Song Data Manager
Version 1.05
for the BOSS BR-864, BR-600, BR-800, BR-900,
BR-532 and Micro BR Digital Multitrack Recorders

Instructions

Contents:

• Installation
• Initial Settings
• Screen Layout
  • Disk Browser
  • Media Centre
  • Song List
  • Song Details
• Resizing
• Button Bar

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Installation:

Unzip into an empty directory and run Setup.exe.

There is no longer any need for an installer for BR Explorer. Just unzip it, move BRX.exe to a suitable folder, and create a shortcut to it on the desktop. If you don't know which folder to put it in, I suggest:

    C:\Program Files\BR Explorer\

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Initial Settings:

Run BR Explorer and select Preferences from the File menu. Enter the path to your Main Backup Folder. This is the folder under which you keep all of the sub-folders containing your backups. For example, let's say you have the following three backup folders on your hard drive:

      "C:\BOSS BR-864\Backups\BOSS Demo Song\"
      "C:\BOSS BR-864\Backups\Backup 2005-04-12\"
      "C:\BOSS BR-864\Backups\Backup 2005-04-27\"

Each of these three folders contains a Roland folder and all of its sub-folders which you've copied from your BR Studio. In this example, you would enter "C:\BOSS BR-864\Backups\" as your Main Backup Folder in Preferences (the Browse button in Preferences will help you select the appropriate folder). BR Explorer will default to this folder whenever it can't find an attached BR Studio or memory card, allowing you to easily browse through the backups saved on your hard drive. It also goes to this folder when you click the "Home" button.

You should also enter the full pathname of the BR Wave Converter* program in Preferences. This will allow you to use the WAV button in BR Explorer to launch Roland's BR Wave Converter. BR Explorer will automatically create a virtual drive if necessary (usually drive Z:) for the currently-selected backup folder and select that virtual drive in BR Wave Converter, so all you have to do is select the song and tracks you want to convert. But, in order to do this, BR Explorer needs to know where you installed Roland's BR Wave Converter program, which is why you need to enter the full pathname of that program in Preferences. Use the Browse button to find "BRWC.EXE" and select it.

* If you don't have a copy of Roland's free BR Wave Converter 2 program, you can download it here.

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Screen Layout:

The screen is divided into four main areas:

Here you can select a disk drive and folder. The drive can be your hard drive, a memory card reader, a BR recorder in backup mode (which is connected to your PC via USB), or any other drive connected to your computer. You can select any folder you like. When you select a folder containing a BR backup (a folder that contains a Roland folder), it will be indicated by the letters 'BR' in the lower left corner and the other three areas will be populated with data from the songs and files in the selected BR folder.

The Disk Browser also shows the total capacity of the selected drive, along with space used and free space available. If the selected drive is a BR memory card, it will also show the BR type (BR-864, Micro BR, etc).

If you right-click on a folder in the Disk Browser, a context menu will appear with the option "Open folder in Windows Explorer". Selecting this option will open Windows Explorer with the folder selected. This can be useful for copying additional files to or from the BR. For example, Micro BR users can copy MP3 files from their computer to the MP3 folder of their memory card using Windows Explorer.

This area lists any files stored in the SMF, Tone Load, USB, MP3, and WAV folders* of the currently selected BR backup. File list columns can be resized by dragging the vertical bar that separates headings. If you select a .MID or .WAV file, you can play it by clicking the Play button (green triangle) at the bottom of the Media Centre. If you select a .MP3 file and click the Play button, the program associated with the .MP3 extension in Windows will be launched to play the file.

If you create WAV and MP3 folders in the BR backup folders on your computer (in the same folder as the Roland folder), you can store wave and mp3 files of your songs in them. Then you'll be able to view those files and play them in the Media Centre's MP3 and WAV tabs.

* Not all BRs have all of these folders. If the folder doesn't exist in the currently selected BR backup, its tab won't be shown in the Media Centre. In some cases, the Media Centre will be empty because none of the media folders exist in the selected backup. For example, the BR-532 has no SMF, Tone Load, or USB folders. So, unless you've created folders for the selected backup's MP3 and WAV files, the Media Centre will be empty for BR-532 backups.

Lists songs found in the BR drive or folder currently selected in the Disk Browser. For each song, the following information is displayed:

Song: This is the song folder name assigned by the BR.

Name: This is the name of the song. If you haven't changed it yet, it will be the same as the song folder name assigned by the BR. You can edit this name in the Song Details area.

Size: The approximate size of the file in megabytes.

