Boss BR-8

Very easy to use, once you get used to where everything is. I've only used a few patches, but I really like the sounds it makes. I, too did the 250 meg zip drive upgrade, which turned out to be easier than I expected.

I am using a Park amp (cheap Marshall to practice) and I've hooked up to Mackie boards to record and play back, and pushed it through Crate full stack. No complaints about sound quality here. Go to www.myspace.com/striketherock to hear 3 demo songs I recorded.

I have used it to gig in and record practices.

Never dealt with them.

Great for the rock sound! I recorded speeches, worship practices and performances, and live concerts. Never had a problem.

When I first got home my friend and I recorded a song immediately, without having ever used a BR-8. We were excited about the results.

Fairly easy to use. I could think of better, easier options then what they gave, something like using the dial for the menus and not just for scrolling through patches. Overall pretty good usability for the simple stuff. Advanced stuff is a little confusing. For example, creating loops in your tracks is a litle confusing.

Finally, it isn't difficult to get a usable sound from the BR-8. It is, however, almost impossible to get a great sound and ever more more difficult to record a sound without tons of noise from the interference cause by the ZIP drive.

Sound quality is fair. Not the best. Guitar sound is really crappyy for making an album but decent enough to record crappy demos that no one will ever hear (I hope).

Back then using a computer for digital recording was much more expensive and much slower. That was 2000. As the years have progressed I have become more and more aware of how much the BR-8 sucks compared to using your own computer with a Pro Audio sound card.

I carried my BR-8 to live recordings and practice rooms all over my city. The amount of gear I recorded into the BR-8 is endless and would not fit on this page by any means. The BR-8 makes everything sound noisy and lackluster. Guitar sounds are only good if they are clean.

Very reliable unit, though I would never use it as a backup unless the record was something I intended for my ears only. I forgot about my BR-8 being on top of my car one weekend and as my car was in 3rd gear I saw the BR-8 fly off of my car and into the street. My disks were damaged but the BR-8 was still in one piece. The BR-8 would not power on when I got the unit home, but after I made one minor repair all was in working order and I have not had any problems since.

It's noisy but it works, ha.

Upgrade was simple. Boss had good support for the device, though I never had to call them for repairs (I do my own repairs, thank you)

I have recorded every style of music with the BR-8. Rap, Country, Jazz, Soft Rock, Bluegrass, Speed Metal, Thrash, Vocal, Acoustic Rock, Acoustic Folk, RnB, Electronica, DJ mixes, Live band mixes...

It's all rather noisy and the quality sounds very digitalized. It's like everything on the BR-8 has bit-reduction turned on. And the noise is awful and just brings the aliasing out even more.

The guitar patches suck really bad. Only the clean patches work well.

Got this about 6 Months ago..

Very easy to use and to get a good sound..
Editing patches are easy...
Very easy manual...
Firmware upto date...

I use Carvin TL60 and SC90s, Parker Nitefly, Yamaha Bass and AKG3000B Mic.

Sound quality is surprisingly good for a 6 year old machine (EBAY).. the bassist has one so it won over the competition. I use it for as a composition tool only, so Im not to worried about getting 24bit/192Khz sound out of it, and 20bit/41Khz is good enougth for me. Compression system is good and it takes 'keen ears'to hear any difference in playback quality compared to a commercial CD playback. Of course this won't replace my:

EMU(1820M)/ ECHO MIA/ GENESIS3/ BassPODXT/ Peavey PC1600X/ MidiMan x8/ PODXT Live /JoeMeek VC3/Boss VF1/Mackie 1402VLZ/Mackie HR624 / TC Electronics Finaliser PLUS/ VOX AC30TB/ AKG, RODE and Shure Mics/
P4@3.6GHz setup.

but it cost #150 (inc del), the other stuff cost me half my life.

Ive done THE mod on this.. It now has 250MB drive (EBAY) and now have 2hrs recording time. I transfer to PC using the digital cable cable but plan to get another 250 zipdrive.
Hasnt broken down yet...quality is ok. I wouldnt move it around a lot, its abit chunkier than the modern recorders.

There are three bad pionts: No Effect Loop, headphone amp could be better and Lack of drum programmability. Tempo editor is OK with the rythem guide but lacks any fills. I use a BOSS-770 (Ebay), as far as drum machines goes, this is the best I've ever used.

Dont know..I hope this never breaks down.
Boss products are aimed ENTRY TO INTERMEDIATE LEVEL players. Of course there are exceptions to this as some of there pedals are used by pros. This thing is good but there is better out there..BOSS 900CD for example.

Try them all out before you buy. This thing is getting old now.

There are bette machines out there.

I use this for Composition only and its great for that. If you want to produce music for release, then look elsewhere. This has a good sound but not a great one.

Once you read the manual and play with it for a while it's very easy to use.

Sound quality is excellent. There is a PC conversion program to transfer the Zip disk version to .wav format so you can use a software program to do advanced editing of your song.

I give it a 7 because there are known issues with the BR-8. It's called the IC-21 problem. Roland fixes this for free, however you pay the shipping. Apparently there are pins on the IC that did not get enough solder. Some people have fixed this on their own, others have sent it to Roland. Check out the BR-8 Yahoo group for more information. I'm the moderator there.

I haven't needed them but other people have contacted them with success.

I bought it new. They cost much less now.

Check out the BR-8 Yahoo group. We have lots of information there.

Very Easy to use - Parameters are layed out in a standard fashion - editing and mixing is easy - bounced tracks are clean - I record mostly vocals and have no problem layering vocals ect. - The only thing I have not been able to figure out is how to record the drum machine on to a track - if anyone knows how - Please email me

I am able to get a great clean sound for vocals - have recorded Some guitar direct - and used the bass effect to record baseline with guitar - clean & full sound - my instrument recording experience on the BR8 is limited, but the BR8 is the best unit I have been able to find for recording vocals.
Draw backs - When bouncing you must use the same effect for all channels - cannot use reveb on one channel and Chorus on another without bouncing twice
EQ - settings could be broken down even more to allow more flexibility

Unfortunately this unit tends to wear out - I am on my third one! - For no aparent reason, this unit will suddenly have difficulty powering up consistently or loading zip discs. I would never use it for live recording - I need a simple unit for recording vocals only -in my home studio - mostly for rehearsal and writing rough tracks - I don't need a CD burner ect. - and the BR8 is the best unit I have found - that's the only reason I continue to replace it.

My favorite feature is the marker & in out - allows for very quick editing

Least favorite feature - It can not handle frequent use for more than a year.

all the basic functions of this device are pretty simple & easy to learn

the sound quality all depends on what you are recording. if you use the COSM guitar sounds, you can get a decent sound for a digital recorder, but it's not so great for micing your amp, live drums, or vocals. i have found that it is also very difficult to blend vocals with music or live drums with COSM guitar sounds, yet the guitar sounds blend well when i use a drum machine.

if you would have asked me last week i would have said its great, but now i would tell you not to buy it... first the 2nd channel level knob stopped working normal for no reason... then one night i was listening to some music i had recorded and suddenly it kept stopping saying "ERROR: DRIVE BUSY!".. then all my zip disks started doing this, and it started interfering with recording... i used all precautions when this happenend, i made sure all my songs were optimized, but nothing helped, i think the zip drives only last for 3 or 4 years of often use then they just die... mine is almost dead, and i had some pretty important preproduction going on it, i'm not going to tell you what it was though

it will work good for 3 - 4 years, thats it, then it's useless and theres nothing you can do but replace the zip drive but i'd recommend a different unit, after all boss isn't the greatest company to ever make equipment... its ok, its not a good long term investment, it's not for professional recordings

its hard on some songs to get a good sound
i dont have a manual but i wish i new were to get 1
no i dont know the firmware number

no guitars r amps
on some efects its noisy/but they are some really good onces
no amp
the effects are all right/but not when u are tryin to import a song off of somthing to the br8
on the pappers it said that u can turn off the efects but the efects stay on no matter what
like if u are trying to record a song reagular with any efects it sonds like it is still on

i really cant depend on it that much
i would use it on a gig only if it was the only thing i good use but if there were simting else i good use i would use it

never dealt with the company
no

i am a producer/rap artist
if it got stolen i would buy somthing eles
i love the efects and sound quality
dont hate it i just think it could of been made better
i love the voice effects
i wish it had a cd player/cd burner so i could upload music that i already made for an example i add already made songs but i tyred to put it on the br8 by pluggin a cd player into the back of it.it works on most of my song but on some it fades out difernt parts of the songs like instramets that i had already put in the beat

i know u probly saying it is not for hip hop or pop or r&b but i think it should be made for every body in for there on use/it should be fitable for every 1 and every music still/every typ of music
and that way u could sell more because den every body would want one including artist for when they are on the road

It's simple and straight forward in the area of actually recording, though it takes a little bit of scrolling through the lcd screens to perform some system functions (like formatting the disk for example.)

over all the sound is clear, but if you crank the built on cosm distortion or the compression you will get a hiss like what I have experienced with every guitar I've put through it. I wouldn't buy this expecting to hear the tone of your dreams coming FROM the recorder itself. Its your basic digital distortion. Obviously, if you are micing a 5150 your tone is going to sound miles better than using a little software patch on an 8 track recorder. That being said, if you were micing a 5150, I feel it would faithfully replicate the sounds coming out of the amp if you knew what you were doing with the mics and the recorder, within reason of an 800 dollar list machine.

Mine has never given me problems, but I have heard all sorts of horror stories about it, so I will reserve judgement.

Haven't ever dealt with Roland or Boss, but as far as my initial concern regarding how to transfer the audio to my computer, I checked the website and immediately found a program to convert the files on the zip disk to .wav format, so I was pretty pleased with the services on their website.

Overall, I'm pretty glad to have it, though I wouldn't say it is worth the money because of the incredible limitations on the recording time. I enjoy working on it as a means to brainstorm and come up with new things because it is just as easy as hitting the record button. If you are an independant musician looking for something to store your random thoughts and short independant creations then this could be a cool, portable, easy to use tool. It is, however, sort of a poor substitute to the unlimited recording time and graphical layout of a computer based recording system likethe roland vm3100pro. That is the console that replaced the br8 as my main console, and it is undeniably a much more useful, professional, and powerful device, but it is less simplistic than the br8 and can get sort of annoying when all I want to do is lay down a 30 second rythm and lead to get an idea about how something on paper sounds due to the extra features. It just depends what you are looking for, and I suppose also whether or not you are willing to update the disk drive to the higher memory ZIP disks to increase recording time. That was really my main issue with it, so if you did that I'd say you would be pretty set.

its pretty easy to use read the instuctions like anything else

forgetta bout getting real drum tracks unless youve got 5000 in microphones ,but then if you had that what the hck would you be recording on a br-8 for? overall its not bad for a home unit

BIG PROBLEMS MINE BIT THE BIG ONE AFTER ABOUT 2 YRS I DID USE IT A LOT BUT DID NOT ABUSE IT THIS KIND OF MADE ME VERY SCEPTICAL ABOUT FREESTANDING UNITS LIKE THIS,I DOUBT ILL EVEN BE ABLE TO EVER GET IT WORKING AGAIN AND I LOST ALL OF MY MATERIAL IT S DATED TECH IF ANYONES LISTENING DONT BUY THESE PRODUCTS THERE BOUND TO BURN OUT WITHIN A FEW YEARS GO PRO TOOLS OR TAPE OR RADAR OR QUIT THIS BR-8 MADE ME WANT TO DO ALL OF THAT BOSS AND ROLAND ARE HORRIBLE AND SUCK.

THE WORST IN THE WORLD IF ITS BROKE THEY CANT FIX ITS TOTTALLY WORTHLESS

I don't think it could be much easier then plug and record, really a no brainer here for anyone with even basic knowldge of digital recorders or tape for that matter.

If you learn, and I mean learn how to use it, the up and downs of the machine it can be a great tool in any recording process, from to demo's to full on finished album quailty stuff ready for CD (a little help from a computer of course) You gotta upgrade to a 250mb zip to get the most of this beatuy. To get the best sound you have to learn what to do for each instrument. I always run everything into a mixer and then into the L+R in. Electric Guitar I usually run a direct line out from my amp(don't use the built in distortian way way to digital sounding) and use a cab emulatior, if you mess around long enough you can find your sound, also i mic the cab of the amp i use for a full rich sound. Bass I usually struggle to get a good sound that wont clip, i usually get a good overall tone if you D.I. in form the bass head, most bass heads have a D.I. Drums is where this thing really amazes me, first of all when you record drums for god sake if your skins are old and tape'd thats what there gonna sound like on the recording, you have to make sure everything is in the best shape it can be before you hit the red button, also mic placement is key here, i've done better band recordings on this thing then some studios that charge $60-$70 an hour. Just do your research on how to do recordings i've learned how to use this and I love it, I won't pay a studio for something I can do with my BR-8 and Pro-Tools free(i use that to master, you can use the BR8 but it works way better when you use a Software application like that) just figure out how it works.

had it for over 4 years and I use it 4 or 5 times a week never has it ever crapped out on me. The only things is the guitar/bass input is starting to wear and short, but with as much plug un-plug on it I do I can't complain, I bought it used so who knows what the previous onwer did to it.

