Boss BR-8

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.