Boss BR1600- better than rivals?

[bluesmouse]

I can't decide between the Yamaha AW16G the Boss BR1600 and the Zoom MRS1608. Does anyone recommend the Boss over the other machines and why please?

Also, can you have the mic phantom power on the Boss switched on on some channels but turned off on others so that you can use dynamic and condenser mics at the same time?

I'm particularly interested in having good sounding guitar effects and drum samples and I'd like to know if either one particularly has the edge over the others in overall sound quality also.

Thanks!

[Gene Cookmeyer]

My small business does some live event recording, and had the similar requirements that you're looking at for recording your band. Researching all available recorders, I looked at the Zoom MRS-1608 and the Boss BR-1600CD extensively.

The Zoom MRS-1608 user's guide is available on Samson's website and should give you a feel for what the unit can do.

The Boss BR-1600CD user's guide is now available (thank you Roland) on Roland's website (http://www.roland.com/manuals/en) .

Essentially for my decision the criteria for purchasing was this:
1. It had to have 8 channels minimum and without the need for an external mixer. Translation: 8 XLRs mandatory.
2. It had to have compression on every channel.
3. It had to have a USB port for exporting WAV files (We use Cakewalk SONAR for post-production).

To me it looked like both units provided these items, and basically I chose the Boss BR-1600CD over the Zoom unit because of my familiarity with Roland's products (I used to own a VS-840) and the addition of the Bass machine and COSM effects were nice in case I wanted to do some portable song-writing. Also the Boss offers Phantom power on every input whereas the Zoom I believe offers it on maybe 4 of them. I also like the quality of Roland's effects in general, so because I'm not familiar with the quality of the Zoom box's effects, I didn't want to take any chances.

My only dissapointment after I purchase the BR-1600CD unit so far was the WAV export function - it limits you to one mono or stereo track at a time - but I've since been able to address this limitation by developing a software utility to deal with this (WAV-MAKER-1600 details on my website).

Using phantom power on dynamic mics should NOT damage them - I've done this before and had no problems. I'm a little cautious though and always cut phantom power before hooking up or disconnecting mics.

The Boss BR-1600 unit has excellent COSM modeled guitar effects, a drum machine and bass machine build it, plus the ability to import drum/bass loops as well.

I hope this helps you in your decision...

[KEVIN1600]

I think the BR 1600 is the best but it also costs the most.It's also only 16 bit but thats all I need to burn CD's to . And it KILLS any PORTASTUDIO real,real bad.

[bluesmouse]

Thanks for the input guys, it is much appreciated.