Boss BR-1180/1180CD Digital Recording Studio

I'm singer/songwriter and I use this unit to work out arrangements and ideas which I then burn .wave files to take to a pro studio. I then overdub to the recorded tracks.

Purchased it at a Guitar Center about 6 yrs ago for about $1K. I wanted a recorder that was user friendly with good sound quality.

The sound quality for my purposes is adequate as I don't usually mix or master on the unit, but finish the process in a studio.

After about 5 yrs of use, my cd/rw burner went out and upon calling the Roland Help Ctr. I'm told that there is no replacement part !! There are files I've been working on on the hard drive which I cannot export via cd !@#$!! Now the unit is worthless after spending about $1K investment which I thought should last longer.
ROLAND US sucks !!

Roland product buyers should have the support they need ( i.e. replacement parts ) to be able to use their products for many years to come.

DO NOT BUY BR1180-CD !!!!! unless u don't mind scrapping it for lack of parts !!!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I had been looking for a fairly inexpensive multi-track digital recorder for some time, One that you dont have to be a computer nerd to understand or use. I bought this unit new for $950 from Maytan Music in Reno Nevada in June '04.

Easy to use is mainly what I had in mind and this machine is just that. After a quick review of the manual and watching the how-to-use video,I was on my way to recording tracks! Controls are laid out simply and the screen walks you through the process.Built-in guitar & vocal FX are a nice feature as are the drum tracks. The on-board CD burner produces professional sounding,studio quality CD's. Ten digital tracks are more than enough for my needs. A friend of mine bought a computer-based recording system around the same time and he's still trying to get it to work! I'm not far from finishing my first solo album!

The only thing I do not like about this recorder is that you can only record two tracks simultaneously.(with the BR1600 you can record 8 at a time).This is OK by me,as I can only play one instrument at a time anyway! But for recording a Group,it is nice to be able to dedicate indvidual tracks.

The quality is very good. Not at all cheap.Quite sturdy. Perfect for the home recording studio set up. Hook it up to some monitors and you're ready to go. A heavy duty road case would be recommended if taken out.

I am very pleased with this machine,a welcome upgrade from the 4 track cassette based unit I've had for years. If you need to get your songs recorded quickly and want them to sound professionally done and dont need to record more than 2 tracks at a time,this is the unit to get. RECOMMENDED!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I came across an advertisment for this Boss unit and went to check it out for myself at MARS Music center. After hearing its amazing sound quality and extreme ease of use, I bought it for $1099!

This thing is AMAZING! I am no recording engineer, but this thing would make anyone think I made a living at it after hearing the quality mix mastered onto a CD! Its all in here, and anyone that can write a song and play it will sound like a million bucks using this recorder! If Tom Sholtz of Boston had this unit back in the 70's, he would have saved a bundle in recording gear. He probably would have written a few more albums for Boston with all the extra free time he would have had, not messing around with all of that ancient gear of yesterday!

There is not anything I could ask this unit to do it doesn't already do, accept maybe make duplicate cd's from the master!

Good.

If you are in a band and need grat demos-BUY IT!

If you are a song writer whom needs great easy to record multi-trac recordings-
BUY IT!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com