N/A

Like I said before I done some great stuff with this, it just takes time to learn how to get the best out of it. I have it hooked up to a mixer at where my band plays, One guitar in left other in right bass mono and drums in stereo vocals and I get some wonderful takes, it's a great tool I would get one if I saw it and did'nt have one, if it got stolen i rip out the perp's heart eat it and take my BR8 back!

If you know the recording basics, getting a good clean sound is a breeze. Manual is easy to read.

Sweet. Effects are really abundant and nice sounding.

So far so good. 3 months. Upgraded to a 256 MB card. flawless. I have pretty much been all over the thing. It delivers. My big consern was added noise of hollowness sounds of bounced tracks. Mix, bounce, mix, master The sound makes you smile.

Really should be a 10; but, The manual could have been a little more clear on moving files to and from your computer. I figured it out my self and am cruising. It is so easy to use and sound so good that it is never a hassle to power it up and spew into it before the insperations bird flies away.

When I was a kid I made my own old reel-to-reel set up to play guitar and make effects. This was very fun to create, but a pain in the arse. So I took to buying a Fostex X-28 4-track cassette recorder. The 4 track was excellent - probably the best analog sound I have had! Unfortunately I had to sell it. Years later I got the BR-8 when it was brand new. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago. Anyone that has used an old 4-track cassette recorder will have no problem using this.

I will give the sound quality for digital home recording a 7. My setup is pretty good... Good guitars and effects, amps, etc. Everything goes into my mixer and into the BR-8, then the optical line goes to my computer. Sometimes I go direct to the BR-8 and into the computer and that sounds OK as well. The BR-8 sometimes makes a hiss, or buzzing sound, but if I stand far enough away (about 3 feet), the unwanted sound is gone. The effects I really like. Some are crappy, depending on the instrument used, but that can be changed when you edit the effect. Using different instruments I find that one effect can be terrible with guitar, and the same effect will be great with an accordian! The bass effects are OK - but they sound really great with a recorder or flute! As far as getting the sound of favorite artists - well, nothing beats an all analog Steve Albini recording. Digital is inferior to analog.

The good: I certainly can depend on it! I use it all the time. When I upgraded my computer I thought I would sell the BR-8, but I still use it for making demos for myself and putting them on minidisc to listen to while on the bus - and I even use it for the effects and mixing with Pro-Tools and Cakewalk on my computer. I have used the BR-8 as a test in a live show. Meaning my guitar was hooked into the BR-8 and then to my amp. I used the BR-8 as my effects for my guitar, and for background stuff pre-recorded on the ZIP disc. It worked very well.

The Bad: The recording time is limited! That really, really sucks beyond belief! To make a high quality recording, the better the quality - the less time you get! So on - say - "standard" - if you record using stereo (2 tracks) a, say, Jimi Hendrix tune - the time will run out! This is why I upgraded my computer! A five minute song is nice every now and then, but often one wants to make a 10 minute+ song! This is why I rate the BR-8 reliability a 5! And for the price I paid, I should not worry about upgrading it, downloading software, etc. That is stupid! This is the problem I have with the BR-8, and it is a serious one. I know I will sell it one day because of this, and Boss won't care because they already got my money... Not like I'll get a free upgrade from them!

I've never had a problem, so I never needed support.

I play psychedelic, rock, experimental, and whatever else suits my fancy. It is a good match for rock, if only using the BR-8 as the time is VERY limitied for $800+ dollars. I've been playing 12 years. The other gear I own is a computer, mixer, and instruments (with some pedal effects). If it were stolen or lost, now that I think about the time you can record on the ZIP drive - well, no, I would certainly not buy this product again. I would go for something with more time to record. The 64 V-Tracks don't mean squat because the time on the 100MB ZIP is soooo limited. Also, the digital output is very cool - but I should make the reliability a 4 because there are no digital inputs! For a guy that uses samples and field recordings, and wants to rework live stuff recorded on a minidisc/DAT - this is terrible that, again, for $800+ there is no digital input!

What I love about it is that is sounds pretty good! Easy to make idea's that I can expand using my computer - even though I should not have to use my computer - but the timeframe you can record on the BR-8 is shitty.

I didn't compare it to other products because it was not advertised as a great recording tool with limited time! I chose this product because it sounded nice, was easy to use, and I had no idea of the limited time!

It helps me make music... Pieces of songs. I have to put the pieces into the computer due to the time limitations though. Now that I think of it... Even though the computer is harder to learn - once I have my programs mastered I will probably not use the BR-8 BECAUSE of the time problem.... Overall rating is a 3. The 3 points being for the ease of use, sound, etc. It is all very good. But the lack of time, no digital input, etc. makes this product lose 7 points.

It's like a big tape deck, really !!! I read the manual very quickly, and I still refer to it from time to time, but this machine is so easy to use, the manual is for reference only !

It's a very intuitive machine and very user-friendly.

The guitar patches are incredible, the bass simulators are horrible (...well, I have guitars, a bass and a drum machine. what the hell do I care !), the acoustic simulators a waiste of time. The integrated beat box is a great idea, although the sound quality SHOULD be better. All the effects are either very good or usable.

I don't bother trying to sound like someone else. I make my own pre-sets. Some distortions settings are not very good: they sound too digital. The reverb, delay, chorus, flanger are impressive.

I never had a problem with recording/mixing any form of signals (microphone, line-in). There is, however, a strange digital sound; like a consistent digital "dzzzing" in the background. Overall, this unit has a crystal clear sound, great definition and no added noise.

I think the only way to record with a microphone is to use an external mixer pluged in the LINE IN. You can use the USER PRESET "U01 CMP+ FAT EQ" for vocals, which I think is very good.

MIC 1 and MIC 2: If you record two different signal using two microphones, any sound going into BOTH mic inputs (from microphone bleed-through) will get canceled/eliminated. This is so you can record (for ex.) guitar/vocals and not have the guitar sound OVERLAPING on the vocal track and vice-versa. READ THE MANUAL !!!

Tweaking the pre-sets can get annoying because you have to go left-right/ up-down in the menus.

Never had a problem. I've had this unit for almost 3 years now. It's still working like it's brand new.
I also use it to record live gigs (2 tracks, 25 minutes/disk). Sounds great.

N/A
Dowloaded the upgrade software from BOSS. Works fine.
Have not modded with 250Mb ZIP drive yet.

A great machine for demos a semi-professional sessions. The secret to having a great studio-quality sound is not the machine itself, but the one operating it.

Recording a maximum of two tracks at once is limiting.

I play different styles of music, and I find it suitable for all of them. An external mixer is a must for using a microphone. Get yourself something compact and practical (like a BEHRINGER EURORACK !)and it will make recording much easier.

I compared it to different other portables multi-track units, and the major bonus with the BR-8 is this : COSM guitar preamp, integrated beat-box and a removable storage medium, ZIP cartride, so you're not stuck with an internal hard drive where you have to do a final mixdown if you want to erase everything.

A USB port would be very benificial; you could download all your tracks separately, convert format, and mixdown using your computer.

Actually, it can be done (!): if your computer has a ZIP drive, you can download from the Internet a software that can convert BR-8 to .WAV files. All you have to do is put the BR-8 ZIP disc (containing your song) in your computer's ZIP drive and then...convert !
You then use ProTools, Cakewalk, Cubase...to do your final mixdown.

The name of the software is "BR8WC.EXE"

I strongly recommend this unit. If you have experience in recording, you will love it. If you are a beginner, you will still love it !

The Boss Br8 is very easy to use. A little problem with the effects, can't seem to find the perfect effect for a lead vocal track. Other than that a child could use it.

Like I said before the effect section seems to be a little weak, some sounds are really far out like the Darth Vader effect, cant see where a person would use some of the effects. Maybe Boss should have installed a more basic setup on the effects section.

Very dependable, I carry it when Im playing live shows and its never given me a bit of trouble.

Never had to contact the company, although have found several sites containing tips on adding 250mb drive.

I'm a songwriter and use the BR8 everyday, its very adequate to prepare a song demo with enough quality to send out. If it were stolen I would probably buy something with a little more memory capabilities. Yall have fun and keep playing. Life without music would be a bore. ( Thomas Flanery)

It is very intuitive. Like a computer, which it is, basically. Upgrading to the newest software is easy, too, which is always recommended. I downloaded the manual in pdf as I bought this unit at a pawn shop, and it's a good manual. Simple.
I bought the Accessories pack or whatever on Ebay for like $25, and it was worth it I guess.

AWESOME sound on guitars, bass, drum machine, but I can't get vocals that are loud enough or sound good enough. I'm using an SM-57, and that could be the problem. Anyone recommend a good mic for 200-300 bucks or less that has good results with the BR-8? Also, would a mixer be the way to go, or what? How do I make the vocals kick? And get a loud enough CD?

So far so good. I replaced my 100MB Zip with a 250MB. Piece if cake. And now they just came out with 750MB Zip drives, but I paid like $25 a piece for my 250MB drives at Hitechcafe.com, so I can't complain. The 750MB ones are like almost ten times that, and I need at least two to upgrade, so forget that. I'll wait until they are on Ebay.

Never dealt with.
Oh, I had a DD-3 crap out on me years ago, so their stuff is good, but not infallible, of course. Bummed me out, though. I still have the broken stomp box, I don't know why (probably because it was so expensive at the time) :-(

I play alternative/christian/punk/jazz/classical/folk/whatever and I find the BR-8 is great for guitarist's who aren't engineers. But I have yet to discover how to improve my vocals so I don't have to make CDs that are too quiet to compete. I will experiment with it, though, and I love the BR-8. One day, however, I want to go 24 track digital uncompressed.

The BR-8 is like everone says, very easy to get up to speed on. A little tedious at times..things like cutting and pasting require a lot of little key punches on that tiny, ill-placed interface buttons and your eyes will strain on the little screen.

I came from the cassette four track world so to me the sound is crisp and clear. I like playing with the patch effects because it inspires ideas. I don't like the fact though that the tracks record in mono so to record one of those funky stereo effects eats up two tracks.

I have two problems with my machine whick I would classify as a minor one and a major one.
The minor one:
For some reason, instantly one day and since my effects thingy is messed up. When I have say a guitar plugged in and want to add an effect, when I hit the effect button, the square in the screen that is supposed to have an effect is blank. I have to turn the dial a bunch of times until the effects show up. Pretty weird. Maybe I need the software update, but unfortunately I don't have a zip drive on my computer.
Major Problem:
My second track is no longer usable. The slider seems to have gone foul. There is only a little spot on the slider that lets the music I record on that track be heard. I thought it was a 'dirty slider' so I go some contact cleaner and sprayed amply to no avail. I have not used this machine that i bought brand new a whole lot thats for sure. Pisses me off.

Never bothered

I have to say I like the ease of use and its small size. I don't like that you can only record on two simulataneous imputs (at reduced levels) but hey I mostly record alone anyway. I think if you have a great song, the BR-8 will do it justice.

Very easy to use, without spending more than 30 minutes skimming the manual. Everything is laid out intuitively, and the unit has fair ergonomics.

The sound is only fair on this machine. Of the many master recordings that I've burned out to cd, NOT ONE of them has sounded great.
The effects are marginal. There are a ton of presets, but only a handful of them, I would consider passable. Even when I created a bunch of effects settings (for guitar, bass, and keys), none of them were enough to soil myself over.

You get what you pay for. 'Nuff said.

It's now a very reliable paperweight.
I think the zip drive went haywire; the thing just destroys all data on any disc I try to read.
It tends to piss a person off when they lose days worth of hard work.

Don't bother with this steamy turd. Spend a little more and get something that big people play with.

It would be well worth your time and money to buy a better recorder than this if you intend to use it for production of any kind. The amount of data I could store on this thing was laughable. It left me severly wanting of more time for more tracking and depth.

The recording process is very limited; not enough simulataneous recording capability. It lacks proper Midi connections. The sound is weak.

