy and sounds as good as whatever you put in, so I like it a lot.

I'd never use it at a gig (I'm in a band, so I don't need backing tracks), but apparently 6 normal AA batteries last 7 hours, so it seems dependable to be. It's made of plastic, but so what? I can't see any problems with the construction, although it appears to have far too many lights and LED's on the unit! It's not a problem, but it's probly a big power-sucker, so I tend to use an adapter anyway.

never dealt with boss, but I can't see why I'd have to. At a guess, I'd say the bigger the corporation, the less customer support you'll get, and Boss is a huge company...

The kit has allowed me to start becoming more electronic in my music, which I haven't been able to do, not being a drum player, and not being able to play effects with a normal melody and so on (I only have the two hands, so creating a WHOLE piece of music is difficult). Now, I can basically record drums off my keyboard (synthy type electro ones) and THEN carry on to finish the song, so I like it. The fact that you can change the parameters on EVERY effect and guitar sim also does it for me.

I compared this to other similar priced digital recorders, and reviews of this product have been good, so I got it. It's not let me down.

Couple of problems though. The drumbeats provided are mostly absolute poo. So far, out of all the songs I've done on it, I've used them for only one. The song was a comedy cover of Craig David's appallingly arrogant "Seven Days", which I deemed the appalingly standard/cheesy beats worthy of. There should be a sort of "recording in" for the rhythm guide, so you can record your own rhythm samples. Failing that, updates on the internet for new rhythm tracks.

Also, I find that memory is just oblitereated when using the amount of V-Tracks I do (I record a drumkit entirely seperately i.e. bass drum: track 1
snare drum: track 2
hi-hat: track 3
then bounce it all down)

Hopefully, a 128MB card will have enough to make up, but they are fifty quid.

On the whole, I love this machine, and find it easy to create a wide variety of songs on it. I have done the aforementioned comedy cover of a Craig David song, an alternative indie track, a radiohead electronic style song, a mellow Turin Brakes/Nick Drake/Pink Floyd pastiche etc...Whatever style you want to record, you will be able to and then make hard copies of it too, if you have a PC and all the gubbins. If you haven't got a recorder and want one for about this price, honestly, get one of these. This will keep you happy for the time being for recording full songs, and when you're big and famous, you can then use it for recording demo tracks. I suspect I'll never grow out of this

This thing is so easy to use. I keep finding new, cool features and stuff that really help. Familiarity through use...
The rhythm programming is quite easy (hey, BOSS, where's the 3/4, 6/8 rhythms? Can you do an upgrade that'll make these work?). Recording, bouncing, mixing etc. all very easy.

Ok, step one: shell out for a 128MB smartmedia card. Working in anything but the HiFi is just for "notepad" work. There's too much background hiss on the normal memory "resolution" and to work in HiFi you need more memory than the little 32MB will afford. The effects are somewhat useable, but I have found that using a SansAmp Tri_AC (for guitar) before the effects gets a more organic sound. Some of the pre-sets are a little too "wasp in a jar" for my tastes. The fretless preset is FANTASTIC when used with a real fretless bass. The bass presets are too fuzzy. The bass simulator is fun, but not really usable. Good for a reference when writing, but it's better to put a real bass in through a tube/tube simulator pre-amp. Vocal presets - the "real" ones are relatively good (the chipmunk thing is a waste of everyone's time). Go get a condenser mic (they're less than $150). You won't regret it. Rythm sounds are actually quite useable (don't forget to add a little reverb). The STD1 and ROOM are the most used.

Good as gold.

Who?

I use it for songwriting. Rock/folk/pop/blues. I can finally get the sound in my head to come alive (my wife thanks me for this - having put up with the endless acoustic guitar noodling without having the benefit of the finished product). It's a cool little tool. I think I will be getting some PC software for mixing, but, in the meantime I'll keep pushing with this little beast. I wish there were a better interface for sharing files with a PC.

THe BR-532 is pretty easy to use, especially if you're familiar with Portastudio style layouts. The fact that you're not rewinding tape over and over again really streamlines things, and the controls basically work the same as a casette deck. It's even fairly easy to navigate through the various utility menus, though I'm still learning how to edit effects patches. The manual is actually pretty good, and mine came with a Turbo Start video, but I have yet to view it.

The onboard effects and presets are actually pretty decent. They're not great, but their tweakability is a big plus, and I've been able to conjure some great sounds adjusting gain levels, picking new speaker simulators, EQing, etc. The clean settings seem really great right off the bat, and don't need much tweaking. The bass simulator is ok. It doesn't sound great on its own, but when you put it in context with drums and guitars it really sits well in the mix and sounds pretty realistic. I use a regular bass (the BR-532 has presets for bass to, which are good), but in a pinch it works great.

The drum sounds aren't bad, but I haven't gone through using them too much....I have an outboard drum machine.

Overall, home studios are very much "garbage in, garbage out". If you record sucktastic tones, you get...are you ready....sucktastic tones. If you take your time, tweak things right, you'll have the tones you're looking for. I have no qualms recording my guitar straight into this thing, tweaking one of the presets, and getting a great sounding guitar tone. I have a Rick 12 string however that doesn't seem to like any of the presets. So I mic it up...problem solved (adding a little on board mic compression to my already dynacomped Ric sounds fantastic by the way). The capabilities of this thing are enormous for the price and package...if you spend some time with it, you'll have fantastic results.

Seesm pretty solid. It's very portable, but I imagine it'll stay at home.

I had looked at this and some other, larger digital studios. I'm a cassette deck Tascam vet, so I have a little background. First off, I'm incredibly late to the party. V-tracks, and the capability to bounce to them, have completely changed the way I record and arrange. I never thought I would want to try multiple takes of a part (which is why V-tracks were never really a selling point for me), but I actually find that using them to draft guitar or bass parts has helped greatly. And I never realized the capability to bounce to them. It helps me stay much more organized (keeping rhythm parts on tracks 1 and 2, lead parts on 3 and 4, etc) and this helps things lock together much tighter. Plus since its digital, there's no sound quality loss. I try to limit my bouncing as much as possible, and this has made my recordings sound even better.

I mostly like stripped down stuff, and decided that it would be better for me financially to forgo bigger, expensive stuff. I originally feared out growing this unit, and I'm sure I will one day, but for now it is exactly what I was looking for. My recordings have sounded much better than they ever did on tape, and I can work much faster and more efficiently.