Boss BR-532

Depending on what you are doing, somethings are easy, and some-well I still haven't figured them out. The manual again, some of it well written ,some I cannot figure out. First off, I couldn't get the demo songs to play. And bouncing tracks - the manual is usless in my opinion for this. If you have ever used any effects before, then editing these are no different. Easy to perform the actual editing, but a pain in the ass trying to get the right sound.It takes a while to learn how to use the rythm guide, and I still don't know if you can actually program an entire song exactly the way you want it.

Ok here we go, this thing in my opinion has some really good clean sounds. The distorted, and amp modeling things are ONLY good for plugging in quickly and laying down an idea before you forget it. I am a guitar player, and as any , I am very picky about my sound, which is why I spent a million dollars in effects and amps. SO I use them . I turn of the amp modeling and use the delays, and such on the Boss. I think the drum sounds are very cool. You have 9 differnt kits, and I haven't listened to them all yet, so some of them may suck. I like the ROOM kit myself.

Don't know yet, haven't had it that long.

See above.

This thing is great for what I wanted it for. To make my original music as easily as possible. I can write without anyone (like drummers ) wasting my time. I write it, then give the drummer a copy without the drums on it, let him do his thing, then AFTER he has learned the song, I'll take the boss and record a real drum track, and record over that. It saves me a lot of time, as i can get the song to him to learn, and not wast time on recording him messing up every five minutes. It inspires me to write and to play. It is much more fun playing and writing to a full band rather than just my guitar. Again it is great for what I wanted it for. I still don't know how to use a lot of the features like the cut and paste and how to bounce tracks, because the manual is a little confusing, but within half an hour, I wrote a song that was something I would never have dreamed I could write.It needs to come with an adapter though!

I can't really imagine a unit being much easier to use than this one. The manual is written in a typically dry and indifferent style, but the info is in there. Maneuvering around the menu screens is very simple and fairly self-explanatory. And the "undo" feature is a godsend for those times you accidentally press the wrong button. Hopefully in the future there will be multiple undos available (currently, there is just one).

I'm a bit mystified at the complaints I've read about the quality of the drums. Maybe they're referring to the house/hip-hop/techno styles (which I have no use for), but the rock/pop/jazz drums are excellent-sounding. I've played my tunes for lots of people who remarked "I didn't know you played drums." If you program tastefully, with fills and variations (rather than just playing one loop all the way through), your rhythm tracks will sound great. The one glaring ommission is the complete lack of drum beats in 3/4 or 6/8 time. What were they thinking with that? Still, you can get around it. Some of the 4/4 beats, when slowed down have a distinctly 3/4 feel. But really, it's not as if 3/4 is some obscure, barely-used time sig. Hopefully, they'll get on that.

As far as the effects go, my only complaint might be a lack of variety as far as ungarnished "clean" tones. But the various types of distorted guitar sounds are awesome, and there's a good selection of vocal mikes to choose from. The buzzing that some people have mentioned is pretty much cured by the software update (more on that below).

Totally reliable. I haven't even found the need to use a larger card than the one that comes with the unit. But then, I do my mixing with Cool Edit Pro, so I don't have the need to fit every track on the BR.

Here's the weakest area in my opinion. The Boss website is pretty much useless for BR532 support. And neither the website nor the manual mentions the software update, which is incredible to me. I learned about it in the BR532 Yahoo users group and just downloaded it. Makes a big difference.

I do a wide variety of pop/rock/blues/jazz/folk, etc, and have yet to be disappointed. But I do think that if you're interested in that "studio" sound, you're going to have to invest in some kind of audio editing software. The BR532 is an excellent *recorder*, but it simply doesn't have the equipment for high-quality mixing/mastering. But for the price, there's nothing that touches it IMO. You've got a world of effects, amp sounds and a drum machine, plus digital sound quality and smart media storage/transfer, all for under $400.

Frankly, I don't see the point in shelling out more $ for the BR8. With this one, you've got 32 virtual tracks, plus unlimited track bouncing. You'd have to have some seriously complicated tunes to require more than that. Plus, for some reason I can't fathom, the BR8 doesn't have a high-impedence mike jack, whereas this one does. If (like me) you were previously using an analog 4-track, you're going to be thrilled with the jump to digital. Within a month, you'll be looking back at your old recordings and shuddering at the dismal sound quality you settled for before.