If you find this unit for less than $200 U.S., and are only looking for something you can beat on and travel with, go for it. If you need something more, spend a little more money to get a hell of a lot more quality and functionality.

I feel confident about using this machine to use as a doorstop or paperweight.

This is not a review, just a warning to anyone considering buying the BR-8. I worked with one at my friend's house and we couldn't get it to record the line in (his keyboard) and the guitar together. The only simultaneous recording this unit is capable of is the guitar/bass input plus the mic, and when recording these two together there is a very noticeable dropoff in volume as opposed to a single input recording. Boss should be ashamed of themselves after putting this product out! I normally love Boss products, but I'm extremely disappointed with this one. Even my $200.00 Zoom MRS-4 can record guitar and bass together (not sure about keyboards, but still..). Save your money and go with a recorder that has multiple inputs that can be recorded simultaneously, unless you are playing all of the instruments yourself and don't need this feature.

Well, I can tell you this about the ease of use. If you can read, you can figure it out. The instructions cover just about everything your amature is going to use and the great thing about it, if your like me and you dont know JACK about recording, it gives definitions of things it can do as well as what it will do when adjusting. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.

I should tell you this and maybe you can judge for yourself the sound quality. My wife, she has no interest in my guitar playing, the songs I've written or how much I know about the guitar (get the picture). So, after playing with the BR8 and really getting serious about playing a song, getting it right and mixing it so it sounds pretty good, I recorded one of my songs I wrote. I put acoustic, electric, lead, bass, lead vocal, harmony vocals and added a drum track (comes with br8. I called her in there and told her to listen to the song from start to finish. She listened for about 30 seconds before taking the head phones of her head and said "That isnt you, you cant fool me boy!" The voice effects had me sounding better than I really do and trust me, I'm no singer. If I were to sum the sound quality up, I'd say, better than you expected you'd expect if you expected ALOT.

I have had problems, read the customer support to understand.

Here is where I had a slight problem. When I bought my BR8 I had it about a year before I noticed a problem of just shutting down (power off) in the middle of working, playing, whatever. So, I sent it in for repair. Cost me $145, seems there was a cold soder joint. 6 months later, same thing, same problem. So I took it to a different place, this time $100. You wont believe me but it happened again, same problem. But this time I called Roland, talked to the head Honcho in Customer Service, Mr. Dave Willman. I explained to him the problem, told him how pissed I was and I thought the BR8 was JUNK. Here is what he said "Dennis, send me the BR8, along with your reciepts for your repairs." I did, 4 weeks later, my beautiful machine returned to me fixed with a check for $245 bucks and a letter that said this "If you have any more problems, call me, I'll take care of you, signed Dave Willman." Now THAT my friends is customer service with a smile. Its been over 2 years since then, I use it every other day with no problems. Its like it never happened.

Here is what I say to those looking to buy a BR8. If you think your a decent guitar player, singer....... and you want to be better. YOU WILL NOT REGRET getting this thing. It does whatever, whenever and however you want to do it for us amatures. No more hunting down another guitar player to jam with, He's there with me in my bedroom 24/7 now. IF I want to work on my lead playing, I just lay down a rythm track and get busy playing lead. If Nickle Back, Creed or Third Day (whoever) comes out with a new song that I dig, I can go in the bedroom, shut the door and in an hour or two, have the thing figured out and recorded "MY WAY, MY STYLE, MY VOICE, MY GUITAR, MY SOLO, ME ME ME ME ME ME." Isnt that what it's all about ? THis will make you a better player by far guys, I bought mine when it first came out so I paid alot more than most but I've never looked back and said I wish I had that 700 bucks back. I'd pay it again if I didnt have one.

About five minutes after I took the Br-8 out of the box, I had erased all the included demo tracks and made my own. The owner's manual seems to explain everything fairly well. I remember having some initial concerns along the lines of "What just happened to...?", but since then, I can't even remember what the problem was, it was so trivial. I got it with the instructional video included, but there's really not much there, unless you've never used any kind of recording device before. You can edit your tracks pretty easily too, using cut and paste type operations similar to those on a word processor or image editor. The Br-8 even lets you "compress" recordings as you go along, via a function called "song optimizer", which usually frees up a few MB's of disk space every time you use it. The only real ease of use issue for me is the amount of time it takes me to fiddle with the COSM effects. More on that in the next section...

The sound quality seems to be the achilles' heel of this unit. All of the included COSM effects are fully customizable, so if there's a specific kind of sound you're looking for, it would be hard to imagine that this unit is incapable of reproducing it at least approximately. However, because of the way the patches are set up, it may take you hours and hours to get the sound you want out of it. I think it would work better if they gave you a bank of effects, and let you program them into each patch one by one, rather than forcing you to twiddle endlessly with the default setups that they think everyone wants. The other side of this problem is that once you've taken the time to shape the sound just right, its very easy to make a misstep on the machine and completely undo everything you just spent hours adjusting. This happened to me once or twice, and I'm now very careful to bank the patches I create before I actually start to record. Also, if you want good sound from the Br-8, it is key that you also adjust the input/sensitivity knobs each time you mess with the COSM. The Br-8 tends to produce a digital "crackling" when improperly tuned, which is a lot less charming than the analog "fuzz" you might've gotten from a 4 track cassette recorder. For some reason, the patches I have the most difficulty working with are the Bass simulators. Since I'm not a very technically proficient guitar player, it creates a horrible warbling sound whenever I strike two strings simultaneously in one of the bass patches. My solution to this is to play very simple bass lines that don't require too much finger movement. This works for me, but would obviously be a drawback for many. I haven't ever tried to mike my amp (a fender champion 110), so I can't comment on how that would affect the sound quality.

With the exception of about three incidents (one of which I still can't remember clearly) the Br-8 has never given me even the slightest hint of a problem. The other two or so incidents it did so were when I had just spent an hour or so messing with a patch, and I forgot to bank it immediately before I started recording. When you do this, the Br-8 stores it as "TMP" (temporary?), and restores the previous settings as soon as you switch to another patch. It is very important that you save your settings on the COSM BEFORE you start recording. However, on both of those occasions I was pretty much wasted, and doing some very late night jammy jamming, so I guess the machine itself isn't really to blame. On the other hand, I pretty much baby the thing - who wouldn't after all?, so its never been put through too much physical stress.

I've never had to deal with them, but having just looked up the Roland website, I see that they still have operating system upgrades and the WAV converter software available for download.

I play pretty lo-fi rock to begin with, so the sound quality issues really aren't a big deal to me. This unit suits me just fine. Before I got the Br-8, I used my friend's Yamaha 4 track, which was very good. However, the Br-8 is much much more powerful, if for no other reason than the digital editing. The only drawback to it is that I spend so much time adjusting the COSM effects that it sometimes wears me out. If you're the type that's prone to sudden flashes of inspiration that disappear just as quickly, then this will definitely frustrate you. Once you play with it for a couple of weeks and really get the hang of adjusting the patches (and remembering to save them), then you'll probably notice it takes less time to lay down some tracks than it did when you started.

What I love most about the Br-8 is the ease with which you can fiddle with your recordings once you've laid the tracks down. The editing is very simple, and even allows you to produce "cut-and-paste" collage-like recordings in the style that is so ubiquitous today in pop music.

I definitely wish it had a programmable drum machine built in instead of the rhythm guide that comes with it. this would make the Br-8, or any recording device for that matter, a formidable piece of equipment indeed.

I play a fender stratocaster, and I always plug in directly. I imagine that if you use a better guitar or if you take better care of yours than I do, then you will get a proportional increase in sound quality too. I am curious to hear what kind of results other users have gotten from external effects processors plugged in or mic'd to the Br-8. The only pedal I have is a Boss digital delay, which is already built in to the COSM.

If I were to lose my Br-8, I would probably try to replace it with something cheaper and simpler, like the Zoom ps02. The Br 1180 seems nice, with its built in cd burner and hard drive, but honestly, I don't produce nearly enough music to justify the expense. It is my understanding that you can replace the 100mb zip drive with a 250mb zip drive, thus eliminating the recording time limitations that some people complain about. I bought my Br-8 on ebay in march of 2002, so by this time, I expect that current recorders on the market have improved upon the things that frustrate me with this unit. The bottom line is that once you learn to work around the limitations of this machine, there's really nothing you can't do with it.

VERY EASY TO GET IMPRESSIVE DEMOS OUT.TWEAKING PATCHES HELPS TO SHAPE YOUR OWN SOUND ESPECIALLY COMPRESSION WITH DISTORTED GUITAR.MANUAL VERY INFORMATIVE BUT DIDNT SAY HOW TO USE IT FOR SEND&RETURN.(CAN BE DONE,TRY IT WITH BEHRINGER ULTRAFEX PRO3200)DIDNT KNOW ABOUT UPGRADE!WILL LOOK INTO IT.

USING LES PAULS&TELES.NATURAL TONES ARE QUITE WELL RETAINED.RECORDING DIRECT WITH MARSHALL AVT2000 WAS PERFECT WITH DOUBL"N OPTION.BEING CAREFUL,NOISE WASNT A PROBLEM.HAVING PROBLEMS GETTING MY FEMALE VOCALIST HAPPY WITH HER SOUND.THE LACK OF NO MID E.Q DOESNT HELP.MAY HAVE TO GET SEPARATE SMALL MIXER.I QUITE LIKE VOCAL SOUNDS THOUGH.

VERY DEPENDABLE.BEDROOM USE ONLY BUT IT WASNT DESIGNED PRIMERILY FOR RECORDING BANDS ANYWAY.

NEVER NEEDED TO YET.MAY CONTACT THEM TO ASK ABOUT BEST WAY TO IMPROVE VOCAL SETTINGS THOUGH.

Very easy to use, I was up and running in a few minutes

I got some amazingly good recordings out of the unit but if your trying to mike drums forget it! two inputs=bad drum track. Drum machine is the only way to sound decent.

NOT RELIABLE! this is the reason I am writing the reveiw. My unit just stopped working after zero abuse. I had it fixed @6 months ago and it just bit the dust again, only this time it's not fixable. The zip drive just froze and I can't even play back the tracks.

Didn't bother w/the company as the warranty is void.(I bought it from a freind)

I was very pleased until it went up in smoke. It's @2 years old

this br~8
Is easy to use booklet helps quite a bit
I'm not happy at all with the cosm effects can't get a good clean
marshall,hiwatt,clean raunchy setting
I've had some luck,shutting down all the presets except delay and noise supression,I USE A TECH 21 AND DIAL IN THE SETTINGS AND REMEMBER THEM,it will change everytime sound wise

very dependable unit

when it came to customer support
not much help..with cosm they said well just keep trying
keep dialing the cosm well to this day I'm still dialing in effects
If any 1 has some great patches which I highly doubt....... Please contact me thanks

I'll keep working with it
I'M not happy with the final product mixdown
kinda cheesy compared to the studio
but this is a good unit for practice and getting ideas down before ya forget them....

It is very easy to use, to mark places and jump form one song section to another, the auto-punch in/out is SO helpful. It takes no time to go over a section until it's just the way you want.

the effects patches are okay, especially the acoustic guitar effects, but the distortions are cheesey. Some of the compressions are weak, but the vocal patches are actually surprisingly good.

Never had a problem with my BR-8, I've had it for 2.5 years.

never bothered to try.

I actually prefer it to Protools when doing demo stuff, mostly because it has knobs and straightforward effects patches.

The BR8 is really easy to get started with but later when you get into a few more complicated situations, there seems to be a lack of info in the manual that comes with the unit. Bouncing tracks, once you do it it gets easy but for the first timer it can be a pain. My br8 stored my bounced tracks on a v track and I had to really study in order to find them and bring them back to a track in order to use it. Other than that I have no problems and like I said once you get use to it its easy to master its recording abilities.

I'm using a Fender 12 string electric acoustic, a fender strat, Keyboards, and a live mic. Mainly recording my own songs to send to publishers. The COSM effects are really nice, Needed that bass. All in all the sound quality is really good and if you take your time to tweak things a little you can make a recording that is good enough quality to send in and not be embarrased.

Ive owned my BR8 for 2 years and never had any trouble with it. Take it to shows, throw it in a gig bag and go on

Never had to call

Over all a very good dependable easy to use unit for the beginner. Would recommend it to songwriters, great songwriting tool, get the sounds you need to go with those lyrics you worked so hard to get right.

