Your opinion

[robsmith]

Hello,

I think that as long as the site had clear categories for posting about the different recorders, it would probably be ok.  However, this would most likely increase the administrative burden.

I agree with 64 that *sometimes* reading other manuals will provide insight as to how the products work, but this can also lead to confusion, as all of the features between different products may or may not be consistent with the BR.

I applaud Pedro for his willingness to expand the community! He has done a fantastic job with this site, ultimately the final decision is his (as it should be, since he created it in the first place!).

I just hope that it will continue to exist and provide quick, clear and concise information for using the MicroBR recorder, as it is the one that I am most interested in.

Just my two cents ...

Bob

[guitarron]

I guess i need to ask
Can a br 600 and up really be considered a "micro" recorder?
when i think of a recorder being micro, i think of a zoom h2/h4 or a MBR.
Once you start making it big enough to accommodate faders at some point it has to be considered an actual DAW. Doesn't it?
Am I just splitting hairs here?
Here's to turds in the punch bowl-lol
ron

[NeilOnKeys]

My "take" on the question is that, yes, it's very cool to have a Micro-BR dedicated site, but the lifetimes of both will eventually coincide, and the site may "pass" as surely as our now-beloved Micro BR will.

So I think the site should "evolve" along with whatever comes next in the BR world, but always remain "backward compatible", supporting the original Micro BR which, even after a year or more, is STILL catching on and rendering up its secrets.

The MBR is still unique, not yet updated or replaced, and even when it is, the wealth of info here is going to serve THAT new community.

People are going to be asking lots of questions about the original Micro BR for years to come.
The quality of the posts I've read here is also very high, a great credit to the users and to the site admin. My Kudos.

~N~

[bmaco]

I think if you put all the different recorders into one basket it is going to make it harder to find the information you need. I think mixing apples and oranges is not a good ideal. I don't think the way you bounce things, the steps you follow to mix things, and a bunch of things not mentioned are different than the other BR's. The other thing is there I would guess many times more BR users than Micro users. There are almost 500 members now. If you triple that I wonder if some of the regulars will get lost because of so many posts. I like logging on and finding out what Oldrottenhead just posted or what Antisocialworker is working on now and all the other regulars posting here. Maybe it will be better but I don't think a bigger site will have the same feel as this site has now. You asked. Thanks, Bryant

[64Guitars]

The MBR is still unique, not yet updated or replaced, and even when it is, the wealth of info here is going to serve THAT new community.

Just as the wealth of information and experience that BR900/600/864/532/8 users have acquired could be serving THIS community.

[64Guitars]

I think if you put all the different recorders into one basket it is going to make it harder to find the information you need.

I disagree. If you want to learn about v-tracks and bouncing on your Micro BR, you can search for messages about v-tracks and bouncing. It makes no difference whether the message was written about a Micro BR, a BR-600, or a BR-900. The techniques and principals are the same. And the same applies to most other areas of the Micro BR. There is very little that's different from the other BRs. And any differences are usually very minor hardware differences that are easily compensated for when reading messages about the other BRs. For example, the Micro BR has only 4 tracks while most of the others have 8, and you change track levels on the Micro BR by pressing the +/- buttons, while the other BRs have fader controls instead. No big deal. The underlying principals and basic operation are identical.

I think mixing apples and oranges is not a good ideal.

But they're not apples and oranges. They are Granny Smiths and McIntoshes. The peeling and coring techniques are identical.

The other thing is there I would guess many times more BR users than Micro users. There are almost 500 members now. If you triple that I wonder if some of the regulars will get lost because of so many posts. I like logging on and finding out what Oldrottenhead just posted or what Antisocialworker is working on now and all the other regulars posting here. Maybe it will be better but I don't think a bigger site will have the same feel as this site has now. You asked. Thanks, Bryant

A valid point, but I don't think it will be a problem. In most large groups, the vast majority of members just lurk without ever posting. Or, if they do occasionally post, it's usually a question which will be answered by one of a handful of longtime members. So, the main content of the site still ends up coming from a handful of familiar names.

