Roland Forums

Hi.
I am new to recording, and are considering the BR1600CD.
I want to play my guitar and sing and record it to a CD.
Any feedback much appreciated.
Thanks.

Hi,

Sounds like you have found your perfect match. You are the person the BR series is aimed at. It makes producing a cd at home a simple process whilst maintaining the best audio fidelity.

BR1600CD has many advantages for you. Here are a few of them:

Dedicated mic preamps
Dedicated guitar preamps
COSM effects featureing the sounds of the classic BOSS series compact pedals and new modelled amp sounds.
Vocal toolbox including Vocal harmony - up to 4 parts from one lead part
Onboard CD burner - it is a one box solution
80GB Hard drive for planty of storage space.

Check out more of the benefits of this for you on the product page http://www.roland.co.uk/products/productdetails.aspx?p=574

Cheers

Hi John,
Thank you for contacting me.
a) What does a mic preamp do.
b) What does a guitar preamp do.
c) Vocal harmony? does that mean you can sing into the mic. and over lay it 4 times at the press of a button and then burn it to CD. So it is a more pleasing sound.

Hi,

Ok in laymens terms:

a) What does a mic preamp do.

It takes the signal from the microphone and amplifies it to a signal level which is suitable for recording at. This is a very important part of the product. The quality of the preamps determines how clean and quiet the recorded sound will be, and how true the recorded sound will be compared to the original sound. I have previously sold a BR machionie to a customer who was so impressed with the quality of the mic preamp onboard, he wrote a review about it, and had it published in our PowerOn magazine.

b) What does a guitar preamp do.

In a similar way to the mic preamp, it boosts the signal. Both mics and guitars have a very low output, which is not on it's own suitable for recording.

c) Vocal harmony? does that mean you can sing into the mic. and over lay it 4 times at the press of a button and then burn it to CD. So it is a more pleasing sound.

A vocal harmoniser can take your original recorded voice track, and create the sound of your voice singing at up to 4 different pitches, based on different pitch macros available within the unit, and chord structures you enter into it, without you having to sing each of the harmony parts yourself.

For example, a macro could say that from your voice, the harmony parts should be placed at +3rd, +5th, -5th, -Oct based on the scale of the chord you have entered for any given point in a song. Chords may be entered in step mode. If you were creating a cover version of a popular song, the chords would be listed in the score, or tab of that track. You could simply copy these into the BR1600CD.

So yes, it would be like creating four multitracked parts automatically. Of course it can be burned directly to CD on the BR1600CD, without the need for any additional hardware/software.

Regards

JS - Yep the BR1600 is wonderful and contains all you'll need to make great recordings. BUT, it's a heck of a learning curve, well worth it in the end, but this is a professional piece of equipment, and requires some mean dedication to get to grips with. Good luck.

Hi SteveB,

I'd agree that there is a learning curve involved in using the BR1600CD. However, I'd say it is a much easier learning curve than on a PC based recording system, particularly since with the PC/Mac system you have to learn how to get the hardware working together, even before you can begin to record anything. The BR1600CD, because it is a dedicated unit designed for the purpose of recording music simply works everytime. There is no need to learn how to get the bits of hardware working together before you make your first recording!

I also think that the operating system makes it much easier to start recording with no experience, compared with other machines from other manufacturers. In addition with the amount of assistance available, there is no excuse for anyone to struggle on their own with this unit. For example, if you purchase a BR1600CD from a 'Roland Planet' store like mine, there is a product specialist from Roland/Boss instore 5 days a week ready to help you free of charge. We make DVD videos to enhance the instruction manual and there are plenty of tutorials online, both official and unofficial!

This makes it learning curve much easier for any novice.

I also agree it is a professional quality piece of gear, but it is designed for eveyone to use, including novices. At the end of the day, what have you ever done with music which didn't require some dedication? We know that there is a curve of learning to overcome, but we uniquely take steps to ensure halp and assistance is available to end users!

Good luck too!