A few questions...

Kenny202

Member
Hi all. New to the forum. Have a very basic question about recording tracks (not mastering or mixing) on my Boss BR600, although I guess most work on the same principle.

For eg I am going to record some bass on track one. I have a level control for Guitar Bass inputs.What dictates the level of the sound apart from the level input dial. Does moving the track 1 fader do anything when recording a track or is it purely playback volume? What role does the master fader play when recording a track?

Other question I go into the Roland / Boss forum. The header display says around 11,000 posts. I can only see 2 and one of them is mine lol. Do I have to change a setting to see older posts or something?

Thanks in advance for any advice :-)
 
It's like practical all mixers - the round level control sets the gain - so you set the input level till the peak led flashes and then back off a bit, then the fader controls what you hear - the master doesn't impact the recording, but is just like any mixer - controls the blend of the channel faders. It's a bit old and ancient but OK as they go - and VERY straightforward to do basics. The manual is also written in quite a simple way. I'm just confused why you've not just piled in there and played with it. Your answers are probably five minutes of fiddling, with no need for youtube or the internet. It's very much a look at the panel, spot the button, prod and away you go - as all these solid state versions of the old tape based products were. It's also full of gizmos and gadgets you don't have to use till you get comfy with the basic record and replay side. it does have a few drawbacks - the main one being the types of mics you can use, and the use of jacks for everything rather than XLRs, but that's just a few adaptors really, and sadly, no condenser mic ability - but unless you really need these things, it should be OK.


On the forum question, no idea - so really a question to post on that forum isn't it? Normally it's just a setting that limits the time period you're working in - perhaps it's set to 24hrs or something?
 
Hi,
Usually, on any mixer-format device, you'll have a gain knob per channel and a volume fader per channel.
The gain knob dictates how much the incoming signal is amplified before it's recorded, and the fader is there to adjust your listening level after the fact.
The fader has no effect on the recorded audio.

Thanks for pointing out the forum issue.
That forum was set to show threads from the last month only, by default.
It is user adjustable but I've set it back to 'all-time' as the default.
 
Yes, the dial is the recording volume, the channel slider adjusts the playback volume of that channel - and the volume when mixing/mastering/bouncing, the master slider is the overall playback volume.
 
It's like practical all mixers - the round level control sets the gain - so you set the input level till the peak led flashes and then back off a bit, then the fader controls what you hear - the master doesn't impact the recording, but is just like any mixer - controls the blend of the channel faders. It's a bit old and ancient but OK as they go - and VERY straightforward to do basics. The manual is also written in quite a simple way. I'm just confused why you've not just piled in there and played with it. Your answers are probably five minutes of fiddling, with no need for youtube or the internet. It's very much a look at the panel, spot the button, prod and away you go - as all these solid state versions of the old tape based products were. It's also full of gizmos and gadgets you don't have to use till you get comfy with the basic record and replay side. it does have a few drawbacks - the main one being the types of mics you can use, and the use of jacks for everything rather than XLRs, but that's just a few adaptors really, and sadly, no condenser mic ability - but unless you really need these things, it should be OK.


On the forum question, no idea - so really a question to post on that forum isn't it? Normally it's just a setting that limits the time period you're working in - perhaps it's set to 24hrs or something?

The reason I didn't post on that forum was it appeared to be dead lol. 1 post
 
Thanks all. I know where I am now. A few other questions if I may...Yes, I know the machine is old (so am I lol) but essentially only using it to record backing tracks for solo work. Bass and drums, so all the bells and whistles not required. I had the bigger one BR1200 I think it was some years ago but overkill for me.....I have played around with it over the last few years and ok about rhythms, deleting and editing songs etc.

So for the sort of thing I am doing once I have recorded the individual tracks should I bounce all onto one master track? I wont be exporting the files as wave files or anything, or maybe I should? I am essentially using it as a drum machine with recorded live bass.
I guess I should master it all just to keep the levels consistent rather than have individual tracks and play around with the levels at a gig.
In hindsight I might be better off exporting to my phone and play back through the PA aux rather than carting a delicate (and vulnerable) electronic machine around.

