boss 1180cd vs 1680 roland easy use???

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Hi,
I am not a looking to make great mater recordings necessarily.
I mostly want to work on ideas...and go from there. Mostly by myself. Play guitar 99% of the time.
I bought a Roland 1680 about one year ago, used off ebay, and i just can't get into recording anything other than straight jam sessions. No editing, etc. I just find it difficult and not user friendly. Sound quality is great though. And never have to worry about input limitations.
I have heard that the Boss 1180cd is much, much friendlier and sound quality is comparable.
So my question is:
How much easier the Boss 1180? ...or is it just a little easier and I might be just as well off keeping the 1680?

Thanks to anyone who answers. I am new to this forum by the way. Probably obvious.
Thnaks again, Mike
 
Editing?

How much editing do you need?

Punch in, punch out. Sure you can trim in and out, but how much more do you need? Are you talking about copying a phrase and repeating it? Then putting that somewhere else in the song? But at a different BPM? You can do all that. Its just a shit load of work.

You need ProTools for that stuff.
 
In terms of editing...i am not a perfectionist and i have tons to learn about recording. But I desire for now the simplest, most direct route to, for example, bounce tracks, or cut out a small mistake. simple, intuitive as possible. close to anolog style i guess.
i borrowed a fostex for a couple days ...several years ago (maybe it was an 8 track?? when the hard disk recorders first hit the affordable market) ...and it was so easy to do anything with. didn't need a manual. that's what i am talking about.
i'll rephrase my question: Is the 1180 significantly more intuitive/direct/simple to use than the 1680 OR not much at all/they are very similar with lots of pages to shift through, need manual constantly.
Should have mentioned portability is of some importance.
Thanks again.
 
I've never used the 1680, so I can't compare the two. I have used the 1180-CD for about a year now and it suits my purposes of producing work tapes and simple demos for pitching to artists and publishers. My only hands-on recording experience previous to getting the 1180 was with Fostex 4 and 8 track analog.

For me using the 1180 for recording was fairly simple and easy to catch on to. What has been hard has been learning to create decent drum tracks, and learning all the bells and whistles in the mixing and mastering kits. The user manual for the 1180 is not very user friendly, but I've never seen a Roland/Boss one that is.

All in all, considering the price and the decent quality of recordings one can get out of the unit with some effort, I'm happy with my choice.

If you decide on the 1180, I strongly suggest getting the cd burner model. It makes updates and collaborating much easier and gives you unlimited ability to save work in progress on CD-RWs. Depending on how many tracks you use, the unit provides between 30 and 62 hours recording time and you're better off saving disk space for recording and store on RWs.
 
If all you really need is bouncing tracks and trimming out little mistakes, the 1680 is actually easy. It just takes a while to get a feel for all the stupid language and making sure the proper point in time is highlighted. My biggest problem was when I went to a point in a song that I wanted to trim out, I would go to the trim page and I would be in a different part of the song.

Solution:

Put a location point at the start of what you want out, and a location point at the end of what you want out.

Then when you go to trim it out, and for some reason you find yourself at a different part of the song, you can push a locate button to get to the start of it. Then push one of the buttons to that it Marks right there. Repeat with the Ending part.

Is that easy enough to understand? Sorry. There are admittedly a few different things we could be talking about with slightly different menus.

Another important thing to remember is that the cursor is on the correct stop. If is says Trim From....then you have to have that stupid underline right there. Then move it to Trim To. Which is why location points are so helpfull. Sometimes when you move the cursor to say, Trim To, the physical location moves to whatever is currently there. So you push a Location button, and then push a corresponding button to set the marker there.



