8 Virtual tracks?!

[Bro]

Now i am a bit new to the mbr. Anyway, i've heard a lot of people talk about the micro br being a 4 track recorder, with 8 virtual tracks. Now, what does that mean? 8 Virtual tracks, what is it and how do i use it?  Thanks.

[Farmjazz]

Dear Mr. Clapton,

Rubbish! You've been a victim of hateful gossip, sir!

The BOSS MICRO BR is a four track digital recorder that has, in fact, thirty-two virtual tracks. Any of those thirty-two "takes" can be combined in any way you choose. You can even produce a thirty-two part electric bass concerto if you wish.

I hope this clears it up for you.

[64Guitars]

I prefer to think of it as a 32-track recorder with a built-in 4-channel mixer. The 32 tracks are grouped 8 tracks per mixer channel. At any time, you can select any one track from each group of 8 to hear a mix of those 4 tracks. And, using bounce mode, you can record the mix to any pair of the remaining 28 tracks. Then you can listen to the mix from those two tracks while recording two more tracks. Now you can bounce those 4 (the 2-track mix plus the 2 new tracks) to another pair and record 2 more. And so on.

You can also export all of your individual tracks (up to 32) to your computer and mix them in a software DAW such as Audacity which isn't limited to only 4 channels, so you can mix all 32 tracks at once (assuming your computer is fast enough to handle that many tracks simultaneously).

See this page for a more thorough explanation of v-tracks and bouncing:

http://www.geocities.com/sixtyfourguitars/BossBr/Tutorials/V-Tracks_and_Bouncing.html

[Bro]

Okay, thanks to both of you and thanks for the fast reply 

[Greeny]

I only use the 4 main tracks. I'm too stupid to work out how the rest work 

[64Guitars]

I only use the 4 main tracks. I'm too stupid to work out how the rest work 

I get a bit concerned when people use terms like "4 main tracks", as it implies that the 4 tracks you're referring to are somehow different from the remaining 28 tracks. They're not. The Micro BR has 32 tracks and they are all identical. None have any more significance than the rest. However, you can only select four at a time due to the limitations of the built-in 4-channel mixer (1 of 8 tracks per mixer channel). When you create a new song, the BR sets each of the 4 mixer channels to the first track in the group of 8 ("v1"). But that's just the default. One "v-track" must be selected on each mixer channel at all times, so you might as well start with v-track 1. But it isn't a requirement. You could create a new song, set all four mixer channels to v-track 6 (for example), and record your four tracks. Everything would work exactly the same. You've merely chosen a different four tracks than the default selection.

If the Micro BR had a 32-channel mixer, then the 32 tracks could be designated in a linear fashion from track 1 through track 32, and there'd be no need for the term "v-track". But, because the Micro BR only has a 4-channel mixer, we need to visualise the 32 tracks as a grid with 4 columns and 8 rows. The columns represent the 4 mixer channels, and the rows represent the 8 tracks assigned to each mixer channel. So we designate each of the 32 tracks by their column and row position in the grid, where the term "track" (mixer channel really) means "column" and the term "v-track" means "row". For example, "Tr3v5" means that the track currently assigned to mixer channel 3 is the 5th track of the 8 available on that mixer channel. But really they are all tracks, so this "track/v-track" terminology is a bit misleading. It's just a means of designating the 32 tracks in a 2-dimensional grid rather than linearly.

I understand what you meant to say: You only use the four tracks that the BR selects by default (v1) because you're not yet comfortable with switching v-tracks and bouncing (although, I'm not sure if you were serious about that or just joking). Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that nobody gets the mistaken idea that those four tracks are any different than the rest.