Review: Boss Micro BR Palmtop Recording Studio
Pages: 1, 2, 3

Record Your Song

The other working mode in the Micro BR is Song mode, which turns on the four-track recorder. Song mode is the coolest thing about the Micro BR. Though Boss calls it a four-track recorder because it can play back four audio tracks at the same time, it's really 34 tracks: one stereo rhythm track and eight virtual tracks for each of the four playback tracks.

What the heck are virtual tracks? In Pro Tools, they're called Playlists. Think of them as pages in a sketchbook. You open the book, draw something on the first page, and then flip to a new page and draw something else until you run out of pages. With the Micro BR, you have eight pages to scribble on within each of the four playback tracks. Using a vocal as an example, you can record a take on Virtual Track 1 (called V1), and then record another on V2, a third on V3, a fourth on V4, etc. After you record as many takes as you want, you can edit them together into one perfect take, called a composite.

So, for example, you can take the intro of V1, the first verse of V2, and the chorus of V3 and paste all of those separate takes into one perfect track. As someone who started on a four-track Yamaha cassette deck almost as big as a card table back in 1982, I am blown away by this tiny miracle device.

If you still need more tracks, you can simply "bounce" (mix) up to four tracks to a new Virtual Track without erasing anything. That lets you keep your original tracks intact. What's more, you can add live audio from the input as well as the stereo rhythm track while you're bouncing.

Unlike an analog tape recorder, the Micro BR can bounce all four tracks to another pair. In this example from the manual, two more sources are added as well.

We Got the Beat

The Micro BR has decent onboard drum sounds, organized into nine different kits including 808, House, Jazz, Hard, Reggae, Room, and Hip-Hop. It offers 293 drum patterns, but unfortunately all of them are in 4/4. There is a metronome that plays a generic sidestick hit in a variety of meters, but if you want to hear the whole kit, you're stuck with 4/4.

Each pattern is part of a group of patterns that contains an intro groove, two different verse grooves, two fills, and an ending. There are no patterns for choruses or bridges. You could use the extra verse pattern for a chorus, but I didn't feel the default verse-pattern pairs were varied enough to make a chorus that lifted or a bridge that changed the feel. So I often found myself using a pop pattern for the verse and a rock pattern for the chorus. To create a drum track, simply string patterns together into an arrangement or choose one of the Micro BR's preset arrangements.

One thing I didn't find intuitive was how to create an ending for a song. You'd think you could simply use an "ending" pattern, but no. When you choose an ending pattern, that same pattern plays over and over without stopping. To actually end a song, you have to set the last pattern in your song to pattern #327, "Break." This is described on page 84 of the manual.

Input and output are on the left and right sides of the Micro BR. The small notch at bottom right is for a wrist strap.

Gimme Some Input

The Input button on the front panel allows you to choose among four sources: a 1/4-inch guitar input, a built-in microphone, and a 1/8-inch stereo input that accepts either line- or mic-level signals. (In mic mode, the jack offers plug-in power.)

The onboard effects change according to the input you choose. For example, if you choose the guitar input and then press the Effects button, all effects are guitar effects. If you choose the built-in mic input (which truly sounds better than any built-in mic I've ever used), effects such as delays are all vocal-oriented. If you choose the line input, you can choose among ten different mastering effects such as compression and EQ. There's even a guitar tuner, which is activated when you press the Effect and Rhythm buttons simultaneously.

When you create a new song, you have the option of three audio resolutions: HiFi, Standard, or Long. It seems that HiFi is the actual standard for the Micro BR and the only audio format that supports bouncing. I recommend getting a larger SD card and always using HiFi. All formats, including MP3, use 44.1kHz as the sample rate but the manual never reveals what the bit depth is or what kind of data compression is used. It pretty much says, "Use this if you want to bounce" or "Use this if you want to save space."