Data Type: This is the data type selected on the BR when the song was created. Possible values are "HiFi (MT2)", "STD (LV1)", and "LONG (LV2)".

Protected: Indicates whether the song is protected or not. Possible values are Yes or No. The Song Protect status can be changed in the Utility menu of the BR (UTILITY / SONG EDIT / PRTCT / ON/OFF).

Created with: Indicates the BR model* and firmware version that created the song. This can be useful when you're exchanging files with a friend who has a different BR model.

* Files created on a BR-600 are reported as BR-900 files. This is not a bug in BR Explorer. That's what the BR-600 writes to its files. The Micro BR also writes BR-900 to its files, but BR Explorer can correct this by looking for certain files that are unique to the Micro BR. The BR-600 has no such unique files, so there's no way to distinguish BR-600 files from BR-900 files.

Song List columns can be resized by dragging the vertical bar that separates headings.

If you right-click on the song list, a context menu will appear with the option "Copy Song List to Clipboard". Selecting this option will put a plain-text, tab-separated listing of the entire song list into the Windows clipboard. You can then paste it into any program (text editor, word processor, e-mail, etc).

The Song Details area has five tabs:

Song Info:

• Song Name: This is the name you entered on the BR. It has a maximum length of 8 characters. Changes entered here will also be displayed on the BR.
• Song Title: This is a longer field (up to 128 characters) in which you can enter a proper song title. This title can't be displayed within the BR but it is saved in a file with the song, so it will be displayed in BR Explorer anytime you view the song details there.
• Notes: Enter any text about the song here. There is no length limit.

Track Usage: This 8 x 8 table shows the tracks and v-tracks of the BR. V-tracks that have been used are coloured green, while unused v-tracks are white.

Arrangements*: There are five tabs here - one for each of the five song arrangements. Selecting a tab displays all of the steps for that arrangement. If you right-click on the arrangement list, a context menu will appear with the option "Copy Arrangement to Clipboard". Selecting this option will put a plain-text, tab-separated listing of the entire arrangement into the Windows clipboard. You can then paste it into any program (text editor, word processor, e-mail, etc).

Patterns*: Lists the 100 custom drum patterns that are stored with the song, along with their names plus the length and time signature of each pattern.

Effects*: Lists all of the custom effects patches that are stored with the song, along with their names and algorithm. There are separate tabs for GTR, MIC, LIN, SML, and MTK effects patches.

* The Arrangements, Patterns, and Effects tabs are not displayed for BR-532 and Micro BR backups due to file incompatibilities.

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Resizing:

BR Explorer's main window can be re-sized by dragging the lower-right corner. The new size is saved when you exit the program and restored the next time you run it. The width of the Song List and Song Details areas does not change. The data displayed there is mostly fixed-width so there's no reason to change the width of these areas. Instead, the Disk Browser and Media Centre areas will change in width as you re-size the main window.

You can change the relative height of each of the four areas by dragging the splitter bars located just above the Media Centre and Song Details title bars. Double-clicking the Media Centre or Song Details title bar will restore the height to its default value.

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Button Bar:

• Home: This button sets the Disk Browser to the path specified in preferences for Main Backup Folder (see Initial Settings above) and updates the other areas accordingly. This allows you to quickly return to the main backup folder on your hard drive so you can select another backup folder to browse.
• BR Studio: If a BR memory card is detected, clicking this button will set the Disk Browser to the root directory of the memory card and update the other areas accordingly. If no BR memory card is found, the message "BR memory card not detected." will be displayed.
• Backup/Restore: If the currently selected drive in the Disk Browser area is a BR memory card, the label on this button will be "Backup". Clicking it will prompt you for a destination folder and copy the files from the memory card into it. Otherwise, the label on this button will be "Restore" and clicking it will copy all of the files from the currently selected BR folder to a BR memory card. If no BR memory card can be found, the message "BR memory card not detected. Unable to restore." will be displayed.
• WAV: This button launches the BR Wave Converter (but only if the full pathname of the BR Wave Converter program has been correctly specified in preferences -- see Initial Settings above). If the currently selected drive in the Disk Browser area is a BR memory card, that drive will be selected in the drop-down drive list in the BR Wave Converter program. Otherwise, BR Explorer creates a virtual drive (usually drive Z:)* and it will be selected in BR Wave Converter's drop-down drive list.
  
  * BR Explorer will assign the first available drive letter to the virtual drive, starting with Z and working backwards. So, in most cases, the virtual drive will be Z: but if drive Z is already mapped to a network drive or some other device, then BR Explorer will use drive Y (or some other available letter) for the virtual drive.