boss launch the micro br80 to replace the micro br

[Geir]

hahahaha, thats my tax refund money for this year

refund ? ... you lucky %¤&#¤& .... I was 10kNOK the other way ... the br-80 will set me back another 2kNOK ... so I'll have to wait a bit ....

[guitarron]

i wait til i can get on ebay for 50 bucks-it kills me to see how much mbr's go for now-

[Bluesberry]

i wait til i can get on ebay for 50 bucks-it kills me to see how much mbr's go for now-

good point there.

[Redler]

It will be mine on next Monday. My dealer emailed to me " The parcel has been sent this morning (from Denmark) and it is here on Monday 4th July, maybe sooner." If it is there during weekend, I can pick it up myself, if it is not "lady redler" brings to me on the next friday... I suppose I can't open the parcel then...

Kari

[Oldrottenhead]

looking forward to hearing how you get on with it kari.

[64Guitars]

I read the BR-80 manual today and noted a few points which I thought might be of interest to Songcrafters members.


LiveRec Mode:

• Seems like it can only use the internal mics. I don't think you can use the Guitar/Mic input, Line In or USB in LiveRec mode. That's probably not a problem, though it might have been useful to be able to connect a mixer to Line In and record your band's rehearsals in LiveRec mode using better quality mics. The manual isn't entirely clear on this point, so it is possible that I misunderstood, but the impression I got was that you can only use the internal mics.
• The level meters in LiveRec mode have a Peak indicator. If it lights, you know you're going to get clipping so you can lower the recording level a bit. Very useful feature. I wish all BRs had peak indicators for the recording level.
• Recordings in LiveRec mode can be saved in WAV format or MP3 format at several bit rates.

eBand mode:

• Song patches cannot be accessed in eBand mode. You can only use preset patches. It might be possible to edit those patches temporarily but I don't think you can load your custom patches which you've previously saved with songs.

MTR Mode:

• No SIMUL input. Internal mics are disabled when a cable is plugged into the Guitar/Mic input jack.
• The Guitar/Mic input is mixed with the signals from Line In and USB. The Record Level control only affects the Guitar/Mic input. The switch on the bottom of the BR-80 selects Guitar (HiZ) or Mic (low Z).
• There is no Input Select switch or setting. To record only from Line In and USB, turn the Record Level control to minimum.
• Mastering mode level meters have a peak indicator for recording levels.
• The PEAK indicator in normal mode is for input sensitivity only. It doesn't tell you if your recording level is too high. That's a shame, since they included a recording level peak indicator in LiveRec mode and in Mastering mode.
• Bounce mode and Mastering mode allow you to set start and end times so you can trim count-ins and endings.
• Mastering mode always outputs to a WAV file in the /ROLAND/MASTERING folder on the SD card. There is no option to output to MP3. You'll have to copy the WAV file to your computer and convert it to MP3 there using Audacity, the included SONAR X1 LE, or some other software.

Drum machine:

• People who hate programming drums are going to love the BR-80. It's been greatly simplified compared with previous BRs, so it's very easy to create arrangements (now called "Progressions").
• There's no Pattern Mode/Arrangement mode. Instead, the BR-80 is always in Progression (arrangement) mode. When a new song is created, the progression consists of one step which repeats indefinitely. This is effectively the same as Pattern Mode in previous BRs. New steps can easily be added to this progression.
• Only one arrangement per song. Previous BRs allowed five arrangements per song. However, I think most people only used one. Limiting the BR-80 to one arrangement makes it simpler to use since the arrangement is always loaded and ready to use.
• The user now specifies the length of a step rather than the starting measure. This greatly simplifies drum programming, especially when inserting new steps or changing the length of an existing step.
• If the last step's length is set to "---", it will repeat indefinitely.
• If a step's tempo is set to "---", it plays at the same tempo as the previous step.
• Progressions can be up to 999 measures long.
• There are 9 preset drum kits. No custom drumkits. No Toneload.
• Standard midi files can be imported to a pattern. It's not yet clear how many song patterns can be imported to a song. The names of the imported patterns will be "SONG 001", "SONG 002", etc. There doesn't appear to be any way to rename them.
• The BR-80 is almost certainly incompatible with the BR Rhythm Editor. Given how easy it is to create progressions on the BR-80, I doubt that a separate Rhythm Editor program will be written for it. There'd be little benefit. But you can use Hydrogen or your favourte DAW to create new drum patterns and save them as standard midi files which you can then import into the BR-80.

Other:

• The BR-80 supports USB 2.0 ONLY. It will not connect to a computer with USB 1.1 or earlier. That shouldn't be a problem for most modern computers. But I'm a bit surprised by this. All versions of USB are supposed to be backward compatible. This is the first time I've ever heard of a device that isn't.
• Filename/songname editing seems to only allow uppercase letters. To use other characters, you have to edit the name on the computer. At least, that's the impression I got from the manual. I saw no way to enter lowercase letters, numbers, etc.

[Geir]

Thanks 64G !!!

I think it may be possible to use the "User patches" in eBand mode. If it's like the BR800 you can either move the cursor back to the P ans switch it to U (or even S if there's effect storing for the eband files) or you can continue to scroll with the wheel beyond the preset patches until you reach the user patches. I just checked and in the "song sketch" mode you have both presets and user patches on the 800 !

[64Guitars]

I think it might be different in the BR-80. On page 97 of the BR-80 manual it says:

               

3.  Use the cursor [<] [> ] buttons to
move the cursor to "PATCH," and use
the dial to select the desired patch.
   * Song patches cannot be used in eBand
      mode.

[Geir]

I think it might be different in the BR-80. On page 97 of the BR-80 manual it says:

              

3.  Use the cursor [<] [> ] buttons to
move the cursor to "PATCH," and use
the dial to select the desired patch.
   * Song patches cannot be used in eBand
      mode.

You're probably right, but it does only say "song patches ..." not "Song and user patches ... " ... we'll see soon enough. Won't be a big problem for me anyway I think, as I'll probably continue to stay in MTR mode (I haven't used "Song sketch" or EZ record" on the 800 yet )

[64Guitars]

Comparison of Insert Effects in all BR models (now including BR-80 and BR-800).

https://songcrafters.org/64guitars/BR/Docs/BR Insert Effect Comparison - 2011-06-30.pdf