Overall, it is extremely easy to use. If you don't like the provided internal distortion settings (as I did) you can patch in your own internal sound using some editing tools the BR-8 has. I came up with some fairly convincing/realisic tones -It did take some work though, but the tools were there and clear. It is very difficult to record an entire band on the BR-8 considering the amount of time the 100MB disk has to offer and too much bouncing has to occur, however I painstakingly manage. It would be nice if the BR-8 had a mid level EQ, but it was the machine that got me started and it doesn't take too long for anyone to become an expert on it.

For mic recordings I usually use my AKG C3000B which is designed to compliment the COSM effects the BR-8 has. It works very well with smooth vocals and acoustic guitar. Internal clean effects are great too, but when recording drums and overdriven guitars, it is a different story. I mostly use a Marshall Valvestate halfstack turned up to anywere between 3 and 4. I understand about condensers and loud guitar, but I am forced to drop everything down and sacrifice alot of tone just to capture some sound which is usually too quiet. I attempt to beef it up with the BR-8's EQ, but it is difficult to reach any toneful sound without "farts" or feedback occuring. So I move my mic around everywhere and mess with my mixing board settings for a couple of hours (by now the band members I am recording are becoming extremely tired and impatient which also falls onto me). However, after these hours I will eventually get something that sounds... well, okay. The BR-8 seems to have bass trouble and struggles a little on capturing some highs. The effects that it comes with sound bassy until you put them with the drum set you recorded at almost professional volume level (where they disappear or become a deep fuzz in the background). The bottom line is internal or external, if you want to get comparable tone out of the BR-8 (as far as rock or metal goes) you have to avoid crackling which I haven't quite figured out how to do yet in the 2 years I have owned it. -and oh yeah, to the guy who tried recording acoustic electric internally: don't blame the BR-8 for that -try again on another machine -you'll never get the right sound -micing is the best way to go with acoustics!!! Subscores: internal clean:9 internal bass:5 internal electric(altered):7 (unaltered):4 Mic Acoustic:9 Mic vocals:8 Mic electric:5 Mic Drums:6.5

Never record for too long as I did one time -You'll burn out your zip disk. I had clients who were going to take their demo to L.A. the next day. I had gotten pretty far far on one song (the best sounding one too) but a problem occured after I was done bouncing some tracks. I optimized the song, but I couldn't get my time back and 6 out of the 8 tracks were erased and lost forever. I about had a nervous breakdown, but redeemed myself by recording them live at a show they played that night. The recording was kind of poor, but people listening could still hear the song and hear how the band played. This mishap only occured once though.

I'm about to try that 250zip drive conversion deal, but so far I guess everyones been okay.

It matches great with acoustic stuff, keyboards, solo stuff and clean stuff. The BR-8 can crank out a great gentle song, but has a tough time with the heavy or loud stuff. I use a Behringer mixer with it, but I dont have any gates, limiters or pre-amps yet -so I hope that they can help with the problems I've been having. If it got lost or stolen, I would not get the BR-8, but instead would get its bigger brother the BR-1182? (I think thats right). I like the idea of the extra master tracks, the dual XLR inputs with phantom power and the 20 gig hard drive! I love its simplicity and quality, but I don't like its lack of time, plug-ins and other features that limit input ability. But I see BOSS has been fixing those things with their newer studios. I've been using it for over 2 years now and I've been enjoying recording on it, however the songs I write are complex and demand alot of time and tracks, and the bands I record are loud. The BR-8 started me off well, but I think it is time for me to upgrade to a BR1182. It is a revolutionary machine and alot of studios are taking on some qualities of the BR-8. Overall I would recommend it for its price.

Just an update from my previous review; the unit is still functioning perfectly but geez Louise- copying a track or song from one zip disc to a second is a major pain in the ass- it writes one-three percent at a time, and you have to continuously swap discs back and forth. Very primitive, and will obviously wear on the the eject mechanism over time. For those complaining about lack of depth for vocals and unwilling to buy a better mic, try this trick- copy the vocal track twice, pan one left and one right a little bit and play with the EQ and doubling on both copies- thickens up the sound a little very easily.

I have found that some playing with record and gain levels as well as mic placement can have a great deal of effect- this unit can be VERY good sounding with some tweaking. For the price and ease of use, superlative sound quality. A bit brittle at times, but it also depends on source being recorded, etc.

Dead reliable so far.

This started out being used for song demos (and it still is) but I'm no longer limiting it to one guitar and one vocal; I've been adding harmonies, leads, rhythms with shakers, etc. Works great for a stand alone unit, and sounds nice mixed down to CD. Perfect, no, but you're not going to get the same results at home in an evening as a million dollar studio with engineers and producers with years of experience either! That being said, I am amazed how good this sounds, and I have been an audio buff since 1975 or so. The accessories seem overpriced though, and I found the two videos near-useless if you have any experience recording at home.

Very easy to use right out of the box. The manual is pretty straight forward.

The sound quality blows away every cassette tape recorder and even some bigger studios I've used. I find that good sounds are easy to get if you know already how to get a good sound out of your gear. If you are relying on this for guitar sounds, you might be a little disappointed. The sounds are good, but you're going to want to use something else or mic your amp for a truly great sound.

I've always had good luck with Boss and Roland products. I'd like to try recording a live show with it. You'd have to mic everything and run it through a mixer since you can't record more than two tracks at the same time.

I've never had to deal with them yet. I've had pretty good luck in the past though.

I absolutely love this. I was considering trading it in for the newer BR-1180 with the 20 GB hard drive. I actually like using the zip disks. I have about 20 zips that I don't really use that often, so the storage isn't a problem. I'll record as many tracks as I want, take the zip over to my computer. I'll convert all the tracks to .wav files and import them into Cakewalk. This way I can use all 64 virtual tracks and more if I want. Then I'll burn it to a CD or convert it to an .mp3 to post or email to my band. For my situation, I can't think of a better recorder to use.

Real easy to get started; to get more involved you will need to check the manual and make a note, some things are not in the manual and places like this site are great to learn more.

Very good sound. As you would imagine you'll get better as you go along. I have this machine about 8 months and find myself remixing my stuff every so often. I don't have an external mixer so I am recording 6 tracks and bouncing them to the last two. Then I am converting to a .WAV file on my computer. I was micing my amp but now use the COSM (internal sounds). Like you are reading in other reviews, the sounds are kind of digital and you will need to mess around to get a better sound. But there a lots of options, just trial and error. Make a note, the "drums" on this deck can not be recorded. So if you are going to listen to your stuff on something other this deck (and I assume you will) you'll need a drum machine. Also, I don't know if the BR-8 would be ideal for a band. I am a solo guitarist and it's perfect for me. Bass simulater rules.

8 months and not a problem.

There were a few things I was unclear about and called to get answers. The people were great. I see in some reviews people had a hard time...I find it hard to believe. I have called about 5 time with nothing but great, kind service...and got my answers too.

Like everyone else has said...this unit is TOO easy to use. I bought this unit not only to record myself and home to do demos of my original material but I want to get back into having bands come in and do small demos...a good way of making a side income. But after reading a few of these critics on the unit I was curious....could I record a band into this without a lot of problem? See, I have my first band coming in to record a 6 song demo....drums, guitars, vocals, bass, and solos. Now...this is how I was going to record drums. I have a DOD 420 resistance mixer and the band has something similar that gets the same job done...which is to be able to put 4 mic inputs into one track....hence being able to record 4 mic'd up instruments into one track. I was going to this this with 2 mixers into both inputs on the br-8 using 8 mics. Then guitars, guitar 1 and then guitar 2, overdubbs, and then a solo. Then bass and vocals. Now...I was curious with the zip disk. Will it be able to record all that? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated...please e-mail me at rifmaster01@hotmail.com with any suggestions, advice, pros and cons....whatever....and soon....ASAP....the band wants to come in early to mid march...thanks.

Great sound quality.....like they say....you get for what you paid for....or something like that...you get what I'm trying to say.

Hard as a rock.....take it anywhere....I bought the display model at Sam Ash and it works like it's brand new. Missing two knobs when I bought it but I snatched 2 knobs from another display model at mars music

Never dealt with them. I'm curious though....is there any upgrades for this unit? E-mail me with answers....rifmaster01@hotmail.com

Pretty kick ass....only worry about it is the zip drive and passing the music on to a CD...I have the BR-8 hooked up to a phillips cdr600 cd recorder....any info or suggestions or advice on that....please e-mail me ASAP.....rifmaster01@hotmai.com

Very Easy to use, but requires reading some in the manual, has great tuner and easy rhythm trainer. Only complicated thing was when using v tracks, didn't understand and couldn't find it in the manual, rather found it online, that when you record to a different v track using the bounce function, and then you go back to the input function, you have to go and assign all of the v tracks over again, because they have been moved (kinda of), so once you finish bouncing, and you switch to input, you'll here nothing, making you think you've lost all of what was previously recorded, however, it's still there, you have to hit the v track but and then with the cursor buttons, move the v track to the appropriate track for it to play. Anyway this might save some time, but once you get it down it's very simple. Only other pain is, whenever you select an input, you are assigned an effects patch, and if you don't want an effects patch on it you have to hit the by pass button, This can get kind of frustrating as you end up having to hit the bypass switch all the time in this situation.

I switched from a tascam portastudio 4 track, which recorded to regular audio cassettes, to the br8 about 1 & 1/2 years ago. At first, I was really distraught by the recording quality. It sounded very different from the quality of the Tascam. Something was wrong with it, it sounded very low volume and not at all in you face, it was hard to hear any nuances of the guitar I was playing through a miked amplifier. The Tascam captured the live sound much better on a miked amp than the br8, however, the br8 has nice effects, reverb etc, enough to make it sound much more professional than the tascam ever could. Over a period of a year and a half, I began liking it a lot and made maybe 30 songs on it that I really liked. I never miked an amp with this thing, it just never sounded good, I was always using the direct line in for guitar or bass, and selected an effects patch to work with. This meant I never recored live with anyone really, and was always listening and recording through headphones. Well I'm working on a project now, and half way through I discover both the Korg d1600 and Akai dsp 16 digital recorders which advertise as non compressed recorders, and unlike the boss br8. So I think my problem was this br8 is recording in basically a compressed manner, making miked amps sound very little and unrealistic. I now have a great desire to move on to an uncompressed recorder, and I'll definetely not buy another roland recorder. Sorry boys at Roland but your compression really sucks. I mean how can I create music if what I play and hear is different from what is recorded. Thanks for the year and a half, but I believe I would have been better off with an uncompressed recorder.

PS, I read a response by some Roland official about the compression debate, saying that she loves to here when people complain about roland compression, because Roland doesn't use compression. However she said right after this, that what they do is convert the signal to a smaller package and then open that package latter. I was like, how can you tell me this, either way, the sound I hear after recording is almost 90 percent of the time extremely dissapointing unless I use one of their patches.

Very good reliability.

Never tried it. Assume it to be good

I got this eight track for Christmas and i was so happy. I just talked to a guy at guitar center and skimmed through the manual, and I can record tons of stuff. It's weird, this thing is almost exactly what i needed. I needed to record qulaity work, but with no bassist, it would suck to make songs without bass, but guitar can be changed into bass with the COSM effects. Everywhere from JClean to bubbles? I dunno, anyways...... really easy. It looks like it has less knobs than the four track boss makes.

I don't have studio moinitors or any good mics, just a live one, and it still sounds great. With the voice you can have chip munks to reguluar and beyond. This thing is limitless, you just have to be creative. There might be a little hum with some effects, but i prefer to mic through an amp and no effects. I love this. You have to set some knobs and stuff to your liking.

Uhh, this wouldn't really go in a gig. Unless u were recording live. Anyways, don't throw the zip disks around and ull be ok.

Boss/Roland is friendly, but u won't need to call them

I play all kinds of music, but this helps me make professional recordings. I can make something up and test it with a bassline in like two minutes, great machine. Someone said you can't record a band, but that is wrong. True, you can only record two tracks at a time, but for good recordings, u should do everything seperate.

This is about as multi tracking can get. The only difficulty is the 'effects' switch being 'on' all the time unless you manually bypass it. They should have had a effects on/off and edit switch...then it would be perfect!!!

Editing operations are very easy to use as well as the basic record/mix functions.

I sold a Tascam 414 MKII on eBay to raise funds to buy this unit and am well, well, pleased with the sound. If you plug a guitar directly into the box the effects are good (but not great, therefore I can only give it an 9), but if you plug a processor into the box it records the results very faithfully. I have not messed much with the effects at this point though...I have a VG-88 and do the effect thing there.
I did have a ground loop issue, but the mess of power supplies that the BR-8 is plugged into is tremendous (two computers, printers, phones, and even a fan for Pete's sake)...so it didn't surprise me. I eliminated the ground loop though by eliminating any metal hookups to the box (except the VG88)...instead I run fiber from the BR-8 to my JVC XL-R5000 CD burner.....that setup works great for the min bucks!!!

