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- Included Accessories – Soft Case, Size AA alkaline dry cell batteries (6)
- 8 simultaneous playback tracks, 64 V-Tracks
- Built-in FX processor, including pitch corrector and COSM amp models
- Built-in drum-machine with velocity-sensitive pads
- Built-in stereo microphone and battery power to record anywhere
Product Description
The BR-600 provides eight simultaneous playback tracks, but there’s more than meets the eye. Each of the eight tracks also contains eight V-Tracks (virtual tracks), which gives musicians quick access to 64 tracks of recorded material. They can record dozens of takes, and choose their favorites for mixdown. Tracks can be manipulated with the powerful effects built into the BR-600. Derived from BOSS high-end recorders, these quality algorithms can give even the dulles… More >>
June 2, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Don’t be deceived in to buying off-the-shelf Compact Flash (SanDisk, etc.) This box is proprietary in the worst sense here. Only Boss Compact Flash will work. Very bad/stupid decision on their part.
Rating: 2 / 5
June 2, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Perfect portable recording device to take on the go.
Pros include, quality sound, portability, 8 x 8 tracks (64 total/per song), tons of features – precision audio/freq editing, effects, etc.
Cons include: the built-in stereo mics record too much background noise, a professional mic is recommended. There is somewhat of a learning curve, controls are a little confusing, the LCD screen is very small… and every button has multiple functions, almost impossible to know where to start without a tutorial. I have a degree in Computer Engineering and there is no way I would have been able to figure out the BR600 without video tutorials walking me through the basics. The manual did not help much at all. Don’t expect it to be studio quality, but its great for demos and songs on the go. The stock 128MB compact flash card is only large enough to record 1 or 2 songs at the highest quality.
I would have given the rating 5 stars if it was a little more user friendly.
I recommend purchasing the correct power adapter and a 1GB compact flash card to go with the machine. Brand new in a box does not come with these items.
Rating: 4 / 5
June 2, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Features: 5
This thing is packed with everything you need to put together music by yourself. I am a musician that usually works by himself, and I could assemble a four piece band by myself on this. You can assemble lengthy drum tracks with a drum pattern editing tool and can select from several drum kits. There are built in stereo condenser microphones for vocals or acoustic guitar that rivaled my mxl 990 in clarity and sound. There are also ports in the back where you can use external stereo mics if you wish. There is also a 1/4 inch cable input that you can use to record guitar and bass with. Not only that, but the amount of built in effects is awesome. There are marshall stack emulators, tube emulators, …all kinds of stuff you can use. Tons of amp, effects, and simulators are included…basically everything you are going to need if you want to do some basic recordings.
For multitracking, you have almost an infinite number of tracks you can use because you can bounce tracks back and forth between each other, combine tracks, and even store virtual tracks elsewhere on the machine when they aren’t in use.
I have used computer setups before and honestly, I get the job done faster and better with this.
Ease of Use: 3
It’s a little complicated sometimes and I had a little trouble figuring out some things even with the use of the manual. I watched tutorials on youtube of how to do certain things on the boss br-600 and it cleared up a lot of questions i had. Be prepared to put some time into figuring this thing out before you get it. After a while, though, you will get the hang of it and be able to work magic with this thing.
Price: 4
I find the average price of $250 to be a little high for this recorder. I found one of these on eBay for $150 and to me, that was well worth it. Don’t get me wrong, this piece of equipment packs a great punch, but the price you see here is set a little high so I’ve given it a 4.
Durability: 5
Everything about this machine feels high quality. When I first got it, I was stunned at how sleek it looked…and mine was used! This feels like it will last a long time and the screen display is great. You can change the brightness if you need to.
Overall: 4.25
This is a great machine and I would recommend it to anyone. It will always have a place in my equipment collection. Later on, I will actually build a nice home studio, but for now, this thing is the ultimate recording studio…and it’s so portable… It even has a battery slot in the back where it can run off AAs if you don’t have a place to plug it in. It is so small and can be taken anywhere with ease. I can even take it traveling with me if I wanted. I take this, my guitar, and a cable to my friends house and we mess around and record all kinds of random stuff. He programs drum beats on his computer and runs them into the machine via a stereo in on the boss so we can record pretty sweet drum beats. Then we record guitar and bass. To me, it’s so easy to use because I have spent time using it and figuring it out.
