Boss BR-600

No previous experience of recording but wanted something that I could use to record live gigs, a bit backing work and to help with a sound FX drama class.

Despite nearly going for Fostex due to other critiques, I found it very easy to use (decent recording to tracks within half an hour of reading the manual).

The manual is very helpful for those first time queries and once you understand the menu abbreviations you are away and running.

Easy and intuitive editing of effects fields such as reverb, chorus etc.

REALLY impressed with the two built-in mics. Used it on batteries to record a live gig and was really impressed by the sound quality. With no effects it really recreated the atmosphere and picked up fine detail that was lost on the night.

The built-in FX are very effective. I only really use the vocal effects although the guitar and line in effects are expansive. Vocal FX in real-time are amongst the best I've heard and are all editable.

I wouldn't recommend throwing it about but it comes with a bag to stop scratches etc. I carry it in an aluminium case so have no worries about that. I have no experience of the value wheel failing and hope that it doesn't turn out to have been "value quality"

No experience

Glad I didn't buy the Fostex. I went for this as it came wit hdrums on board and decent effects. Despite the view that the menu system is complex I think you'll find it intuitive and easy to understand first time as long as you have the manual to hand.

My 5 year old now knows how to record to a track - what more can I say.

Headphone output is good quality and volume - I also use this as a line out for a PA when listening back...

Really useful bit of kit for recording live or in the home studio - really helps with creativity.

Shame it doesn't ship with a PSU. Upgrade to a 1GB card was easy - stocked at Maplin - Type 1 CF Card - easy.

This is not the easiest thing for beginners however the guide is pretty good and you can be familiar with the thing after a week or so.
Would be much better if just more buttons installed, just to make easy to go through menus or adjust EQ or effects. Installed "value" rotary switch is not bad but if works, mine actually gave up after a month or so :-(
LED also could be twice bigger to display levels and time at the same time.

I thing record quality is very good , some effects are also cool and there are lot of them. Including voice effects and lo fi. Guitars various lead effects , acoustics simulation and few bass , with my favorite tube simulation. for sure in comparison to real amp sound rather can't compare but rel. to $that's OK.
Drum souds very good and there some good options too , what is very practical is software for patterns editing where you can much easily do the job. Also you can make you special drum sound if you want.

Here unfortunately I must complain, so after a month or so "value" rotary swittch gave up. Or actually it doesn;t fuction well so skip values down, this makes me really mad , I din't send it back casue I need it all the time , but here is big shame for "boss" to sell such a crap

I don't have much experience with recording both on PC and HW mixer, however I've been looking for simple&small thing in one piece to record demo's or ideas. The thing is very small so I used to program drum in a bed.
There are plenty of effects for GT or bass, mic are also nice maybe except when you want play at the same time GT and mic, than choices are very limited. B
Built in mic. are good enough to sing and record nice sound, however not for lound or live performance.
I wonder why it is not supply with AC/DC power (40$ plus) Don;t think you can survive on batteries it eats up in a 2 hours.
Memory cards are still avaliable and inexpencive I didn't have issue with that (remember to do a backup to PC)
Overall it is cool thing, especially for guy like me who play with a friend without drummer and want to record ideas or pre paths to jam along with it.

The main reason I'd recommend this product is if you're one of those guys who shaves his head and you're tired of spending money on razors. One week of trying to find, initialize and use the virtually obsolete memory cards that these things use will have you pulling out your hair. This is a great piece of equipment. The versatility and possibilities with it are amazing and almost limitless. However, it only takes 1 GB cards, which almost NO ONE carries. You can order them on line but, one wonders how long these things will be available. The Lexar flash cards (which the instructions say are compatible) that we bought didn't work. Not only that, it doesn't come with an AC adaptor so, that $400.00 or whatever you spend on the machine is just the beginning. Top it all off with the fact that Roland's customer service people are about as condescending as they come and it just make me wish I'd spent another $65 on something with Pro-Tools. Verdict: While I love Boss pedals, avoid this thing like a beating.

HOPE YOU LIKE MENUS AS THERE ARE ALOTTTTTTTTTTTT TO GO THRU BUT IT IS QUITE INTUITIVE (SORT OF) GETTING IT TO WORK FIRST TIME WAS EASY AND IT IS VERY QUICK TO SET UP AND PUT DOWN IDEAS WHICH IT EXCELS AT.WISH THE DISPLAY WAS BIGGER BUT FOR 300+ EUROS WHAT DO YOU EXPECT. YOU WILL USE THE MANUAL(ALL 226PAGES)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVEN MORE THAN THIS AS THE OINION THAT IS THE BR600 HAS MANY LAYERS TO PEEL. THE MANUAL IS EXACTLY THE SIZE OF THE UNIT AND ALMOST AS THICK.