The rhythm guide: The sound here is tolerable, but I am in the process of finding a synth to do the final drum work. I don't think I could use the drums for the final mix as I prefer more live sounding drums.

I bought this unit used from an eBay vendor and it is running perfectly. It is built like a tank. Boss products have never given me problems.

Never dealt with them on the BR-8. But there is a BR-8 group on Yahoo groups who could also be a resource, as well as point to other resources.

I am using this box for composition and practice. I mainly work on Praise / Worship / COntemporary Christian music...which means I pull many genre's in...rock, pop, folk, etc. The BR-8 works great and it is truely a joy for me to have 8 tracks available.

This is a followup for the review regarding the changeout of the 100MB zip drive to a 250MB zip Drive.

I changed out the 100MB Drive to a 250MB zip drive and it works absolutely fine. I followed the directions on the Fender Forum site under Home Reocrding - Breaking BR8 News. The conversion is so easy to do it took about 10 minutes. The site you are referred to from the Fender Forum actually has step by step instructions with pictures. Couldn't be easier. The Zip drive is available at Tiger Direct for $79 or you can get a Iomega for about $120, whichever you trust. I picked the Iomega, but both will work as long as it is an ATAPI interface. GREAT JUST GOT BETTER!!!

This unit is so easy to use, you can start as soon as you take it out of the box without reading the manual. Well thought out product.

Ihave been extremely pleased with the ease of operation and the quality of the recorded product. The preset effects for guitar and bass are okay, but if you go to the user bank, you can tweak them and engineer your own sounds very easily.

I've had no problems with the unit and it came out of a pawn shop for $400. It is a sturdy unit and due to the fact that there's no knobs to break, it is great.

Have not dealt with customer support, but other comments regarding the Roland help line do not indicate that they are very helpful.

I'm just getting into recording and play guitar and do vocals. I really like the ease of setting down tracks and mixing. The short coming is the 100MB zip, although if you check out VS Planet and the Fender Forum, as well as the Yahoo BR 8 groups, you can change the 100MB zip to a 250MB ATAPI internal drive by just replacing the zip drive. There is no special commands or programming, it just comes up as 2 hours and 5 minutes of recording time. (See the VS Planet site for particulars and step by step repalcement) I am going to do this as soon as I can get to Best Buy as they have the 250MB drives for $129. Not bad for getting a whole bunch of recording time!

Extremely easy to use. Plug and play, basically. I don't care for the fact that the default setting is to add effects, but that can be bypassed easily enough.

I record a Taylor 414 both through a mic and sometimes though a saddle pickup, (Fishman active.) I read people mentioning hiss... huh? If you have a loud enough signal from your mic or amp and set your recording levels, this sucker is dead quiet- just a hint of old dbx-style pumping on some of the guitar effects. I keep fairly simple patches- acoustic guitars, a little reverb, a little "broadening" of the sound. I'm really only using it for songwriting demos, so I'm not trying to emulate other artist's sounds, but I think the effects overall sound cool and are fun to play with. For the price- sound quality is excellent, especially if you mix down via an optical cable to CD.

Never tried it live, but it seems to be sturdy enough, I used a printer cover from radio shack on clearance for two bucks as a dust cover when not in use. it has performed flawlessly for me, no problems with discs or anything.

Called to find out if I was missing parts when I got my (demo model); I was; they identified them and shipped them the next day. Maybe I just lucked out!

I don't like the effects coming on as default; i would prefer to record dry... I know it's easy enough to do this though. I would possibly buy another one BUT would really wish the option of saving to a hard drive was available; even using optimize the discs fill up quickly and are pricey. I think it's a very good price, and the value factor is most outstanding. I am a songwriter who plays guitar, not a guitar player, and find my highest compliment for the BR-8 is I seldom notice it's there...

This is just to update my earlier review and in particular my critism regarding recording time when doing several "takes".
As pointed out by Craig Squires' review (thank you very much Craig), if you use the SONG OPTIMIZE feature you get back all your over recorded time. I missed this in the manual (doh!) originally.
Thanks again Craig, but hey that's why we do these reviews - to get answers to problems - and it works!

as previous review - but I now have it midi/sync with a Yamaha QY70+Proteus 2000 which works really well.
I do find the reverb a little limited though.

as previous review

not used

Because of the above, I've revised my opinion and therefore upped my mark

I bought the BR-8 when it just came out in 2000. It was my first digital recorder. And I have to say that at the time it was a great purchase. The whole machine is pretty straightforward, there is anything here that would be mind boggling. The presets on the BR-8 sound all around good some better than others, depending on what you're recording the machine supplies you with quite a few specific patches geared towards that particular instrument. The machine carries Roland's famous COSM modelling system for guitar, but what really surprised me was the effects patches you can get on the "line in" RCA connection. You pretty much have everything except a proper vocoder at your finger tips(you can even change sample rates like on a sampler!). Editing a patch is very easy and you will have no problem making your own sounds in any of the patch channels. The manual as well isn't complicated at all, and I've barely touched it because the machine is extremely easy to use.

The machine is digital so therefore you would be making very crisp very close to professional recordings. Some of the guitar patches can sometimes sound very hot and overloaded though, and the compressor I find doesn't do very much in how much it affects your sound. I often keep the levels slightly hot because the compressor fails to make the sounds punchy, instead they sound loud and irritating with compression. I find that some of the factory presets would require some tweaking to make them useful.

As I said before the machine carries COSM amp modelling which helps out guitarists alot. The preset patches make it so that if your not familiar or don't even want to be bothered with the more advanced types of recording on this machine, it's no problem. It has eight individual tracks of recording which can be selected to record in stereo if you want. It has MIDI out, as well as optical out so it can be used as a stand alone, or alongside your computer.

This machine is extremely reliable. It's never froze on me or done anything to make me shake my faith in it. The ZIP disks that it runs on load up almost immeadiately, and I have never had a problem with loading up a song at all.

I couldn't tell how good customer support is because I've never had to contact them about anything regarding this machine.

Overall the BR-8 is a good machine to start out on because it gives you a basic sense of digital recording. I would recommend this for people who have never owned a digital machine before. However if you are looking to go pro, this machine will never satisfy your needs. Another thing is this machine can only record up to two tracks at a time, so if you think your going to set this up to record a band, your going to waste alot of time finding out that this machine is for solo artists only. I have however recorded a band on this machine, but it gave me alot of grief because the BR-8 is simply not designed for this type of recording. The machine runs off of 100mb ZIP disks only, so basically you are given 49 minutes and 49 seconds to record and how much time you spend recording on each tracks is subtracted from your 49 minutes. I usually after finishing a song would be left with 10 to 20 minutes left of recording time. Be prepared to spend as well on ZIP disks cause you will use one per song, and ZIP disks are 12 to 18 dollars each which makes for expensive recording. The BR-8 will give you good footing in recording, but for a thousand dollars don't expect this machine to solve your growing professional needs, cause it won't past the test.

Couldn't be easier, really. It's possible to do sophisticated things with it that would take more time to figure out, but the weekend warrior will have no trouble at all.

Not bad. Clear but thin. Get yourself a good mic and a tube preamp, and don't use the cheesier guitar presets. Definitely EQ before mixing, and try using the DOUBLING feature as well, which is a very short digital delay. Gives the sounds a bit of depth, esp. vocals. Use the digital output to burn songs onto CDs, if you have a recorder. You can plug guitars in directly, but I've had better luck with a preamp or miked amp. The presets I like are Jazz Guitar (crunchy-clean) and Overdrive. These are boss effects you're using, so they're good, but make your own combinations, if you're gonna use them.

Good except for the zip drive. I've lost two songs due to the disk getting all snarled up with itself from repeated punch-ins. Very bad, that. By the way, many here have complained that they can't get their disk time back when they make mistakes. They can. Use the OPTIMIZE feature. It gives you all your lost time back.

Never called 'em.

My 10 here indicates that I've seen nothing else so easy and good-sounding for the money. You can't record a whole band, but whaddya want for seven hundred bucks? Future generations of this thing should can the zip drive and use a hard disk, but that's a lot to ask.

This is almost too easy to use. Everything is very accessable with the turn of the dial . Actual knobs for eq'ing would be nice , but not a major deal . The manual is an easy read and almost unneeded anyway .

So far ( i've had the unit for about a month ) the sound has been good . I've tweaked a few things , especially the vocal sounds , which really is a necessity. The factory settings are very dry . And I'm not using a great mic either.. Just an old shure 57.
The guitar sounds are pretty good . If you double them up and record them in stereo , possibly even combining two different sounds panned far left and far right , you can get some good tones. And the Bass simulator comes in handy too. Its quite adeqaute for song demos .

well , for the month I've owned it its been reliable. Time will tell with this catagory though .

N/a

Very Good tool. I play mostly guitar rock stuff , and its seems to be made with guitar players in mind . I haven't had any problem with noise with the unit , and I sit right in front of it . Sometimes the overdubs are a little clunky ( causing drop-offs) , but if you plan good places to punch in , this can be remedied . The auto punch in feature is great... no more punching in with toes !! I wish it had a bigger storage capacity , as realistically , you can only get one song on a disk . But ,if you own numerous disks , and or mix your tunes right away to another format ( mini-disk is highly recommended ) , this isn't really a problem . I love that it has a digital output !!!!
Clean mixing signal , no noise !!! I don;t miss that old tape hiss thats for sure . If you're a singer/songwriter.. Buy this unit !!

Incredibly easy. Even makes the old TASCAM tape units i used to mess around with seem difficult. It really is as simple as plugging in your guitar and pressing record. Editing and storing patches is aslo very simple, although it would be nicer to have some more real knobs for EQ etc.
The manual is also pretty good, although the unit is so intuitive that you really shouldn't need it.

The sound quality is generally very good for a unit of this price - with a couple of exceptions. Firstly, the zip drive seems very noisy. This may just be the single coils on my strat, but the noises the drive makes are audible from over a metre away if you're facing the unit! A footswtich is a good idea.
Secondly, some of the distortions do seem a bit noisy, although this can usually be worked around with some editing of the preset patches.
One other criticism - I wish it had an XLR input (or preferably 2). I usually record by micing up my amp (a fender blues deville 410), but even with the normal jack input the sound quality is good.
I have sounded a bit too critical of the unit here, but it really does sound good.

VERY reliable. The thing seems to be built like a tank, and the lack of knobs and dials make it seem virtually indestructible. Mine has had beer spilt all over it (twice), been dropped from the back of the van (once) and been gigged with and used to record jam sessions (many times).
I would not hesitate to gig without a backup, even though i usually insist on having a backup for most of my gear.

Never had to deal with them.

I play a lot of acoustic / folk rock, blues etc, and this suits that style perfectly. I also have a friend who plays a lot of metal and punk, and, again, this suits him perfectly.
If it were stolen, I would probably get another, but may consider saving up to get something that allows more tweaking. This unit is a great intorduction to digital recording, but after a while you may want something a little more powerful.

Could hardly be simpler.
1)Turn it on
2)Pop in a disk
3)Plug in a guitar
4)Press record.

Editing patches, selecting effects, performing menu operations are pretty easy too. The display is surprisingly effective (and backlit!).

Mixer section is smooth, and very well sized.

Excellent. Only problem: hum near the zip drive. You MUST stand away from this unit when recording guitar. Buy the foot switch!

Very rugged, solid feel to its construction. So far, however, I haven't moved it from my desk, so... no opinion given here.

The US Web Site = not so good. The Japanese-English site is far better.

This is built for guitarists, true, but it also shines as a digital recorder in conjunction with a computer based system such as Cakewalk/ SONAR.

If you are a songwriter looking for a lightweight, fast, easy and great-sounding tool to sketch ideas out and polish them a bit, this unit is for you. Think also of live recordings off the board (take the stereo tape out...) this unit sports a "Live" mode that extends the recording time considerably, and you'll get a *FAR* better recording than a cassette'll give you.

If you have a decent Computer Audio setup, you'll find this unit very handy (try hauling your computer into the bathroom for a weird sound). Its effects are super and it gives you more input flexibility than a typical sound card. You will definitely want the BR-8 Wave Converter available from the Roland site.

This thing is built for a solo user though. If you're looking to record your band on a budget, move along. If you need more advanced MIDI automation, move along: it's only got a MIDI out port, you can't control it from any other unit. Damn, I wish they had a MIDI IN!

