The Boss Micro BR Digital Recorder
Boss MICRO BR Digital Recorder
This is not a home studio but a pocket studio! Really, four tracks that will play back simultaneously and 32 virtual tracks, which are actual tracks you can record many takes on and use later for picking the right ones and eventually build on to one of your 4 tracks for that "perfect take".
For actual recording, you can use 2 tracks at once, so you and someone else on another guitar, bass or whatever can lay it down at the same time right down with the drum track.
Speaking of which, the drum tracks that come with it will play back without taking up any of the other tracks, meaning they're independent of them. There are about 300 of these drum grooves ready to go.
But the really great feature this Micro BR Digital Recorder has is one of the onboard effects, and that is the Time Stretch feature. I've used similar programs that cost several hundred bucks to do this "must have" feature.
What the Time Stretch feature does is take any of your audio tracks, including mp3 format, and changes the tempo, up or down without changing the pitch. That's right, your key stays the same and you can speed it up or slow it down. So you can download an mp3 drum track online and throw it on the Micro BR and totally change it to suit your tempo needs. Once you have this feature you really won't be able to work without it.
This Digital Recorder has USB access and is totally mp3 compatible so it also doubles as your mp3 player when you're not recording your own songs.
Other features are a built in microphone so you can yell into it, and a guitar tuner. Even though the included 128 MB sound card will only hold so much audio, you can buy more cards and plug them right into the USB port and dump your audio data onto it.
Features:
* Ultraportable palmtop recorder
* 4-track playback
* 32 virtual tracks
* Loads and plays MP3 files
* Multi-effects processor
* Dedicated guitar input
* Time-stretch and center cancel features
* 293 rhythm patterns
* Tuner
* Microphone
* USB port for data transfer
* SD card slot for recording media (128MB card included)
* AC adapter: Boss PSA-120 (not included - see below for recommended accessories)
If a pocket studio is all you need to get your songs down this will do that easily... if you need something to do a bit more, you may want to look into the Boss BR-600.
Boss Micro BR Digital Recorder