Boss BR-864

IF IT WOULD FIT IN MY TOILET I WOULD ATTEMPT TO FLUSH IT
The manual is USELESS
The sound effects are good..BOSS quality.

Ive used Electric, Acoustic, Bass, and a boss drum machine with this and they record pretty well. It doesnt sound bad at all

Its reliable in the fact that it works, I just cant believe there isnt an easier way to bounce and master tracks

IF THEYRE AS HELPFUL AS THE MANUAL, DONT EVEN BOTHER

I may not be very bright, but this cant be the best way to get songs mastered onto a CD. This thing stinks like my big foot.

I think I hate this machine. I originally bought it because I liked the ability to plug in directly, with modeling, etc. Recording a track was easy enough. But bouncing and mastering gave me a huge headache. Do I pick the V tracks, or regular tracks that everything gets mastered on? How do I master to just two tracks? I could swear I read the directions thirty times and still could not figure it out.

Maybe I'm not computer savy or something, but the effort needed to understand what takes only minutes on other units made this machine not worthwhile for me. No wonder there are always so many for sale on Ebay.

My only hope is that someone writes a "BR 864 for Dummies."

OK, but adding your own samples is a bit tricky (hey, that it is doable at all is vry impressive).

The main issue for me with this unit is that it is impossible to input the mic and guitar with separate reverb for live (or recording) performance. This is REALLY stupid on Boss's part (they did the same thing with the GS-10, which is an incredible unit except for that.

Reverb is an effect which should be adjustable (or turned off) separately for guitar and mic.

Eventually, I sold it on EBay and got a GNX4, which does it all, except for battery operation............:-)

Boss effects are always very good to excellent.

Ok, from their phone t/s. (They did verify that the mic/line reverb separation was impossible......

It is a great product EXCEPT for that damn reverb mic/guitar issue. If it weren't for that, I'd buy it again in a NY second. As it is, it is a showstopper for me.

I had this thing up and running in about 10 min, but that's considering the fact I didn't look at the instructions, which meant I lost about 4 songs before I got the hang of everything. That being said, the machine itself isn't bad, just make sure you know how to do everything before you jump right in.

All of the effects are certainly usable, and there are a lot of them, but none of them are particularly special. I have nothing to compare with as far as final quality goes but I'm sure it could be better. I do enjoy using the built in drum machine, but only because this thing would suck ass at recording an actual kit.

After having several songs randomly erased, and occasional freezes, I've pretty much begun exporting everything that I do onto my computer before moving on. I did get this machine used though, so it could be that it's just old. Also, get a bigger memory card, you are going to need it. The exporting of a file requires anywhere from 25 to 60MB (depending on song lengths) so if you're working on a 128, you basically have enough to get 2-3 stereo tracks, then bouncing, and that's it.

I haven't used them, because I'm on a used machine.

I write my own stuff, and record everything myself (Piano, guitar, bass, vox, bg vox, drum machine, etc.). So, if you're a solo multi-instrumentalist that has a good grasp of the art of acceptable recording, this is a good bet, if not, get yourself into a band.

P.S. I record my piano grand effect on my keyboard into this thing using one of the acoustic guitar effects, as I can't seem to get a natural sound out of it. It's acceptable, but far from the real thing.

Overall, easy to learn if you stick with simple recordings, very straight forward. Still, some things do take a while to learn, mostly the rhythm tracks. I did an firmware upgrade and it went w/o a hitch. The USB port helps in this regard but is slow. Moving files to the PC is also a slow process, specially the conversion to WAV algorithm, but it works flawlessly. Upgrading the 128gb to 1gb allows using the machine with several projects without needing frequent PC backups. The manual is ok, explains most funtions, but detail is lacking. It just seems that it's written for someone who really understands recording theory.

So far, most guitar recording I've done have been direct. Sound is very good, even though it's Boss' MT2 compression algorithm. Wish they allowed non-compressed recording. Nevertheless, the sound is good. I'm also using a Nady SP-33 and a MXL-990. Both sound great. (remember, the room you record in has a lot to do with mic sounds also, and I'm NOT in a studio). BTW. Just purchased a TC-Helicon Quintet and used its mic preamp into the 864 and my SP-33 sounded 10 times as good. So the mic pream on the recorder is decent, just not the best. Given that the Quintet costs as much as the 864, that's expected I guess.

Had it for over 6 months, no issues whatsoever.

Other than the ease of downloading the patch and upgrading the firmware, never needed customer support.

