BOSS BR 900

[daffsongwriter]

Hi - I have the above mentioned multitracker and it is, or will be really good for what I want and probably come in useful with my recently formed band.I hadn't gotten round to using it until recently, the demonstration at Music Live last year made it look very easy.Well I am pleased to say I have managed to do a recording and a playback, took me ages to figure out why I couldnt get the darn ting to play back. I was using the line in from my keyboard but got it set on one of the other settings.I have yet a hell of a lot more to learn with it so if anyone out there has one and wants to pass on some useful info fire away, and thanks.Lv Daff xx

[afranks]

I have had my BR for about a year and a half now and I really like it. I've made a few recordings, but probably have still not used it to it's full potential. One thing that I did to make my life easier was to buy a decent drum machine because I couldn't seam to get used to the one in the 900. Also, if you use a click track, you will most likely have to edit the song in a computer or put up with having a long delay at the beginning of your song after you remove the click.If your used to using an old style cassette 4-track, you will find that allot of the same techniques can be useful.Much Luck,Al

[daffsongwriter]

Hey thanks for your reply - I am a complete beginner with it ha ha, its my first, never used a tape version but the memory card in the machine I have others the same so was able to reformat a 1Gb memory card and use that. Only problem is, when I put it in my computer I can copy the file into My Music in My Documents but when I try and convert it to a programme that the computer will read, it isnt there!!. Then I come out of that back to normal My Music folder and there it is sitting there so I cannot do anything with it apart from listen to it throught the BR900 which is ok, but would have been nice to get it on the computer to email my keyboard tutor. I dont have the correct programme to be able to view it on the computer, dont suppose you know of a programme I can download to use, Realplayer tried but failed to update. I am worried that if I burn a cd on board of the 900 that I wont be able to play it elsewhere anyway.I am sorry if I sound dumb with this but I am a bit green with it arent I ha ha.I shall take on board what you say about the drum machine, there are some drum patterns on my keyboard that I can use with the playing but they may be a bit crap. Never used a drum machine either (oh god, I bet your hands are over ya face right now), nah Im not that bad with things, normally grasp things quickly as regards computer or musical related gadgets.My drummer said something about being able to record so maybe I could use him as the drum machine ha ha.Its also having time to spend with it isnt it. I can see it will be really good though and I will keep on with it and learn more along the way. Got some days off end of March so maybe next time I will be saying on here that I have mixed drums and guitar in it. You never know eh, the millenium miracle ha ha. Daff xx

[arkjack]

The Roland song files are coded in Roland's proprietary format which can't be read by other programs. Instead, there is either a program on board that lets you convert all tracks to WAV or a program that you can download from roalnd's site that does wave file conversion of tracks. Once the trracks are converted to a wave file you can import them to your favorite music software.... SONAR ProTools, Garageband.... The way to do you song set up is program a drum beat that fits the song. Use the first measure as a metronome count.. next two as a hat tap on the downbeats... then come in the beginning chord on measure 4.... when you convert this to a WAV and import it over to your other software, set the software to teh same tempo and beat of the original track and it all lines up perfect.... Next Question....

[daffsongwriter]

Thank you so much, kind people. I will take that on board and check out the Roland site.I have yet to venture more with it so if I have any more glitches I will ask, I shall print this thread off so I can refer to it.Thank you all, you have been a great help.Daff xx

[afranks]

The 900 has a feature that will allow it to write in WAV, AIFF or Data. I use this to send a copy to a friend of mine who records on his home computer using a free ware program that he has. When you burn a disk this way, it will only copy one song, but it will burn all the tracks has seperate files. Say you record 10 tracks and have a basic mix, when you place the burned cd into whatever program that you are running, 11 tracks should come up. I usually send him a couple different mixes and all the basic tracks and he will hear what I think the song should sound like and mix it differently if he wants to. With having the basic tracks, he has also been able to sample any part of the tracks that he wants to use.As far as the drum machine goes, I really wish I had a drummer to record with, but my schedule gets in the way. If you have access to a small mixer it should be easy to record him. I would simply throw one mic on the kick and then set up a pair of overheads to get the general sound. Then you should be able to use the line in inputs on the 900 to get a stereo recording.

[daffsongwriter]

Ah I will check out that WAV feature on the 900, thank you, that will be fine.Thank you again, now hopefully next weekend I shall be able to spend more time with it then hopefully I will have more progress to speak of.Daff xx