Boss BR-532

I've read a lot of opinions that say you can start recording on this thing without looking at the manual. Well, that is true to a point. To make full use of the unit, some heavy manual time is in order. I recommend that you don't start working on your "masterpiece" right out of the box. Try some simple things and get used to bouncing things around and playing with all of the bells and whistles. You may lose a track or two... don't panic. It gets easier.

It's digital, so 99% of the noise you hear in your recordings is coming from your guitar, effects, amp, etc. and not the unit.

I have only had the unit for about a month.

Have not dealt with them.

This is an awesome unit. It's the logical step up from analog cassette multi-tracks without having to gut you PC to do digital recording. Highly recommended.

I'm a gear-head and IMO a box can't have too many *real* buttons and knobs. In that sense I wasn't disappointed. The controls have a great feel, buttons snappy and knobs thick, and everything is arranged smartly. I prefer minimalist LCD displays and for me the 532's is near perfect. The display has very nice contrast at a working angle with big bold characters, exactly the way I like it. Menu system is ok, about as good as it can be, but nothing to brag about. Same general feel as the 8. One continual annoyance though is the use of an underscore to highlight selected items, which is often difficult to see with the box sitting on my keyboard. Reverse characters would be better. Also I don't like the way the selected tracks switch automatically after you bounce making the bounce tracks current (I heard it at mixdown don't need to hear it again!!). That has tripped me up a couple of times. Finally the use of screws to fasten the SmartMedia card protector was a BAD idea. My card gets swapped a lot so guess what, the screws are sitting on a shelf and will get lost eventually. Manual is decent but is arranged strangely. The answer was always in there somewhere. All in all with the exception of a few to be expected menu system annoyances it's well designed and a joy to use when you get the hang of it.

Oddly enough I use the 532 for recording keyboard not guitar. I have run line-in through the COSM processor for some interesting effects (you first have to reconfigure input routing in an obscure menu), but they don't contribute much to me other than mindless amusement. Dry playback quality is excellent, as good when not better than any magnetic media I've used. Loop effects are ok with a nice chorus but the reverb being less than desirable. Bah. Sound Quality is what you'd expect from digital media no real complaints.

Other than the annoying auto track switch thing that could potentially cause you to lose tracks it has been rock solid for me so far. Just don't drop it. (a metal chassis would be excellent Mr. BOSS dudes...)

Heh give me a break why would you need customer support for this thing??

The 532 has met all of my expectations for a 4 track digital recorder from Roland. A fun little box, well thought out and packed with stuff to tinker with. If I was a guitarist I think I'd be in love with it. It'll be a classic unit someday.

Plain and simple - Cakewalk takes me 6-8 hours to lay down a decent song...the BR-532 takes 1.5 to 2 hours and sounds better. Cakewalk has more options but if your looking for that "WOW" factor, get a BR-532.

I use a $150 Mars Music Washburn (it sounds better for metal than my Les Paul Studio) into a J-Station because it gives me great harmonics. The effects sound excellent if you've never used a J-Station (kinda like black and white TV being great until you see a color TV). I just like a wall of sound.

As long as you don't use it as a jack stand while changing a tire it should hold up.

Never dealt with the company but I've heard their good to deal with.

This thing is truely incredible but can be complicated. The manual is pretty good at smoothing out the rough spots and just watching the video included with it saved me a lot of time learning how to use it. I've been playing for about 30 years (Dinosaur Rock - AC/DC, Montrose, Cinderella ect.) Bottom Line - We live in an incredible point in time and if you want to embrace technology instead of fight it then pick up one of these units. Those voices in your head may be ideas for your first or next album!

Relatively easy to use if you have ever used an analog multitrak machine. Manual is not the greatest....have to do a lot of trial and error on more complicated editing.

Great sound !!! Of course my background is an old analog cassette deck. Some of the effects are not very clean but overall with some
tweaking I can lay down some really pleasing sounds.

I have only had it for two weeks.

Have not used yet.

This machine is a great match for me...I am a recreational guitar/banjo player. I am not professional and like to play for a hobby. This machine sounds great and does not require a bank loan to own. I give it a nine because: 1) It doesn't come with a power supply...you have to order separately...how cheesy can you get. 2) Boss supplies you with a 32mb smart card....after you record hello on it you cannot really do any serious editing...you need at least a 64mb card. Once more can you say cheesy (cheap). 3) The manual really does not explain all of the features.

