I'm trying to Justifing why I got the Zoom R16.

[visiblemember]

My first recorder was the Boss mbr. I've used it and no other kind of multi-track recorder. It's all I know. I've messed about with Cubase, etc... but, never got the hang of PC recording.
    Two days ago I got the Zoom r16. What was I thinking? I wanted to learn how to manage microphones set close to guitar/bass amplifiers and 4 or so drum mics. I wanted to record jam sessions without PC or sound man fuss and I wanted to do it quickly. I hope to try this in a day or two.
    Meanwile, I like some of the vx effects. It feels sturdy enough. The menu makes sense.  It has been easy to get going and straight forward to use as a recorder.
That's all I can say so far.

[visiblemember]

Well, I've hashed this around a bit. It's very convenient to master songs to mp3s with the Boss mbr.
It is small. It's easy to hold and sing into. Looks like I'm going to return the zoom r16. maybe some other Geminis go through this stuff. Can't decide what to buy but, I must buy something. 

[64Guitars]

Although I've never tried a Zoom recorder, I've always been interested in them. They seem to offer a lot of great features for the money. But then so do the Boss recorders. I think either brand can be a great choice depending on your own needs and preferences.

If you're not happy with the Zoom and you like the Micro BR, why not get a BR-80? It's the same size as the Micro BR but it has a lot more features and capabilities. It should be available soon. Roland and most online retailers are saying it will be available next month. The price of the BR-80 is €238 (£199 / $299), so considerably less than the Zoom R16.

[64Guitars]

I wanted to learn how to manage microphones set close to guitar/bass amplifiers and 4 or so drum mics.

The BR-80 is limited to recording two inputs at a time, so it wouldn't help you achieve your goal unless you used an external mixer. But then the sound from all of the mics would be recorded to only two tracks, so you wouldn't be able to post-mix the individual instruments recorded this way. The BR-800 allows recording from 4 inputs simultaneously, so it might be a better choice. But, really, if recording from multiple inputs simultaneously is important to you, it's hard to beat the Zoom R16 with its ability to record simultaneously from 8 inputs. The BR-1600 can record simultaneously from 8 inputs but it's very expensive and it's been available for many years, so I suspect that it will soon be replaced by a newer model.

I wanted to record jam sessions without PC or sound man fuss and I wanted to do it quickly. I hope to try this in a day or two.

The BR-80 can do that, but probably not much better than the Micro BR, except that the BR-80 has two built-in mics so you can record in stereo, whereas the Micro BR only has one.

[alfstone]

The zoom R16 is a very good machine. It has some important "plus", such as the fact that it records directly as uncompressed wav files, so, instead of my old BR-600, it needs no converter at all if you plan (like me) to make some final editing with a PC or Mac.

The only problem, after years of the quite simple BR-600, is that for me the Zoom r16 is absolutely user UN-friendly, and IMHO who wrote the manual has some aphasia problems 

...or probably I'm getting old...

Alfredo

[64Guitars]

The only problem, after years of the quite simple BR-600, is that for me the Zoom r16 is absolutely user UN-friendly, and IMHO who wrote the manual has some aphasia problems 

You might be interested to know that ProAudioDVDs has just released a new Zoom R16 DVD Video Tutorial.

Here are a couple of samples from it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EveanKmzQFI



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-iNOlo5rAM

[alfstone]

Wow, thanks a lot, 64chitarre!!!

I need it, no doubt about it!

Alfredo

[64Guitars]

The zoom R16 is a very good machine. It has some important "plus", such as the fact that it records directly as uncompressed wav files, so, instead of my old BR-600, it needs no converter at all if you plan (like me) to make some final editing with a PC or Mac.

Yes, that's a very good feature. I wish Roland would use standard WAV format in their recorders and abandon the proprietary RDAC format. It was a good idea years ago when memory cards were expensive and had low storage capacities. But today you can buy a 32GB SDHC card for about $50, so who needs data compression? Come on Roland! Give us a recorder that uses standard WAV files for all tracks, not just "sketch mode".

[visiblemember]

I think either brand can be a great choice depending on your own needs and preferences.

I need better sound in our jam room. The friendship seems to be more important than conflict resolution. We have all endured each other's shortcomings over the years. The sound man is a hobbyist too trying to learn his end of things. He wants us to plug into his mixers etc... so he can record. Anyway, he never tries to kick the guitar out of my hands.  Patience, Thomas.

If you're not happy with the Zoom and you like the Micro BR, why not get a BR-80? It's the same size as the Micro BR but it has a lot more features and capabilities. It should be available soon. Roland and most online retailers are saying it will be available next month. The price of the BR-80 is €238 (£199 / $299), so considerably less than the Zoom R16.

You are so right 64. I love my mbr and I would be happy with the mbr-80. The price is right. I don't know if I would be happier. One big help would be some 3/4 drum patches.  Patience, Thomas. A month is a long time for this kid. Well, I'm gonna spend the 338 euro on some sort of music gear and I'm out of room for guitars.

[64Guitars]

One big help would be some 3/4 drum patches.

It might include some 3/4 preset patterns. It's too early to know for sure. But I wouldn't expect many. Even in their high-end models, Roland has only ever included a few 3/4 presets. However, the BR-80 video (below) says (at 1:07) that the BR-80 can import standard midi files. That suggests that it supports custom drum patterns, which means that you can create your own patterns in any time signature you like. It's not yet clear whether you'll be able to create these custom patterns right on the BR-80 or if you'll have to use computer software to create the patterns, then import them into the BR-80. I suspect the latter. But that's okay because it will be much easier to create patterns on the computer anyway. And you can create as many patterns as you like and store them on your computer's hard drive. Then just import the few patterns you need for each song.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JKvnBSpCyU