I don’t think you would regret buying one of these, especially if you get a good deal on one like I did. It’s a great home recording studio all in one box.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 2, 2010 at 6:05 pm
The reason this device was made is to have a full studio in your lap while traveling, for beginners this device is highly recommended, it has everything you need even a tuner, so instead of just playing one guitar(you can play rhythm and solos with a drum beat and jam all by your self) you can use 4 mono tracks and 2 stereo tracks. what i do for more tracks is that i record the tracks on (jet audio) then record it back on a stereo track so by that i have recorded the rhythm with the drum beat and have 3 stereo tracks left for a solo (because when you push track 1 and track 2 they record together giving you a stereo track) so you can record track 1&2 then track 3&4 then track 5/6 then track 7/8 giving you 4 stereo tracks. the whole concept of music changed when i started recording on the BR-600. about the mic if you put 2 mics you will get different sound effects then installing one mic (for example the chipmunks sound is with 2 mics and darth vader sound is with one mic)my sister likes to play around with these funny sounds lol(i really liked the sound used in the movie screem you know on the telephone with my friends lol) i didn’t know that mics had sound effects before buying the BR-600, about the drums you can select (PAD) this option gives you a complete drum set by pushing on the buttons what i liked is that when you push hard on it it gives you a loud sound and when you just tap it it gives you a very soft sound as like playing on real drums, the device has a right and left built in mic (but with out sound effects) this is cool for recording an idea instantly.the device has lots of features so i don’t know all of them yet, the BR-600 is really awesome and loaded with fun and can be used in recording any kind of sounds.
Rating: 5 / 5
June 2, 2010 at 8:17 pm
Pros:
- Excellent sound quality.
- Built-in, high-quality stereo condenser mics.
- Tons of features in a very small package.
- Battery or AC power.
- Balanced mic inputs. They are not XLR connectors but they are balanced, so as long as you use a balanced XLR to 1/4″ adapter, you get fully balanced quality inputs from your XLR mic inputs. One balanced adapter is included.
- 64 virtual tracks allow you to record 8 tracks then bounce a mix onto two virtual tracks and then record even more tracks while listening to the mix you’ve already recorded. You can continue to add tracks this way until all 64 virtual tracks are full. The great thing is that, as long as you don’t record over your original recordings then you can still remix everything either in the machine or by dumping all of the tracks to your computer and mixing it there.
- You can record your tracks dry (no effects) but still hear the effects while you record. This allows you to edit or change the effects during the final mix rather than being stuck with the effects that were recorded with the track.
- Ability to dump all of your data to computer for backup.
- Ability to dump all of the tracks from your recording onto a computer where you can edit them with your audio editing application of choice. You can download the software to do this free from Boss’s website.
- Built in drum machine. It sounds pretty good and is fully programmable. Plus, it has its own dedicated stereo track so it does not take up any of the 8 recording tracks. You can even load in tones from CD, computer or another drum machine or sound module.
- Built-in effects that sound pretty good, are customizable, and allow you to add stereo loop effects to individual mono tracks for your final mix and really add some thickness and stereo richness to your mix.
- Very well though out design and fairly easy to use – once you get the basics down.
- Excellent manual! I’ve heard a lot of people bashing the manual but I think it’s great. Very well thought out and easy to use. Yes, it’s thick and full of information and words and stuff. But this machine is packed full of features so it required more than a pamphlet to explain it all. And they do a great job of presenting the information in a tutorial format as well as in an easily accessible reference format so you can either look up something quickly or spend some time reading and learning in depth.
Cons:
- No phantom power for microphones. You have to use an external mic preamp or phantom power adapter.
- A/C adapter not included.
- Should come with a larger memory card. The included card is virtually useless. Buy a 1GB card that has been tested (see the chart on Boss’s website). Anything larger than 1 GB is not supported and some brands and formats will not work.
- Tracks 5/6 and 7/8 are locked as stereo pairs. This means that you cannot record two separate instruments onto these two tracks and have individual control. I don’t know why they made half of the tracks on the machine locked like this but it’s not that big of a deal because you can work around it by bouncing tracks. Basically, you can record either stereo instruments like keyboards, etc. onto these tracks or you can use them to bounce portions of your song onto and then continue recording more tracks.
- The learning curve is not terribly steep but you will have to spend some time learning the system to get the most out of it. If you have a basic understanding of recording, effects, drum machine programming then you will catch on pretty quick.
- Because of the small size of the machine, plus the fact that it has a full set of drum pads, there isn’t much room for a lot of buttons so you do have to dig around in the menus a lot to edit tracks or program the drums, etc., which can slow things down. But once you learn where thing are and how they work you can navigate through the menus pretty quickly.
Conclusion:
A fantastic, portable machine with tons of features and excellent sound that will fulfill almost any need from recording quick ideas or live performances to recording your own album. BUY IT NOW!!!
Rating: 5 / 5