It is easy to get a good sound for a simple demo if you are not too picky. However, I found the "clean" sound is not really clean in the first few preset guitar patches. Need some editing to get good clean sound. The acoustic simulator is good for single coil pickup on my Ibenze RG550EX. The manual is simple and straight forward. The bass simulator is also very convincing. I don't need to plug in my bass guitar for demo purpose unless I need snap and pop.

I have a Yamaha MD4S now and have 2 Fortex multi-track recorder before therefore I found this unit is really simple to use. The bouncing of tracks is a piece of cake and the setup of rhythm track is also very easy.

I have several guitars (E.Guitar:Ibenze RG550EX, Charvel CXM-DLX / Acoustic Guitar: Yamaha APX6A, Yamaha APX6NA / Bass Guitar: ESP B104). The internal COSM effect in BR532 is already adequate for E. Guitar sounds for quick recordings. However, when I have time, I will process my E guitar thru my Zoom GFX-8 or Boss ME-33 because I have some good patches there.

For bass guitar, I use the Zoom BFX-708 or Korg Pandora PBX-3 for effect. Direct plug in is also acceptable because the insert / loop effect in BR-532 is good enough for normal recordings. (I am not a good bass guitarist and not very demanding on bass sound. I am looking for a good balanced and smooth bass sound as the backbone of the song.)

For acoustic guitar, I will (in fact a must) to process through the Zoom 504 II in order to get thick and warm sound. The COSM effect is not for acoustic guitar, sadly.

About Mic in, I am using a AKG D3800S and process vocal by the Zoom RFX-2000. The RFX-2000 is excellent to process vocal for semi-pro home studio setup. I found the insert effect in BR532 is not so useful unless you want some robot sounds or heavily effected sounds. This is quite disappointing.

For line in, I don't see the need to add effect as my keyboard and sound module have internal effect unit. If they are still insufficient, I will add the Zoom RFX-2000 or Yamaha REV100 for mastering. (I own Korg Triton, Roland XP-30, Roland JV-880, E-mu Proteus FX, Boss DR770, Zoom RT323 and other gears. I am using a Roland M12E mixer and a Mackie MZL1202 mixer).

The unit is not noisy at all at reasonable input level. If there are any noises, they are induced by me instead of BR532. Certainly, for analog input, you can expect hiss and hum if you boost the sensitivity and input level to maximum. I can tell the unit is very quiet because for line input, it is still silent when I turn the input level to maximum.

About the loop effect, it is very useful to do the final mix-down especially if you are using the internal drum machine. By apply different effect level on individual tracks, you can creat the desired dimension of the final mix-down.

I have try the out put in my open air headphone, mini-speaker, and Hi-Fi. All sound good.

I cannot give a 10 for sound quality because the sound quality is depending on the source of recording. As the unit can capture my original sound without any noticable distortion or deterioration, I will give in a 8. The 2 point deduction is due to the not so good insert effect for mic input.

Boss products haven't turned me down in the past 10 years. Also, the battery life for this unit is good. I can depend on it for rehearsal or demo recording. For serious projects, I will use my MD4S. Smart Media card's capacity is limited. Even using a 128M card, you can save only 3 or 4 songs if you use all four tracks, do some bouncing, not mention if you keep several virtual tracks..

N/A

I am not attaching to specific style of music. I don't like hip hop, dance, rap, ... one word, loop-based music. I know it requires a lot of skills and creativity to do good loop-based music, but I just don't like it. Other than that, I play heavy rock, pop rock, blues, jazz, fusion, and even classical (I also play piano and violin). I started playing guitar 17 years ago.

If I lost this unit, I will buy it again for the portability and user-friendlyness, also for the value-for-the-money. Or, I will upgrade to BR8 for the Zip drive and 8x8 tracks flexibility.

This unit is a great design that integrated COSM effect, digital multi-track recorder, flexible drum machine, and portability into one unit. I wish that Boss can supply with this unit a PSU and a bundle software to download song data to my PC for easy arrangement. Of course, if this unit have a USB port will be excellent. But, for less than $400, what could I expect?