TAKES A LOT OF WORK TO GET A DECENT SOUND HAVEN'T GOT THERE YET AFTER A MONTH WITH IT BUT I AM CONFIDENT IT WILL DO THE BUSINESS YOU JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT A LITTLE(WHOLE LOT OF TWEAKING GOIN ON)IT SEEMS TO BE LACKING IN THE MIDDLE TO HIGH FREQUENCY RANGE.WHY COULDN'T THE 8 FADERS DOUBLE AS AN EQUALIZER AS WELL (ONE FOR THE TECH HEADS IN BOSS) THERE ARE SO MANY DIFFERENT SOUNDS TO TWEAK IT TAKES TIME TO GET TO WHAT YOU WANT.THE COSM GUITAR AND DRUMS SOUNDS ARE GREAT. THE STEREO MIKES ON-BOARD ARE REALLY GOOD AND VERY USABLE AND SOUND REMARKABLY GOOD GREAT FOR RECORDING ACOUSTIC AND VOCALS.I THINK THE COMPRESSION OF THE SOUND IS QUITE HIGH AND THIS AFFECTS THE DYNAMICS AND HENCE THE LACK OF PUNCH IN THE SOUND.

I WOULN'T SAY "HERE CATCH" IF I WERE YOU
TREAT IT LIKE A LAPTOP DON'T DROP
HOPEFULLY THE SELECTOR WHEEL ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE UNIT WILL STAND THE TEST OF TIME AS YOU USE THIS A LOT.

WEBSITE IS GOOD YOU CAN DOWNLOAD DEMO'S AND THE MANUAL AND WORK SHOPS ETC BUT I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH REPAIRS ETC AND HOPEFULLY WONT , MOST OF BOSS'S STUFF USUALLY LASTS.

I PLAY INDIE TO BLUES TO JAZZ WITH AN OCCASIONAL EXCURSION TO METAL
THE KEY THING ABOUT THIS LITTLE GEM IS ITS ACCESSIBILITY.YOU COULD WRITE THE GUTS OF A SONG IN AN HOUR WITH THIS MACHINE AND THATS IT MAIN PURPOSE FOR ME ITS GREAT AND I HAVE WROTE MORE IN A MONTH THAN IN THE LAST 6 WORKING WITH COMPUTER SOFTWARE (IT JUST TAKES TO LONG TO SET UP)SO I LOVE THIS MACHINE A LOT. THE ONLY BUMMER IS THE AVAILABILITY OF TYPE ONE COMPACT FLASH CARDS. WE'VE MOVED ON FROM THIS TYPE OF CARD FOR A YEAR OR TWO AS MOST CARDS ARE TYPE 2 WHICH ARE ABOVE THE 1GB MARK.LUCKILY I GOT 5 1GB CARDS ON http://www.expansys.ie/ FOR ABOUT 40 EURO SO THAT WAS GREAT BUT I THINK BOSS NEEDS TO POST (HELLO IS ANYBODY LISTENING) AN UPDATE SO HIGHER CAPACITY CARDS CAN BE USED AS THE OLD CARDS ARE HARD TO COME BY.I TRIED MOST SHOPS IN DUBLIN AND NO GO.

its fairly self explanatory. you just have to sit and **** with it for alittle bit. i bought a boss drum machine and the digital effects are kindof setup the same way so it made it alittle bit easier. as far as ease of use goes.... you can really spend alot of time tweeking effects and other fine details that you like. though i just like to plug in and record. theres a bit of learning curve which isn't always a bad thing. but i did have to look at the manual a bit. 9.0

bottom line --> you get what you pay for. the sound quality is decent, but unless your running through a bunch of pedals and already have an awesome tone before you plug in....the tone may be different. the sound quality from the unit itself Okay. You can make the sound quality alittle better by tweeking settings. its nothing too fabulous...but its good enough to use when you want to just get the rough version of whatever your doing. for sound quality overall i give it a 8 because for the most part the noise is fairly minimal. though its not "10 pristine" perfect...

I would say all Boss products are reliable based on my experience with them. the pedals being the toughest. but as long you don't drop the unit or spill anything on it, or do anything else to **** it up it should last you. i don't travel or take my recorder anywhere so that eliminates most of the wear and tear. i bought mine new and it came with a cool carrying pouch. but if i ever did take it anywhere i would definitely find a box with some kind of padding for it.

i've never dealt with them.

i still have some to learn with the BR-600 so it will take a little more time to know it inside and out. Overall, I'm really satisfied with buying it because its easy to use and I see my song writing skills getting better before i should need to buy something a little nicer.

