Micro BR and 'Angie' demo by AcousticAl

[AcousticAl]

Music Junkie wrote:

Al:

These are great little toys aren't they.....

I have had one for quite a while now too. I use mine to learn parts of songs by slowing down and looping quite a bit. The tool in ITunes to convert to MP3 works great with the MicroBR. Just keep your files ate a rate of about 96 - 128 kbps and they work very well. I keep mine at 128kbps and I can get about 200-250 songs on the SD card.

Also, you can get backing tracks for free all over the web. It is really neat to load some of these backing tracks and then play through the MicroBR. You can record like Al showed and basically have a complete song when you are done.

All-in-all, it is a fairly powerful tool. They run about $199.99 here at my local store. One down side is that the max SD card size is 1GB. If you keep your recordings in MP3 format, it is not too bad. However, if you record in wmv format, the files get very large, very quickly.

Nice video Al. You have obviously been reading the owners manual, something I have yet to do.....

J

That's right-- I forgot you owned one, MJ. It's actually NOT like me to read the manual- but I had to with some of the deeper functions on this.

BTW- The max card it will take is 2 gig. That's what I recorded this on...

[AcousticAl]

A few negatives--

It is VERY software/menu driven. Guess that's how they keep it so small. It's not an issue if you just use it to play/slow down MP3's, as MJ discussed-- but it can get VERY confusing when you get into track selection/copy/moving/bouncing/mastering etc. I'm still trying to get my head around it and I've worked on it with the manual for a few days now. It's got the 4 tracks I spoke of in the video- but you can 'bounce' and free up tracks to get MANY more tracks (32 I think). No way I'm going there.

Another issue I have is just a workflow one-- I won't be using it for all my uploads. I like sitting down, turning on a camera or webcam, and just playing something. With the Micro in the mix- I can't do that. When I do use it, I'll need to record video on my computer, but audio on the Micro. I'll then need to import both into an edit program (AVS?) and re-sync them, then output a new file. A lot more work than just playing a tune and uploading like I usually do. But I guess it's a necessary evil if I want to multi-track for any reason.

[beaker]

Pretty neat Al, I can see how this could keep someone occupied for quite some time. Angie was well played as well. Liked it. Beaker.

[Music Junkie]

AcousticAl wrote:

BTW- The max card it will take is 2 gig. That's what I recorded this on...

O.K., I could not remember. I just know it was a limited size. Again, if you keep things in MP3, instead of WMV, it is not such a big deal....

J

[BobR]

Hi Al,

Well, that was really cool. You've obviously been practicing. Great job

Thanks for the demo.

Bob

[Lavallee]

Thanks Al for that demo, I really need to get one of those. The rendering seems much better than my csamera that was supposed to be good with sound.

By the way, awesome singing.

Marc

[AcousticAl]

Lavallee wrote:

Thanks Al for that demo, I really need to get one of those. The rendering seems much better than my csamera that was supposed to be good with sound.

By the way, awesome singing.

Marc

The quality is REALLY good on the Micro if you're looking to multi-track. If you listened my original with headphones, you'd think it was recorded in a studio. (I'm talking audio quality here- not vocals). The ability to pan tracks and add effects/reverb really makes it sound pro. I've read that people/bands have cut entire CDs on a Micro.

Having said that, if you're only looking to record a single guitar and sing along, then the Micro is overkill. As I said earlier- it WILL complicate your workflow.

[Lavallee]

The sound from my camera is not so great as I cannot put the amplifier close enough and sounds muted. I will just play kazoo on the other track . Your recording really sounds professional

Marc

[dekotaj]

Hi Al,That was real cool.Sound like you been hard at it.Thank for sharing with all of us.

Kevin

[AcousticAl]

Lavallee wrote:

The sound from my camera is not so great as I cannot put the amplifier close enough and sounds muted. I will just play kazoo on the other track . Your recording really sounds professional

Marc

Good one, Marc. I'd like to hear you rock the kazoo!
I'm just saying that I prefer recording direct to tape or a computer file in one go-- Micro will not let me do that. I'm sure you also know that you'd improve your audio quality by just getting an external mic (or a camera that has an ext mic option).