BOSS BR-800 Portable Digital Recorder

Product Information

I'm not enjoying the sound quality on the BR800 at all - you really notice if you convert a good quality wav recording to mt2 to put on to the BR800 as a backing track - simply ruins it sounds like compressed mush.

Obviously cassette tape had it’s limitations, primarily the degradation of the tape itself after numerous takes.To this day I still use it for practice, capturing ideas and performances, but mostly as the ideal USB audio interface to monitor and record latency free effected vocal and guitar tracks for my music. Recording onto an SD card and running from batteries, the supplied power adaptor, or even via USB, the BR-800 is designed to be easily portable.

The XLR inputs are FAR too hot as well, I find I have to use a preamp on some condenser mics to reduce their output since even with gains on minimum the BR800 gets overloaded. While you’ll never get the response or dynamics of a valve amp at full tilt in this setup, for practicing at lower volumes the tones you can get out of the BR-800 are much better than just a compromise, in fact, you’ll have access to a wider range of tones than you would through one amp anyway. You can then choose which finance term you'd like to apply for, and change your deposit if you wish.

Beginners will love the new EZ Recording mode that interactively guides you through the recording process. Many of the effects are derived from BOSS's flagship processors, including vocal effects from the VE-20, COSM guitar/bass effects from the GT-10 series, and modelled acoustic-guitar body effects from the AP-1 preamp, which imparts pro-quality miced-up sound and rich body tone to line-recorded acoustic guitar. It even has a built-in stereo mic so you can get ideas down quickly without any loss of inspiration. A second mode is Song Sketch, designed for instant recording of wav files - ideal for those occasions where you want to grab song ideas before you forget them. Now a BOSS convert, I purchased it’s successor, the compact-flash card based Boss BR-600 almost immediately, on it’s release in 2007.

In the end I could never get a DAW working in my setup to satisfactory standard (see the link opposite for more details). Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. When mixing you have a choice of adding either reverb or chorus/delay to each track, as well as setting the panning EQ and volume. There are also useful emulations such as those for turning a six-string electric into a bass or an acoustic guitar and modelled acoustic guitar body effects from the AP-1 preamp to make a plugged-in electro-acoustic sound like it's mic'd. The BR800 has built in effects from the best effect makers in the world, including options for guitar, vocals and acoustic instruments.

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