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I've had my recorder for two weeks only. Can anyone tell me how to record a drum pattern on to a track? Is it possible? Haven't had time to read the instructions for this part.

It's possible, but why would you want to? The drums are stereo and the Micro BR only has four tracks. Why do you want to waste half of them on the drums when it isn't necessary? Creating an arrangement is a much better way to include drums in your song. It's easy to do, doesn't use any tracks, and can be edited at any time. Also, drum arrangements use very little space on the memory card compared to recording the drums on a pair of tracks.

If you need help to learn how to create an arrangement, see these pages:

https://songcrafters.org.org/articles/create_a_simple_drum_sequence.html (https://songcrafters.org.org/articles/create_a_simple_drum_sequence.html)

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Rhythm_Guide_Intro.html (https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Rhythm_Guide_Intro.html)

And read pages 80-87 of the Micro BR manual.

Thanks for the links! I play bass, and it is actually the only instrument I have to record with right now. I could bounce the drums to one track and still have three to play a line, a melody, and a harmony on. I'm aware that later on I can dump the drum patterns and melodic ideas or songs on to my pc. For now I'd like to give that a shot and see what happens. Thanks for your advice.

Hello and welcome dc!

I admit I was inclined to choose recording drums but I must say it is too much trouble. I own a drumkit and altough I love the sound from it, recording into the Micro BR doesn't work at 100%. The sound always turns out very far away and doesn't quite fit when using other instruments.

So, I've choosen Micro BR drums. I mean, they really sound great, and you can create some excellent drum sounds on it if you have the time. Most of the time people are discouraged because of the interface for creating the drums on Micro BR. Don't give up! Its a bit like maths, you have to exercise it. If you want to create some great sounding songs, Micro BR's internal drums are the way to go.

Unless of course you have a set of drum mics and a mixer.  :D

Thanks a lot for the advice! I should have been more specific with my question. I was wonderin how to record the Micro br drum pattern that I sequence on to a track. If you know how to do this please get back to me. Thanks again.

That could be done by simple bouncing the drum track alone to a pair or one track.

Does that work? I had it crash when I tried to bounce it to trax that had nothing on them.
So I thought it needed to have at least recorded silence?

You should do another one of those great YouTube vids on how to arrange your own drums.

The walkthrough is really hard to follow - pictures next to key steps would help!

I'm trying to get my head around it and it hurts...  ???

QuoteIt's possible, but why would you want to? The drums are stereo and the Micro BR only has four tracks. Why do you want to waste half of them on the drums when it isn't necessary?

I had to do this to preserve the RHYTHM with effects applied to it. I had a song all ready to MASTER, with the effects LOC at RHYTHM, but when I got into the MASTERING mode, I realized the effects all change to various mixdown type algorithms. So, I had to do another bounce to free-up two tracks, and then do another bounce, (with RHYTHM included), to blend it all together, then I was ready for mastering.

So, unless I'm missing something, this seems to be a case when you have to actually record the RHYTHM part. In fact, it sounded so good, I'll probably do it more often. Just listen to a RHYTHM part with MC P09:VoComp applied to it, for instance. I love it!     

Quote from: Farmjazz on July 21, 2008, 08:05:12 AMSo, unless I'm missing something, this seems to be a case when you have to actually record the RHYTHM part. In fact, it sounded so good, I'll probably do it more often. Just listen to a RHYTHM part with MC P09:VoComp applied to it, for instance. I love it!

I was thinking about this myself to try and make the drums sound a little more realistic or give them more depth. I guess I'm spoiled on using my drum machine and generating drum parts with Reason & Sonar. But the fx in the BR are tweakable and can add liveiness to the drums.

So you basically bounce the rhythm track by itself to a stereo V-track and then apply effects to it? I have not tried bouncing yet, can I bounce just the drum track?

Quote from: Mach on August 25, 2008, 08:54:43 AMSo you basically bounce the rhythm track by itself to a stereo V-track and then apply effects to it? I have not tried bouncing yet, can I bounce just the drum track?

Bouncing always includes a mix of all four tracks plus the input and the rhythm. The only way to bounce just the rhythm is to lower all of the track levels and input level to minimum in the mix.

