Products of Interest

BOSS BR-800 Digital Recorder

The BR-800 is a portable multi-track recorder with built-in drum machine and effects (see Figure 1). It can record up to four tracks and play back eight tracks simultaneously and has a stereo condenser microphone built in. A direct input for guitar and bass instruments and the headphone output are located on the front panel. The rear panel includes four combination XLR/jack inputs, stereo line-level jack outputs, and a foot/expression level connector.

Recording is to HiFi (MT2) Roland/BOSS format but a Song Sketch mode allows the user to record to 16-bit linear stereo WAV files. Sampling is at 44.1 kHz and the audio is stored to SD cards. A 1-GB card is included but cards up to 32 GB SDHC are supported. An EZ recording mode is available to guide the user through the recording process. A Retry function automatically re-cues to allow mistakes to be fixed. The drum machine is a DR-880 rhythm generator with editing software. A range of BOSS effects are available, including vocal effects from the VE-20, guitar and bass effects from the GT-10 series of processors, and modeled guitar bodies from the AP-1 preamplifier. The top panel of the recorder features touch-senor switches and a 128 × 64-dot backlit LCD screen.

The BR-800 can be powered from the USB connection, the included AC adaptor, or six AA batteries, which give a life of about 5.5 hours. The unit weighs 289 × 184 × 58 mm and weighs 890 g. The recorder is packaged with Cakewalk SONAR 8.5 LE.

The BR-800 is listed for US$ 525. Contact: BOSS (a division of Roland Corporation U.S.), 5100 S. Eastern Ave., Los Angeles, California 90040- 2938, USA; telephone (+1) 323-890- 3741; Web www.bossus.com/.

Alesis PalmTrack Handheld Digital Audio Recorder

The PalmTrack from Alesis is a handheld digital audio recorder that can record up to 48-kHz sample rates for 24-bit WAV files or up to 320 kbps for MP3 recordings. The recorder features four microphones housed under a protective grill (see Figure 2). Two microphones can be used for stereo recording patterns or all four can be used for 360-degree pickup patterns. A mini-jack input is also provided for connecting external microphones or other line-level sources to the PalmTrack. The audio is stored on SD or SDHC cards up to 16 GB capacity. Recordings can be listened back to using the built-in speakers or using headphones. They can be transferred to computer using the mini-USB jack, or by removing the SD card.

The microphone gain can be switched between high, low, and automatic modes. A red light is used to indicate recording. A range of audio processing functions include bass compensation, chorus, pitch shift, delat, and reverb. A voice-cancelling feature allows the user to remove vocals from MP3 recordings and a tuner is built-in. Metering information is displayed on the OLED blue-on-black screen.

Figure 1.

The BR-800 recorder from BOSS.

Figure 2.

The Alesis PalmTrack handheld recorder.

The recorder is powered by two AA batteries or by an optional power adapter. A threaded mounting point allows the PalmTrack to be used on a camera tripod or a microphone stand with the use of an optional adapter.

The PalmTrack is listed for US$ 199. Contact: Alesis, 200 Scenic View Drive, Suite 201, Cumberland, Rhode Island 02864, USA; telephone (+1) 401-658-5760; Web www.alesis.com/.

Yamaha Pocketrak W24 Portable Digital Audio Recorder

The Pocketrak W24, from Yamaha, is a lightweight and compact digital audio recorder with a large stereo microphone and wireless remote control (see Figure 3). The W24 features an internal stereo X-Y positioned microphone and has connections for an external stereo microphone and line-level input. Sampling up to 96 kHz/24-bit is supported for linear PCM audio and MP3 bit rates up to 320 kbps are also supported. Recorded audio is saved to 2 GB internal...