Micro BR-80 review

[Geir]

Micro BR-80

I've had it a month almost 4 months now and here are a few of my thoughts of the little box. As I've had the original MicroBR and have a BR-800 some comparing to those will occure.

General
First of all. The BR80 is LOUD !!!! Both the headphone volume and the sensitivity is better than the original mbr and the br800. For vocal recording I have to set the input sensitivity to -24dB and the output volume rarly is set louder than 30-40%. But, as with the BR800, I find that all the vocal effects have far too much compression. I will have to get the time soon to make some tests so I can dial in a vocal effect more to my liking.

The buttons are ok, and I really like that "play" and "record" has lights under them to indicate that they're active! The wheel is not the best feature on the mbr80. It's not easy to handle and I still havent gotten used to it. The wheel on the BR800, tho it looks quite similar, is much better, partly because it is elevated from the surface of the recorder, but it also feels sturdier.

The display is compact and with a really thought through layout. The default display when in MTR mode shows the input level and playback level of all 8 tracks+drums and also output levels. Tracks that has been recorded to and the track(s) that are aimed for recording is marked with an "R". In addition, as you can "mute" or "solo" individual tracks,those who are are marked with a S or a M.

"Down arrow brings you to the first of the mixer views, the volumes. then follows panning, SOLO/MUTE, EQ (hi/mid/low) for the individual tracks (a big plus !!),reverb, and the V-track view. The reverb is a bit of a disappointment after the BR800, it is compareable to the original MBR.

The menu button bring you to the song menu, input sensitivity, track edit (which is comparable to MBR/BR800(v1.04)) autopunch, bounce/mastering, and "function" (a system/utility menu). I won't go into detail on every aspect, but a couple of features will be mentioned. A surprising feature is found under the function->system menu. For battery you can choose between "alkaline" or "Ni-MH", so no worries regarding rechargeable batteries anymore (not that I ever had any )

The bounce/mastermodes are a BIG disapointment. In these modes you no longer can control the mixer, so it's a lot of back and forth between the master mode and the mixer mode to get a good mastering. It's not that big a deal for the bounces as you can't use effects, but some fading is no longer possible. 

Multi-track Recording.
8 tracks is more than twice as much as 4, in fact, as long as you record mono tracks (as I usually do), it's actually three times as much once you get beyond the first bounce. And it's also better than the 4 mono + 2 stereo that the 800 is. What I miss tho, is the option to use effects while bouncing! This is something I've done extensively on both the mbr and the 800, usually (compression) on vocal harmonies, but also to add an effect that I didn't see I needed when recording. It is possible if you master and then import the master afterwards (althoght limited to the mastering effects), but I'd really like to be able to do it in the bounces.

I've yet to use the option to use the line in simulaniously with the guitar/mic input, but I like the feature.

Drums
I've spent so many hours programming drums on both the mbr and the br800, that I can almost do it blindfolded. So at first I was a bit reluctant to the new way of programming the BR80. It is more intuitive and in some ways faster, but there are a few minor things that annoys me still I won't go in detail, but a couple of examples: On the br80 you first select if it's a intro, verse, fill .. etc. .. which is fine and can be timesaving, but the annoying thing is that it defaults to "break" when you insert a new pattern. It would be better that it defaulted to verse because then it would only be one tick with the wheel to intro or fill. A good thing is that you now specify for how many measures the pattern should last instead of which measure the pattern starts in as with the MBR/BR800, and tempo defaults to "---.-" , that is the same tempo as the previous measure. That means you can insert new patterns in the middle of the song without worrying about the tempo or that every measure shifted after the insert, you just have to reduse the length of the following pattern.
The SMF import is a neat function as well (just be sure you've upgraded to v1.04 of the firmware). It works well and has only one annoying little glitch. When you import a midifile you're thrown back to the default MTR screen. First time I did it I was sure that something had gone wrong! But everything was fine, I returned to the drum arrangement menu and could use the imported file as a pattern.


Effects
Guitar/bass effects.
The effects are now organized in categories. That makes it easier to get matching effects within a song if you're too lazy to spin through all the effects, so it's good .... and bad (you could miss out on some cool effect in a song by sticking to the category).
The effects are very good, and you just gotta love a box that has it's own "Liverpool" category

Bass sim effect.
Much have been said about bass sim effects, but I think it is rather good. Like on the BR800 you have to be careful not to get too punchy in your picking, and maybe turn the treble down a bit on your guitar (if you use the bridge pickup and play with your fingertips instaed of a pick or fingernails, it usually goes quite well).

Acoustic sim effecs.
I've yet to hear any convincing acoustic sim effects. These are no worse than most, but not much better either.

