Recording to stereo tracks on the MicroBR with internal mic

[SpikeVelvet]

I've been experimenting with recording my cover band with the MicroBR. I just put it near the mixing board somewhere so it hears what the soundman hears. Except for a couple of instances, where I had the input level set too high and it clipped, I've had pretty decent results. I'm not looking for a polished recording just something decent so I can hear my mistakes.

That being said, is there any benefit to recording to 2 stereo tracks in the BR--(as per the instuctions on P43 of the manual)? If it's recording to the internal mic how is it getting the "stereo field"?

Should I just record to 1 track and master to 2?

Or record in stereo?

[cuthbert]

Nope, no benefit.

The MBR microphone is monophonic and inputs in the MBR can't be panned when recording, so there's nothing to be gained by recording from the MIC input in stereo.

[64Guitars]

I've been experimenting with recording my cover band with the MicroBR. I just put it near the mixing board somewhere so it hears what the soundman hears.

Since it's near the mixing board, why don't you connect the mixer's Line Out to your BR's Line In and record in stereo direct from the mixer? That should give you a much better recording than you'll get from the BR's internal mic, especially if you have a good soundman.

[Geir]

I've been experimenting with recording my cover band with the MicroBR. I just put it near the mixing board somewhere so it hears what the soundman hears.

Since it's near the mixing board, why don't you connect the mixer's Line Out to your BR's Line In and record in stereo direct from the mixer? That should give you a much better recording than you'll get from the BR's internal mic, especially if you have a good soundman.

and if the mixer has an indipendent monitor channel, the mix there can be optimised for what you want to hear on the recording opposed to what you want to hear live

[SpikeVelvet]

and if the mixer has an indipendent monitor channel, the mix there can be optimised for what you want to hear on the recording opposed to what you want to hear live

Could you please elaborate on that in Newbie Speak?

[Geir]

The main purpose of your mixing board is to set the levels between the instruments so that the listener get to hear all the instruments and vocals. This usually implies a mix containing a lot of vocals and acoutsic instruments (if present) and much less elecric guitars and basses (as we tend to turn our amps to 11 ) and some drums ,,,, This mix will be a terrible mix to record. Most mixsers over a certain size will have additional outputs to the main output. This can be an auxillary or a monitor output ... the level on each instrument can be set independent  of the main output for this channel. Think of it as two mixers in one.

[SpikeVelvet]

The main purpose of your mixing board is to set the levels between the instruments so that the listener get to hear all the instruments and vocals. This usually implies a mix containing a lot of vocals and acoutsic instruments (if present) and much less elecric guitars and basses (as we tend to turn our amps to 11 ) and some drums ,,,, This mix will be a terrible mix to record. Most mixsers over a certain size will have additional outputs to the main output. This can be an auxillary or a monitor output ... the level on each instrument can be set independent  of the main output for this channel. Think of it as two mixers in one.

Gotcha!! So just like the monitor mixes we get on stage when we're playing on a bigger system except it's coming right out of the board.

Your explanation is exactly why I've had such poor results running a recorder directly from the board before. Things that are loud onstage don't come in very well and the tone would suffer.

I'll see what my options are tonight.

[SpikeVelvet]

So last night I recorded straight from the board into Tracks 1&2 of the MBR. Ii sounded pretty good except that there is a problem between the left and right channels. One channel is delayed a second or so from the other channel. So in order to hear I have to delink the channels and mute one and put the other in the center of the mix. Decent sound but it's in mono. What did I do wrong?

[Geir]

the only time I've had problems similar to that is when I've got a "drive busy" or "card read error" .....

if you're lucky you can align the tracks bu moving one of the tracks ... but it'll take some trial and error

[64Guitars]

Sounds like a bug in the Micro BR firmware.

Geir: Have you had any tracks go out of sync since you updated to firmware 1.04? That version was supposed to fix some problems with SD cards.

SpikeVelvet: Which version is your Micro BR? To find out, switch the power on while simultaeously pressing both cursor buttons. If it's less than 1.04, you should update it. You can download the update here:

http://www.rolandmusik.de/ftp/pub/downloads/tecfiles/G_bis_O/MBR_1v04.zip

Unfortunately, the instructions are in German, but you can translate them with Google Translate.

More about version 1.04 here:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=3553.msg36123#msg36123

It's hard to believe that after all the time version 1.04 has been available (almost two years), it still isn't available from any Roland or Boss website except for Roland Germany. That's ridiculous, Roland! Micro BR users should complain to Roland about this terrible support. The latest firmware version for every BR model should be downloadable from Roland.com.