Carrying a list price of just $845, the BR-8 is a sophisticated 8-track digital recording workstation for guitar players and other musicians seeking a simple, yet high-powered alternative to tape-based recorders. Its acclaimed V-Studio technology - including Virtual Tracks, COSM effects processing and true non-destructive operation - is enhanced with unique features specially designed for guitarists including a Rhythm Guide, Phrase Trainer, and a built-in chromatic tuner. But you don’t have to be a guitar player to want one (or to make great recordings).

What Roland learned through engineering the best-selling VS-Series digital workstations (and that's quite a lot), they put to good use in designing the BOSS BR-8. Imagine a self-contained 8-track digital recording studio with 64 Virtual Tracks; a built-in Zip drive for recording to convenient, inexpensive 100MB Zip disks; a simplified user interface with graphic LCD that makes digital recording almost effortless (no steep learning curve on this baby) and a wide range of superior quality effects including COSM guitar and bass amp models and acoustic / bass guitar simulators. The BR-8 also includes a truly innovative Rhythm Guide with various built-in patterns for building a rhythm track, plus an integral chromatic tuner and dedicated Hi-Z guitar input, and even a Phrase Trainer that actually slows down recordings to half-speed for learning guitar licks. You even get an optical digital output for connecting to digital devices such as DAT or MD.

But what really sets the BR-8 apart is simplicity. Yeah, you can spend months learning a whole new system for recording on an expensive digital machine, and that’s perfect for some people, particularly those that use it almost every day. But for me, I want a machine that I can use when inspiration hits me. I don’t want to have to yank all my cables, reconfigure my patchbay, reassign channels on my mixer, take a refresher course on how to use the recorder... no, I want plug and play!

What about some digital effects? Yes, today’s outboard units are incredibly sophisticated and infinitely powerful, but what if I don’t have to deal with external units, patchbays and running those annoying wires all over the place. Not to worry: The BR-8 comes with onboard effects, and let me say up front that they sound great.

Essentially, the BR-8 looks and works just like a portable tape recorder — maybe very much like that multitrack cassette unit you just decided to retire. All the functions are clearly labeled, and it’s very clear exactly what does what. There’s not even a Shift key, just plainly marked controls like the Play button and eight track faders for the digital mixer.

At first, you might be tempted to think the BR-8 is just an 8-track recorder, but it’s really a 64-track thanks to what BOSS calls “V-Tracks.” True, you end up with eight “final” tracks, but saying it’s an 8-track is like saying a 24-track digital recording studio is really a 2-track because you end up with a 2-track master. With the BR-8’s 64 recording tracks, you’ll probably run out of ideas before you run out of tracks.

On the back you’ll find a clearly labeled guitar input, as well as two mic inputs, and a stereo line in for a keyboard, another recorder or whatever. With a BR-8, you could just plug your guitar into the input and start playing. Also on the back is a headphone jack with a volume control. This lets you work late at night without bothering anybody (I don’t know about you, but I get inspired at about 2 AM).

If you plug your guitar in and it’s out of tune, with one press of the button marked “TUNER ON/OFF”, you can tune up using the BR-8’s backlit LCD. Press it again, and just like advertised, the tuner goes off and the BR-8 (as well as your now-in-tune guitar) is ready to go. Brilliant.

How’s this for simple and logical: For example, if you want to record your guitar and a vocal at the same time, all you have to do is plug a guitar into the guitar input, a mic into the mic input, and press the two Input Select buttons at the same time. The BR-8 will automatically assign both of these inputs to whatever open tracks are available—no routing, no buss assignments, no hassles. The available tracks light up, and you’re ready to rock. Even better, it has effects set up for just this circumstance — a guitar and vocal multi which can add just the right guitar effects on the guitar track while creating excellent vocal effects on the vocal track.