I don't think we should think of ourselves as Micro BR users, BR-600 users, or BR-864 users. Instead, we should think of ourselves as BR users and be open to sharing our knowledge and ideas with other BR users, regardless of which particular model they happen to use (it makes little difference).

As I said before, I own a BR-864 and it's the only BR I've ever used. Yet, I answer questions about the Micro BR and other models in this group and several others, and people seem to appreciate my advice. Why wouldn't the advice of other BR-864/600/900/532/8 users be equally appreciated by Micro BR users here?

[Pedro]

Well, after reading all your posts I still haven't decided but I'm more inclined to leave the forum and the website as it is for now. My main motivation for expanding the forum was the idea that if all the BR's had their forum then people would post more about them. Maybe this idea isn't entirely correct as all in the website (such as the design, domain name, etc...) points to Micro BR and so the website is mainly visited by Micro BR owners in the first way.

As 64Guitars said Micro BR is kind of new and maybe in a year or two it will be obsolete, maybe then this forum would be of no use to anyone. I don't mind, maybe by then, another project, another community based on the common interests of people around here will kick off and achieve the same effect as this.

Thanks a lot for your responses and opinions, my friends.

[jkevinwolfe]

Pedro,

In a very unscientific survey: asking the guy in the audio department at Guitar Center, I got an "I sold a few" response on the Micro and and "Haven't sold one" response on the 600 or other models. I think the Micro's popularity will always have a bigger potential audience to tap into than the other recorders, which means this site is already serving the largest single base of users of a BR product. That being said, a quick scan of the other BR forums on the Web shows that the "Other" area here has just about as much traffic as these sites do. So I really do think you're already serving all the BR market well as is. And as Guitarron pointed out, the Micro really is the only microrecorder that Boss produces, so this site lives up to it's name as far as Boss products go.

There WILL come a day, whether in a year or five, that Boss will replace the Micro with another recorder. I am assuming that with the success of the Micro it will be the same approximate size, just upgraded and be called the "Micro 2" or "Micro Plus" or something. So I think this site probably has some serious longevity even if you make no changes.

I guess the biggest factor Pedro, would be if you upgrade your recorder and would want to put your efforts into a site for that machine.

You really have done something amazing here and I toast your continued success. I think all of us who have found this site are thankful for it and find it very useful in its current state.

Kevin

[Olarte]

I too want to thank you for this wonderful site, I visit it daily and is my main source of all things micro br.

As for adding other products, I would either keep it minimal in their own separate sections, or simply have a links page to other known good sites for the various other models.

I'm surprised that in your informal survey the Micro was the better seller as opposed to the other BR units, or that they don't seem to be that popular.

As a consumer, I did not even know these existed and bought a crappy recorder for an ipod which I was able to sell on ebay. I happened to stumble in some post that mentioned the micro br. And after following that up, It was like finding a pot of gold.

Needless to say that's one of the best purchases I ever made.  Aside from this wonderful site, I think it's in everyone's interest to spread the word not just about this site, but about the micro br itself to anyone that will listen.

[Pedro]

That is very interesting Kevin.

I did a research and in fact in thomann.de, a major online music retailer in europe the Micro BR is the 36th more sold item, the BR-600 is the 527th, BR-900 is the 1537th, BR-1200 is the 9259th, and BR-1600 is surprisingly, the 2039th. The Zoom H2 is the number 1 sold item and has been since it came out. The Micro BR is by far the most sold recorder from Boss. I wonder what will be the future Ultra Compact Recorder by Boss, it may well be an improved version of Micro BR as you mentioned.

I didn't knew anything about this recorders as well. Small ultra portable recording live in the shadow of the all mighty computer. Most people have a home computer and when they discover that they can turn it into a record workstation with a small price they do it and it works fine for them. I used to record, mostly experiments, on a computer but over time experimenting on a computer, the monitor and the chair become very annoying so I went to research about something more portable and in the end I found the Micro BR. Most musicians I talk to don't even know about these type of digital multitrack recorders, much more Micro BR. They are quite obscure for now.