Micro BR-80

[Beowulf63]

Has anyone worked with the rhythm yet? I am wondering if there is capability to use this with anything other than 4/4 time.  I looked at the manuals and see that all the percussion is sitting with 4/4, but I use a lot of various time signatures. 
Any help/thoughts/insights/guides would be fantastic!
(p.s.  thank you all for your posts and experimenting here....this is the best learning format!! You are all great!)

[BuleriaChk]

Hi, Beowulf,

You beat me to it.  I tried to create a new song in 3/4, and WTF?  There doesn't seem to be any way to enter a time signature, even if you don't specify a category.  I can't BELIEVE Roland would omit this, but it looks like they have - in a desperate attempt by the music industry to dumb everything down to 4/4......

PLEASE tell us we're wrong.....

Has anyone worked with the rhythm yet? I am wondering if there is capability to use this with anything other than 4/4 time.  I looked at the manuals and see that all the percussion is sitting with 4/4, but I use a lot of various time signatures. 
Any help/thoughts/insights/guides would be fantastic!
(p.s.  thank you all for your posts and experimenting here....this is the best learning format!! You are all great!)

[KKerrick]

I've had quite a bit of work with this this morning. There are really no drum kit patterns other than 4/4 except for the metronome function. There are a few options with SMF and exported audio tracks from programs like tux guitar, Guitar Pro 6 or any sequencer really. So, let me list a few of these options.

Option One: Just map out the song using the metronome

Option Two: Should work but Bugged Export a bunch of midi files from another sequencer and import them into the songs rhythm guide. Note this works but the rhythm guide does not display the correct beats. Bugged

Option Three: (my favorite but the most involved): Should work but Bugged Use another program to generate a full midi and audio track and import both. Then I mute the rhythm guide. This allows the better than rhythm guide sounds of my pc based synth to play as an audio track and then the rhythm guide insures that the measure timing exactly matches up in the display but is muted. Bugged

Option Four: (best if time is a factor) Should work but Bugged Same as option three but do not import the audio and let the rhythm guide be heard. Rhythm guide does not show the beats correctly. Bugged

Hi, Beowulf,

You beat me to it.  I tried to create a new song in 3/4, and WTF?  There doesn't seem to be any way to enter a time signature, even if you don't specify a category.  I can't BELIEVE Roland would omit this, but it looks like they have - in a desperate attempt by the music industry to dumb everything down to 4/4......

PLEASE tell us we're wrong.....

Has anyone worked with the rhythm yet? I am wondering if there is capability to use this with anything other than 4/4 time.  I looked at the manuals and see that all the percussion is sitting with 4/4, but I use a lot of various time signatures.  
Any help/thoughts/insights/guides would be fantastic!
(p.s.  thank you all for your posts and experimenting here....this is the best learning format!! You are all great!)

[cuthbert]

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?

Not that I can see. The other recorders in the BR series allow you to monitor effects but record dry - as far as I can tell, the BR-80 does not offer this feature. It's also missing the location feature for effects, which allows you to choose where the effect is applied, e.g., input, track 1, track 2, etc.

... I tried to create a new song in 3/4, and WTF?  There doesn't seem to be any way to enter a time signature, even if you don't specify a category.  I can't BELIEVE Roland would omit this, but it looks like they have - in a desperate attempt by the music industry to dumb everything down to 4/4......

PLEASE tell us we're wrong.....

Has anyone worked with the rhythm yet? I am wondering if there is capability to use this with anything other than 4/4 time.  I looked at the manuals and see that all the percussion is sitting with 4/4, but I use a lot of various time signatures.  
Any help/thoughts/insights/guides would be fantastic!
(p.s.  thank you all for your posts and experimenting here....this is the best learning format!! You are all great!)

You're not wrong - all the rhythm presets (except metronome) are 4/4 time, and there's no way to change their time signature; but I believe you can import an SMF file with any time signature and use it for your rhythm track. I have not tried this yet.

-cuthbert

[Speed Demon]

Now that is an interesting observation. It is difficult to believe Boss omitted a way to input different time signatures. They designed a race horse then trained it to limp.

I use a Boss eBand and a Boss DR-880 drum machine for my recordings. I can set any time and meter, simple or compound, on the drum machine, then I use that drum/time track as a basis to record everything else on the eBand.
It never occurred to me that this couldn't be done using a single BR machine.

Bitch at Boss. Maybe with enough complaints they will include this capability in future machines.

[Beowulf63]

Very interesting Ken! So, for the more complex arrangements, compose the whole rhythm track in the software, send it to the BR-80's rhythm track, then record the rest.  I hope I followed that correctly!
I usually write/record the song framework, then go in and lay out the complete percussion track. I then go back to put the 'proper' guitars, keys, vocals in afterwards. 
This might work! (I think! LOL)

[BuleriaChk]

I tried to import a 3/4 MIDI file, but it plays back as 4/4, with the extra beat at the end....
I have written Roland T/S to complain about this, but it will go down a black hole, I'm sure.

[
You're not wrong - all the rhythm presets (except metronome) are 4/4 time, and there's no way to change their time signature; but I believe you can import an SMF file with any time signature and use it for your rhythm track. I have not tried this yet.

-cuthbert

[Beowulf63]

Wow! That is nuts! That isn't gonna fly with the waltz guitarists!!!!
I really find that amazing that the developers/engineers didn't plan for that type of flexability.  It doesn't take that much software-wise.  Perhaps they could do a firmware update to allow for that.
Hmmmmmmm......

[cuthbert]

I tried to import a 3/4 MIDI file, but it plays back as 4/4, with the extra beat at the end....
I have written Roland T/S to complain about this, but it will go down a black hole, I'm sure.

If everything about the file is correct, then that sounds like a bug - at the very least, they should fix it with a firmware update.

Not sure when I'll get to it, but I want to poke around in this area myself...

[64Guitars]

I tried to import a 3/4 MIDI file, but it plays back as 4/4, with the extra beat at the end....
I have written Roland T/S to complain about this, but it will go down a black hole, I'm sure.

If everything about the file is correct, then that sounds like a bug - at the very least, they should fix it with a firmware update.

I agree. Has anyone tried using the 3/4 metronome pattern in an arrangement mixed with 4/4 patterns? If the BR-80 correctly switches between 4/4 and 3/4 metronome patterns in an arrangement, then it's obviously capable of working in 3/4 and gets the time signature from the pattern. If you create a 3/4 pattern on your computer and the time signature is correctly stored in the midi data of that pattern (which it should be) but the BR-80 ignores the midi time signature and imports it as 4/4, then that's a bug.