Vocal effects.
As stated earlier, I think they use too much compression, but with a little tweaking they are really good. I will have to come back with more details when I've recorded some more songs tho.

Mastering effects.
The mastering effects are really good. Much like the BR800. BUT I hate that they've removed all the detailed tweaking options that we had on the original mbr (not on the 800). I guess it's supposed to make it easier, but it doesn't!!! It's just annoying !!!! Good thing the effects are soo good to start with, that you can live with not tweaking too much.

[Geir]

I'll update with more info in this space later

[AndyR]

Nice one, thanks for that

One query, though: I might be getting confused, but are you saying that you can't vary track levels etc during a bounce?!!? I must have misunderstood that bit...

[Geir]

One query, though: I might be getting confused, but are you saying that you can't vary track levels etc during a bounce?!!? I must have misunderstood that bit...

Sorry but NO. I couldn't believe it either when I first discovered it. I really hope that is something that will be fixed in a future firmware release !!!

[Greeny (No longer active)]

This is brilliant - thanks Geir. Both for the detailed info, and the time you spent writing all of this - IN ENGLISH!

I'm always behind the curve, innovation-wise, so I like to sit on the fence and watch from the sidelines before making any hasty decisions with technology purchases.

So detailed reviews like this are a big help in deciding whether I can face leaving the comfort of my trusty MBR for the 80.

At the moment, I'm still not convinced I should get one. In fact, the expanded guitar effects are the only thing that makes me drool a bit, lol.

[Oldrottenhead]

i am still gonna get a br80 once i have my pennies saved but not being able to adjust the levels during bounce or master is a major flaw in my eyes. before i bounce or master on the mbr i always have a listen through first, then i know in advance where and when i want to bring up or down the levels on individual tracks. the not being able to fade in and out the whole mix is a bit of a bummer but can be easily done in audicity.

my other worries are recording the vocals and the sturdiness of the wheel.

that said i tend to record everything in stereo now,especially the juno as most of it's patches use the full stereo spectrum. but i also record my voice and  uke  via the onboard mic to stereo tracks and my guitars are always recorded in stereo so having 8 tracks to use before a bounce is a big plus.

hopefully updates will sort out my worries.

thanks for the info my viking friend.

[Oldrottenhead]

regarding effects. are there a lot more preset stereo effects included. there are only a few on the mbr but those that aren't can be tweaked to give a faux stereo effect.

[Redler]

Thanks a lot for this excellent review, Geir!

Kari

[chip]

regarding effects. are there a lot more preset stereo effects included. there are only a few on the mbr but those that aren't can be tweaked to give a faux stereo effect.

That's something I would like to know too. I think there is. One thing what is pan delay? Is that a stereo delay?
 Nice review Geir. I'll get you a blindfold and you can come and do the drums for me

[AndyR]

One query, though: I might be getting confused, but are you saying that you can't vary track levels etc during a bounce?!!? I must have misunderstood that bit...

Sorry but NO. I couldn't believe it either when I first discovered it. I really hope that is something that will be fixed in a future firmware release !!!

WOW!

I'm not really in the market for one, I don't need it, and there's a bunch of other calls on my finances that I haven't had before... but this is a complete no-no for me.

I use bounces as sub-mixes, sometimes even when I have free tracks still available, it's a way of mixing in smaller chunks... So I need dynamic mixing going on, I really am mixing when bouncing. There's absolutely no way I could have recorded "If we should sing together" on a BR-80. It was a lot of work on the MBR (not least the going back to remix bounces that hadn't worked first time when I tried to combine them with others!), but it simply wouldn't be achievable on the BR-80.

So, I'm assuming that "mixing" must be a separate thing from "bouncing" on the BR-80? Allowing you to ride the faders to bring a bit out or turn a part down for a few bars... Otherwise I can't see how you could produce a decent mix at all with it.

I'm begining to wonder, is mixing on the BR-80 really "set the faders and go... that's yer lot"? Crumbs... I'd actively recommend someone NOT to buy it if that's the case, that's a stunner 

EDIT: Thinking about it, it's NOT that bad - "riding the faders" on the MBR is not a picnic!! Partly why I'd do "bounce-mixing" so that I could control just one track against the others. Sometimes I'd even bounce one track only, just to put the dynamics into it that I wanted. I've even been known to do that on the BR1600 - in fact, I've got a bounce waiting at the moment that involves balancing 2 acoustic guitars and all their changes (and reverb), then another two with different reverb in a separate bounce, then another bounce to balance them against the already mixed keys and electric guitars. (Actually, typing that out, it seems a lot of effort for the total mess the thing sounds like at the moment!! Mebbe I need to scrap these parts and record something more usable )