Micro BR-80

[Tony W]

Multi Track Recorder mode.

If you think that would jump out at you, it doesn't. I had to search the PDF.

in eBand and LIVE REC modes, it only functions as a single track recorder.

[guitarron]

you guys are seriously giving me gas !!!

i was thinking the same thing lol

[BuleriaChk]

I'm getting a lot of noise when using USB power (into an acoustic amp, with both input sensitivity and guitar input turned down to 0).  I do notice that a powered USB hub gives less noise than one directly into the motherboard (USB 2.0).  It is dead silent on batteries.....

I don't have a PSA power adapter available right now (I think there is one around somewhere, but not sure where).  I'll try that next....)  But I guess I'll just use batteries for gigs for now (and take along a couple of spares)...

[Tony W]

I suppose a usb charger for a phone would do the trick.

[SdC]

I suppose a usb charger for a phone would do the trick.

I think what BC means is that when it's plugged directly into the PC, there is interference noise. That means that when you want to use the BR-80 as an audio interface, you need to use batteries, 9V adapter or powered USB hub. A USB phone charger would not do the trick in that case since the USB port is already occupied by the cable to the PC!

[Tony W]

I shouldn't have replied when I was that tired. My brain was no longer functional.  I forgot about BC's circumstances.

[BuleriaChk]

Updating:

1.  The BR-80 is quiet using a power supply.
2.  The time stretching in JS mode seems to work well; I was uncomfortable not being able to assign a precise BPM when changing tempo, but it will probably be usable (I can set comfortable BPM's for loops at increments of 10 or so for those that I change,.)
3.  The state of the COSM "off/on" is not preserved (unless there is a switch somewhere I don't know about); it always comes up "on".
4. Switching songs is instantaneous and convenient.

I'm still unsure about the quality of the effects; so far they seem "tinny-er" than those of the BR-800 (and the GT-10) without tweaking, but I'll give it a bit more time before a final judgement.

Bottom line (at this point) - most of my fears about "gotcha's) have been resolved, and the BR-80 looks like a keeper (assuming the recording functions work, and I assume they do from other feedback in this thread)...

Update: my caveats about the effects may have been unwarranted; after a bit more trial, the effects actually sound pretty good....:-)

[Tony W]

I too was worried about the effects at first, then I started fondling the BR. They are quite good.

[Flash Harry]

Bugger.

I want one.

[KKerrick]

I got mine and am taking the day off to get to know it.

At any rate I bought the thing to free me from my computer based DAW for composing and practicing. So, far it seems pretty intuitive. As observed in previous replies to this thread, Using the on board WAV import is slow and runs the batteries down fast. No matter really, the BR wave converter software works like a charm.

My workflow for this morning has been pretty straight forward. On the PC I'm using Guitar Pro 6 (GP6) and exporting the different parts to .WAV and .MID formats to import into the BR-80. So my working song is "All Right Now" by Free due to its minimal instrumentation and low complexity.

The first thing I did was give myself one measure of offset with the rhythm guide using a 4/4 metronome. Then I imported a .MID file of the drum track from GP6's export. This worked perfectly and I was in business to add additional parts.

For tracks 3,4 and 5,6 I loaded in the bass and guitar line .WAV export from GP6's export. This had some pitfalls. First off the song name display in LIVE REC mode does not scroll so All_Right_Now_GTR.wav and All_Right_Now_Bass.wav look the same in the display (if you go to song info in the menu it is visable). I overcame this by putting the GTR and BASS first in the file name. You could just shorten the name too. After these imports the unit was low on juice so I exchanged the batteries for fresh ones from the charger. After the restart I had to move the tracks one measure out from the start to match the rhythm guide.

At this point I'm able to start having fun. I plugged in my guitar armed track 1 for record. A few bad things has to happen before I was ready but, I'll chalk them up for growing pains. First when I enabled the COSM amp model there was a lot of feedback. I'm not sure why this occurred as I was using headphones but lowering gain and volume fixed that. I had to also get to realize that the input volume happens post effects so the volume dial did not effect gain. I just needed to adjust the input sensitivity (pre-effect) as I run a very hot "invader" pickup. Note the flow diagrams show this I was just daft in not studying them. After that bam I'm in business.

So, I have a contemplation as I think about exporting the tracks I have recorded back to Sonar. Is there a was to record a bypassed track along with your effect wet track so that I can use my amp sim plugins in Sonar later?