This machine is great. It's my first recorder and I'm very happy with it. I record Blues/Rock with my Fendel Strat, Ibanez Acoustic electric, Yairi classical guitar and anything else I feel like that day (this is mostly a hobby for me). The 128mg NEEDS to be quickly upgraded to 512mg+ cause otherwise you're limited to about 2 3-4min songs if you use all 8 tracks per song. The guitat/mic patches are decent, some useless (ie. Vader). The mastering patches are good. With the price dropping to $395, this unit is an even better bargain. Things that Boss should've included: uncompressed recording option, Phantom power and maybe an option to a CDROM drive... oh wait, I just described the BR-900... ;-)

It takes some time, but after you've mastered teh basics - it becomes a breeze. Very intuitive. The manual is but confusing but essential. There is no excuse for such a bad manual.

Very good. A clear difference with analogue.
The preset effects are a mixed bag. Some of them are satisfactroy to good, but others are a just totally unusable. Luckily you can tweak every parameter, which renders this unit very deep indeed. I own a Boss GT-5 (which is a great multieffect), but if one has sufficient time one can achieve results pretty close to the GT-5.

The drums sound very good - especially if you think that they are only there as a rhythm guide. I think the drums are absolutely excellent.

I use this with both a Gibbo LP Standard and a 50th Ann Deluxe Strat. Both guitars sound great through teh BR-864.

Had it just one month. Couldn't tell. So long so goog.

Excellent!
This is the perfect tool for bedroom recording and much, much more.
Recording, bouncing, mixing, drumming, effects - all in one great box that is so intuitive to use. You really can't ask for more at this price.
I have to say that this was definately built with the guitarist in mind though..

The more time you spend on this unit, the easier it will become to use. Once you understand all the features, you should be able to record guitar, drop drum tracks and add anything you want in a very short amount of time. There are a lot of buttons and menus and you must spend hours of playing around with the features and reading through the manual which is pretty thick by the way but absolutely necessary. The difficulty comes in when mixing, mastering and choosing guitar sounds. There are so many options, your sound is limitless. It's fun tweaking though because you'll keep inventing new sounds leading you to new ideas.

I think for $400, this thing is awesome and I love it. If you want to doodle around on your own or with friends, this will make recordings you can move to your computer, e-mail to friends, put on CDs, on your IPod, it sounds great. Don't believe me? The link at the bottom is a sample I made done completely on the BR-864. I used an American Strat, a Spector Euro bass, a Shure mic and a Monster Cable. All sounds came from guitar, mic or the BR-864. Obviously for $400 you can't get the best sound quality, but damn, I think it sounds great.

https://webspace.utexas.edu/newlinjr/The%20808.mp3

Never had any problem with it and I throw this thing around a lot. I've taken it on trips, airplanes, buses, cars...no problem. It can run on batteries so you could take this to the beach with a guitar, bass and microphone and jam out on the beach.

Never had to deal with em.

This is definitely made with the rock guitarist in mind. You could also do some rap on it because it's easier to connect lines into. This only has inputs for guitar a mic and other electronic things such as keyboard or sampler. You could record acoustic instruments because of the mic in, but drums are a no on this. Drums require multiple inputs and this does not have it. If you want to record drums I'd recommend another model of the same line from BOSS with enough inputs. It may cost twice as much though. Buy this if you've always wanted to make your own rock CD's in your bedroom. Contact me for more sound samples or more in depth questions. I've put hundreds of hours in on this thing and it's my favorite toy, probably the most fun thing I've EVER bought. When I went to the store I bought this without really researching it. This had every feature I ever dreamed of and then some. 10+

I bought the unit as a Christmas present to myself last year. I have wanted to do multi-track recording for a while but didn't care much for the tape stuff and never seemed to do well with the computer stuff, although to be honest I never really gave that a fair shake. Out of the box on Christmas Eve my brother and I were laying down guitar, bass, and vocals til 3 in the morning.

We used a few of the patches at the time and I've probably experimented with most of the others since then. Read the other reviews on the board, some are good, others not so good. Some are really bad, but that's not really what I bought the unit for.

I play in a band also and thought it would be useful for pulling together some demos, but with only two inputs its a little more work, but only a little since we do have a mixer and other toys.

So - out of the box? Great.

I've been reading about the drum sequencing and being a guitarist/bassist I was at first very frustrated by what seemed to be a very counter-intuitive interface. It has taken some time, but once you understand how the rhythm pad works and understand that your sequences don't acutally become part of the music until you bounce it down, it becomes much more user-friendly.

As with anything it takes time to get to know how to make good sounds with it, and over the past 10 months I would like to say that the production quality has improved as my experience has grown.

I have my own amps and some effects pedals so I don't rely too much on the built in stuff, although the JC-Clean with an acoustic is pretty nice.

As with anything - garbage in garbage out. I have found that most of the time when there was noise on a channel it was more due to emi from other sources not the BR864.