The faders are not motorized/ "remembered" automatically. There are "scenes" but I prefer a visualization of what's going on with my mix. I think this unit would not serve well for serious mix chores.

I love the effects, ease of use, and the sound, all about equally.

If I had to do this over again, and had the same budget, I would most definitely buy this again. If I had MORE MONEY to spend -- and by MORE, I mean $1000 more -- I would probably opt up to a VS with SCSI. If I had $3000 more, I'd start looking at the Yamaha AW4416...

But you get the idea: you get MORE than what you paid for out of this unit. If you have a way around (or don't mind) the limited recording time, and don't mind the limited number of inputs, you'll love this thing.

If you need more -- or want more -- you must SPEND MORE.

This thing has some great sounds and as far as the Hiss that everyone bitches about I have heard a lot worse in major studios. For the price you can't beat it and if you are that serious and worried about the hiss then dump it on a mini-disc or DAT and go get your stuff mastered. It works great recording acoustic with a live Mic and it's really fun to use the 3 main input for recording yourself live at coffee bar shows and such.

I am mainly using two Les Pauls for my electric guitars and man do they sound great. My Fender Precision bass gets a lot of ground noise from the unit but if you use the joint effect patches such as the guitar effects and mic compressors together it works out fine. I also run my Roland V-Drums into this BR-8 and it took a little while to get a good sound from them. Even if you bypass the effects it seems like there are still some enhancers and compressors always on the signal being received. Now I use the same fix as my bass guitar and it works out fine. Just make sure the effects are turned off at the V-Drums Brain also!!! ;o)

This is the area that lets me down. I have had problems with the disk saying it is full after I only have 5 tracks recorded at 5 minutes length of time. Saying it is a 64 track recorder is sketchy at best because I have never managed to use more than 8 without running into storage capacity problems. If anyone knows a fix for this let me know or if you've experimented with the other formats for recording what was the quality like on output???

The help desk should more be called the helpless desk because that's how you are left to feel. I have called on 5 occassions and each time in varied time periods of the day have been kept on hold or not received an answer for approximately 45 mins.

Then there was no solution to my problem after I did get to talk to them. Also can Boss please have their own site because the Roland/Boss Site just sucks for trying to find data or info of any sort.

I play indie rock and some alternative acoustic styles and I have been playing/performing now for approximately 7 years. My unit was stolen from my truck before a session at a full size recording studio and I did buy another one because I liked it so much. I hate that it comes with only a 100mb zip drive when it should really use the 250mb zip and I think ultimately it should have a USB or Firewire connection so that people can capture the sound direct to their computer. I would also like to see some form of support for the Macintosh platform and currently their software only works on PC's.

Just like all the rest of the BR-8 owners... I was also stunned by the ease of use. even if you're a complete nobody at recording (like me) this is easy stuff.. The Manual is also very good, very simple. Not much new info fom me then.

For this kinda money it souds great. Although i do have some problems with finding the right for my guitar. I'm playing a Rickenbacker 360 straight into it. But i'm gonna buy me another unit for the effects. Same thing for the vocals. Not bad but not great sounding either. I guess i'm just lazy not wanting to spend all that time on changin the settings.

No problems yet. And i've had it for about 7 months.

Overall i'd have to say it's great and i wouldn't wanna miss it. Compared to other recorders this is te best in this price range.
Still there are some obvious downsides like the capacity of the ZIP drive and of course the not being able to record more than 2 tracks at a time. But hey... If you're not recording a band but doing stuff for yourself. This is the unit you want!!!

Very easy to use. Manual is not rocket science and should go a little bit more in depth as to what type format it uses for mastering puposes. Had my first song of 8 tracks down in about 1 hour.

I've only used my 87 American Standard Strat and Peavey Foundation bass so far with a Zoom RhythmTrak so far. Ive used the onboard effects and found them easily tweaked to my liking. I've also run a Digitech RP6, Morley wah, Turbo Rat and Rockman distrtions with great results. Yeah ...some of the on board effects are cheesy, but I can tweak them to get some very interesting sounds. Some of the reviews complain about hiss and noise but I have yet to hear anything except the single coil hum that comes from my strat. I am going to work on an accoustic piece with some Telecaster slide tonight and I'm sure that it will come out crystal clear.

No problems in the first 6 months.

I couln't find any online tech support through the Roland web site. Maybe I need to look elsewhere.

I play mostly blues based rock , blues , jazz , and some other wierd shit that just pops out of my head. I'll play around with the COSM effects to come up with new sounds and ideas. I have only scratched the surface on this machines features and hope to spend more time with it. The only real bitch I have is trying to record to CD through my computer. I have tried transfering data through a Zip 100 drive with no luck. I have connected the analog output directly to my sound card and created files of my music which I can play on my computer, but I can't get the fucking songs on disc even though my cd writer indicates succesful recording. This is why Boss should go into more details as far as formats are concerned.Or at least have this kind of info available. If the machine were stolen I would have a new one shipped to the prison that I would be serving time in for killing the son of a bitch.

The unit is very hands-on and user-freindly.
Some of the more advanced editing may take some
reading, but over all
it's fun to work with

Its got a cool feature called "DOUBL'N. look into it

So far so good

Roland has allways been strong on pro help.

My overall rating is a 9 with the exception of one thing,
You can't convert the optic to USB or firewire.
Optic is the only digital out.Unless you perchase
a very expencive Firewire sound card you are S.O.L.

this unit is extreeemly easy to use.anyone with little recording knowladge can turn out a quality sounding composition in about 2 hours of opening the box.as far as the effects patches go they sound great and they have a very tweakable set up so if you spend some time getting a good sound you will prabably surprise yourself on how great this thing can sound whether it is clean,crunch or lead and in just about any style,all from an electric guitar,it can even make it sound like several different basses.the manual is one of if not the best i've seen it is a reflection of the actual unit,simple and very intelligent.

most of the time i use the effects patches(which i have edited for the various guitars,basses and sounds i want to achieve).it can be noisy but if you spend a little time tweaking this is easily dealt with.for the most part the effects that roland have used here are great,i do agree with others that some of the vocal effects are cheezy,but i just edited a more usefull better sounding patch in it's place(no problem there).i've mike my soldano through it wiyh some great results.i would think that just about any popular guitar sound could be achieved with this unit,just getting to know it is the first step,it will ofcourse have it's limits but what do you expect for around 700 bucks.all effects are very good but i believe that the acoustic simulations are amazing for this price range and also the stereo effects (chorus) are awesome.for distortion i like m1+m2 and the soldano sims for the bulk of the work i do.

this,so far has been very reliable,i think that boss/roland have a great track record.i do not use this to gig.

roland again are among the best in this category,however if e-mailing them it may take some time,phoning is better.

i play mainly hard rock and metal but i dabble in fusion and blues and on occasion pop and country,this unit is very accomidating.i've had it for a year and if it were stolen or lost i would replace it right away.i love the simplicity of use the quality of recording the editing funtions.
there is something i would like to add here and that is in another review by tim conway he mentioned that if you make mistakes you loose that recordable time,this is false see SONG OPTIMIZING to take care of that.also the short recording time can be addressed by selecting a different recording type such as LIVE.i use this quite a bit on certain things to save time and it works really well.try recording similar tracks with the optimum and the live recording types to compare,you will be serprised at the quality of the 'lesser' one.
i compared it to other products but really there is no comparison in this price range,it is the best bet for the money(really).it has everthing i need and more than i expected for the money.this is the best thing to come along in years for intermidiate recording.
if you play guitar and need to get your ideas down and record simply great home recordings then what are you waiting for!!!11 out of 10 for value!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let's put it this way, I bought a used Roland vs-880 for $699 and two days later I took it back and got the BR-8. I really didn't want to take the next 2 years of my life reading the vs-880's manual and after reading so many positive things about BR-8, I decided to give it a try. This thing is amazing. I have used just about every 4 and 8 track cassette thing made and this is easier than all of them. I actually had an 8 track song recorded within an hour and a half of opening the box. And unlike the Roland, Fostex, Tascam and Korg units I've used, editing is very easy. The Scrub/Preview feature is really cool.
As far as the manual is concerned, whenever I've had to look up something, it's been pretty clear on how to do it. I know Boss is part of Roland so I'm puzzled as to way the manual for the BR-8 is so easy to understand and the manual for the vs-880 was like instructions for building a rocket.

I'm using either my Hamer archtop or my '81 Gibson Flying V. I plug my Line 6 POD v.2 into the guitar/bass input on the Boss and, well, the POD is so sweet that I bypass the Boss' COSM effects altogether. The only time I really use the BR-8's COSM effects for guitar is when I'm playing clean or playing my Alvarez direct into the recorder. For drums and bass I use a ZOOM 123 and go into the stereo line in on the Boss and it sounds fantastic. I also use a Yamaha keyboard when I need strings or piano.
In an earlier review, someone complained about the Boss being noisy. The only noise I have found has been with the acoustic and bass simulators. But since I use my Alvarez and the ZOOM it's not an issue for me. I think the BR-8's sound quality is on par with other units that are far more expensive and, after dealing with tape hiss for years, is incredibly quiet.
Some of the COSM effect are a little cheezy but most can be edited to my liking. The Call 'D Cops patch is cool after you remove the hideous flanger,.....it's very Satriani sounding. The clean Jazz Chorus patch is very nice. I do think the Darth Vader and Chipmunks vocal effects are just plain silly and other than for making my 6 year old laugh, seem to be a waste of space. I have also yet to find a use for the Pedal Arm patch.
Sound quality-wise, I'd have to say the BR-8 is as clean as one can expect.

I had no problems, it's been like a rock.

Again, no problems so, I've never had to contact them.

I am in the process of recording a CD of my original guitar instrumentals. It's everything from metal to flamenco and everything in between. The Boss is exactly what I needed to do this. I've been a musician since I've been 7 years old and today I'm 37. I've had everything from small Marshall combos to six Marshall stacks behind me to my current set up,...a Crate GFX65 and the POD. And what's really cool is that, because of the ease of use and the sound quality, the BR-8 allows me to capture my sound and style without having to beat my head against the wall. No more routing nightmares, no more three inch thick manuals, just time spent on creating. If it were stolen or destroyed somehow I'd go out and buy another the very next day. With the exception of a few cheezy effects, I love it. And as far as features I wish it had, no, it's EXACTLY what I needed. I truly believe that a professional sounding CD can be recorded on the BR-8,.......I plan on taking the unit to a real studio for mixdown and mastering so, I guess I'll find out!

Very easy to use. No problem...

The sound quality depend your style. Generally I can say it's better than expected. The acoustic simulation for instance is very good, but comes with A LOT of high frequency annoying noise, same thing with full gained metal patches or just high trebled sound. The noise reduction tools can do their job for rhythm guitars, but the seriously damage the lead guitar sound.

No problems so far...

I play Blues, Rock n' Roll & that kind of stuff. I have a gibson LP standard, gibson MIII, epiphone acoustic, an old ZOOM multieffect processor, some pedals & a midi keyboard (my computer) & I play for 8 years now.
One of the greatest features of the BR-8 is the bass simulator - the sound is really great (for simple bass chords). the Boss effects are known as good effects & thats no news.
I think it would be a lot better if the zip drive was larger, something like 200Mb.
Generally it's a great tool for a nonprofessional guitarist to record his stuff with, it's easy, & definitely worth it's price.
I did some great recordings with it & I'm pretty pleased with the results.

HC didn't put my e-mail contact address on my previous review so see below

as above

as above

and again

Here's the problem - the total recording time is 49 minutes per 100mb Zip disc. Fine if you're doing a 3 and a half minute pop song and nail everything on the first take.
However, when you record something then delete it, you don't get all the used time back. So if like me, you make mistakes, you can suddenly find yourself running out of recording time.
Fine if you use drum machines/sequencers but for mere mortals with twitchy fingers and tempermental vocal chords, its a real problem.
If anyone's got any solutions to this I'd love to know what they are.

Extremely easy to use. The COSM amp pre-sets are so good that you don't have to use any other effects and definitely don't need to set up an amp and mic it. The on board effects work better, and what could be easier than plugging a guitar cord into the unit? You can also record tracks dry and experiment with different effects patches later. The voice effects are damn good. I'm not a strong singer, and I've always been self-conscious about my voice. But the effect on board make even me sound great! I like the Enhancer 1 and 2 effects the best. Everything else on the BR-8 works as easily as Boss advertises. No patch bays, busses to assign, etc. Just set your input clip, adjust the input level, pick a patch, and hit record. It is that easy. I sold my Roland VS-880EX and bought the BR-8. I can't appreciate any sound quality difference at all, and the BR-8 is ridiculously easy to use, yet sounds like you've recorded in a state of the art studio. I'm just a hobbyist, not a pro, but I swear to you that I am getting pro quality recordings out of this baby! It is the best deal going if you want cheap digital that you don't need an engineering degree to learn how to operate. The folks at Boss put a ton of thought into this product, and it really shows. This unit is great for the hobbyist who wants everything in one easy to use self-contained unit. Pros will love it too, because you certainly aren't compromising on sound quality.

