BOSS BR900 & Computer

[daffsongwriter]

I have a BOSS BR 900 which I am getting to grips with quite well, bearing in mind I find the techno jargon mind boggling and the manual too full on but I am getting there. One latest snag, to my horror, my computer (laptop) does not recognise the Boss when I plug in. This may mean that I cannot produce any of my songs I have been working on for god knows how long!! I wanted to upload my songs into myspace. While my pc doesnt recognise this equipment (I knew it wouldnt) this could mean that I cannot convert these files to mp3, unless there is a way of doing all this on board of the Boss, then burning onto a cd from that and use the cd in my computer, do it that way.Does anyone know if there is a way of doing everything on board of the Boss BR 900, the instruction manual doesnt give you a contingency measure if your computer 'says no'. I was very let down by this as my songs are ready for upload although you all may not agree with me when you hear them lol. I am not a recording engineer so wont be very good at the technical ways of altering tones etc etc, when I record into it and mix that is it, all the clever stuff Im afraid I just cannot take in.I may find int he end I have to consider getting this done by someone who knows what their doing and paying a flipping fortune.I did try my keyboard staight into the laptop, mmm, well yeah, it recorded but with a horrendous buzzing/squealing noise, probably because my lap top just isnt able to cope. I do have studio software on my pc, EXP Studio I think it is (its not with me at the moment). My pc will cope with very simple voice recording through a pathetic pc mic, not the kind of thing I am doing though.Help ................Thank you.Daff x

[ddusty]

Daff,assuming your pc was not built with recording music in mind, you will need a better sound card or interface to record directly to your computer. here are a few to give you an ideahttp://www.dcmusicstore.com/Books-Videos-DVDs/ ... sobviously you can get into much bigger more expensive ones as well, this is just something to look at.As for getting the stuff off the Boss and onto the computer, I am assuming that your unit does not have a CD, you may want to try this link:http://www.rolandus.com/products/produc ... ectId=699I have never tried this, so I am inly speculating, but the BR Wave converter "may" allow your computer to recognize the BR900. It looks like it form the pic at least.It's worth a shot, good luck.Rob

[daffsongwriter]

Thank you Rob, I will check the links you have provided. I googled and found a Boss BR900 link and it may be the same one you found, I down loaded it, have yet to see if it recognises it now.Also I noticed from the cd that I did burn on the Boss the other week (my unit does have a cd burner on board) when I copied the file off the cd, none of my file converters could convert it.It seems I am in a no win situation - but, if I can do everything on board of the Boss (it doesnt explain in the manual) then I wont have to involve the computer at all (I wish).I cant afford a new pc at the moment, this laptop is great with most things, it is 4 years old in February so probably is not designed to cope with the demands of us musicians.Thanks again, I will check your links now.Daff x

[mazz]

I'm not familiar with the BR900 but I can tell you that the Roland/Boss stuff has some pretty poorly written and organized manuals, in my experience.I am assuming that you are attempting to get your computer to recognize the BR900 via USB. If so, this may help: I have a Roland V-synth with USB and it has two USB modes, storage and MIDI. Now, your BR900 may have different USB modes as well, for example, one when a hard drive is connected and another when a computer is connnected. For some reason one of these modes may have been changed and that might be why your computer does not recognize the unit.Also, the BR900 may have a mode to export standard .wav files on to a CD. Otherwise, maybe there is some software from Roland/Boss that you can put on your laptop to convert the files from the CD.As I said, I don't know your unit specifically but I do know the Roland/Boss way of doing things and they are not always the most intuitive ways. Your laptop should be able to do what you want to do, converting wav files to mp3 is not very heavy lifting for even a 4 year old machine (as long as the OS is pretty up to date).Good luck,Mazz

[daffsongwriter]

Hi, thanks Mazz. I have since downloaded a programme which I found when googled and also its the same link that ddusty kindly posted, dont know what do do with it once I am into the programme though ha ha. Next time I hook the pc and Boss together maybe that software will get the 2 talking. Also on reading through some information that Arkjack gave me a while back it does seem that the Boss will do everything I need it to without involving the pc, he said the pc is purely to back up the files from the Boss to provide it with more space so that in itself also is a good thing to do if I can get them to recognise each other.Today though I am going to concentrate on getting this song right, one of the tracks I have decided to delete and do again (sighs), and once it is done I will attempt the mixing down and mastering process, gulp, with the confusing instruction manual lol. Then hopefully the Boss will convert to WAV, which my silly pc should be able to convert fromthe cd.If I had shed loadsa money I would simply go to a professional who does it for a living, but then I wouldnt get the 'job satisfaction' would I.I wont give up my day job just yet ha ha.Thanks a million for all your advice and I will keep you posted how me, pc & Boss get along. (I see flying laptops, oh there goes a mixing machine too, mm keyboards too heavy to throw !!)Daff xx

[kg]

Totally late to this discussion, and I don't really have anything helpful to add other than confirming that I too have thrown several inanimate objects when tyring to communicate with my 1180. We've been able to mix/master everything adequately for some small film projects we had fairly simple music in, however, when it came to more complex stuff, we had a hard time with mixing/mastering...let's just say I didn't even try to understand and we had to convert each track to a wav file on separate CD's to take to the engineer who loaded them into ProTools to mix/master. You should be able to at least convert and put on CD like Mazz said if you can't transfer directly.

