BR1200Cd x 2years

[Pine]

I sold my Fostex VF80 to a good friend and upgraded to this rig and i love it. It's more user friendly, has a manual that i can understand, and offers so many bells and whistles that i fear i may not live long enough to learn to use them and enjoy them all.
The mastering section is vastly superior and the patches and COSM effects are incredible. It has locked up on me one time. I had worked for about 4 hours and did not save what i had...and thus lost it all after a cold boot (rig would not respond to anything...not even the OFF switch...had to pull the plug) Lesson learned. Happens to alot of DAWs of all brands now and then so i hear. Overall, i am very satisfied. One of the main reasons i bought this is because i have friends in UK that do ALL their songs on an old 1180...and NOTHING else. Their music just blows me away. I find it SO inspiring to be able to do what they do on ONE unit..no software. I have concluded, however, that TALENT is a heavy factor and my unit did not come with a TALENT button! As of now, i guess there is just me and BB here with 1200's....but we are all in the BR family and all speak the same language...

[Bluesberry]

Hey there Pinedog, I will say something about my experience.  I started with the MicroBR and after a year using and loving it and learning how to write songs with it, I finally felt the need to upgrade to the BR-1200.  I LOVE my BR-1200 for sure.  I am working out my second song on it, it has so much more to make recording easier than the Micro.  The Micro is great for quick inspiration, scratch pad, quick or simple recordings, but for the full song treatment the BR-1200 is the way to go for me.  I love them both. The BR-1200 is the ultimate home recording studio solution all-in-one IMO.  In time more folks will get a BR-1200 and start posting songs on the 1200 section, you just wait and see.

[SteveB]

Hello PD & BB - I've had my BR1200 for a couple of years, and there's still a TON of stuff I haven't even tickled yet: 'Scenes' for instance. And reading both your posts from within this thread, you seem to have struck gold by having the 1200? And don't forget, it isn't just a 12 track recorder, it's a 196-track recorder! You could literally use the whole 40gb/196-tracks on ONE song if you wanted. Admittedly you've have probs saving it elsewhere, unless you wanted to try and save it over a number of CDs. Throw in also the Loop-Phrases, Vocal & Speaker effects boxes, sometimes, I'm afraid the technology is just a little overwhelming (But FUN!!). And don't forget to check Rolands upgrade/support page - there's a version upgrade on there now. One thing I will say in disappointment, is that the Drum Machine on the BR900 contains some (Better) patterns that are not on the 1200. Pts 37 & 38 for instance. I've kept my 900, and so could literally record 10 tracks of drums, mix them down, and record to the 1200. God, life's SWEET!

[Pine]

Hey Steve...welcome to the party! You bring up some good points. I have barely scratched the surface of what this unit is capable of either...i have been more focused on making it do what i need it to do. That involved ENOUGH time with my face in the manual     I have said all along...since i got into digital home recording on other units...these machines are designed BY engineers FOR engineers. They lose sight of what joe blow is capable of readily learning and using. Technicological learning curves to me are the oppossite of song writing and playing and can drain all your inspiration. Frequent usage of your unit helps so much...rather than the way i do it...skipping months on end and then going back to record stuff...and again having to paw the manual. As for drums, i STILL have not used them! Too busy with other things and  too lazy to burn midnight oil..or maybe just too sick of learning curves with every new toy. I use my Boss DR-3 or my keyboard for percussion.
    All that said. i love my BR1200 and hope it lasts me until they plant me.
Have ya posted anything yet? I'll go have a look! 

     

[SteveB]

PD - Would you believe I don't have an MP3 player, and so am completely confused as to how to upload any work should I wish to. I usually burn a final CD and keep it, along with a Data CD in case I want to go back and make an, oh I dunno, Dub-Version of something! Any advice on how to go, apart from spending cash on an MP3 player that is, there must be a way to convert a CD into MP3 via a computer, surely?

[Pine]

No need to spend a cent. What music player do you use on your PC? Do have iTunes for instance? WMP?

[SteveB]

PD - I recently upgrade my PC and have Vista 64 bit on here, and I've just discovered that I do have I-Tunes which I've just activated, and it's now initialising everything, so I'll get back to you. I wrote this n case you thought I'd left the building?! 

[Pine]

iTunes can convert for you to MP3...post a note in general discussion if ya have trouble..i have a monster electrical storm about to hit so i'm signing off and pulling the plugs...good luck!

[SteveB]

PD - Thanks. 

[64Guitars]

This might help:

http://cms.rolandus.com/assets/media/pdf/BR600WS01.pdf

It's written for the BR-600 but most of it should apply to the BR-1200 too. Page 5 describes how to use iTunes to convert a song to MP3 format.

You should also read pages 263 and 264 of the BR-1200CD Owner's Manual, 6th edition.

Many of us use Audacity to convert our wave files to MP3 format. One advantage of Audacity over iTunes or other conversion programs is that you can also trim the ends of your song before converting to MP3 format. Then you won't have a lot of silence or unwanted noise at the beginning of your song.