Very easy to use for recording,straightforward,recording by itself couldn't be easier.
Now about the COSM,it's a pain in the ass to go through the menus and submenus,I miss knobs!Same for the fx.
The 'song making' is a good thing,it takes time to make a good drum track but it's worth it.
You'll need to update for a 128kb smart media card as the 32kb supplied doesn't give enough recording time,the card is quickly full after 2 songs with the 4 tracks recorded.One shouldn't be bothered with checking the room available while recording and composing.
You'll need to get the AC adaptor too because the batteries run low very quickly.It's another problem.
So,it's just usable out of the box but nothing more.

About the COSM:
The distortion are very poor,they sound very shitty,no difference between them apart from eq,very cheap and thin sounding,buzzy,fuzzy,.They are usable if you tweak a lot but you won't get a good sound anyway.So my advice is to switch the COSM off and get your guitar sound from a POD or similar,these digital modelers aren't perfect but far better than the awful guitar sounds you get from the BOSS recorder.
Same for the fx (apart maybe from the delays),very,very cheap sounding(the reverbs sound like a very fast echo!!)
The drums are ok but all the patterns sound the same,so it's tiring after a while.They are usable though,but better use a zoom drum machine for example.
Now the recording themselves sound very good,much,much better than the 4 tracks on tape.Digital editing makes life so easy and it's so clean!
I record onto MD and it sounds great,not like a professional recording of course,but not like an amateur one either!
So,my advice is to get your guitar,bass,drums sounds from other boxes and record onto the boss,you won't be disappointed!
(the bass similutor is absolutely awful!).
So I'll give it a 6 because the on board sounds are crap but the recorder itself is good.

No problems so far after nearly one year

It's very good as a first digital recorder,very easy to use,sounds good even with the crappy COSM,must sound fantastic with better amps emulator and good fx.I'm gonna get a V-amp or a J-station and it should improve the overall sound quality dramatically!
If it were stolen I would get an 8 track digital recorder without any fx nor COSM,just a high quality recorder with hard disk,and I would get all my sounds from other devices

I like the majority of the guitar sounds, and with a little tweaking I can pretty much get what I need. The Delay options are great, similar to my Boss Stereo Delay pedal so I was right at home. Editing patches is pretty easy once you figure out the algorhythms for each. I thought the manual was pretty anorexic, and the video that came with it was pretty lame as well - too fast, poor explanations.

There's a lot of discussion around this product about the quality of the drum patches. Just a side note to that. I have a Roland PMA-5 which I connect from Midi out on the BR-532 and then Line in from the PMA to the BR-532. I pull the Rhythm track down to zero, adjust the line in accordingly and I get the drum patches that I select on the PMA with their own effects and mix. It doesn't rememdy the the 80's Rock sound of most of the units drum kits, but it's a pretty easy work around if you've got a MIDI unit with good drum sounds sitting around.

Like I said above, I like many of the guitar sounds, and the cabinet simulators are a nice feature.

Just got it, I'll let you know in 6 months.

Haven't tried yet.

Get a SmartMedia card with 64mb or more fairly quickly, if you store duplicate tracks or solo versions on virtuals, you'll use up the stock 32 quickly.

Would be interested in anyone's experiences in getting a nice "spatial / produced" sound from this rather than just 4 tracks in the center of my forehead.

The only difficult thing when you first get it is the Rhythm guide, which does a horrible "into," instead of getting you started with a decent "metronome," with basic "V1" drum sounds. Otherwise after customizing through the manual, I immediately saved that idea, and it was off to the races. Is this ever easy, just plug in whether for the COSM or simply straight guitar. It is not a problem to program the drums after doing a song, and one trick is to set up a virtual track for it, with all other sliders down. On to the card, into the computer with Cakewalk does the final mix.
I like to keep the levels a little low so each track gets normalized later, otherwise you have less control over possible distortion. It is simple just to mix down into the computer with Cool Edit, analogue to digital, but with a little extra effort you can get all digital without resorting to the optical output. I don't have that type of optical input for my computer, so the BR532 conversion software sure comes in handy.

The effects deserve a makeover, since they are a bit ridiculous outside of number 01, 30 for bass and possibly 07. There are two different ways to save your files, either as "U" or "S," experiment, while you always retain the fixed "P files." This is an adventure most people might reserve for a later time, since the overall sound quality is fabulous even with the onboard microphone. I have found my voice with this thing and as the song goes ?it?s getting better all the time.?