My only real complaint about the product is the compact flash card. I bought a 1 gig card separately. I also bought the psa adapter separately too. so be prepared to shelf out some extra dollars if you want more recording space for the unit and a consistent power supply. The last recorder i had was a Fostex 4 track. the br-600 was about maybe $280 more but god it was so much ******* better.

if your looking for a top notch recorder look elsewhere and plan on spending more money. you have to consider all the extra gear you might need also like a mixer, compressor, equalizers and all kinds of expensive **** if you want to mix your sound as well as record it. you can't really do a whole lot of mixing with the br-600 settings. If your more of a minimalist like I am, then this unit might be it for you. my main thing is just plug in and record.

also i think if your resourceful enough you can push alot more worth out the br-600 than you might think. you just have to sit on it and think for a while to figure it out.

the boss 600 manual is difficult to understand for the novice recorder. its hard enough to understand for someone who has experience with recording. However, once one learns to use all the features , it's pretty neat.

I've had a bit of DAW experience and once owned a TASCAM 4-track cassette recorder. I was able to boot this thing up and almost immediately have an understanding of how everything worked. The interface is intuitive and well laid out. I haven't worked with the drum kit options yet- so I may change my mind on "ease of use" later...

One quick note... I did lose my mind for a minute and bounce some harmony vocals over the top of my guitar track. Luckily- the BR-600 has an undo feature... and it WORKED. Saved me a lot of time.

Right now I'm working on making simple songwriter demos. Drums (imported loops from Drums on Demand), Acoustic Guitar, Bass (used built in Bass effect with my guitar), and Vocals (used built in microphone).

Blown away by the internal mic. Better than the phantom powered mic I use with my DAW (Sound Forge and Line 6 UX). Got a bit of a crackle with my guitar plugged in at first, but I managed to dial it in clean. The built in effects (Bass simulation, Vocal effects) that I used were fantastic.

So far so good... no crashes or errors.

don't know

I play Alt-Country, Traditional Country, Roots type music. The BR-600 is a good match for just about anything I'm going to throw at it.

If it were lost or stolen I'd probably buy another one.

I compared it mainly with field recorders because I wanted something portable. I also wanted multi-track. The main competition was the Zoom H4 because it has phantom power (which I really wanted). After hearing the very good quality of the internal mic though, I'm fine without using an external mic for vocals.

I wish it had phantom power, and the ability to use larger memory cards. I wish it had come with a wall wart. For the next generation of this machine, I'd hope they'd switch to cheaper SD cards, or even just have an 8GB internal drive (and wifi support). Still, this is unbeatable for the price and quality.

You definitely want to read the manual before using this recorder, but once you start using it, it is very intuitive.

The built-in mics are great for recording both voice and acoustic guitar.
The variety of effects for electric guitar (and voice) and astounding from such a small unit.

Has been reliable so far. No hard-drive to fail gives this recorder a big plus over similarly-priced recorders.

Have not dealt with CS.

For a home recordist/small band wanting demos, a better recorder can't be found for this money. For a few hundred dollars more, you might got wiht the BR900CD which has a buiilt-in CD burner.

Got this BR-600 a month ago and I'm using it to tape jams with several friends. Guitar, bass, clarinet ... and friend metal band.

It is easy of use if you have appropriate wiring and hardware to do dual playback ! Seriously, its easy to tape something but to sync yourself and friends with drums is tricky ! The fact that there is just a single headphone output is a lack ! Considering buying a headphone splitter to simplify things !

There are no firmware update known.

The manual is redundant and thicker than the device ... this always surprise friends unpacking the device for the first time !

I've made some trys but this doesnt sound as I want, yet. This isn't Br-600 fault, I'm new at recording ... and mastering. A lot of possibility means a lot of liberty and the device let you record crap ... if you do so !

I still have a lot to learn ...

The quality of built-in mics is amazing in my sennheiser hd437 headphones.

About clarinet taping :
I've read a lot on the internet and found out that its very difficult to catch every vibration of that wood instrument. I've taped a little jam session yesterday(clarinet-class. guitar) with my girlfriend and she was very pleased with what she heared. Stereo is cool !

Effects processor : Some presets are strange ... I wont use 90% of them. But the quality is there anyhow. BTW, effects cant be better than your instrument. Electro-Cutaway-Classical Takamine, Bolt-on epiphone Les Paul ... Delay on the clarinet make me feels like I'm on acid !

I really love to put effects on drums to sim double-kick.

