Micro BR-80

[Geir]

Although, I'm owner of BR-80, I haven't browsed this thread hardly at all...

In my opinion, when recording acoustic guitar, I feel the sound is too compressed, though I switch comp to off position or recording without effects... Does anyone agree with me? How to get more dynamic to the tone? Or does anyone have any good preset or tip? I've heard here great acoustic tones/tunes (recorded on BR-80), so it is sure possible...

Thanks,

Kari

I agree with you Kari. I think most of the effects for mic are too compressed, both for vocals and for recording acoustic guitar. I've not yet made my own FX setup for vox/acoustic, but when I get time I will!

[64Guitars]

In my opinion, when recording acoustic guitar, I feel the sound is too compressed, though I switch comp to off position or recording without effects... Does anyone agree with me? How to get more dynamic to the tone?

The mastering effects also use compression (the DYNAMICS parameter). Be sure to turn off the compressor there too, or just mix without any mastering effects. Here's what the manual says about the DYNAMICS parameter of the mastering effects:

This adjusts the variation in volume between loud and soft passages in the performance.

Raising this setting will decrease the variation in volume. Although this is a convenient way to improve the overall
loudness for your song, it will decrease the natural dynamics of the music.

Lowering this setting will increase the variation in volume; while this will make it difficult to obtain overall loudness for your song, the music will be closer to the natural dynamic variation of the original performance.

If this setting is at 0, the mastering effect will produce its standard effect.

Value range is -20 to +20, so try setting to -20 and see if that helps.

You could also experiment with microphone position. I think closer mic'ing might give you better dynamics, but try a few distances and see which gives you the best results.

[oldrottenhead]

you guys are getting me worried again. how does it compare to the old micro br regarding recording vocals i was expecting it to be an improvement with the added effects available.

[Redler]

Value range is -20 to +20, so try setting to -20 and see if that helps.

You could also experiment with microphone position. I think closer mic'ing might give you better dynamics, but try a few distances and see which gives you the best results.

Thanks for the replies, Geir and 64. Hmm...I don't remember in which position the compression has been in my recordings (mastering). Must try that "different distance" tip, too.

Kari

[chip]

I have been recording vocals and after 64's advice things are working out well. I am now not in the top segments. After panning the electric to the right and rolling back the track level, I like the sound I have, very clear and much less clipping than the MBR,. I am using the rock cosm with single delay and unlike the MBR I can hear the delay on the track after recording.

So far this new MBR 80 is a great update to me at ant rate.  The Gibson sounds better and I can control the clipping easier than the MBR which was near on impossible on the original, of course the guitars still sound very digital but hey I can live with it. I shall have to mess around with compression as I always forget to turn it off.

Don't panic Oldrottenhead. I think the vocals are a vast improvement, just takes a little experimenting. If I can sort it out anyone can 

[oldrottenhead]

cheers chip

[Geir]

ahh this reminds me, I've gotta write my br80 review soon ...

Yes, I would love to hear your complete appraisal........

Tho not complete yet I posted what I've got so far as a new topic here:
http://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=15069.0

[strummer10]

Probably a daft question but I've just got a new SD card for the BR80 (San Disk SDHC 4gb - works fine so far) and after formatting the card I noticed that the backing tracks in eBand aren't there. Have I done something wrong or am I supposed to copy the files onto the card? If the latter, do I need to copy the files from the original card onto desktop and then onto new card?

[Yer]

They posted a update, v1.05, at the German Roland site. I have yet to install it myself and there is no change log available yet. http://www.rolandmusik.de/downloads/updates/index.php#

[64Guitars]

Thanks for letting us know, Yer.

Here's a direct link to the file:

http://www.rolandmusik.de/ftp/pub/downloads/tecfiles/A_bis_F/BR80_1v05.zip

Once again Roland Germany is the first site to make this update available. They are the only Roland site that has the latest updates for all of the BR series recorders. Thanks, Roland Germany!

I hope it will appear soon at Roland.com or some of the other English-language sites. Maybe if a few people contacted their local Roland tech support and requested this update with English instructions and a list of changes, it might get added to other Roland sites more quickly.

[Gnasty]

Cool! So what do i do? How to load it? Same way as 1.04 maybe?

[64Guitars]

Cool! So what do i do? How to load it? Same way as 1.04 maybe?

I would imagine that the update procedure for version 1.05 would be the same as that of version 1.04. For what it's worth, here's the Google translation of the German instructions file:

Mirco BR-80 update

Please note:

Use the enclosed data is at your own risk.
The company Roland Electronic musical instruments HmbH is no
Respect for any loss, damage or malfunction,
caused by use of the corresponding files, responsible
to make. Please note this beigefuegte text file accurately,
to achieve the DESIRED success using the data.

ROLAND
Electronic Musical Instruments
MbH
Oststrasse 96
22844 Norderstedt




Version Info
------------

To find out which version is implemented in your Micro BR-80,
Please proceed as follows:

First Turn off the BR-80.
Second Turn off the BR-80 again. Shortly after the turn before
   The BR-80 is ready, is the bottom of the screen after "Ver" the
   Version displayed.



BR-80 update instructions
============================

For the update, you need a PC / Mac with USB port, a
BR-80 tested on memory card with 5MB of free space and
a PSA adapter or entirely new ones. During the update
Operation of a power outage may not otherwise could the BR-80
irrevocable damage suffered!
By updating all internal data is deleted, so
It makes sense, before the update back up the data on your
Computer to make.

