Roland BR-80 Portable Digital Recorder

I used to live and work at a world-class recording studio and let me tell you, the Boss BR-800 is the way to go! Very versatile. We're going to record more than a few albums with this baby! Here's how I use the BR-800 as an incredibly versatile recording environment: Track 1 - straight signal from guitar. Tracks 2 and 3 - stereo output from guitar into my Boss GT-1 (amazing device BTW). Track 4 - stereo to mono mixdown from keyboard/rhythm Korg X-50. The key is using Tracks 2 and 3 to get a pretty good reference playback/scratch track from the GT-1 effects pedal. Obviously I'm doing the same with Track 4: the Korg X-50 rhythm track. But the key is that I am recording a straight guitar signal on Track 1. With that straight guitar signal, I can take that clean guitar track into Logic or GarageBand, and then it gets crazy, because I can then use any onboard computer effects to get any kind of sound effects and even change the effects dynamically as the song changes.. I could even record in another session using the clean guitar Track 1 and pump it back into my GT-1 (or any other rack pedal I have) and then try different effects that way, without having to re-record the guitar tracks, but yet have different, way-cool effects. This mimics the way that recording studios work. Many engineers will record the band with as many effects as they like, so it sounds great to the band. But they also will record a clean track. So that they can manipulate the clean track and apply effects later on in the recording/mixing process. This is where bands learn to do it like the engineers do it, because it's more versatile. My only complaint (very minor) so far... It takes some time to convert a song and transfer it to my MacBook - 30+mins for 9 minute song) a way minor complaint). If I used it as a DAW, that transfer-time issue would be eliminated, but, I don't use it as a DAW, as we need latency free-recording. So transferring the tracks to my MacBook takes a bit of time. But it's worth it, because getting the straight guitar tracks while being able to hear effects in real time is awesome! I can't recommend it enough for either beginners or professionals. Boss really did it right. And the GT-1 is also in a league of it's own!

This little machine is awesome and feature packed. It does too many things to list but for a small portable DAW-Less set up it is great. The onboard effects and pre sets are very good. Also the built in condenser microphones work great. You can produce high quality music from this machine and is a very good practice tool. This multi-track recorder is worth the price just for the included Boss pedal effects and the vocal and harmony effects. Also has amazing battery life!

You want to know what you can't do with this device. You won't be able to record your electric guitar by plugin in, you can't record vocals using a microphone either. The only way to record is to use the two average built in mics. You won't be able to record any type of audio coming in via the guitar/mic in input. And that's a bummer! I thought I could use it to record my electric guitar for future reference, that I could record a show connecting a cable from my aviom mixer to the boss. But you can't. If I knew this before I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. It comes with FX distortion, delay, flanger but oddly enough and reverb... And you can't record with the effects on, again, you can't plug your guitar. What you can do and what it is for, is just to plug and play. It comes with a metronome, a tuner, you can add your backing tracks and practice a whole show. You can slow the tempo of the songs. It also comes with a series of play along tracks in various music styles that I don't think I will ever use, but some kid might have fun with it. The battery consumes fast, I've used it for 8 hours and the batteries are already dead. It is well built, seems good quality, easy to use, very intuitive and I like it, I'm gonna keep it, but I wouldn't recommend buying it for a musician who wants to record their performance. It is more a device to plug and play than to actually record. It comes with a SD card inside, which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't try it as an interface yet, the manual comes in Japanese, so I use the Google translate camera to read it. It says a driver you have to install first comes in the SD card. I'll try it as interface when I get a card reader. Even though I am disappointed that it doesn't record as I expected, I like this little machine very much.

This little recorder has everything someone could want when it comes to portability, ease of use. There is a learning curve, but I found it helps to just start with a recording and learn to use the onboard drum machine, guitar effects and built in mics. A steal for the $$ I payed in my opinion

I love this thing. I haven't really gotten past making loops to jam with but I've been watching some tutorial videos and I'm ready to dig deeper. I looked at several of these, starting with a Tascam. What sold me here was the built in drummer and the ability to play bass with my guitar. I can whip up a jam in no time and then take off. Many great guitar effects with this COSM thing. Several neat drum kits that totally change any chosen beat or drum pattern. Everything is great. I'll let the others write more thoughtful detailed reviews. I'm new to this and sure glad I got this one. As near as I can tell this is the only eight track recorder with that drum and bass inside so I don't need to get more equipment.

I've tried a lot of dedicated digital recorders. I've yet to find one that's easy and intuitive to use. This was my last attempt. The BR-800 has serious and pointless limitations. You can only plug in certain types of instruments to each input. And different inputs are in weird places, they're not all in the back. Because of this, you can't use this as a simple mixer between recording sessions. You'll frequently be unplugging and replugging instruments or mics. The software interface is atrocious. The most commonly used screens are not on top. Instead, every time you turn on the recorder, you must navigate deep into the menus to set it up for simple use. What an inspiration killer this is. Save yourself time, frustration, and money. Get an iPad and GarageBand. GargeBand is so much easier to use. GarageBand has so many more features than the BR-800: virtual programmable drummer, guitar/bass strumming screen, and keyboard, etc. If you live near an Apple store, go try it out.

It's basicslly almost every boss guitar effects pedal along with amp modeling, a digital multitrack recorder, a drum machine, and two of the best condenser microphones you'll ever use all in a box that will fit in your gig bag. Sure, you can do most of this with apps on your smartphone for cheaper, but the instrument input jack and built-in microphones make this the perfect all-on-one tool for any musician. It's cheap, powerful, and easy to use. I love this.

The BR-800 have amazing efects, sound and easy to record system, but the 8 chanels to record doesn't exist as Boss announce. The other one con I find is that the software to convert records to WAV is outside the unity, using some poor Boss software, at least if you are using a Mac as me, I tried to syncronyze the BR with the computer via USB via and it was very hard, I tried and tried many times, intalled the patches avalaibles online, installed other versions, and after 3 hours , finally the thing connected with the computer. I recomend to install the BR software avalaible online in the Roland page. I have the Micro BR and the masterization is very easy and you can convert the multichanel records in wav or MP3 using only the Micro BR, and here , in the BR 800, a bigger, anewest unity, you can't. I don't understand why Boos did not included this function inside the 800........