Boss BR-864

Pretty easy.

Sound quality is up there.

It exports the mastered wav files to my computer half the time I try to, and I cannot back up data half the time either. It is very, very annoying. I need to call in and ask what the problem is. It is reliable for everything else except for the above mentioned.

I would have to buy it again if it was lost or stolen for sure. I probably couldn't live without it now.

I purchased this unit around 2004 and at first didn't use it because I was so busy. When I finally started using it, I had to read the manual. BIG DEAL! I went to school for a reason, and these complaints about the manual are embarrassing...our country is so lazy about learning it is ridiculous...okay...sorry.

The BR-864 really impresses me with time. I recently recorded a song for a friend and in one day we wrote, arranged and recorded a finished piece of music with drums, bass, piano, 2 acoustic guitar tracks, two electric lead guitar tracks and 2 vocal tracks. I mastered them after a few bounces and it was DONE. and it sounds about a clean and polished as a Nashville session....so it can deliver if you have the creativity inside of you!

So far, I can complain here either. A PreSonus micpre for my AT-4033 is giving me incredible results. Just need to pay attention to the gain of the micpre and on the unit and the sound is very clean and rich.

Boss impressed me with their service and I remain loyal to them for this. I taught guitar for 10 years and helped sell thousands of dollars worth of Boss products. When this unit needed servicing they were a bit difficult-I had to remind them of the term "symbiosis."

In the end, they rose to the occasion and I must admit they impressed me in this regard.

I am a versatile guitarist that has played rock, blues, country, top-40 and funk and now mostly enjoy jazz-rock fusion, blues and jazz. This unit is really working for me at this time. I plan to do the computer recording thing when i have the funds, but this BR-864( I think now a new model) serves me extremely well for the music I play and does not restrict my art.

I think it's reasonably easy to use this unit for basic multi-track
recording. The manual, despite comments of many others, seems
reasonable to me. The first part of the manual overviews the
entire recording, mixing, and mastering process, and the rest
of the manual goes into details. The thing is, this unit is
very powerful and if you don't understand anything about recording
it will naturally seem difficult to use all of its capabilities.
For example, the effects processors built into the machine can
be routed into the signal path in various ways. This options
will be familiar if you have some recording background, but
can be confusing if, like most of us, your recording background
is limited.

I recommend getting a general book on music recording to help if
you don't have some background.

A slight hassle involves setting drum tempo. If you define a
rhythm pattern and set the tempo and record, and then later
play your song back, the tempo will be the default 120 bpm.
The solution is not difficult but took me a while to figure
out: first define your pattern, and then define an "arrangement"
consisting solely of the pattern you've just created. The
tempo must be set in the arrangement, because the arrangement
data will be stored with the song. If you do this, the tempo
will be correct when you come back to the song later.

It is tedious to modify effects patches because it is done
entirely through menus and one or two knobs -- not lots of
knobs as on dedicated guitar multi-effects devices. Programming
the drums is also more painful than with a dedicated unit.

A significant hassle stems from the fact that there are four
level sliders for 8 tracks, especially when mixing. The newer
BR-900 overcomes this limitation.

Hooking the unit up to a computer via USB to save songs is also
a pain, but Boss provides software that allow you to plug your
flash memory card into your computer and then convert the
(mastered, stereo) song into wav format. Much better than using
the USB connection.

Compared to 4-track cassette recording this is so great!
I used to hate dealing with all the hiss and the noise
accumulated when bouncing. So, I find the sound quality
very good. A wide range of effects are provided for guitar,
bass, bass simulation (allows use of guitar as bass -- works
ok), vocals, and general effects like modulation. I think
the guitar effects sound quite good compared to multi-effects
boxes out there. Also very handy is the ability to plug in
a guitar and a mic and to use the predefined guitar/vocal
patches. Of course you can define your own patches, too,
and there is even a synthesizer built in that can be driven
by your guitar signal!

I think the drum sounds are reasonable.
It's cool that you can provide your own audio for the drum
sounds but I haven't tried this yet.

