Br1200cd

[My Hobby]

After trying a Zoom HD1600CD, I spent a little more and exchanged it for the BR1200. I've had it for about a week now and can't say enough about it. (first thing Zoom said to do was get a screw driver and remove the CR Rom, turn it over, and reinstall it. I'm not making this up! I couldn't believe it.) But since I took the Boss out of the box it's been easy to use and has the excellect effects Boss is known for. I still have a lot to learn - haven't mastered or bounced yet. But I have the CD tutorial and it looks straight forward. Programming the drums can be a little tricky but I have a Roland drum kit with foot switch fills, so I'm using that. I also have a Vocalist Live 2 and after some trial and error it sounds good. And I tried a condenser mic but actually prefer my old dynamic standby. With the BR's Vocal effects it dials in nice. (Yes, I turned on phantom power

I know I'm probably not saying anything new. It's just that I'm so happy with my purchase I wanted to give Boss another positive review. BTW, I did have one question that required me to call Boss tech support. I got right through to a guy who had a grasp of the English language and helped me in a courteous and professional manner. I don't know how you put a price on that. (When I called Zoom a recording told me to leave a message and they'd get back to me within 24 hours.) It reminds me of that Master Card commercial where they compare prices of material things and at the end mention something subject and call it "Priceless".

The drum machine I have is a Roland CR-80. I bought it in 1993, carried it all over the place and it still works as well as the day I bought it. I'm sold on Roland/Boss and completely satisfied to use their equipment for my modest home recording studio.

 

[72fender]

I have a BOSS BR-600 and a BR-1600, and I agree that are easy to use.

I'm surprised that you don't use the BR-1200 drums. It's really easy to arrange the drum patterns into an arrangement, note I didn't say program.

The BR-1200's drum patterns are broken down into six parts Intro, Verse1 (V1), Fill1 (F1), Verse2 (V2), Fill2 (F2) and End. You first have to be in Arrangement Mode, than I chose one of the Verse patterns, which would be the main drum structure of the song, and record to just that one Verse pattern.

Than after recording all the tracks, I go back and insert Fills at the measure where needed.

For example say I chose the BLUES 01 pattern, and use V1 of the pattern, I record a rhythm guitar track for 200 measures, and than record bass guitar, a lead guitar, and vocal track to BLUES 01-V1 pattern.

I rewind the track to 0, press play and listen to the track, at measure 8, I want a Fill, so I stop the recorder, and insert a 1 measure Fill at measure 8, the V1 pattern advances, than at measure 16, I want another Fill, etc, etc.

Also with the BR-1200, there should be a Discrete Drums CD with drum loops, these drum loops are ready loaded in the BR-1200. Because the DD drums are recorded with a live drummer, the format has to be as audio loops, but the recording steps are same, except you have to be Arrangement 'Loop' mode.

I've kind of simplify the steps, somewhat, but once you've created a few songs using the drums, you'll see it's pretty easy.

 

[Frambo]

Hey there Mr Hobby

I concur with you and 72Fender about the Boss.


The 1200 is fundamentally the same as the 1600 so here are some good tips on programming the drums in the BR, at this site:

http://www.topsoundproductions.com/...eBR-1600CD/ProgrammingDrumsontheBR-1600CD.htm

There's also a good user forum http://www.takeforum.com/br1600cd/ which will be useful to BR1200 users too.

I've found some really good drumloops from a variety of genres in the M-Audio 'Pro Sessions sound + loop library' at my local music store. M-audio supply the factory loaded 'Discrete Drums' loops (and back up loop disk) you get when you buy the unit. As 72Fender said, it's the same principle to programme using loops and drum machine in the Arrangement mode. The sound quality of the loops are superb.

Have fun

 

[mjbphotos]

I use 72fender's same method for recoding with the BR600 - set a single drum pattern, record first take to get all the measure info, then do the actual drum arrangement before starting to record the real tracks. I had an original Boss DR drum machine, it basically arranged the same way.