In a football (US) analogy, Boss has moved the ball way downfield with the BR-532, but, IMO, they are still one fumble and a few yards short of the goal line.
First, the progress. Like the BR-8, the BR-532 is very simply laid out and very easy to use. It's got almost everything one would want in a digital porta-studio:
Small size, onboard FX, onboard drum machine, good sound quality, digital outs, Inst, Line, and XLR ins, virtual tracks, ability to run on batteries, low price. In fact, if you don't care about what's below, this might be your dream box. Read on...
The fumble, which makes the BR-532 unusable for me, is that the AB loop function does not loop correctly. It stutters when it returns from point B to point A.
The folks at Boss apparently considered only the case where A < In < Out < B and the user was interested merely in getting some amount of lead-in before a punch. In other words, A and B are slop points and it's In and Out that matter. Well, that's sufficient for setting up punch-ins, but, depending on your preferences, it's not necessarily good for practicing your solo before you record it. Say if you set up 16 bars to loop for awhile so you can get down the wailing you want to do over it. Unfortunately, every time it loops around, instead of giving you a rock-solid 16 bar loop, it hiccups. Audio, drums, everything hiccups. For me, this was a deal-breaker, YMMV.
Just short of the goal: the BR-532 <always> exits record at the end of a punch or AB loop. Why is this a problem? I suppose it depends on how you want to work. Personally, I want to play, play, play (x8 or more) (making mental notes on good takes), and then audition at the end. Unfortunately, the only sequence permitted is play, audition, play, audition, play, audition, ad infinitum. IOW, given the 8 virtual tracks, I'd like to be able to set up a loop and fill those 8 virtual tracks without ever leaving Record or removing my hands from the guitar. To round out that wish, I'd like the unit to offer me the option of either kicking out of Record after the 8 virtual tracks are full, or simply recycling back to V-track 1 automatically and letting me record 8 more takes, stomping on the old tracks one-by-one as long as I keep recording.
Also short of the goal: Menus don't wrap around. Come on Boss, this is the third millenium already. All menus should wrap, on all gear, all the time, without exception. Please take note.
Finally, where I'd really like this product to go: fix the above, keep the same size and add 4 more tracks (with a track flip button), and add 8-ch ADAT I/O (or at least ADAT out). Do I hear an AMEN?
Good. IMO, the guitar FX are very usable for practice and composition. The Drums sound very good too.
It's lightweight. It's plastic. It's what I would expect for a unit not made to be stepped on - but a padded transport case in every box would be nice!
Will there be a software upgrade? Is that even possible. I don't know...
Pretty astounding, price/performance wise, but with serious caveats depending on how you like to work.
This box could be made perfect. I hope that in the future it is.
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