Unbelieveable sound quality. The built in effects are worth the price of the unit alone. Add to that 8 tracks of digital recording, and this is one exceptional little unit. All I do to get good sound is run a guitar line or mic line in, pick an effect, set levels, and record. I run the digital optical cable out the BR-8 directly into the digital in on my Philips CD-R burner and I am recording first generation digital directly to a CD!!! I burned my first CD with 10 songs in less than an hour. The CD sounds like I bought it at a record store...it is that good. Talk about easy CD burning...that digital optical out is unbelieveable. You are NOT limited to a Mini-Disk either. I've burned maybe 20 CD's now and they are all perfect. The Philips CD writer is also a cool little unit and it allows you to dupe other CD's or burn them from an external device. Mine cost $350 at Best Buy. Such a deal!

I've had it for about 3 months. I've recorded about 20 finished songs on it without a single problem. I haven't (and will never) take it on the road, so I can't comment on how rugged it is. But, I can say this, you have an entire studio (effects, mixer, patchbay, etc.) in one well-laid out small unit. What else could you ask for?

I haven't had to use it, so I can't comment.

I play pretty simple stuff, mainly blues like SRV, Hendrix, etc. I've recorded some keyboards on the unit, and they sound superb. Also, I have used my old Roland SD-35 sequencer to transfer some 50 or so old MIDI files that I have sequenced over the years. Syncing up to the BR-8's midi clock so that I could record each MIDI channel to a separate track was super easy and worked flawlessly the first time. Man was it ever cool to take stereo drum tracks, a bass track, keys, etc. and record them to zip disks on their own separate tracks. Now to record new versions of my old sequences, all I do is lay down new guitar and vocal tracks and I'm done. Then I mix the songs down directly to a CD-R using the optical cable out into my Philips CD burner. I can play the CD's in my car, my stereo at home, my office stereo or where ever! This unit is simply amazing! The hype is all true. The only criticism that I have is the phrase trainer is a bit cheesy. My Ibanez Rock & Play (10 years old now) works twice as good. Other than that, I have no complaints whatsoever. I had the Roland VS-880EX, and I ditched it for the BR-8. I can't discern any sound quality difference, and I can actually operate the BR-8. The VS-880 was a real bitch to operate with a steep learning curve. You don't even need to look at the manual to use the BR-8!

This is a piece of cake even if you've never used a casette-based recorder before and the manual is easy to find your way around.
There are a few annoying quirks though which you have to get used to.
e.g. the FX default to ON every time you plug in.

generally pretty good, miles better than my old Yamaha 4-track though you do get quite a bit of white noise from a lot of the FX patches.
It's not studio standard but not bad.
The mic patches can be quite noisy and a lot of them are very gimmicky. Once you've found a half decent one to suit you, I can't imagine bothering with any others (unless you're doing a sound track for a shoestring budget Sci-Fi movie)

it's never conked out in the year I've had it.

never used

Here's the problem - the total recording time is 49 minutes per 100mb Zip disc. Fine if you're doing a 3 and a half minute pop song and nail everything on the first take.
However, when you record something then delete it, you don't get all the used time back. So if like me, you make mistakes, you can suddenly find yourself running out of recording time.
Fine if you use drum machines/sequencers but for mere mortals with twitchy fingers and tempermental vocal chords, its a real problem.
If anyone's got any solutions to this I'd love to know what they are.

The ease of use and sound quality out of this recorder are fantastic. Very logical menu setup, effects are straight-forward and fairly easy to edit (could use a little easier user interface though). Recording/bouncing/mixing are MUCH more intuitive than any tape machine you're likely to come across - especially in this price range. The manual is very comprehensive, but not entirely necessary to get started. However, going through the manual - in detail - will get you into several areas of enhanced capabilities than what is readily apparent by just going through the menu icons.

The sound quality is clean and professional sounding - somewhat startling given the relatively low-price of the unit. I plug my Les Paul Studio straight into it and use the built-in amp-modeling and effects. One of the main reasons I bought the BR-8 was to have something I could plug straight into, and not have to bother setting up amps, preamps, and microphones. I had been using a four-track tape and used my Zoom 505 for some basic effects, but the ones built-in to the Boss are far superior, and simpler to use too. It won't be mistaken for 64 track studio work, but it's a HUGE jump from 4-track tape - and not much more expensive than it either.

So far, so good. Seems well built and of high quality.

Great website, had all of the features accurately described in detail. Was very helpful in my pre-purchase info gathering. Have not needed any post-purchase customer support as the ease of use has been great - I really haven't had any questions I couldn't figure out with the manual and doing a little "tweaking".

I play rock, blues and acoustic. Main instrument is guitar so the features included with this model are well-suited to me. I think it can suit any musician though, really - I've recorded some real cheap keyboards with it, applied some phase shifter effects and they sounded great! Vocalists will be pleasantly surprised at the warmness of tone they can get out of even cheap mics. I've been recording on 4-tracks for about 15 years and this thing beats them hands-down and "goin' away". I love having the ability to plug directly into it and start writing/composing at a moment's notice. Getting an idea down, WITH Rhythm, WITH effects, and WITH the ability to copy/cut/paste all over the song was never faster nor easier for me. You just can't compare it to a tape machine - they aren't anywhere near as capable. If it were lost or stolen, I'd buy another in a heartbeat. Besides having onboard effects, I love having faders for all 8 tracks (no bussing - all individual faders), the extra 8 "virtual" tracks per track, the built-in rhythm machine, and having a removable media storage device. At first, I thought the 100MB ZIP disks would be too small with only 50 total tack minutes per, but by using a lot of "looping" techniques - it not only frees up a tremendous amount of storage space on the disks, it makes my recordings much better. Get one "good" lick down, and I can loop it to my heart's content all over the song and never have to worry about "punch-ins" and also never have to use any additional disk space. In reality, you can probably get closer to 90 total track minutes if you use the copy/paste looping techniques efficiently. It's also a fun way to "chop up" and rearrange your songs in ways you might never had thought of before! I compared the BR-8 to the Fostex VF-08 (not having a removable storage device scared me away from that one) and the Roland VS-840GX (no rhythm machine turned me off to that one). If I could change one thing about it, I't give it the ability to record more than two inputs/tracks simultaneously. I'd prefer having all 8, but would settle for four (this really is a PERSONAL recorder - not a BAND recorder). This is the machine's only weakness in my opinion. I think it's still the best value for the money compared to all the others, though.

I don't think you could buy an easier to use digital recorder. I litteraly had recorded a 6 track "scratch" song in less than an hour after opening the box. This has been easier to use than analog 4 track machines that I have used in the past. The manual is fairly well written and covers in detail most of the procedures that you can use with this recorder. Also comes with a video which is a little helpful. This machine is truly "plug and play".

The sound quality is actually better than expected. I heard lots of rumors about Roland's sound compression scheme and wasn't sure what effect it would have. I am simply amazed at how professional sounding the end product can be. I had recorded with analog/tape equipment for years and could never come close to this quality. Don't get me wrong, this won't compete with a 2" tape deck going at 30 IPS, but in this price range, it's all I ever hoped for. The effects are more usable than expected. Most of the guitar and bass effect are usuable depending on you application. The vocal effects seem to be split between usefull and "look at what I can do" type effects. I did not expect the effects to be this functional. I had assumed that I would always be micing my guitar to get a good sound, but was pleasently suprised that the internal effects are highly usable.

Seems very reliable. ZIP drive is the only thing that I could imagine going bad, but I haven't had any problems with this or any Boss items I have owned. I give it a 9 because their is a lot of platic, but once again, what do you expect in this price range.

Never dealt with.

I play many styles of music: blues, rock, classical guitar, jazz and this has been a perfect match for me. It is so easy to use and really lets you capture ideas without the hassle of worrying about setting up tons of equipment. It's not for everyone and does have limitations(Limited recording time, limited inputs)but this works great for my use. If you primarily record either just yourself or just occasionally whole bands, this machine is great. I am having more fun making music than ever.

Very easy to use. I have not looked at the manual yet and I'm preparing to mix my first song with some onboard reverb and a little bit of delay. Very logical setup.

Had it for two weeks now but it really sounds amazing. Most sounds modeled with COSM technology are usable, but some of them are very sweet (twin2, jc120). Some patches work better with humbuckers and others with single coil pickups, especially the acoustic guitar simulations. Different settings of reverb, delay and chorus are very easy to tweek. Can't wait to mike my stock Princeton (original Jensen Alnico speakers).

I sure hope it will still be alive in two or three years from now.

Good for any kind of music (rythm guide provided for just about any style and more). I jumped from Tascam 424 mkII to BR-8. Giant leap. Day and night. So much more creative possibilities (DIGITAL EDITING! yes). Onboard amp modeling and effects. Now can I get rid of the old junk?

Very easy to use. You can just about plug in and go. You'll need to look at the manual to adjust EQ,reverb,etc. parameters per track, but it just about walks you thru it by itself. Very cool. I was able to figure it out within an hour at MARS. The manual is very good.

The recording sound quality is wonderful. What you put in, is exactly what comes back out. I've waited years for that moment. My Mex.Strat w/Texas special pickups doesnt seem to do high gain sounds very well thru the COSM guitar processor. Only one or 2 of them really wail. The demo at the BOSS site shows a guy with humbuckers wailing away, so maybe thats it. Although I dont have this problem thur my amps(?)But I didnt buy it for guitar effects anyway! I bought it with every intention of micing my amp. Used this way, its awsome.
There is no noise from the unit. The reverb choices are Hall & Room. But you can set the pre-delay the reverb and Eq it too. Over all, very usable. I thought the unit sounded 1000X better thru speakers than headphones. Maybe its just me.
The built in drums are ok. They dont eat up a track either! Its somehow saved internally with the song. They are electronic sounding drums, think Yamaha RX series from 1985, but with reverb, they sound alright...do-able at least. And you can control the reverb send to the drums too. You're supposed to be able to sync these drums up via midi to external devices, though I've never delved that far. Pre-amps are very quite too. I dont have a bass guitar yet, but one of the settings thru the COSM amps is bass symulator. I have size 11 strings on my strat, and by god, with a pick and a palm mute, I'm not doing too bad!

Had it for about 1 year. No problems yet

never had to deal with them

I play just about anything, from RAP, to Queen, ThinLizzy, Blues, whatever since I was 13. I'm 35 now. I've had several 4track cassette decks in my time and I've waited a LONG time for this to come and it was worth the wait. Its only got 2 inputs, so if you even think you might ever need more than that, consider its bigger brother in the Roland series. Its never been a problem for me, but I do have to get creative when I use my Dr.Groove rhythm box in stereo. You get 6 min of recording time with the zips. Of course the more overdubs and tracks, the less you get. I imagine you could bounce tracks and overdub your ass off and still have 3 min.

Damn easy to use, although Zip disks can be kinda expensive ($100 for a 10 pack of 100MB Zip Disks).

Fucking amazing preset sounds. This thing was obviously created for Rock and Metal players. Preset sounds kick ass, I can't stress this enough. However, once you start to straw away from the presets and start tweaking with them, the tone doesn't sound as good as it used to. And it almost seems like when you tweak with the preset sounds, there is a negligable difference in the tone anyway. Easily a 10 for presets, 8 for original tweaked sounds.

You just can't say "It's a Boss" about the BR-8 and give some story about how your uncle, a nuclear scientist, dropped a 100-megaton h-bomb on it, cuz it's not a stompbox, it's a digital recorder and it's made of plastic, not metal. But them again, it stays in my basement and doesn't live in the mosh pit.

Never dealt.

I play metal and it kicks ass for this.

This is a very user friendly machine, probably one of the easiest on the market. The manual is straightforward but this machine has problems.I'm taking mine back today.

I was using an acoustic electric but as soon as I play some chords this thing hisses worse than a sick cat coughing up a furball. I tried bypassing my guitars effects/pickup thinking it might be the problem, so I recorded with an external microphone and I heard that same terrible hiss. I've recorded on cassete players that sound better than this thing.

