Boss Micro BR vs Boss BR-1200

[BluesBenderNC]

I recently bought a Boss BR1200 recorder, and I have a friend who has one, and he tried to give me some lessons on it the other day, but I'm thinking this thing is way too dificult & time consuming to mess with so I'm considering going with a Micro BR. 

Are these fairly simple to operate?  Can you create a click track with it?  I have a 3 piece blues band - suppose I want to create a rhythm guitar track to play in the background with the band and a click track for the drummer to hear.  Can I do this?  Rhythm on one side & the click on the other into the drummer's monitor?

Other thing to do would be to record my own original tunes - rhythm, bass & click - so the band could hear & practice to it.

Can you do all this with the BR?

I'm really frustrated so far & really close to selling the BR1200.

Thx !!

[64Guitars]

I'd recommend sticking with the BR-1200. All of the BR models from the Micro BR up to the flagship BR-1600 have more similarities than differences. So, even if you sold your BR-1200 and bought a Micro BR, you'd still have to learn many of the same basic concepts such as v-tracks, bouncing, drum arrangements, etc. In fact, even if you switched to another brand such as Zoom or Fostex, you'd still have to learn the same concepts. So do yourself a favour and put some time and effort into learning the BR-1200. In the end you'll be glad you did. It's a much more powerful recorder than the Micro BR and, once you get comfortable with it, you'll actually find it easier to operate than a Micro BR.

Read the BR-1200 manual as many times as it takes, and try things!. Don't try to create a masterpiece straight away using every possible feature. Instead, read about a single feature and experiment with it while referring to the manual. It's better to work on one concept or technique at a time and really spend a lot of time with it until you understand it than to read the manual cover to cover and try to understand everything at once. Each new thing you learn makes the remaining things much easier to learn.

Also, you'll probably find the BR-1200 DVD Video Owner's Manual very helpful:

http://www.proaudiodvds.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BR%2D1200&Click=2040

And my website has lots of resources that will help you to understand your BR. It's geared more toward the BRs that use memory cards for storage rather than hard drives but, as I said, the concepts are pretty much the same.

This is a great forum and you might want to stick around even if you keep your BR-1200. But it really only covers the Micro BR, so you should join the Yahoo! BossBr group as well. It covers all BR recorders, although the emphasis is definitely on the models that use memory cards for storage (BR-600, BR-900CD, etc). I am the owner/moderator of that group and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about your BR-1200. I have a BR-864 which uses a memory card for storage instead of a hard drive but, otherwise, is more like the BR-1200 than the Micro BR. The BossBr group also has a couple of BR-1200 users, although they've yet to post any messages about the 1200. Still, if you ask a question about the BR-1200, they just might reply.

There are other Yahoo! groups that cover the BR-1200 but they don't seem to have much recent activity:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BR1200/

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/BR1180/

Are these fairly simple to operate?  Can you create a click track with it?  I have a 3 piece blues band - suppose I want to create a rhythm guitar track to play in the background with the band and a click track for the drummer to hear.  Can I do this?  Rhythm on one side & the click on the other into the drummer's monitor?

Other thing to do would be to record my own original tunes - rhythm, bass & click - so the band could hear & practice to it.

Can you do all this with the BR?

Yes, you can do all of that on any BR from the Micro BR to the BR-1600. Although, the Micro BR and BR-532 are limited to the included preset patterns and drum kits, so you'd have to use either the metronome or a closed hi-hat for the 'click'. You can use the same preset patterns on the BR-1200 (or any other BR), but you also have the option of creating your own custom patterns in any time signature (the Micro BR is pretty much limited to 4/4). And you can import any drum sound you like for the 'click', or build custom drum kits using a combination of preset and imported drum samples. So, optionally, much more versatile than a Micro BR or BR-532.

Best of luck, whatever you decide to do.

[BluesBenderNC]

OK, thanks for the info.  I guess I'll try to tough it out with the BR1200 & go from there. 

[turtlesoup]

As someone who bought a micro-br a year and a half ago, and got frustrated with it and mothballed it until recently, i agree with the above poster who encourages you to be patient.  these menu driven gizmos can be pretty annoying, and the manual kind of blows (for the micro at least), but once you figure it out, you won't be able to put it down. 

If not for this site, mine would probably still be rotting on the shelf. 

[BluesBenderNC]

I played around more with the BR1200 and actually made a decent recording - trial & error I guess.  Finding the right drum pattern can be time consuming, and all the fancy schmancy stuff that you can do with this thing is wasted one me.  I recorded 2 rhythm guitar tracks, a bass track, lead guitar track and a vocal.  Not sure if you can do all that with the micro. 
Anyway, I'm working on it.  Rock on.