Final word, this device lack one thing, 24 bit recording ... this means that you cannot pretend to tape DVD or HD sound like pro stuff like tascam. If you don't matter, sound is A1 !

Compared to a laptop recording solution, the Br-600 is very reliable !

Consider 2 things before going field-gig recording :
ENERGY AND MEMORY

If you plan these two parameters accordingly, the BR-600 will meet your needs !

BUT !!!! 1GB memory is a little short for someone going away from a desktop computer... like, for a week festival...

1GB memory is "back order" in most mainstream stores and there is no word from ROLAND engineers about using recent 2GB, 4GB and 8GB memory.
Rush onto EBAY !

Compact flash compatibility list should have been updated !
PLEASE BOSS, ROLAND, someone, HELP !
128MB included card is great but isn't enough !

I*Net forums are great to get some clues.
I've read somewhere that some people we're having troubles with 2GB card and some others getting it to work with 4GB.

Which brand of compact flash work NOW ?
UPDATE br-600 FAQ PLEASE !

I play several style of music since 1998. (10 years now)
Techno-Indy, duets, folk, metal, punk, blues and jazz.

Br-600 is a good match if you have appropriate wiring and microphones to meet your needs. Consider following components to be versatile : 2x 1/8 to 1/4 jack, RCA to 1/8, 2M. RCA cable, a second xlr to 1/4, 2 good headphones, a monitoring stereo(RCA Input) and a USB cable !

Considering USB, if your record with a computer by the side, I strongly recommand you download the WAV importer software !!!!!!
MUSIC IS RECORDED IN BOSS PROPRIETARY FORMAT !

To export it in wav, BR-600 uses your compact flash memory to dump converted proprietary before upload to PC... IF YOUR CARD IS FULL, YOU CAN'T EXPORT YOUR RECORDING ! Using the software solves that problem, use "backup" function instead and use the software to get all track download to your pc. This could be very usefull if your want to do hybrid recording, mixing and mastering with a DAW.

here are some details:
http://www.derangedcoder.net/notes/music/software/brtowav/index.html

Thanks for your attention and please, forgive my english as I'm a french speaking.

I got great sound out of it right away but not for recording! That took me the better part of a day to figure out. I still have more learning to go. It's got to be way easier than some of the bigger units though.
I hadn't recorded in years so it took me a bit more time than say someone who records all the time.
The manual is the bible for this thing. You'll spend some time in it.
Many of the functions require scrolling through a tiny menu. It's all straight forward but it will still take time to set things up. Setting the pan for a channel for instance has to be accessed this way. Hey, can't have everything up front in something so tiny.

The effects are wonderful!!! I have a slew of vintage pedals. With this thing they're not needed really. It even has a built noise gate, compressor. I have those pedals but now I don't need them.
Strange but while going through the amp models I hit one that instantly sounded like one of the amps I've been using a lot lately. I thought, hmmm, it sounds really close. What's it called? I looked down at the display and it was titled "tube amp stack" I believe. The amp I've been using is just that - and here's the sound comming out of a tiny battery powered box. Not perfect - but not bad at all.
I'm a tube amp fanatic! The amp I've been using is one that I modded myself from an old 60's PA. To have a simulation sound so close is amazing to me. I still love and use my tube amp collection but I plan to use this as well.
Can't give the unit a 10 as it still doesn't record uncompressed - no biggie.

Don't know. It seems ok I quess based on the stuff made nowadays.

Never dealt with them.

I play classic metal. This little thing blows me away. Been playing guitar about 35 years. I'd have given anything for something like this a few years back. Yup.
If it were lost or stolen I'd get another in a heartbeat.
Wow!
Here's the thing; I got this unit to help me put down some new ideas. What I got was that and a thousand times more.
You ever buy something and wind up using it differently than you'd planned? That's what's happened to me with this purchase.
If I think about, now I have an amp backup. I've never owned a pod or likewise device but had been thinking of getting one. It can most certainly be used as one. I now practice more at reasonable volume levels or with headphones on. In fact, this thing blows a pod away for that use.
I got a really nice first rate drum machine - complete with trigger pads. As I mentioned above - I also picked up a compressor, noise gate, and instrument tuner. Didn't really need the last item.

My son will most certainly be using this to learn guitar on. There's another feature I failed to mention this has. It's a training mode which slows parts down. Just one more goody. So, I've also picked a guitar training device.

I also picked up two nice mikes in the deal - the built-in ones. The little on board mikes work unbelievably well.
All the above would total hundreds of dollars if sold separately.
Add all the above to a multitrack recorder that's tiny, portable, and it's like the deal of the century.