Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Boss BR1600 CD or studio time?


NeoConMan

Recommended Posts

I was gonna get a BR1600 CD for a little project I'm planning.

I wanted to have 8 tracks so I could mic an entire drum kit and go from there. I want a BIG live drum sound.

 

Beyond that point, I don't need 8 tracks anymore.

 

Here's my "Plan B" now, tell me if I'm on the right track.

 

A friend of mine has a nice new recording studio, killer set up with Pro Tools.

Maybe I should just save the $$$$ and get a sweetheart deal on some studio time to nail all my drum tracks down.

 

Then I can take my basic tracks with completed drums home and use a smaller, cheaper recorder.

If I have two channels from this point forward, I can do all my bass, vocals and guitars on just two and mix when done.

 

So, what format would my basic tracks need to be in when I leave the studio?

WAV files?

 

I don't know jack about computers, a geek friend tells me that's the way to go.

Says I should buy an external hard drive for my home computer and keep everything on there.

 

I think I could get by with a smaller Boss recorder after the drums are done, and avoid using Pro Tools and a bunch of stuff I don't understand. I do NOT want to take the time to learn a bunch of computer stuff, I'll be busy enough with the music side of things.

 

I don't want to spend $$$$ on stuff I may never use again, I'd rather buy more guitars.

 

If I get in a pinch, I can always go back to the studio and do some work there.

 

WAV files the way to go?

 

Thanks a million.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a decent unit the BR has a lot more going for it but also has a wider learning curve and price. This puts everything into wave format automatically and has a 40gig hard drive built in.So you can just drag and drop files into a DAW or bounce and mix everthing on the unit. Pre amps sound good, has phantom power, 8 tracks live more virtual tracks than you'd ever need. 8 out's, portable, I used mine for demo's mostly. Take it to a gig record and bring home to the computer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the BR1600 and I love it! In the past I used the computer for recording. I used Cakewalk, but I like the knobs and faders - I'm old school that way.

 

I think if you get one of the smaller Boss recorders it will work fine. There is a bit of learning involved with any of the Boss recorders because there is a lot of stuff they can do. I think they all have autotune for vocals and mastering capabilities along with the basic recording functions and all the virtual tracks.

 

If you go to the studio and they put it in a .wav file and you have a Boss recorder with the CD drive/player all you do is put the CD in record it onto the Boss hard drive and then you are ready to go.

 

It's been a while since I've done that - A few months ago I down loaded some pre-recorded tracks of famous songs just to play along and record the songs as instrumentals and that's basically how I did it.

 

If you get one without a CD player/recorder then you'll have to transfer files from a computer into it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Neo I use a Boss BR-1600 for recording demos at home. It has a lot of features and is versatile. It can actually do a lot more than I need it to. I find all these machines take a while to get used to. I don't need to make really high quality recordings at home as I do that in the studio, so like I said I use it to lay down demos of songs. Mine has a 80Gb harddrive so I don't know if it a later model than the one someone else described here.

 

The limitation with home recording for me is that I don't have a lot of expensive microphones (which can cost many thousands) like they have at the studio. Also the room sound is not so good here. You can still get a long way with something like a Boss BR-1600. Also when I am recording electric guitars I often like to be able to drive the amps and play really loud which isn't practical at home. In the studio I have my amps set up and all miked up in the live room then actually play my guitar in the control room so I am not deafened by the volume. If I'm making a demo at home I don't always even use an amplifier I just plug straight into the Boss unit and it has a whole range of amplifiers and effects programmed so you can get an approximation of the sounds you are looking for. (A lot of people don't even use an amplifier in the studio . . . they just use amp farm and play straight into the desk, but I prefer the sound of a real amplifier wherever possible).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are at all interested, I have a pristine condition BR1600-CD for sale. the device has about 80 hours of use and works perfectly. I have recently converted to an all digital studio and have formatted the HDD. Will consider any reasonable offers over $300 + shipping. The purchaser will be responsible for shipping\insurance. I also have a Digitech Vocalist 2 and a Roland RX20-XL Looper for sale ($100 each plus shipping).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...