Very dependable, but don't withdraw the card without turning the unit off, you will lose all your data if my experience is an indicator. I am not sure about the question, but if you are doing a gig you might want an extra clear smart media card if you don't have quick access to dump into a laptop or whatever.

I like the software they supply on their web site. It makes things simpler, especially for people who don't have an optical cable for digital output to computer input.

I play some classical guitar, not much, but the drums come in handy as a metronome more interesting then a "clack-clack." Afterwards mixing down you just drop the drum slider down. This is a good match for that, but I have a feeling the drums for rock and other electric styles are somewhat marginal, but appropriate for the unit.
I have been playing a long time, more than 35 years, taking up the guitar when I was about 15 after years of tinkering with the piano in boogie woogie style. My LP Studio works great and the studio has inspired more attention to it. Also I have a Yamaha DX7 that still gives "killer bass," when you care to do it on a track. I probably wouldn't lose this thing, but sell it sometime later if the price is good, and get the new BR1180. I still don't like the idea of units without multiple separate inputs, so maybe I would option for a separate drum machine, and any unit with those separate inputs. Boss seems to make things for individual musicians who do one track at a time or two including voice. I like it very much for that purpose, but I would still want to record a voice track separately without the sound of my guitar unamped in the background. If you want a live band recorded, it is always wise to put each amp in a separate channel, so you can work with the sounds later as an option. Boss doesn't let you do that, in fact I was hesitating to buy this unit because of this limitation of two possible channels only for recording. I bought it because I like the effects and drums, otherwise I would have saved my nickels to get a digital studio and drum machine.
It does help my music however, and I am impressed that after years of not really doing voice, I am more comfortable with it and like the patching possibilities to make everything just right. If you can't even sing, you can probably do 8 bar punch ins to make it so you can just about stand your own voice.

very easy this is my first digtal recordin and in 10 minuts i playd a 4 tracks of guitars great tool

prety good i dont think i will use the onboardeffcts for my master pice i will use the pod but for what you pay the sound is very very good to just lay down the baisk idea for the song than come with your extrnal effect and you will be amazed ehat this machine can do

great tool great first digtal recorder i just bought this and i also got a free quik start video great no doudt i will but this again a must have for anbody that just whant to jam a write songs

Very easy to use, I demo'd in the store with little help from the manual (and no help from the sales staff - they didn't have a clue). It was easy, I was sold! After reading the manual and highlighting key points, I quickly became proficient, EXCEPT for using and editing the drum machine, thats ok.

The Amp modeling stinks, Fuzzy - distorted even on the "Clean" settings. Turn off COSM effects.

I come out of my Amp to any one of the inputs -or- Amp to Mixer (for multiple players and vocals) to BR-532.
I then monitor with good "flat field response" headphones. This way YOU can hear exactly what the BR-532 hears.

Very clean, no hums, no buzzes unless your equipment induces them.
What you hear is what you get.

Even though I think the COSM effects stink, I still give it a 10 because COSM is a bonus feature, not a nesessity. It sounds sooo. much better than any 4 track tape units I've used.

I've had it 3-4 months, absolutly NO problems. Nice quality feel to sliders and knobs, etc...

Great unit for the money!
However if I had it to do over I would upgrade to the BR-8 (more tracks) and for the Zip drive, (zip disc are cheaper than Smart Media) By the time I bought a PSA adapter and 3-128SM cards I could have bought the BR-8 and gained 4 more tracks and additional inputs.

This unit is so easy to use,it's shameful! The manual is OK, but the video manual is a good idea. Editing is easy, too. This unit is noise-free and the noise reduction will take all tape hiis out of cassettes, if you want to use it for transfer.Upgrade your cassette demo's!

I'm using this unit with a Korg X3 workstation, a Zoom PS-02 and assorted guitars. I mix down to a Philips CD burner. I use the rythm guide as a metronome only;I hate the drum sounds. The line in effects are prime time and highly usable. I use the Zoom for a lot of vocal and guitar sounds and even drum tracks, because Zoom has a website to upgrade new pre-sets. I wish Boss would do the same. I'm not too fond of the preset amps and stuff, but if you tweak a while, you can get close to ANYTHING. This thing is a true all in one box. It's noiseless by itself. Any noise is your own doing!