I specifically chose a hard-disk-free multi-track for
reliability and
low noise. With large-capacity flash memory now cheap
it is too bad that it is hard to avoid hard drives when
you move to machines that support more than 8 tracks.
What is also nice is that the "boot" process is very
fast, just a couple of seconds. I bought a standalone
multi-track so that I could get recording quickly when
I have a bit of time.

I almost forgot to mention, I recently tried to use the built-in
mic, and it didn't work. It was my first try with that mic so
I'm not sure if it ever worked.

I've never tried to contact Boss.

I use mine mostly for recording 3 or 4 track musical ideas.
I also use it for recording complete songs, and also for
recording improvisations. For doing jazz and blues improvisations
I wish more predefined rhythm patterns were available.

I've been playing a long time and own quite a bit of gear.
Unfortunately, when I had the time (before marriage and
children), the only affordable home-recording option for
me was a Fostex 4-track cassette deck. Worse, recording guitar
was just about impossible, given: I lived in an apt., had no
decent guitar amp, and had only one mic. Now the technology
is fantastic and affordable and I have very limited time.

Overall I'm think the Boss is a powerful unit with no major
weaknesses. It would be neat if Boss offered a memory card-based
12 track supporting a 4GB memory card, having 12 different
track level sliders (and no CD drive), and supporting maybe
4 simultaneous recording tracks.

First. This really has 65 tracks including the Rhythm guide (1) and the 8 virtual tracks for each of the 8 playback tracks.

This is where some people get the headache: The manual appears to have been translated into english and there are some obvious errors & omissions etc. But it does tell you just about everything that you need to know to get up and running. Like anything that's more complex than soccer ball, there is a little bit of a learning curve before you remember all of the functions and how to access them. I have crappy short-term memory so I keep the manual handy for reference. I found the bouncing and mastering functions to work exactly like it should when i followed the step by step instructions. I didn't see it in the manual but you can move the faders while bouncing to adjust levels on the fly for solos or vocals etc... Contrary to the post below this, the original tracks do not disappear forever. Once mastered or bounced, the machine defaults to the v2 or v3 tracks. (Each of the eight tracks has eight choices of alternate tracks that can be played, that's why they claim you can record 8 takes on each track and then choose which one you want to use when playing back.)your original tracks are still there under the v1 if that is what you originally recorded them on.

I play primarily rock tunes, so I have been quite happy with the drum sounds provided and have not tried to add any yet via the tone load. I could see adding a flammed snare to replace a tom and maybe adding another cymbal as well. (I have a Roland e-drum that I will try this with.) It all seems pretty easy from the manual (which, in my opinion, is completely satisfactory.) It is quite easy string together drum parts and most of the basic rock beats are already provided as presets. Once I string all the basic pieces together, I go back and edit the tune to add cymbal crashes, adjust the velocity to make the song sound more dynamic and tweak the hi-hat or ride accents to make it more interesting.

Score: 10-1 for the manual, since it sounds like so many reviewers have trouble with it. The remaining score of 9 is supported by having a lot of great features which really are quite easy to use. Don't let the learning curve frustrate you and don't be afraid to sit down with the manual. it really helps.

I have not tried to mic up my amps yet. I just plug in to the unit and use the COSM sounds. The effects are very powerful. There are a lot of choices and many that sound fantastic. Plus just about all of it is fully editable.The clean guitar sounds are very good-warm, full and still crisp. The distorted sounds are also pretty good but my first reaction was that they sound a little scratchy. However, when combined with the other instruments and tracks, they are still quite impressive and my first impression became less meaningful. One of my favorites for hard rock leads is the "fixed wah" preset (#67 or #69-i forget)Think Michael Schenker on steroids. I also like to do two mono rhythm guitar tracks and pan them hard right and hard left. Bass can be mono to use up less memory. I just bought an acoustic guitar but have not had a chance to try it yet.

Vocal presets are really cool and add enough karaoke to keep things interesting. The model that replaces the 864 has phantom power for condenser mikes-which should be a big advantage.

All-in, The sound quality is very good. Remember this a portable device that isn't meant to be substituted for a full computerized setup. It sounds a zillion times better than the Yamaha cassette 4-track that i bought in '86.

I have had no problems in about 2.5 years. My friend bought one when I bought mine and has had no issues either. That makes for a sample size of 2.

