Boss Review: BR-8 Digital Studio

History:

Purchase: Bought it a year ago from Zzounds.com for 699.00 and free shipping. Moved up from a Yamaha MT4X, which was a trouble-free, rich-sounding unit. But I wanted the convenience of digital and I liked the idea of using a simplified machine: no busses, no extra routing. It has a ton of FX; I put away the stomp boxes that cluttered the floor. And, very importantly, a recording on the BR-8 will go directly to CD.

What I Like About This Boss BR-8 Digital Studio: The elusive Instant Gratification. It allows me to make great-sounding recordings immediately. I'm a solo guitarist with bass, drum and keyboard machine and mic. That's it. But I can easily make multi-layered compositions that make people say "wow." I've also used it to record bands. While the BR-8 only allows you to use 2 mics unless you use a submixer, this was a deal designed to quickly produce a CD for grant applications, contests and job auditions. The bands have been happy. Among my FX likes: compressor, EQ, slow attack, tremolo and doublin.' General likes: ease of mixing to stand-alone CD burner, portability, speed with which you can put together a production.

What I Do NOT Like About The Boss BR-8 Digital Studio: The 100mb zip disk limitation is a factor. Basically you can get a 5-minute opus on one disk. But there are workarounds to extend your mileage in the digital realm. So far the zip disk size limitation has been a minor consideration. Plus, I've minimized the retail price of zip disks ($6 - $10) by using a box of used ones I purchased on ebay (about $4 ea).

Boss BR-8 Digital Studio Quality Rating: At one year it has been entirely trouble-free. Knobs and sliders and controls seem of high quality. I use it several times a week. I bought an SKB hard case (about $100 but I believe worth it for care of digital machinery) for taking it to rehearsal rooms, concerts and on holiday. The rig is reasonably compact.

Review Summary: The trump here is ease of use. There's a ton of potential in one small and relatively inexpensive box. Some people may quickly see the need for more inputs, more hard disk storage, that sort of thing. But the BR-8 fits a particular niche. I write a chronicle of my ups and downs with the unit called the BR-8 Page. Please read it at http://br8page.editthispage.com

Rating of this Boss product: 5

This Boss BR-8 Digital Studio Recording Gear Review Submitted By: robert trudeau

Review Date: 2001-06-30