I have another BOSS machine (DR Rhythm) that someone gave me and it looked like it had been handed down a few times before that. I had my doubts about it, but it powered up and worked fine. Boss seems to make their products with the musician in mind, and while I don't throw my 864 around - I have no doubts that it will be very reliable for a long time to come.

We actually have used it to record the band live through a single microphone in several bars and were able to get something decent out the other side. Not great, but decent.

I had to call them after I misplaced my manual and got through with no problems.

For what I paid - its great. I like to write and record my own stuff independent of the band and this is perfect for what I do. I can see moving up to something with more inputs later on but for now this will do.

The unit comes with a 128 flash. The first upgrade was to a 512 meg card. Just went to Best Buy and bought what they had and it worked fine. You really do want to upgrade to at least 256 if you want more than one 4 minute song and want to be able to actually mix to a wave file on the unit.

I have been able to access the unit via Windows 2000 and XP with no problems. I can hook to it with linux (it mounts as /dev/sda1 if anyone is interested) but you can only pull stuff off the card with Linux (something to do with root permissions).

Details are given in other reviews. Some parts of this unit are easy to use, others take digging from the manual. For what it does and the package it comes in, it's pretty good. If you're not experienced at mixing and recording (and most of us buying this unit probably aren't!) you can get lost, but the good news is that you can get decent recordings without knowing much!!

As a recording unit I think the sound quality is very good. My recordings are fairly clean, with the exception of a little hum (60 cycle?), but very acceptable. Just last night I spent some time using this to transfer some favorite songs off old cassettes and burn on CD. The results are very useable, considering the source were 20-year old cassettes played on a medium quality boom box. To me this demonstrates that the unit has pretty decent sound quality for the $$.

There are several amp models in the unit. With the exception of a couple of the clean models, the rest are pretty lousy. I only use the built-in models if I'm just trying things out, otherwise I either mic up an amp or use a direct-out which both of my amps have (Mesa F50 and Vox Valvetronix) and turn off COSM. Effects quality varies. Reverb and delay are quite good, chorus is good, too, but some of the other modulation effects leave to be desired...can be used sparingly with serious tweaking. Generally I use my own pedal effects when recording.

There is a bass simulator that you can use with an electric guitar...not very impressive. It works if you have nothing else or just want something to use temporarily.

I don't use acoustic models either. My acoustic has a built in pre-amp that works fine, so I generally bypass the built-in pre-amps when using my acoustic.

The ability to do some EQing on individual tracks is a nice feature.

Seems to be reliable in the 10 months I've had it so far. Since I don't gig with it, there's no need for a backup.

Don't know...haven't contacted them.

Great little recording unit. What I like best about it is that you can have as much or as little control over the parameters as you want. In my case, I know completely nothing about mastering, so I just use their presets. I suppose someone who is knowledgable in that area might think the presets suck, but I'm clueless and happy! And if I want to learn about them and set my own parameters, I can.

USB is great...somewhat slow, but easy to make WAV or AIFF files. As I said, it's also allowing me to transfer some stuff from my 20-yr old cassettes to CD...BONUS!! :)

Just don't buy it thinking that with all the amp models it has everything you'll want to make great recordings...you'll still want a good amp that you can connect.

The unit is reasonably easy to use, but being a novice as far as home recording is concerned it did take me a little while to get to grips with it. Effects patch editing is very straight forward and intuitive. The rhythym guide is complicated and difficult to program. The manual is terrible; the manual that I received had missing pages and repeated pages. Transfer of WAV files between the BR 864 and a PC is very straight forward and easy.

I am using a Fender Deluxe Strat, a Fender Telecaster, a Kramer Baretta and a Yamaha Bass that I directly connect to the HiZ input. The clean amp simulations are good, in particular the jazz chorus (JC 120) simulation. The dirty amp simulations are ok for rhythm sounds but lack warmth for lead work. Most of the onboard effects such as delay, chorus and phaser etc are good. The wah-wah effect is terrible (hardly noticeable in touch mode).

Reasonably solid unit. Can't comment on the long term reliability.

I have attempted to contact Roland in the UK by email several times and they have not responded. Either they are overwhelmed by the volume of mail that they receive (not a terribly good sign?) or they are just plain ignorant.

I play hard rock music and this unit is ok for preparing demos. Considering the price, it is difficult to complain about the range of features or the performance. In fact the unit does a heck of a lot and should allow any proficient muscian to produce good quality demos. If it got stolen I'd upgrade to its big brother the BR 1600 -CD or the Tascam 2488 both of which allow greater flexibility in terms of inputs and have larger storage capacity. I intend to purchase a good quality guitar pre-amp (Marshall JMP-1 or a Rocktron Voodu) to generate better quality lead tones. My main grumble is the support offered by Roland - if you buy this unit you are on your own!