Not Applicable since I have had no problems with the machine.

I am sure there is a U.S. support office but I suspect, based on my experience with the manual, understanding Japanese my be usefull...Sorry guys, but you asked for it by releasing a draft manual that should have had more editing done. I couldn't resist.

In order, I play Metal, Hard Rock, Rock and Electric Blues. I have been playing for 20 years and can now afford more toys than when I was mowing lawns for beer money. One cool thing about this machine is that I can great sounds out of inexpensive guitars. My last recording, entitled "In Your Face" had a $100 used squier HH Strat (including the George Lynch SD pickup) and an Essex Pbass copy with EMG's ($110 for the bass and $50 for the EMG's which were on sale but not advertized at GC for some unknown reason, talk about being at the right place at the right time!) I also have a G&L Rampage (1985-bought new at Russo's in Trenton NJ), a white american strat, honeyburst LP standard (I love these two guitars), an Essex LP Junior with fake p90's (solid mahogany with a clearcoat finish. I had to level the frets once but this thing has more sustain than an organ...but its very heavy also), an Epiphone LP Custom, Spirit 5-string Steinberger copy, Spector NS2A and my first acoustic electric which is a Gretsch Sierra Jumbo. I have a 50w jcm800 head, a 100w JCM800 head, 1 1960a and a carvin 4x12 straight front with celestion g12m70's. GK RB800 and RBH410 cabinet.

This was the best sounding and most flexible unit for the money when I was shopping. I shopped quite hard and ended up at GC. To do it all over again, I would probably just spend the extra money for a computer set up since the portability was not as much of a factor as I expected it to be. However, I have been able to program drum patterns and arrangements while riding the train (NJ Transit) back and forth to work. That is a good way to justify the portability.

I grew up on Boss effects pedals. They always appealed to me from a styling, durability and sound quality perspective. I think they have maintained the same product positioning with this product. I use it all the time and have no intention of selling it. It is super handy because it is so self contained. All you need is a guitar and your ipod headphones. In the end I feel a 9 rating is appropriate based on what it does (and does it well) as well as the superiority to its competition.

A couple of pet peeves:

1) the constuction feels a bit plasticky, especially for something that cost $350-$400 when it came out and is meant to be portable. I will note that the controls feel better than all of the other portables that I tried and that i have had zero trouble with them.

2)Styling seems like an after thought. The replacement, they call it the BR-600 or something like that, looks like they addressed this-it also has phantom power if I read the ad right.

3)You have to buy the AC adapter for $15-20. This did not set well with me. Yeah, I bought it.

The manual is terrible. Its seems its been written in Japanese and then lost something in translation to English. The whole machine setup is not very intuitive. For istance after recording 7 tracks and then bouncing them down to one track. At no point does the machine or manual warn you that once this is done you can't go back to the original tracks and rebounce them. Its too late, they've gone. I wasted a whole afternoon after getting my levels wrong. One chance is all you get with this thing! And as for the drum machine - don't even bother trying its a complete waste of time.

Sound quality is excellent, especially for a unit of this price. The COSM effects are pretty much like those found in Boss stomp boxes. This is what sold the machine to me.

I've had this nearly 2 years and never had a problem with the card or the machine.

Never had to use them.

Its a shame - the sound quality of this machine is excellent, Its portable and reliable. But learning to use the thing is a nightmare. I'm no technophobe - I'm a computer programmer by day (unfortunately). But you kind of have to teach yourself how to use this thing because the manual is useless and the design of certain functions has not been well thought out. I've come close to literally throwing this out of the window on a few occassions. Instead of making the recording of music easier, its whole purpose, it just makes everything more of a hassle. I definitely would not buy it again. Once you've spent hours figuring everything out and deleting and losing stuff along the way it is quite usable - but should it really be this difficult to get to that stage?

Okay, not sure why everybody seems to have an issue with ease-of-use. I've had a Tascam 424 MkIII Portastudio (4 track cassette), which is supposed to be much easier, because each button or knob only does one thing, but I have never been able to get the hang of it. Once I got the BR-864, everything clicked, and you don't have to worry about busses (right & left), etc until you bounce down and master. And the virtual track feature is a breeze, and very easy to understand and use. I also don't have a problem with the manual. It's 200 pages, sure, but everything is in there. The quick start section of the manual gets you going quick. The questions that come up during use are answered in the rest of the document.

