Boss Br-1200CD?

[dorfmeister]

Boss Br-1200CD?

Anyone using this unit for recording?

I am looking at it and the Zoom HD16cd, which looks to have more features and lower price but I worry about Zoom customer support and build quality.

Roland stuff is usually pretty solid.

[MarkL8]

I dont know what your budget it or how many of the effects/drum processors on the Boss unit you need or want. I was just in the market myself and for a little more $$ I got a Yamaha AW1600 records 16 or 24 bit uncompressed and up to 8 simultaneous at a time. Im very pleased with this unit you might want to check it out, in all the research I did on it I found minimal complaints with this unit. Hope this helps.

[esxmac]

If you haven't yet, you might want to check this forum/board out for info on the Zoom HD8CD/HD16CD and comparisons with the BR series:

http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/viewforum.php?f=17

I have found the reviews and info very informative. In addition, there are reviews posted on Harmony Central, ZZ Sounds, American Musical, and SweetWater.

[paulscape]

Ive been using that Boss for the last several years and had a lot of fun with it. The build quality is fine - after 4 years of punishment all the buttons still work. It was kinda complicated for me at first but once you get the hang of it, its a breeze. COSM effects are handy for vocals but I dont use the guitar ones much...but they're certainly not bad.

Some things I didnt like about it:
- not many inputs for recording - its really hard to get a good stereo guitar sound if you want to use two mic's for an amp - you have to use the 'simultaneous' inputs and take off the COSM effects which will instantly default to settings made for singer/songwriters. It doesn't have much consideration for guitarists who are miking amps or want to run a stereo out from a pod unit for example...it assumes everything you will do is based around COSM effects...but that said Ive never run into any problems...but you would need a mixer to record a band. The BR16 and other units have 8 inputs I think and are much better all around.
- Boss products (as well as roland) in my experience occassionally crash. Its happened to me several times where I have recorded the best solo of my life and then *zzzzzztttt!* it freezes and you have to switch the unit off and start again. Its not really a very satisfying experience. You have to be REALLY careful to continually save things in case it crashes and not hit too many buttons too fast when re-doing takes. I dont know how other units compare to that.
- There always seems to be some reverb added. Even when I go into every parameter I can find...reverb somehow ends up in the mix? Hard to do bone dry mixes.
- poor HD size. Like many DAW machine they all have rediculously small hard-drives. My mobile phone has almost as much memory. I can't understand why they can't use PC hard-drives that you could swap in and out...but Im sure there is a technical reason for it.
- I have found it hard to get really tight fat low bass sounds from it, whether its guitars, keyboards or vocals... it seems like a brighter unit. But again Im not an electronics expert so that could be faults of mine, not the machine.
- There could be more EQ options... like a full graphics EQ on board... its kind of impersonal fiddling with parameters on a tiny screen.
- The mastering toolkit is great but after a while I find myself only using the 'pre-master' one and tweaking that. All the others seem to affect the tone of the song considerably. Too much of one thing and not enough of another.
- I bought a cheap Br12 and it had no CD player. I have to digitally mix everything down to the PC via the digital/optical out :(. It should have USB I/O, digital I/O (not just out) in a number of formats. I have a roland fantom keyboard and the only way to get music from it onto the Boss is via phono cables (loose heaps of sound qualoty) or by mixing the keyboard onto the PC and then burning the MP3/wav file back down to the 8 track. Other DAW units are the same... they will have 1 or two interface options but not all of them.

Ive had mine for a long time now and its faithfully (apart from the crashes) helped me record a lot of cool music. If I were to buy a new one I would surely look at the BR1600 but as a second had unit the BR1200 a good unit.

PM me and I'll send you some songs Ive done on it.

[Dr Git]

I liked my BR 1600, its just complicated to use. You really need to dedicate quite a bit of time to understand the functions. I'm not a drummer, so I don't create good beats, and looping them to me was even more of a nightmare. I since sold it and have no clue what to get now. Wish they made an easier way for me to lay my licks down and get a rythem section going......:horse

[paulscape]

If you can afford it buy the roland vs 2400 with vga screen output. They are about $2000.
I do like the boss units and just traded my br1200 for a br1600cd today if that helps...