But you don't need to bounce the drums alone to a pair of v-tracks in order to apply effects to them. Instead, you can set the Insert Location to RHYTHM (see pages 64 and 65 of the Micro BR manual), select the desired insert effect, then bounce the entire mix (all four tracks plus the rhythm) to a pair of v-tracks as your final stereo mix. If you're happy with the sound of the mix, you can then export those two v-tracks directly to a wave file. Or, if you think it needs some compression and/or EQ, you can master the two v-tracks containing your final mix.

With all of the other BR models (BR-600, BR-900, BR-864, etc.), you always create a 2-track final mix in bounce mode, because mastering mode requires that you specify, at most, two source v-tracks. With the Micro BR, Roland has changed this. You no longer specify the source v-tracks. Instead, it masters from a mix of all four tracks. So, if you want to master from just two v-tracks, you'll have to set the levels of the other two tracks to minimum, or select an empty v-track on each of the unwanted tracks.

Hey thanks for the tip 64Guitars, this makes a big difference in the sound of the drums.

Quote from: 64Guitars on August 25, 2008, 11:24:06 AMSo, if you want to master from just two v-tracks, you'll have to set the levels of the other two tracks to minimum, or select an empty v-track on each of the unwanted tracks.

If Roland has plans for future updates on the MBR a mute & solo function for tracks would be nice.

Quote from: Mach on August 25, 2008, 01:52:19 PMIf Roland has plans for future updates on the MBR a mute & solo function for tracks would be nice.

On the Track screen, ■ and □ could be implemented with successive press of the track buttons.  ■ = solo track  □ = mute track  blank = normal. 
ex.    100   90  □100    85   mute track 3, other tracks normal
ex.  ■100  ■90   100   85    solo trk 1 & 2


This would make it just a software change, hardware would not have to be modified. Also we're use to pressing track buttons multiple times; like in Input mode to change Upper/lower case to activate/de-activate an input (gtr MIC lin ext ).

Looks like a fine idea you have there Ind. Make sure you get your cut if a patent is negotiated   ;D

Quote from: Indiana on August 26, 2008, 05:22:07 AMOn the Track screen, ■ and □ could be implemented with successive press of the track buttons.  ■ = solo track  □ = mute track  blank = normal. 
ex.    100   90  □100    85   mute track 3, other tracks normal
ex.  ■100  ■90   100   85    solo trk 1 & 2

The display is character based and only allows for 16 characters per line. So, your examples would actually look more like this:

  |Track Level     |
  | 100  90□100  85|     mute track 3, other tracks normal

  |Track Level     |
  |■100■ 90 100  85|     solo trk 1 & 2

It's a bit crowded and could be confusing.

The effect of soloing a track is to mute all the others. So, you really only need one indicator rather than two (■ and □). Perhaps, a better way would be to mark the muted tracks with the three characters "mut". That way, there will always be at least one space between tracks.

  |Track Level     |
  | 100  90 mut  85|     mute track 3, other tracks normal

  |Track Level     |
  | 100  90 mut mut|     solo trk 1 & 2

I'm not sure that the solo option is necessary since the Micro BR only has four tracks and you could easily solo any track by muting the other three. None of the BR series recorders have the ability to solo tracks directly. However, all except the Micro BR and BR-532 have the ability to mute tracks. This is implemented with a separate Mute button which is used like a Shift key. You hold down the Mute button while pressing the Track button of the track you want to mute. Repeating the procedure on the same track un-mutes it. The mute status is indicated by a light in the track button. It will blink green or orange (depending on whether the track is empty or not) when the track is muted.

Of course, the Micro BR doesn't have a Mute button and track button lights. But your idea of using multiple presses of the track buttons and displaying the mute status in the Track Level screen might be a reasonable compromise.

P.S. - I've created a new topic called "Designing the next Micro BR" (https://songcrafters.org/forum/general-discussion/designing-the-next-micro-br/msg4415). Please add any further comments about new features there so that this thread can get back to its original topic of "Recording drums on a track".

QuoteThe effect of soloing a track is to mute all the others. So, you really only need one indicator

I agree. And one or the other might be less confusing.  ;D