I have
a BR 1180CD. My only gripe with the unit is the drum machine controls. I just don't get it. I just want a simple drum track to play while I record my guitar for timing purposes, but you have to program it to a certain number of measures etc. or it will just stop after like 16 measures. The click track works great though.
Actually I have another gripe. There are only two simultaneous tracks to record to which is a big let down IMO. This means that your drums have to all be mixed perfectly down to two tracks before you can record them, and then you lose any level adjustment for individual drums. That REALLY sucks. So you have to go into a mixer and get the drums mixed to two tracks as best you can and hope for the best. That is the single most reason not to get the BR 1180.
On the other hand the unit has good sound, it has a built in mic pre amp and phantom power. It has a great punch in feature. It has an awesome assortment of fx. It also has the CD burner which is great to have because you can be sure of no signal degradation/loss from transferring to a stand alone unit or a pc. 8 tracks becomes limiting REAL quick too. ANd even though they say that once you bounce to a mastered track you can keep recording and still get your old tracks back if you want to, I have yet to find out how thats possible. There is a virtual track function that says you can have 10 V tracks to every track, but again this is complicated and isn't user friendly. I haven't figured out how that works, and if that is where the still editable first tracks are.
I love it, but I wish I could have had 8 inputs and an easier way to keep recording more tracks while retaining editability to the original 8 tracks. It is all digital so I can't see why that isn't an option. I guess because they want you to buy the 16 track unit for more $$$.
I would still buy it again, but I would more seriously consider some other units just for the reasons I mentioned if I had the chance. My friend has an 8 track that record to mini discs, which sucks compared to an internal HDD and CD burner, but it does have 8 inputs and 8 knob EQ's which is much nicer than a menu driven EQ like the bR 1180.