The battery life is ..FOREVER, compared to anything else. Getting a dang voltage adapter is a hafta, though. More $.I would use this unit in any and all situations, and I do. I have a back up for everything I use on stage or in the studio, but this thing is so reliable, I swear by it.

Never had to ask. They do have a web-site with a .wav file editor available.

I've recorded country,heavy metal,pop,dance, synth stuff...it all sounded clean and keepable. I'd replace it in a heartbeat if something happened to it. Zoom has more options, regarding the PS-o2;I don't know if the 1044 has the card manager. For the $, nothing comes close. Recording ideas and whole songs is a breeze and the XLR,dedicated guitar in, the line in and all the effects make this thing almost perfect. A 128 mb card is a must, although I just burn each layer of tracks to a CD, then send it back into the line input.
This thing is my best friend and keeps me up 20 hours a day, recording anything imaginable within minutes. BUY IT!!

When I first got my hand on this product, I was convinced that I will never learn how to use it. Just looking at the 117 pages in the manual got me fearful for my life! As I got into reading the user manual, I was on my way to making a recording by the end of the night. The manual is well written but can still be a bit confusing at times. In order to carry out some procedures like bouncing tracks or editing drum tracks can take about four or five steps. All these steps are not something you can figure out on your own, without the manual you are dead in the water. It was very easy to get the hang of using it, and the more time I spent making recordings with it the more simplistic I found the design to be. The unit is well laid out and fairy easy to use.

The BR-532 sounds great! It blows away the tascam porta track I was using ( well I would hope it is better, the Br-532 is $300 more expensive) When I record tracks with no effects there is very little fuzz if there is any in the first place. But as you get to using the effects processor, you wil get a sizzle in the background of some of the patches. There are 50 patches in the processor, I only like about 30 of them. Some effects are just unusable. There are a few patches like the 'acousty' acoustic simulator and the 7 string simulator that totally suck! I would never even think of using them. But the quality of the recording you will hear well makes up for the few patches in the effects processor that are less than wonderful. The effects are usable, some are much better than others but im sure with all the effects you are bound to like a few of them. You will get a cd quality recording every time, however, it will not make your $50 electric guitar that your friend found in his closet sound like a
Les Paul. All in all, most of the effects are great and the quality of the recording is outstanding.

I have not yet had any problems with it. It is very reliable. I used the batteries that came with the unit for the first day or so untill I could get my hands on an adaptor. The batteries lasted for hours, its great! I could bring this to a coffee house and record the entire thing without worring about the batteries dieing on me. However weather you like it or not you will need to upgrade the media card. The one it comes with is only good for recording 12 minuets of music.

I never had to use customer support only because I have not had a single problem with it over the three months that I had it so far

Its great! This is way better than any analog recording unit at twice the price. It is well worth every penny that I spent on it. It really dosent matter what kind of music you play, if you make music, you can record it. And there is no better way to record your music than with a boss BR-532. I love how easy it is to use and how you dont have to deal with any tape. It has dramaticly improved the way I write and record music.

Easy to use, manual not bad.

I don't have any experience with COSM effects, but I found the amp models to be AWFUL. Someone else said they heard a faint buzz behind even clean sounds, and I heard that too. Weird. I am a devoted POD user, and these COSM sounds are downright terrible by comparison.

Reverbs and delays, choruses are all ok.

I found the drum sounds also to be extremely mid-80's drum machine-like. Inexplicable. I've not liked Boss drum machines I've used in the past. Just cheesy. Unusable for anything but a rough demo.

I've been looking for an under-$600 digital recorder. I first tried out a PS-02 by Zoom. Very, very nice little unit for $300. Drum sounds waaaay better than this, and amp models probably a bit better. I returned the Zoom to Mars to try this Boss unit, and after about 30 minutes, I'm taking it back (worked with the Zoom for a whole month...I may still go back to that.)

I thought that for $100 more the 4th track (Zoom only has 3 to start out, but of course infinite bouncing capabilities), Boss quality, slightly bigger packaged Smartmedia card, it might be worth it. No way. Very disappointed. Maybe if you used an external drum machine and external amp models, this unit might be fine (it is, after all, a digital RECORDER). My point is only that the Zoom, for $100 less, is a better unit overall. I had thought about trying the higher end Boss BR-8, but after this one, nope.

I may try the new Zoom MRS-1044, with 15 GB hard drive and built in actual drum machine, but it's $700.

Be sure and audition this before you actually buy!