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52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Technology In Portable Package, May 26, 2007
I have had this recorder now for almost 3 months and I am blown away by the capabilities of this unit.
Expect This:
1) Small
2) Light weight
3) Excellent sound quality
4) Easy to operate basic features
5) Can back up songs to computer (and reload them back into unit)
6) Programmable drums (you can string together patterns into a "song" or tap in your own patterns)
7) Nice amp modeling (lots of "stomp box" settings and Bass guitar simulations so you can play bass with a regular guitar..and it sounds believable)
8) Nice effects (reverb, chorus, delay, comp. limit, etc.) that you can program to some extent
9) Has a line in so you can use an external mixer if you want
10) Onboard stereo Mic is astonishlingly clear and sensitive (you can record live gigs with nothing plugged in)
11) Seperate rhythm track fader so you don't waste a track for drums
12) 64 virtual tracks so you can have different 8 different performances on say Track 1 (but you can only play select and play one at a time...but cool for alternate versions of a song)
13) Cut and paste performance data on the same track or between tracks
14) Punch in/out recording so you can zero in and re-record over "bad sections"
15) Pitch correction that actually will correct your off key singing (not the best quality but ok)
16) Excellent tool for the singer/songwriter to "flesh out" ideas into a digital quality recording
Don't Expect This:
1) No way to sync with external sequencer (no SMPTE or MTC)
2) Can only record two "things" at a time (guitar/mic, 2 mics, or 2 guitars) unless you use external mixer
3) Easy access to features (with a single small LED display you are stuck with "menu trees")
4) The batteries to last long. I put new batteries in and got the "low battery" message only after 1 hour of use. I use AC all the time so not a big deal to me.
5) The 125 Meg card to hold more than about a single fullup 8 track song (get the 1Gig card immediately...only about $30)
6) To have 8 independent tracks. You have 4 mono tracks and 2 stereo tracks so it is really a cross between a 6 track and 8 track recorder...depending on how you look at it.
7) Export your whole song in .WAV or .AIFF format (only individual mono/stereo tracks can be exported so do all your tracks is sort of time consuming...but it can be done)
8) Great microphone performance (the preamp is a little weak...at least for the dynamic cardioid that I use
Given all the above I still give it 5 stars and here is why:
1) Form Factor (small and lightweight)
2) Sound quality
3) Ease of use (to lay down multiple tracks quickly)
4) Onboard rhythm (hundreds of patterns (intros, verses, fills, and ends) that you can string together.
5) Onboard amp modeling (and especially the bass simulation....don't have to buy a bass guitar)
6) Cost....incredible amount of features/quality for $350. I had a studio in LA 15 years ago and this unit is the equivalent of over $5000 worth of gear (8 track cassette deck, effects boxes, bass guitar, guitar amp, and drum machine). I can't believe how all this stuff is now part of something the size/weight of a magazine.
7) Easy backup of data on computer so you can have a downloadable "library" of songs and download them seperately when you want to work on them.
The only feature I wish this thing had was a way to sync up with a DAW sequencer. But you can always export your tracks out as WAV or AIFF files and import them into your DAW.
But for me, I just want something that is always ready to go if I get an idea for a song and I don't want to have to boot up a computer or play with a bunch of cords and gear. I just turn this thing on with nothing attached, grab my acoustic guitar, and sing/play thru the built in Mics to "get the idea down". Then I go back later and "do it right".
My two tips are:
1) Get the 1Gig card as the 125Meg card is just too small for real work
2) And "if" you are unhappy with the Mic sound, run your Mic into a preamp and feed the signal into the unit thru the line in. When I did this my vocals became "alive". The guitar in has plenty of "oomphf".
I love this unit. It does everything a singer/songwriter who wants to quickly sketch out ideas could want. And if you want to do some quality recording it will do that too.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
OK for entry level work, March 17, 2008
The BR-600 is a useful machine, but there are some limitations. The 8 tracks are actually 4 unique tracks and 2 stereo tracks. This is limiting when recording back up guitar, two drum tracks, bass and then, oops, out of tracks, have to mix down. The unit uses 1G Flash Memory or smaller. You can't use a larger capacity memory. 1G will fill up after 5 or 6 songs if you've recorded a few takes and mixed down a few times. The unit comes with a 256M chip that won't last long. At $50 - $60 each the 1G memory chips will eat up a lot of cash. Also, the 1G Flash chips are getting hard to find since most consumers want larger memory capacity for newer devices.
For about $50 more than the new BR-600 you can pick up the Fostex MR-16HD. This machine has a 40G hard drive. It also has 8 unique inputs, with 4 stereo tracks. A similar problem to the BR-600, but 8 tracks give you much more versatility than 4.
I'm going to keep my BR-600 to use to record rehearsals and live gigs, but I'll rely on the Fostex for studio work.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works like a champ, March 21, 2009
I've had the BR-600 now for three months and have created several songs that I am overjoyed with. The box is fairly small and turns out some really nice sounding production--professional quality to my admittedly hobbiest ears. The upside is that the system is fairly easy to use--it gets easier with practice--and there are no recording artifacts like white noise, tape noise, etc. Onboard effects for guitar and bass guitar are great. There are a few downsides, however. The biggest is that this is a complex system that takes a lot of time to master. You can do simple songs within a couple of hours of opening the box, but there are so many features that the average Joe will never learn them all. I don't think I've used more than 10% of the system's capability yet. The other downside are the drum tracks. While there are many of them, and there is a cool way to layout drum arrangements for songs, none of the tracks really seem to suit my needs (basic rock and roll and basic jam band styles). In theory you can create your own drum patterns with the touch-sensitive buttons, but I haven't yet figured out how to do this well. Seems like you need two VERY talented and agile fingers to make a useful pattern. But all of these are fairly minor gripes if you aren't looking to be a Grammy winning ar-teest quite yet. Overall the system does all that I need it to do--record four to eight track songs, add effects, mix, and then transfer to my computer. I transfer the songs in .aiff format to I-Tunes and then either play them through my I-Pod on my home stereo system, burn them to CD, or convert them to MP3 to share with friends. All of my friends think the recordings were done professionally!
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