I have compared this unit with Korg's new PXR4. The weak point in PXR4 is the poor implementation of rhythm guide. BR-532 really gives you a drum machine (although limited patterns) with intro, verse 1,2, fill-in 1,2 and ending, and break. Really useful for making demo or casual production. In PXR4, you only provided a rhythm guide like other Pandora PX? products. For songwriting, a good drum track really helps a lot. For Zoom PS-02, if you have go to Zoom homepage and listen to the demo, you won't buy it unless you love its small size. For the price of PS-02, I don't accept the sound quality. For below $400, I don't see other competitor for BR532.

This unit really helps me make music. I completed my first song (I re-arrange an old song) on it within the first 2 hours after I started using it. With this unit, my productivity will increase dramatically. The only problem is after I confirm the setting of final mix, I need to dub the record to my MD and erase the song for valuable memory on the SM card. As I said before, for serious production or for projects I need to keep or process some period of time, I will use the Yamaha MD4S. This unit is excellent for quick demo or capturing musical ideas.

One salesman in the shop don't know this product. He is a new guy in the guitar section. After I demonstrate how easy to make songs with this unit, he decide to buy one too. I open the box in the shop and within 10 minutes, I finished a 16 bars record with drum, rhythm guitar and lead guitar. All I have is the BR-532, with the 6 supplied 2A battery, a guitar in the shop and a cable. I was so impressed by the built-in effect and drum machine. So was the salesman and people around.

Try it out yourself.

Well, quite easy to use even without reading the manual .
Everything is in the boss tradition. I used to have a GX700 and it had the same "logic" in the menus . So yes, I guess we can say it's easy to use .

I have it only for 5 days and recorded one only song for the moment, so I didn't check every "sound quality" that are available . Still the "std" one is already very good, and I don't think I will use the Hi-Fi or the Lo-Fi ones . I really use it to record ideas and demo songs, so I don't need a Studio quality but what this machine offers is very very convincing . Even when I bounced many tracks together I didn't hear any difference .
The only bad thing I could say concerns some drum sounds (heavy : horrible), but I found some that please me, so overall I'm happy .

I have many other boss products and never had any problem with them .
Another good rate !

No problems, so no support needed .

I play rock songs in the Grandaddy, Beatles style and the BR532 fits perfectly to what i wanted : Rapid recorded things, with vocals, keyboards, guitar and drum machine . I also own an 8 tracks direct to disk (fostex D 108), with a mixing desk (Spirit SX), etc ... But since I've been playing (10 years) I've always wanted my musical things to be done fast and in this way the BR532 is right made for me . I use the "real" studio for my band and more complete things .
Boss could have put a bigger memory card in the bundle (because you won't record more than one song on the original card), but Smart-Media are not that expensive ...
In the end I can say I'm very happy with this little thing :
- It's not expensive
- It's light and small
- It does what I want .
What could I want more ?

Been away for one year and havn`t used a multi track since analogue, I have always wanted my own. Considered buying a really good analogue for the price of a cheap digital. BELIEVE ME NOW GO DIGITAL! you will be able to do the things you only dreamed of doing a few years ago. No more worrying about running out of tracks or poor quality sound. No fuzz, no limitations and thats with a four track machine. Don`t need a bigger machine for better recording (theres 32 tracks, go on mix it down with no quality loss) just a bigger card -cheap as dirt 64mb, 42 bucks smartmedia, camera shops! This puppy has a good effects box, good rythym guide and is brilliant to use. Its not supposed to be a toy for those ignorant people out there. Just use your common sense and the manual is just fine. You will learn very very quickly and be pleasently surprised every step of the way. Beguinner? Take it slow then, learn a little more each time you use it.

To make great sounding songs is so easy. It is unbelievable to think what one can do with just this unit anywere -in the bog, up a mountain, on the train. If you can`t make a good sounding song on this and claim you need a bigger, more expensive machine with even more effects then you simply are not very creative. Ask yourself, why use ad hoc excuses for your flops? its not the unit its you! your friends will ulitimately define whats good or not. Just plug in someones` minidisc, record it (identical sound-its digital), pass it to your mates or play it at dinner and pretend its not you for true feedback.

