boss br9oocd virgin

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mikeshead

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Hi Guys,
first go at this so please forgive me if I have not put this in the right category.

I am a singer/acoustic guitarist and I recently bought a Boss BR900cd to make CDs to get new gigs.........and Im having problems.

I am recording Vocals and guitar through the on board mike (occasionally using a Sure unidyne 3) and the intial results are not too bad.

However, when I bounce them to the 2 tracks and mix them down (through the mix down patch and the premix patch) the sound degrades slightly.

When I then write the song to CD there is a further, more significant degradation.

When I play the song from the output of the boss it is OK but not great.

When I play the CD through a different CD player its crap. Very hard and one dimentional.

An additional point is that I dont really understand the EQ settings. Trying to boost the low frquencies does not seem to work nether does reducing the high frquencies.

Finally, the manual is ultra pants. Iv heard that there is a video on the operation of Boss br 900cd but it is not available in the UK.

Any help would be much appreciated.

ta

mikeshead
 
Make sure you don't have the onboard effects on in a way you don't want.
How is the sound "degrading" - more distortion, muddier?
Make sure the effects button is not lit when you are using mix-down patches that have EQ or delay and reverb settings that are set strangely. With the BR600 the standard "Master" setting has alot of limiting and is heavy on the bass boost. Need to adjust the patch or change to a different one that is more appropriate to the music.
 
Tx for reply.

I will try your suggestions.

The sound degradations is thin hard and trebly and I need to master the low boost to get any fullness in the sound at all.
 
tried your suggestion and it worked a treat.

I had the effects on and each time I mastered and therefore I was adding another bank of effects which is I guess is why the sound got gradually worse.

many tx
 
now thats sorted, can anyone explain to me the eq settings. How does eq differ from a tone control ?

how can I adjust the tonal balance useing the eq settings and what does the low and high settings on the eq mean ?
ta:confused
 
I'm guessing the settings are the same as the BR 600, so ...

The +/- dB is the amount of boost (+) or decrease(-) in volume. This is shown on the BR 600 as "LoG" and "HiG" - Low (bass) Gain and High (treble) Gain.
The amount of gain (+/-) is centered on the frequency shown: "LoF" or "HiF" - Low Frequency or High Frequency. The easiest way to hear the effects is to play back a track and adjust your (loop) EQ while listening - you'll hear the effect right away.
I recorded an acoustic guitar track earlier, then playing with the EQ, I boosted the Low at 180Hz by +7dB and decreased the gain -5dB at 1200Hz, overall adding a little bottom end and taking a little of the "clicky" sound of the pick out.

Note that you can actually adjust the frequencies so that the Low adjusts a high frequency as well, so you might want to cancel out or boost two different high frequencies, or vice-versa do the same with the High setting, and lower the frequency to adjust two different ranges of low frequency.
 
Tx mjb,

What would you consider the starting point for eq on vocals ? Also , what process do you use when eqing? Do you try each roll off point and add gain to each one in turn to see how it sounds (seems like a long process) or do you have and idea what the roll off point is for a particular instrument ?

Also what process do you use to work out the balance between delay and reverb ?

mikeshead
 
It really is all in the ear. I try to leave the EQing flat unless I feel a particular sound is too harsh, too muffled, or needs some perking up, or there's a frequency that is ringing or not sounding correct.
I only use delay as part of the one of the preset effect loops. Reverb - I leave it off when recording the tracks, (unless it is part of the guitar effect loop either on the BR or on my Gearworls-Line 6 software. Even then I might turn the reverb down a notch. Then when mixing down, its a matter of what it sounds like and how you want to change it. Practice your mix downs - set everything to do it, then just hit 'play' but not 'record'; pause and change the settings around then play again.

Sorry its taken a little while to reply - I've been busy recording!
 
br900cd

I initially tried the onboard mike with acoustic guitar (without eq) and it sounded horrible, thin, hard or lots of treble without any body. I then tried miking the guitar up (through a Sure unidyne 3 Mike) and it was better but still not good. After being introduced to the wonders of eq there was a further improvement (mainly being limited by my woeful lack of knowledge of how the eq works). Finally, on the advice of the mighty 64 guitars I tried the acoustic guitar patches which again produced an improvement although again limited by my knowledge of eq. The eq seems to put the "body" back into the instrument but when I get it wrong (which is mostly) it can be (lumpy) and either muddy or over bright on the treble. Guitar recording needs attention.

The vocal sounds have improved quite significantly with my increase in knowledge to the point where I’m quite happy with the vocal although of course I’m sure it can be made better.

One other point the sound I get back from the monitoring head phones or my (rather cheap) amp and speakers is much better than the sound I get back through the cds I produce back through my computer. I would guess I probably need some neutral sounding headphones. Any suggestions?
 
If the CDs don't sound as good as your monitoring then look to make sure you are recording the CDs optimally. Does the sound remain the same when you listen to it (headphones or amp/speaker) from the computer file as directly from the recorder? You may need to 'normalize' the sound if it is at a low volume before burning. Note that this is a form of compression/limiting.
 
Hi mjb,

Think the issue regarding the odd sound is sorted. The problem was that the computor was set for some sort of theater surround sound play back, so when I played the CD back through the computer it souned odd. I would then try to re mix it to cure the "oddness" which then made it sound odd through anything else.

Phew I have so much to learn !

Some neutral headphones to monitor the sound through would still be a good idea I feel.

The sound now is OK. Vocal is quite good, acoustic guitar still needs a lot of work. Unfortnuately, I recorded the acoustic through the guitar jack input rarther than the mic (which I now know is a mistake). I think it might be possible to get the sound reasonable with a lot of eqing and heavy reverb/delay (natural is out of the question) and thats what Im working on at the moment.

Is there anyone out there that has developed an interesting acoustic guiar sound through the guitar modeling input ?

cheers
mikeshead
 
mikeshead said:
Is there anyone out there that has developed an interesting acoustic guiar sound through the guitar modeling input ?
Click to expand...

I dunno if it's interesting, but I use a strat with the middle pick-up selected when recording using the acoustic modeling. It's not perfect, but does the job once it's in the mix.

I have a BR-600 and the best advice I can give is to get 'the sound' that you're after during the take. Then just use EQ if needed when you're mixing it down. At least that's how I find it easiest to do!
 
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