I think it will click better if you take a bit of time to read through the sections of the manual you need, and don't try too hard to think back to 4 track tape technology.

Also, I use this in leiu of Cakewalk. The portability makes it a breeze to get ideas down quicker, or scurry off into a quiet room while the wife is sleeping to get a couple of tracks down.

I love that you can run it on batteries. Will come in handy for recording live gigs or livingroom jams, too.

Only missing feature, in my opinion, is phantom power (with on/off) for the XLR input.

I friggin' love this thing. Finally got me off my butt and recording. Prior to this thing, it was always too big of a pain in the ass.

Sound is superb. No hiss, no noise, no hum. I record direct with Bass or electric, through the XLR for miking acoustic, or for miking my amp cabinet.

So far, so good.

Never had to use

I've been playing for, oh wow, 20 years now. I play mainly surf instumental, both electric and acoustic, some other mellow stuff, too. I wish I had found something this easy to use years ago. Get on line and check out the user's manual, and if it makes sense to you, grab one. I only paid $140 for mine used, I think it was the deal of the century for me.

Recording simple straightforward ideas isn't hard.
Learning to do more heroic things with it takes time.

The manual is very, very bad.
So much cross-references (see sound quality)...

the sound quality is ok. of course an expensive hd-recorder sounds better.
effect patches are easy to use (see ease of use) once you know how to use them (see overall rating).

One card reading error in three years time.
Had to erase track 6 of song 005.
No problems since.

It's light-weighted, small, there's a good microphone on board.
It sounds ok. Everything is possible.
Just keep things simple, because this recorder isn't!

For many people the br864 will be either too extensive or too limited (see sound quality).

I searched a long time before going with the BR-864. I had a very reliable source tell me that when you're buying digital recorders, make sure that most of the buttons only do one thing...not where a lot of the buttons do a ton of different things...unfortunately, I didnt listen. I think this machine is incredibly complicated. I blame 90% of the difficulties on the manual. I hated it. Its not very helpful at all, seems like they leave off steps that to them must be common knowledge, but to me, it wasnt. Recording tracks on this thing is really simple, its making the tracks bounce down to one track and then putting it on your computer thats the hard part. I think BOSS could have put a little more thought into that.

I do like the sound. There are a lot of nice guitar and vocal effects built in...Really nice, and theyre not hard to edit. Id say this thing can model every pedal BOSS has ever made. Ive played an SG through it, that was fun. A couple of different Taylor acoustics...sounded really nice. I even used my own BOSS drum machine instead of the drums that come on the BR-864. Everything sounded great to me. Not noisy at all, its BOSS quality as far as sound goes

Seems very sturdy,built nice. I dont think it would tear up very easilly

N/A

Ok its a love/hate thing for me. I do hate that BOSS doesnt supply you with a power cord for this thing. That seems logical to me. I depsise the owners manual with every fiber of my being. Its pointless...if you follow it step by step, youll most likely still be in the dark. Ive been playing for 10 years, so Im not new to this stuff....and Im sure if I was more educated in audio engineering that Id be able to figure out more about this thing. Like I said before, recording on it is no problem, bouncing the tracks down to one and putting it on your computer has me completely lost. I wish I'd saved my money on this one. If I had it to do over again, I would buy something easier to use, even if it costs a little more.

Tough at first, but it gets easier with use, pretty big learning curve compared to old analog stuff, and harder to learn than Fostex mr-8. Manual is maybe 80 pages but still some details are lacking, just a couple sentences here and there would have saved a lot of frustrating trial and error.

using old used fender strat, fake p-bass, drums with old realistic electret mics

Sound is extremely good - no noise, no hiss, no hum, no distortion at all. You can turn off the reverb, it's automatically set to "10" out of 100 on each channel. Be sure if using LINE IN that you turn off the Cosm effect button, unless you want effects on it. Some of the LINE IN effects just degrade the sound in the quiet passages.