Pefect quality, perfect recording studio. 270 pounds, yup 270 pounds look around. You get a digital studio, effects box, drum machine, 4*8 tracks with loads of icing on top.

Get a grip, get into digital, get this beast.

In theory, I`m a beguinner too. It Doeasn`t mean your stupid though- use you head.

Perfect. Its digital. You can`t get better sound and you shoudln`t or wouldn`t want better to be honest.

Effects are fine, Your ear defines whats good or not. Bluntly there not bad and you can muck about with them. Effects don`t make great songs but these are great effects.

Just plug in your guitar, I use my cheap electric acoustic Washburn (which I picked up in Asia, 55 bucks) and the Shure mike I got when I bought it as a deal for 300 total!-yup. sweet and easy to use anyware. Don`t need an amp. Headphones or plug it into your stereo. Easy mate. Great sound, ohh yeh.

Plug in your CD player to record bits of stuff for throwing in your songs at the end. Your mates will never believe it you, trust me.

Get yourself a power supply and save the batteries for moving around the house or recording a cheeky part on a friends piano etc.

I would use it for the backing tracks at gigs yeh!

Take care of it though, and don`t throw the smartcards around like CDS and it will be just fine. It your new baby, be good to it.

Customer support. Not yet, got a good three year warrenty by Roland though. Nice. There are loads of web pages and people out there to help if you look.

I have said enough. Its fine and it all you need. You want to make prefect sounding songs whether they be covers or original? good. Be creative, have a laugh, learn tricks, impress.....

Its digital and musically you can do anything from now on with the BOSS BR 532.

Ultimately you make a song good, the unit will deliver. If it doesn`t, stop wasting your time pretending your musically talented, music is just not for you really. Sorry, its true. Get a Playstation instead!

Ok, I'm new to the world of digital recording and have to admit that the last time I used a four track recorder was back in the eighties. The BR 532, was a shock to the system. It might have been designed for Space Shuttle pilots as far as I am concerned. The sounds that I found for guitar were mostly good, but some of the 'accoustic' sounds were just turned-down, electric guitar sounds. The bass simulation is mostly unstable and it is not recommended that you try and play more than one note at the same time. It freaks out otherwise and sounds like people throwing tea trays around in a cafeteria. I liked the sounds in the Rythmn Guide and found them to be clean and energetic. I imagined that I would be able to intuit learning to use the BR 532, and through sheer luck, I manged to cobble together about 16 bars of music on three tracks. But I couldn't get the darn rythmn guide to play continiously beyond that point. Here, I am sorry to say I am clueless. I turned to the manual, but I have to say the manual was pretty hopeless too. I suspect that for the seasoned digital recordist, the manual would make perfect sense but, hey wait a minute, what about us beginners? I would have thought that Boss would have put a bit more effort into their user manual, and gave some consideration to beginners here. For example, if they created a scenario whereby the user can see, step by step, how to get beyond putting in the batteries, plugging in the guitar/mic and recording a simple track. I would liked the manual to have described putting a basic song together - including using the V track, and saving the finished product. There seems to be no apparent 'save the whole song' function, and there is nothing in the manual that I can see that describes accurately or with any detail how to get a finished song onto one's computer. I bought a new cat-door for my pet recently. It came complete with a video describing how to assemble it. I think Boss could be a little more caring about their end-users and supply a better means of explaining how the BR 532 operates. Why not supply a CD with their product that us amatuers can put into our computers and watch a Quicktime movie or something?
I almost feel that Boss put more effort into designing the box the thing came in, than into their manual.
As regards a firmware revision number, I claim total ignorance of any such thing

Although I have not arrived at the point where I have worked out how to put a song together, save it, or get it onto my computer via the 'Smart'card, I am very impressed with most of the settings and richness of the soundscape one can conjure up by using, 'Pan and 'Doubl'n etc. I think some of the guitar sounds are hot and really help one to almost become a different guitarist, especially on lead guitar work. I like about half of the factory distortions, the rest sound like a tractor with a blown gasket. Still, I am very impressed overall.

I would love to use the BR 532 at a gig but would be a little too nervous of losing settings, or worse still standing on the thing.

