December 30th, 2008 by Andres Gallo

$350

Design

Boss is one of those brands that really care about the design behind their products. I am not the biggest fan of boss pedals, but one thing I like about their pedals and products, is that they are very cleverly designed to enhance their intuitiveness. In other words, these are products that tend to be as simple to use as possible in spite of their beautiful complexity. This product is a great example of what I mean. The BR600 is complete recording station in a small package. It has all you need to make a decent recording, with enough simplicity for anyone to use.
Built in, it has 2 microphones which are really good, and capture the sound in stereo, and inputs to capture line in level signal, as well as a guitar input, and a 1/8” microphone. Unfortunately, however, this Boss unit lacks a XLR input and phantom power to make it truly a do it all machine, yet considering most people will use the built in microphones, it probably is not too big a deal. In addition this great device also includes a metronome, a drum machine, and a bunch of effects. With this device and a guitar, you can be a one man band. For what it does, it does very well. Furthermore, this device allows you to cut, copy, paste, and much more which are techniques used by the pros. It does all these things with lots of precision.
Now don’t get me wrong; you will not get the same quality you will get with a professional setup. On the plus side, this device is brilliant for recording rehearsals, and rough demos. It captures the live sound very well, and clear, but still lacks the headroom of a professional setup. Take it for what it is, and that is a portable recording package. With a lot of recording knowledge and technique, you can get some really great sounding recordings out of this unit, and without it, you can still get some decent sounding recordings.

Sound

Like some of Boss multi-FX units, this boss unit has a COSM modeling system. This means that this unit will model lots of effects, amps and cabinets and that it does. I tried recording with just a guitar, and the BR600. I was able to make a song with clean effected tones, some distorted parts, a bass track, an acoustic part, and a drum beat. It can make your guitar sound like a bass, or acoustic, and as mentioned it simulates a huge variety of amps. As for the sound quality, it is pretty decent to make mockup recordings, and perhaps even for real recordings, although I find the tones to be a little too bright and cold for that, then again I am very picky.
As for the quality of the recording through the microphones, and the fidelity of the signal, I am impressed due to the size of the unit. With that said, don’t expect it to rival a pro setup. The sounds is very good, but lacks headroom and dynamics, which is why I say this product is amazing for recording mockups, or rehearsals rather than actual album recordings.
Compared to other portable devices this unit is amazing, but here “portable” is the key word.

Reliability

Boss products are built like tanks. This one is made out of plastic, however, let us just call it a “plastic tank”. It feels very sturdy, with every button and knob feeling rock solid, and smooth in motion. I carry this device a lot and it still works and looks like new. It is definitely very reliable, and has more features than I know how to use, which makes it a reliable tool for all sorts of people.

Customer Support

I have little experience dealing with their customer support.