So I've owned this thing for like 14 years and I still don't know if it's possible or how to save the friggin BPM in a song. Does anyone know how to do that?
(For instance, I set the temp to 146, record my part. Come back later and load the song up and it's the wrong tempo... again.....)
Each step of a rhythm arrangement has its own tempo setting which is saved with the rhythm arrangement. If you don't create an arrangement but instead just play a pattern in pattern mode, then there's no way to save the tempo. So you should always create a rhythm arrangement for each song. It doesn't have to be a complicated arrangement with lots of pattern changes. For example, you could create a simple rhythm arrangement consisting of only one step, in which you specify the pattern number and the tempo. Of course, as you work on your song, you'll probably want to expand the rhythm arrangement. For example, you might decide to use a different pattern for the choruses. And you'll probably want to mark the end of the rhythm arrangement by creating a final step containing pattern P327:BREAK which doesn't make any sound. The final step of every arrangement repeats indefinitely until you press Stop. So, if the final step is set to P327:BREAK, then the drum track will be silent from that point onward.
Here's an introductory rhythm tutorial I created many years ago for the BR864/900/600 (though I never finished it).
https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Rhythm_Guide_Intro.html (https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Rhythm_Guide_Intro.html)
And here's a simple blues arrangement with detailed instructions showing exactly how to create it.
https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Arrangement_Example.html (https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Tutorials/Arrangement_Example.html)
Try following that example to create the same arrangement on your BR-900CD. Once you've done that, you should easily be able to create your own arrangements.
Thanks, again, for your help.
Well, that was easy.
I was just using one of the patterns (Rock4 V1) as a metronome/drum machine to record to. (I find it much easier than a simple click.) Back in the day (literally years ago) when I used the rhythm feature of the 900 for my songs, I would use the editor program (BR Rhythm editor?) which actually worked pretty well.
Your blues arrangement explanation was perfect for quickly and easily making an arrangement. Very useful.
That's a great tip. I've been using the rhythms on the boss just as a fancy metronome and replacing those drums with DAW drums later, but if I use the Rhythm Arrangement thing then I should be able to get this to work just right.
Almost every song is going to have a different bar length for verse and chorus and so on, and so it's not annoying that it needs that, but I do wish there was a more modern boss BR device that maybe had a bigger screen because doing all this on the 2 line display of my br600 gets ... old.