Now that you have your guitar plugged in and have pressed the Input Select button, you’re ready to record the first guitar part. The BR-8 has already assigned the guitar to Track One. Suppose you want to record a guitar solo, but want to hear what it would sound like with different effects. As already mentioned, the BR-8’s built-in effects are top-notch. Many of the algorithms use Roland’s sophisticated COSM (Composite Object Sound Modeling) technology to model and simulate some of the greatest guitar, acoustic guitar and bass amps in the world. It also gives you a slew of digital and analog effects for guitars and vocals. In short, everything you need to make a great-sounding digital recording. You can even set it up so that you can hear the effects while you record, but have the BR-8 print the track dry (i.e. with no effects), then add the effects later, changing COSM amps or really doing whatever you want with the track, and you still only have to record the part once. For that matter, you don’t even have to play it once. With all those V-Tracks, you can record different solos, or different parts of solos, and assemble them into one complete part later, and then set up just the right effect sound for the completed part. This is too cool!

Since you don’t have a complete song composed yet, you’re going to start by simply laying down some ideas. This brings us to yet another unique feature on the BR-8: the Rhythm Guide. The Rhythm Guide is a (believe it or don’t) built-in beat box with 80 different rhythms—everything from rock to reggae to house and much more. You can chain these rhythms together to use as a song, or just loop one of the rhythms to use as a guide while recording your parts, without having to use up a track for recorded drums. It’s like a built-in click track that actually sounds like drums, has lots of different feels programmed in, and is a blast to play along with.

You might select a pattern called "Rock 10", which has the perfect feel. On the BR-8 is a button under the Rhythm Guide which is labeled, logically enough, ON/OFF. Press this, and it starts to flash, telling you it’s armed and dangerous, and ready to go. Next to the On/Off button is another one labeled Pattern Temp (Don’t you love single buttons for single purposes?). When you press this, a screen comes up in the display showing you the tempo, the time signature and the pattern name. Select your pattern, press the ON button, set the tempo and get set to rock.

Okay, now that you’ve recorded a basic rhythm guitar on Track One, you want to play it back to hear what you’ve come up with. Here’s yet another cool feature of the BR-8: You can set the Rhythm Guide to automatically start when you press PLAY, so your tracks are always synchronized with the Rhythm Guide even though you didn’t really record its audio.

Now back to the subject of dry tracks. As we discussed, you recorded the basic track without effects (simply by setting the effects to Bypass ON). What you want to do now is hear the track played back and audition a variety of different effect sounds. This is easy, as the BOSS BR-8 is positively loaded with modeled guitar amps, bass amps, acoustic guitar amps and tons of insane effects — it’s even got an expression pedal input so you can use wah or dive bomb effects while playing your guitar. There’s a Bass Simulator, so you can record the bass parts right from your favorite guitar, as well as an Acoustic Guitar Simulator, so you don’t have to mic your old acoustic. The BR-8 is called a Digital Recording Studio, and now you know why. Everything you would ever use in a “real” digital recording studio is right here in this box.

Here’s another reason why the BR-8 is so cool. You can record five or six takes of a guitar solo onto the BR-8’s Virtual Tracks (or V-Tracks), then slice and dice and come up with the ultimate solo — even one you could never have played in real life. Another dedicated button, this one labeled V-Track, gets you into the V-Track display. You can then select a specific V-Track via the Value dial. You can name the tracks if you want, or you can have the BR-8 do this for you.

After you’ve selected the track, you can start laying down a ripping solo; and then another one to a different V-Track, with a completely different set of effects and different name so you can remember which solo is which. Best of all, you can keep doing this over and over long into the night. Tomorrow, you might be meeting with your singer, bringing your BR-8 along to do the vocals — all you need are a mic, headphones and an electric socket. There are (naturally) plenty of vocal effects in the BR-8 — like an enhancer, a doubler, a de-esser, a compressor/limiter, and lots more — so the vocals will come out great. And just like your guitar solo, there are plenty of V-Tracks available, allowing you to keep different lead takes, or assemble one incredible final take if that’s the way you decide to go.

Finally, you might just be wondering exactly what media the BR-8 uses to record your music. In fact, it features a built-in Zip100 drive which uses (the now incredibly cheap) 100MB Zip cartridges. These Zips are removable, so when you’re finished with a project you can just pop in a new one.

Is there more? You bet, but space (as usual) doesn’t allow me to give you a complete rundown of everything this awesome (and affordable) machine can do, so please call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer for the complete story and your incredibly low Sweetwater pricing. Hey, do it now and you can be making music tomorrow!