Boss, had little apparent online support and searches for the BR 532 on their sites often proved fruitless. I have not yet been reduced to calling them one on one for answers to my questions. I hope it will not be like trying to get through to the DMV or some similar deliberately clunky institution. Still, in all fairness to Boss, I will reserve jugdgement about their live customer service until I actually have to call them.

On the wish list part of all this, I would love Boss to think about the beginner and supply a fuller, more comprehensible manual, CD rom or video. Oh! And it's about time they threw in a PSA adaptor for those of us are forced to buy non-mains based appliances from them.

Coming from a cassette-based multritracking background, recording, editing, and bouncing tracks on this unit is a cinch. Editing the COSM presets is easy, but navigating the menus can be a little cumbersome at times because the display is so small. If you're new to multitrack recording, I don't think the manual is very helpful; doesn't seem to be written for beginners, but it is thorough. (Except I can't find where it says if it's okay to use the wall wart power supply with batteries installed.) Editing the COSM presets can be as simple (using presets) or as complex as you want (creating numerous user presets).

The bundled 32MB SmartMedia card was usefull for about the first day. My V-tracks used up all the memory while recording my first song, so I had to delete the "Crank It Up" demo song. I STRONGLY suggest using only 64MB and larger cards.

I record electric guitar and bass with my Ibanez RG470, using the COSM amp modeling and bass guitar simulator. I love the COSM modeling, except I hear a faint buzzing sound when using the JC120 model; not a problem because I usually record overdriven guitar tones. The phaser, chorus, and reverbs sounds great, and the doubler (DOUBL'N) is a time-saver when recording thick rhythm tracks. For recording vocals and acoustic guitar, I use Shure SM58 and SM57 dynamic mics, respectively. Maybe I need to tweak the EQ a little, but vocals tracks sound somewhat "tinny." Of course, the mic isn't a studio mic, and I've heard that large-diaphragm condenser mics can improve the tone immensely, especially when run through an affordable vacuum tube preamp like the ART MP1. Because I record mainly as a hobby, I can do without those expenses right now. I love the drum samples!!!

I'm concerned that a few of the most-used little buttons will eventually stick or pop out. I suspect, however, that it will last as long as any other delicate digital device in a plastic housing. It's not meant to be thrown or stomped on, so, having used many durable Boss products, I'm sure this unit will always meet my needs.

I haven't needed human support yet, but I like the web site and manual. Both include many phone numbers, so I'm assuming that people acutually answer those phones.

RE: the price, I got a discount from a friend who owns a music store. Even with a $400 street price, the BR-532 is an amazing value and a powerful songwriting tool. I suspect that recording through a good condenser mic and tube preamp could yield professional-quality results, which is an amazing feat for such a compact, portable device.

The jog control is fantastic and it is larger than its competitors the PS-02 from Zoom and PXR4 from Korg. Since it has extra realestate you get some extra control buttons which are handy. The display is kinda dinky though.

No matter what I did, I couldn't overcome a tiny little sizzel on any guitar setting where the built-in amp simulation was engaged. Turning down input sensitivity and level, rolling back the guitar volume or changing to clean presets didn't help. I could never get into the unit because of this defect. Turn off the amp sim (leaving the other effects) and it goes away. Built-in drums sound like crap and the preset effects for guitar are uninteresting beyond belief. The Zoom PS-02 clobbers it in terms of guitar tone.
It also has a bass simulator that is terrible. If you play two notes at one time, one of them is dead wrong, completely different from what you played. Stop the second note and the other one snaps into place. Its not like a simple octave effect, but it sounds like its trying to do pitch detection and failing miserably.

This is a competitor to the Zoom PS-02, which I also own or the Korg PXR4 which I owned briefly. If all you wanted was a little smartmedia recorder and you had some other effects unit for guitar, this might be great. I don't believe my unit was defective because the sizzle was very consistent and quite low in volume, but you know its there. If it had better tone (and decent drum sounds) it might really be a gem, but if you want an all-in-one sketchpad go with the Zoom PS-02. It clobbers this thing. I sold my PS-02 to get either a PXR4 or BR532 and man was I sorry. I rebought another PS02 off ebay. I'm really disappointed with Boss for letting this thing out the door with such an uniteresting guitar effects unit, let alone the sizzle issue.