Have recorded about 15 songs on it (they all fit on the same 1 GB flash card - awesome!) no problems at all.

surf, silly rock, experimental. The built in mic is fine, but I bought an old Realistic mixer on Ebay for $25 that has 3 mic inputs and a couple line inputs, I use a pair of old electret mics for drums and a third for bass drum. You can use a mic in the guitar input, too. I am amazed at the number of features and sounds in this box, and I've only just scratched the surface, maybe will never even use a lot of them. Just having a built in drum machine is pretty awesome, and the samples sound very good. It's harder to use at first than the Fostex MR-8 but sound quality is definitely better. The Boss has no noise, including when you are using reverb, and that's very important. Also, the reverb is excellent, it sounds very natural. The Fostex mr-8 reverb sounded fake or unnatural to my ears, but the Boos reverb is superb. USB wav output is slow but works well. Boss br864 definitely sounds better than Fostex mr-8. I took a chance on Ebay with a buy-it-now and a new seller for $270 and it was a great deal. Bought a 1 GB Kodak CF card on Ebay for $50 and that made it excellent indeed!

I don't think it's easy to use. I have this item since more than 1 year, and still I feel the display is awfully small. It took me quite some study and practice to get accustomed to all the "bouncing", V-tracks, "mastering", and - above all: many different knobs to push just to get one logic step. There are so many under-levels and under-under-levels that it can be quite confusing. I'm not so much a programmer-crack. I'm just an ordinary guitarist / bassist / singer that wants to record these golden moments of inspiration, but so far it more hindered me in my inspirative flow than really helped it. It's such a hassle to get things right, in my opinion...

No noise, very good sound quality, over all. I like the guitar synthesizers, and also the many presets. The sound universe is huge and you surely will find something that fits!

Oh my dear Lord, that is just the reason why I thought I HAVE to write a review. I'm sorry, folks, above all I'm sorry for those who are a fan of that BR-864 in terms of reliability. I so much envy those guys who wrote that they never had difficulties. Well, to be honest, I was having nightmare after nightmare with that thing. I'm not so terribly dumb, and I'm sure I'm using it correctly. But - imagine this - after 7 hours of recording and twisting and getting the tune finally to where I wanted it, all of a sudden the display says: "ERROR! Card read" What a shock! The whole data not accessing anymore! And it's not that it were a big piece, I especially bought a bigger memory card for much money (138 Swiss Francs, ca. 100 US Dollars) and that thing is still collapsing regularly! I also experienced heavy troubles transferring the data onto my computer. In about 50% of the cases the computer would say that "parameters" would not fit, but - hey - I did everything meticulously according to the manual! And my computer was okay also.

No, no, not with me any more. I spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to get my ideas from that bloody unreliable piece of electronics into my computer so that it does not serve my original motivation to buy it at all: I hate it, I fear it, I cannot trust it. It's not my friend, it's my enemy, and it has destroyed about 40% of my recordings!

Imagine, you write a most wonderful poem onto some piece of paper. You put the paper into a closet in order to look at it again the next day, when you're woken up again since you were working all night long on that poem. Then, the next morning you want to take out that poem from the closet and - it's not there anymore. The only thing left is some piece of litter, with no writing on it anymore...

That's about what I have experienced with this box. And, I tell you, don't blame me that I would have done something wrong. No, I've wasted nights and nights on this box - just in order to having not gotten anywhere. I'm frustrated, and I feel somehow betrayed and alone.

I just contacted the company this night when I was writing this review. I cannot say if they answer me or if they even can help me. God, if only I knew that I'm not the only one to experience this nightmare!

I was expecting a lot from this little box. It would suit me perfectly, being a guitarist / bassist / singer, in order to let my fellow band-mates know what kind of ideas I had between our rehearsals. But - so far the frustration is 60% while the happy output was only 40%. Imagine that you become nervous when you transfer your recorded data from the memory card onto your laptop, because you don't know if all your work turned out to be in vain or not! I always was very very relieved when I knew my data safed onto my computer, until then - I never could relax and dedicate myself in a creative manner to the generation of music. This, for me, definitely is a torture. It should not be, if it were a reliable tool.

Was I just unfortunate to get a "bad" item within the whole chain?