Use this update data for any other ISDN device ever!

Below is a "BR-80 EBAND" drive the speech. Some
Windows machine instead show "Wechseldatentraeger" to. Replace
In the case always, "BR-80 EBAND drive" through "Wechseldatentraeger".


Preparing to update data on the computer
---------------------------------

First Unzip the update with an appropriate program for
   Extract from Zip_Archiven (eg using the "Extract to ..."
   with current Windows systems).
   This creates a folder with subfolders "BR80_Update".
   This folder contains four files "_BOOTPRG.ES_"
   "_BR80PRG.BR_", "_BR80SND.BR_" And "_UPDINFO.BR_".


USB Storage Mode
-----------------------------------

Second Connect the BR-80 over your computer with a USB cable.
Third Turn off the BR-80.
4th Podcast the button [MENU].
5th Podcast as often as you CURSOR [>] or [<] is highlighted by the "FUNCTION".
6th Podcast [ENTER].
7th Podcast as often as you CURSOR [>] or [<], is marked by "USB."
8th Podcast [ENTER].
9th Turn the dial to select the USB mode "STORAGE" field.
10th It appears "Please restart to change USB mode [EXIT]: CANCEL
    [ENTER]. OK "Press [ENTER] for the setting
    effectively and return to the main screen is displayed.

Secure your own settings (User backup):
-------------------------------------------------- ----

11th Turn off the BR-80 is an out and back, so
    that in the BR-80 display "USB STORAGE idling ..." is displayed.
    The computer will show a new drive to "BR-80 EBAND" to.
12th Now drag the entire "ROLAND" folder from the
    BR-80 EBAND drive on your desktop (or into a new
    Folder on the hard drive) on your computer.
    Important: Do not use the included Alteration and folder structure
    no file name in the Roland folder, otherwise the backup
    useless!

About wearing the update files to the BR-80
-------------------------------------------

13th Copy the four files from the update-BR80_Update
    Folder (the files "_BOOTPRG.ES_", "_BR80PRG.BR_"
    "_BR80SND.BR_" And "_UPDINFO.BR_", not the folder!) Of
    Step 1 to the root directory of the BR-80 EBAND drive
    (Ie in addition to, NOT the Roland folder).
14th Wait after copying a few seconds (so that
    everything has been copied) and then disconnect the
    Data connection to the computer (in Windows with the hardware
    Remove icon in the taskbar, in Mac by the
    Drive to eject draws).
15th Turn off the BR-80, and disconnect the USB cable.


The update procedure on BR-80
---------------------------

16th Keep pressured down both the [STOP] and [REC] together
    and turn on the BR-80 this one. Hold the button several
    long pressured to the top of the display "SYSTEM UPDATER" appears.
17th In the second line behind "version" of the left
    current version and the right the new version.
    It will ask "Update System".
18th ! From now on, may for about 2 - 3 minutes is not of a power outage!
    Podcast [ENTER]. The display shows shortly "Now Loading"
    then "Now Writing" and a number of points, which by and by to "o"
    be. Later, the sum will be calculated and flashes at the end
    "COMPLETE!".
19th Wait necessarily down until the display shows "COMPLETE!" flashes.
    Then switch to the BR-80.
    In principle, the update is complete, you can the BR-80
    normal (not pressured button!) back on.

Removing the update files from the BR-80 card
------------------------------------------------

20th Connect BR-80 and your computer with the USB cable, so that
    the display shows "USB STORAGE idling ..." is displayed and on the
    Computer drive "BR-80 EBAND" appears.
21st Double-click the drive icon, so that the data
    are shown.
22nd Delete the four files "_BOOTPRG.ES_", "_BR80PRG.BR_"
    "_BR80SND.BR_" And "_BR80SND.BR_" BR-80 from the drive.
    
Restoring a backup of all previously stored data
-------------------------------------------------- ---------

23rd To restore your data, you now also delete the
    Roland folder on the BR-80 EBAND drive. Copy then
    the "ROLAND" folder on the BR-80 EBAND drive you to
    Step 12 on your desktop or another folder on your
    Had pulled hard disk as a backup.
24th Wait after copying a few seconds (so that
    everything has been copied) and then disconnect the
    Data connection to the computer (in Windows with the hardware
    Remove icon in the taskbar, in Mac by the
    Drive to eject draws).
25th Turn off the BR-80, and disconnect the USB cable.

If you want to use the BR-80 again as an audio interface,
lead you from steps 2 to 10 and set at step 9
instead of "STORAGE" to "AUDIO" field.

The update is so completely and your data is restored.

Good luck.

I'm also attaching it to this message as a plain text file in case anyone wants to print it.

[Gnasty]

Okay i`ll have a go at it here in a bit and tell you the results! 

Thanks 64 and Yer!

[Gnasty]

I have all systems go!  version 1.05 

Now what are all the bug fixings? I find it very sad for me not to be able to read my background language 

[64Guitars]

I have all systems go!  version 1.05 

Congratulations. Looks like you're the first here. Let us know if you notice anything different about it, although I doubt that you will. It's probably just minor bug fixes and the usual improvements in SD card compatibility. But we won't know for sure until Roland posts a list of changes for v1.05. I hope they'll do that soon.