Don't know/Don't care

Sucks, call them and you'll see what I mean, the nerd with pimples who works at radio shack knows more than these assholes

I would say its fairly easy to use. Boss advertised
that you can immediately start using it without
even touching the manual which for the most part
is true. I'm not a real gearhead however which
is why I thought it would be a good fit. The one
thing I REALLY liked about it was that you didnt
have to mess with tape cue controls like on my
tascam 424MKII. It will however take a while
to learn about its full capabilities.

The first night I got it I just started messing with
the amp simulations (more on that later). When I began
to record the next day I laid down two tracks of
acoustic guitar. I immediately played them back, panned
left and right and was a little stunned by the crisp
sound quality. I have only had it for a week or two but
have been really happy with the recording quality. My one
gripe is the quality of the electric guitar amp models.
I felt that the clean and less traditional effect programs
sounded fine however the simulations for the more rock and
roll amp sounds (Marshall, Fender etc) are not very
realistic sounding. I am however using a p-90 equipped
guitar thru a Marshall so perhaps my sound is more
suited for traditional miking. Also, I found that the
selection of line and vocal effects to be pretty good.

It seems very reliable, the only thing that possibly
could break down is the zip drive however I am told
that its a fairly easy replacement.

Not applicable really as I have never had a problem
with boss products.

I play hard rock and alternative (AC-DC, Weezer, Ramones etc).
Having owned Boss DR-660 and 770 drum machines I've been
very happy with Boss products. Overall I think this unit
is one of the best deals out there right now. It cost me
$650 new, which I felt was very fair as I've seen them
regularly sell on ebay in the upper 500's. Because I sold
my four track, the cost to upgrade was very reasonable.
For the amount of recording I do, the zip 100's are not a
problem for me. If you are in a band, you may want to
research your need for how many tracks you need to
record on at the same time (this allows two). Otherwise
its great. Even though I wasnt crazy about the amp
models I'm giving it a 10 because it is a well designed
product that really meets my needs.

I must be dumb... I had to actually read the manual before I could really run with the more complex effects and features; but they all work, and the buttons don't have names like 'EFCT' or 'MSTR' for which I am grateful. the manual reads like its been translated from German - but retains almost unbroken coherency, very easy to read. It's fun to read that the feature you thought you had all figured out has three or four sub-features you'd never find by just fooling around with it.

It dry humps the analogue competition to no relief - for the price, it ought to. Onboard drum machine is just cliche midi drums that sound reminiscent (read: exactly like) KORG or any other onboard midi drum set. The effects are the star here: they sound similar to their Boss standalone effects pedals, only ten times crisper, and there are tons of them and all are almost infinitely editable. If your mic costs more than $15, voice and real drums record very fine as well. My mic cost $13.99 at radio shack, but with the mic effects, the sound was cleaned up considerably.

It seems dependable enough. I'd never set it on the floor, smoke near it, urinate on it, etc., but I bet it wouldn't be too bad as long as you dried it out before you used it again. I would not gig without my analogue with me - the BR8 can only record two signals in at once - so I'd record guitar and vocals on the BR8 and drums and bass on the analogue (a TASCAM Porta02) and bounce the analogue tracks into the BR8 after the gig.

Boss has never made a product that I have broken, but I would assume you'd get no help from them until you took your BR8 to a 'certified Boss reseller' or something since they're internationaly based.

I don't think it was the best match for me, but it was no doubt the most cost effective, esp the massive amounts of filters and effects, the no-hiss goodness, built-in tuner, removeable media, easier-than-KORG-interface, and copy/paste features. It gets an eight because it can't utilize all four input channels at once.

Although it appears complicated when you first approach it, the BR-8 will be easy to use for anyone familiar with computers (the concepts of copy, paste, ect...). The use and editing of guitar effects is easy and allows for an almost infinite variety of high quality sounds for a reasonable price, and the effects are only one small part of the machine's capabilities. The BR-8 comes with both a manual and a video to help you get started (although I never needed to watch the video).

Being that everything recorded is stored in a digital format, endless processing and reprocessing of your tracks (applying effects, bouncing tracks, ect..) leads to no loss in signal intensity and introduces only the amount of noise that is inherent in the effects you apply. A very professional "studio quality" sound emerges. In particular the reverb loop effect has an impressively convincing sound. The choice of multiple simulated pre-amps and speaker simulators is a nice touch to sculpt the exact sound you want.

Appears dependable to date.

N/A

Overall, in my opinion, this product is revolutionary. It really gives you an all-in-one, high quality, affordable (for the amount of things it can do) home studio for the average person. It's ease of use and flexibility will satisfy a demanding home user. I haven't regretted this purchase for a moment.

The sound is pretty good, I like the sounds but I still like to use the Boss GT-5 as a preamp:)

I use an Ibanez RG550 and a fender HM strat with great results.

No problems yet but am using it a lot.

I play everything from heavy to blues to praise and worship at church(wich usually involves the fist two.)

This has to be the most convenient to use device in its class - given that it has on-board effects, tuner ,rythum machine and recording functions all in the one box. Editing of patches is simple and the parameters are very comprehensive. It is easier to get around than a Boss Dr-550 drum machine for example. There is a 80s type lead tone preset which is just superb - and I have Hot Rod Deluxe and a Marshall JCM800 at hand for comparison. In short, these effects will not disappoint.
The Manual is easy to read and covers everything you need to know. You do not have to be a digital/tech wizard to get up to speed.

Gison Les Paul std with Seymour Duncan 59s in neck and bridge.
The unit I purchased has a 2 pin power adaptor which means the unit itself is UNEARTHED when plugged in - and we all know what that means. If you use the guitar direct into this with only headphones for monitoring and no hi-fi stereo monitoring there is a lot of pickup buzz, even with humbuckers! BUT once you go via the stereo monitor the signal is earthed and it is extremely quiet. I was initially very annoyed that it wasnt earthed but have learnt to live with it.
It has its own automatic sound leveller which means that it will alter the output monitor volume level depending on number of tracks used and drum pattern etc. from what you initally set it to. This is apparent thru headphones but once again, it isnt really a problem when you hear the end result.
As mentioned, the effects are great and can be applied to the overall mix, to pairs of tracks and to the drum pattern etc. It is easy to pan the stereo guitar signal onto 2 tracks with chorus and echo acheiving the desired left/right separation. This is usually automatic but can be adjusted via the Pan button. The Reverbs and delays are very versatile and sound great to my ears. Try the 'Sweet Lead' preset effect for an example of a great lead tone.
A point worth noting is that the stereo rythum machine signal does not occupy any track space whatsoever, so you get a full 8 tracks to play with in any mix. You can also program the rythum machine to select any combination of drum pattern/time signature i.e 3/4, 4/4, 5/4 etc. and Tempo AND you can vary these 3 params any number of times within any song. The built-in beats sound great and I found no need to augment the BR-8 with an external drum machine - unless you want to create your own beats from scratch.
The only real negative thing I have to say about the device is the choosing of the 100meg disk format size. Why would you impose this obvious limitation when there is the 250 meg format available for 5$ extra per disk? Answer: Perhaps BR-8 version 2 will be in this format!
And why would you go to the trouble of offering a total of 64 tracks when the 100 meg format absolutely prevents any real possibility of using all 64 tracks? The reality is that you will be able to record a few duplicate 'virtual' tracks on any 3 minute song , assuming you use all 8 tracks. But there is always bouncing of tracks to be considered if crucial space is required and it is simple to achieve. It is also an easy matter to copy tracks or songs onto another Zip disk for alternative track recording.
The 'Phrase sampler' will play back at half-speed and it does sound a little weird - but the Pitch appears to be the same. I can slow Mike Stern licks right down(something I always wanted to do!) but he is still pretty quick..

So far so good. I have had it for 6 weeks trouble-free. Not to sure if the Reverb/Delay/Chorus track loop effect selection is truly independant from the entire Input signal. Be interested in feedback on this one.
You will need to purchase a few extra 100meg Zip disks as the unit comes with 1 demo disk.

No need as yet although I might get Roland to Earth this thing one day!

All in all, this will lick any 4-track recorder, hands down. The convenience of direct disk access can not be underestimated - no more mucking with forward/rewind on tape. There is an instant 'Undo' button which you will be hitting a few times to get rid of those mistakes.
All you guitarists out there who don't jam with anybody regularly really should consider this one. With the inbuilt rythum machine and built-in effects, you no longer have to imagine having a drummer, rythum guitarist, bass player present because you now have them all in this amazing box - and you are the Boss. I never really played bass before but have started using the Bass simulator(with my Les Paul!)- believe me, you wouldnt guess it was really a Les Paul.
This machine will definitely help the solo bedroom-player types out there as it simply forces you play against youself, otherwise whats the point?
Regardess of style,this machine should suit anybody.
One limitation may be that it won't be suited to using mutiple mikes for drum kits - you would need a sub-mixer for that one!

As stated, the only possible drawback is the 100meg format but that isnt enough to stop me buying this again if stolen. The competion cant match it dollar for dollar.

Very easy, you can get in gear with just a little reading

these were recorded with the br-8 and nothing else, a G&L Legacy plugged straight into the 1/4in input..http://www.mp3.com/br-8

only 2 weeks old...ok so far

only 2 weeks old...ok so far

it is just fine for the "lone" guitarist..it beats anything so far as the ideal equipment for a guitarman

Well, I don't own it, yet. But I played around on it for a few hours at guitar center, and it is simply the best value around. You don't even need to look at the manual to start recording. It's most suited for guitarist. All I used was a Fender Big Apple Strat, and a cable. I went direct, and everythin was very easy to use. To get out of any menu screen, back to the main screen, simply press the EXIT/NO button. To put some effects onto the guitar, simply hit the COSM effects button, and scroll through the different presets, which include the ever popular Accoustic Simulator (which sounds better on here than the pedal does), and a small variety of Bass simulators, which sound pretty good. It was very nice to lay down the bass track without having to grab another instrument. To record, hit the record button, it will start blinking in standby mode, and to actually record, hit the play button. I could ramble on and on, so suffice to say, if you don't want to read a Texas Intruments-sized manual in order to opperate a recording unit, this it the one. One-function-per-button opperation keeps things simple.

I was very pleasantly suprised to hear how good it sounded. Had I tweaked with the effects instead of just using presets, it would have sounded like a nicely mastered demo. All of the presets sound great, and it doesn't sound tinny, like some other (direct) digital recording units I've used. It retains low beef, and the highs ring clearly. The presets encompass a variety of sounds, most of which were distortions, but also had the accoustic simulator, which sounds phoenominal, a few bass simulators, which sound very good, and a few other freaky tweaky little toys. The playback sounds very clear, and you have a lot of control over the sounds you're making. It also has a phrase trainer (like the Akai Riff-O-Matic boxes) for slowing down parts, but I have no clue how it sounds.

From what I could tell, this piece seems quite reliable. It's BOSS, which has a habbit of building things like tanks. It seemed sturdy, but I'm not really the person to get the best advice from here.

Nope, not a clue.

I play metal/rock/progressive music, and I've played for almost 6 years (considering that's more than a 3rd of my life,it's been a long time, to me). I've tried out a lot of amps, and a lot of effects, and whenever I'm looking for something, I always hunt for the best piece of equipment. Since I started looking for a recorder, I decided right off the bat that I wanted to go digital, with something I could load onto my computer's hard drive, and distribute MP3's, as well as make tapes and burn discs. I have been looking at other, more expensive models, but this caught my eye. I did a side by side comparison with a KORG D-16 digital 16 track, and it was so confusing, I couldn't even get it to record. Yet the BR-8 was very easy. Plus, it saves the files to 100Mb ZIP discs, in WAV. format, which can play as MP3's aswell. THE ONLY THING THAT MIGHT TURN YOU AWAY, is that it can only record up to 2 tracks at one time. For the lone musician, it's fine, but for someone trying to record a whole-band jam session, it isn't so good. I have to say that my search is over, I'm buying one of these as soon as I get the money. It really is the best value out there. Go out and try one. Check out the built in drum machine, that syncs with your recordings, so it matches during playback, and because it does the beat, in addition to counting seconds, it also counts bars and beats. Just see for yourself.

I just picked it up so I'm still learning, I have a Fostex x-26 that I have used for 4-5years. The br-8 seems to be even easier than this.The manual seem clear,I give it a 9 for ease of use.

The COSM effects are great, I have put down three guitar tracks and it sounds super.( no tape hiss)

It's new and I havent put it through it's paces yet I will update my review at a later date. I have to tell you the truth, Half the reason I put the review up is to get feedback from other owner's ( before you hang me for putting a digital recorder review in the guitar effects section, take a look at Roland It has the whole VX series listed)I would give it a 9 so far