[daffsongwriter]

Hi, thanks for that, yes I can burn it directly on to the cd, only problem is if i want more than 1 song on a cd, I would then have to copy the files from each cd onto 1 which can be done i know, it all just seems lengthy.Also on listening to what I did at the weekend, quite typically, I have since sang my songs and I am starting to think it actually sounds better with just me and the guitar, no keyboards and rythmn in the background! Maybe I will wipe off all I have done and start again with just me and the guitar then add some rythmn after to see if it gels in. I kinda thought it sounded a tad muddled, me not being having the drumming experience I dont think I am that good at adding the appropriate rythmn to my songs. My songs are at around 85 - 95 tempo, melody rather than rock and with the choruses more dramatic. I guess this all just takes lots of practise. Its the one thing I have a lotta patience with.I dont want to give in to the Boss machine and just do the easy way out (just me singing and guitar) but on the other hand if it suits my song better, whats wrong with just guitar and voice, does it matter.Good thing is, I do communicate with lots of other muso's so I can get feedback from therm when I demonstrate the songs.Thanks again everyone for your feedback on this, all is very useful.Daff xx

[afranks]

I work with a friend who uses a PC. I usually burn a wav CD for him to use. The USB on the 900 is a 1.1, so that isn't the best route for me to take.The 900 will burn data in wav or aiff. It will only do one song at a time, but it can burn all of the tracks recorded for the song (up to 64)I haven't tried it yet, but I think that if you use the stereo pairs (track7/8) or 'match' any of your single tracks, you can burn more than one song on a CD, but all tracks would have to be in the same song file.Hope this helps.

[daffsongwriter]

Ah thank you afranks - yes that does make sense, thank you.Today I have spent 5 hours with it and have managed to convert my song file - result. There is a but though, I am finding after the whole procedure that the end result is very low in volume (probably a common fault), also the step by step guide isnt clear in the manual as it doesnt give instructions step by step, it jumps back and forward with different funtions which are all really good and it is simple to do, I just do not know which priority. This is my way of recording a song in the order I have been doing so.1. record the tracks (listen, do again etc until happy)2. put multiple tracks together as per manual. Ok so far.3. I have presumed (because the manual says no more) that having put the tracks together is the 'mix down' process.I wasnt sure so went into the PAN/EQ settings - that was ok, wasnt sure what to set the High, Low, Med etc settings at so played safe and set them as far as they would go but on listening to the end result (as I can burn onto a cd on board of the Boss) the volume was really quiet and the cd player or pc, car cd stereo etc (yep I tried em all) volume had to be up really mega high (this time I did remember to turn it down so's that next time with a normal cd I dont get deafened lol).God that probably sounds really mumbled but basically I need to know a priority of steps of the process and the book doesnt give you that.The good news though is at least I know I can convert, upload onto myspace and it does play, but really quiet - I just need to master that little bit and then bingo, Im rockin!!! I uploaded the song I was working on to my myspace to see if it worked but took it straight off again, luckily we can do that ha ha.Daff xx

[afranks]

I'm not sure if this will help, but this is the way I usually use my 900.I record my drum track on to 7/8 so that it will be in stereo right from the start. I use a Dr 880 and Find that I can use either the line outputs into the 900 or can use a headphone jack that splits into left and right RCA into line inputs of the 900.I normally plug guitar or bass directly into 900 and find a good sound with the amp sims.For voice, I use a Bluebird mic into an inexpensive tube pre that is hooked up thru one of the xlr inputs.For keys, I do the same thing I do with the drum machine, I just have to decide if I need one or two tracks for that particular sound.I try to record at about -6 so that I can avoid any spikes. Since digital doesn't compress like tape, overdriving it can be pretty nasty.After panning and eq, I'll bounce all of the tracks onto the second or third virtual 7/8 track. Again I'll keep this track at about -6.Finally, I'll audition the mix thru all of the pre set mastering programs to see how they sound. When I record the "master", this is when I will push the volume. Most of the time I will record three or four different "masters" so I can compare where the pre set programs differ. I have not tried running mixes thru multiple master programs yet, so that may also be an option.Please let me know if this helps.