When I finally do mix / master the bass and drum tracks together, do the faders on those tracks set the levels on the master recording?
Ie I set the faders on the individual Bass and drum tracks so that when played back the outputs are balanced. Maybe have the fader on the bass pushed up a bit more than the drums...will the fader levels set the levels on the final master or still only for playback only?

I can not find anything in the manual about recording drums and there are a lot of similar comments when I google the issue. I have seen comments that you do not need to record the drums themselves as the drum details are stored in a file in the song. Not 100% sure about this and have had issues before where I played back and the drums were just out of time with the other instruments recorded but it could be because I had the drums recorded and the rhythm track fader open as well. There is a little tutorial from Roland on the net about recording the drums and it says "set the rec mode to bounce, then select stereo tracks 5/6". As soon as I select bounce mode the track selected comes up automatically as 7/8 and these are the stereo mastering tracks. There doesn't seem to be anyway to change the tracks to 5/6 unless I am missing something? And I can record the drums successfully to tracks 7/8, but when I come to actually mastering and want to mix all the tracks together and bounce onto the master (forgive me if I am using the wrong terminology) it will I assume record over the top of the drum track on 7/8? or I can still master to 7/8 but use the next available V track? (V2), or can I bounce 7/8 back to 5/6? and then clear 7/8. Of course it would be better if I could just bounce my drums straight onto 5/6 as per the tutorial.

By the way...these things have an internal battery.... don't they? I have had it at least 5 years and never replaced it.

Thanks again guys
 
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I can't help with your time signature issues or any specifics for your device but, speaking generally, I'd be inclined to do the work in advance then bounce stereo mixes to take to your gigs.
If possible I'd want to leave the multitrack sessions intact, and editable, but walk away with a stereo wav/mp3 that can be played from any old portable device.

That seems like a simpler approach where less can go wrong and, as you say, it doesn't put your recording device at risk...travelling around with it.

Making a conscious effort to aim for roughly the same average volume, to your ears, per track is probably going to be adequate 'mastering',
although if you happen to have a computer with a basic editor like Audacity or Reaper, it might be nice to have all your backing tracks (stereo mixes) lined up for quick and easy comparison?

Just my thoughts. Hopefully someone can help with the device specifics. :)
 
Yes, the channel faders control the volume in the final mix when you are mixing or bouncing down. The rhythm track should be mixed into the mix on the final mix-down (not on bounces).
 
Ok. You are right no need to record the drums. I actually bounced my bass track with the rhythm track playing on to a stereo track and from there I was able to export it all as a wave file to my computer. Unfortunately there was a buzz (grounding problem) with the bass track so will have to do it again but am getting the gist of it all. My next question would be about mastering. Like I said I can export the bounced bass and drum tracks and it sounded good. What does mastering do? Is it just about polishing up the finished product or does it do something automatically to make the song "CD ready" or something? I imagine if you were not happy with the bass EQ, or you wanted to add reverb etc you would take care of that on the track before bouncing?
 
Honestly, I'm not sure what the BR600 'mastering' really does. Adds a bit of compression, I guess. I recorded my whole first album on a BR600, a good learning experience, but I would neer go back to stand-alone recorder. If you are exporting to a computer, use a DAW. I'd just export all the tracks individually and mix/master in a DAW.
 
Honestly, I'm not sure what the BR600 'mastering' really does. Adds a bit of compression, I guess. I recorded my whole first album on a BR600, a good learning experience, but I would neer go back to stand-alone recorder. If you are exporting to a computer, use a DAW. I'd just export all the tracks individually and mix/master in a DAW.

I was actually talking to a friend today has done a bit of recording and he said the same thing re compression to tidy everything up and he says increases the impact of the sound, fattens it up a bit. Really thats all I would need to do.

So if I go onto mastering do I need to turn a compressor effect on or something or just by going into mastering does that tidy things up automatically? Sorry must be a stupid question
 
I think I got most of it figured out now. When you go into the mastering mode there is a "mastering tool kit" which is in effect a series of pre set effects you can use to master. I select the first one called "mix down" and it seems to trim it up and compress it just enough.

By the way for anyone interested no need to bounce the drums and save them as an individual track. As someone else mentioned the drum track will got with the other tracks automatically when you bounce.
 
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