I have had mine for a good three years and counting. I am still learning new things. But once you figure it out, you will be able to do sooooooo many more things that with a lesser Boss product. Especially 16 tracks. Hell, I am constantly running out of tracks. I used to use maybe 4 or 5 tracks a song. Not anymore. Stereo everything now. I can only have about one song on my harddrive at once since I fill up all my virtual tracks with different takes or bounces. I need a 3' x 3' matrix on the wall so I have room to explain to myself what all the crap is.:D
 
Outlaws - I agree about taking the time to learn all the bells and whistles, whether it be the 1680 and 1180 and I agree that the 1680 is probably a superior unit for someone into doing serious recording with multi-instruments and vocals.

But, for editing, etc. the 1180 has many similar features, including the placement of "markers" that you refer to. The 1180 for its price is a fairly remarkable unit.
 
This is all great information. Thanks!
I'm not convinced I want to invest so much time learning the roland and getting a good feel it when maybe i can get satisfactory results with the 1180 in (hopefully) much less time. How long did it take to get a good feel for the boss, Peter D?

Do you all think there's any significant difference in sound quality between the two if one records on the best setting (?) for the 1180. Vocals and acoustic recordings i guess would be more subject to this.
 
The only thing that I can tell you is that I'm probably one of the least "techie" people in the world; some would say I'm technically impaired, but I learned how to record a simple guitar/vocal on the 1180 in about an hour. That's after spending about 4 hours reading the manual initially.

After one year, I'm still learning all the bells & whistles of drum loops, mixing and mastering and there is tons of stuff I could do with the unit which I simply have not bothered to learn because what I'm doing is fairly straightforward and not too artsy-fartsy.

I think the sound quality is excellent considering the price of about $1,000. A friend of mine recently released a CD which was wholly recorded, mixed and mastered on the unit. She did hire a mastering engineer to tweek the master in his studio, but that's common with any commercial release done in a home studio. Hell, the major record labels do it.

Two things I suggest if you go with the 1180-CD -1] Read the manual and anything else re digital recording you can get your hands on. Almost everyone I know who has had problems using the 1180 are people who would have a problem using any recording platform. They refuse to educate themselves re using the units and then, blame the units for their lousy recordings. 2] Spring for a good quality condenser microphone to use for vocals and recording acoustic instruments. Dynamic microphone will work, but a condenser mic is the difference between night and day on the quality of recordings you will get from the unit.
 
"technically impaired"... they should design a wheel chair icon for folks like me.
i do have a condenser mic and it does sound good with the roland but i have not experimented with placement too much.
i use to have a radio shack mic. $29.95. it sounded descent in it's own way, with a dirty guitar mic-ing the amp. very raw/edgey. but not used with the roland.
i do appreicate all the info as i weigh this out.
 
Yes, learning Roland is worse that learning french, but the suffering is worth the wonderous outcome. There are so many things you can do with the 1680. It is all a matter of just using it. I usually keep a notebook indexed with tricks and shortcuts to help me as I learn. As far as placement, these things go without saying, it depends on what your mic is capable of. For simple bouncing tracks that is about as easy as it gets. You hold the track button down, and its like looking at a patch bay. You choose where you want the signal to go to. Effects, you just route the signal through the effects send and return. It's not that dificult to get a hold of once you start. I would have to agree with Pete, the Roland is capable of so much more.
 
I was able to record simple guitar and vocals on my 1680 after about an hour.

After the first day I had a very intricate 5 part guitar section about 35 seconds long. Still the best work I have EVER done.;) It was my first attemp at overdubbing:D
 
Thanks everybody.
I actually posted my concerns with all this on another forum as well and the gerneral consensus there is the same as here.
If I were to do it over again I would go for the Boss. Not too much doubt there. But since I have invested in the Roland I will go ahead and stick with it. Everywhere I have researched has said to create a simplified manual or find someone who has one on the web. So unless something out of the blue strikes me, I believe I have made a decision.
Thanks again! Help greatly appreciated.
 
U can always post here if you come across something you cant figur out. I got one, I got a friend with one, and there are many people here who blow me away with knowledge on using the 1680. Here is the place to find most of what you are looking for.
 
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