NEWBUYER, "BOSS DR-880", Inqusitive?? ANYBODY?? BEEN 7 DAYS
Posted: 16:02, 21 March 2015
I just recently purchased the Roland Boss DR-880 drum machine/computer to midi-sync with my "TC Helicon Voicelive 3" which has just received slave midi sync capabilities though a firmware upgrade with ongoing plans plans for midi-sync master capability. I would also like to add that TC Helicon is a tremdous customer-base complier & listener; customers genrally get what they ask for, as far as I can tell... everything.
After much learning & research on the Boss DR-880 (which I should have done more extensively before purchase)I have discovered there are some serious "cons" from users of this item; so detrimental that it has influenced a percentage of new buyers to return the item for a refund. I did just recently download what I'm assuming is Boss's latest firmware update to the unit. It did acknowledge that the "out of memory" statement was resolved; the one where you received and "out of memory statement with no resolution to salvage your composition & having to delete your project and start all over from scratch, etc.; (THANK GOD THIS PROBLEM WAS RESOLVED)!!!!! - it may have contributed to me - making a "return the item for refund" decision. I realize that I am viewing a substantial amout of older reviews on the internet, etc. As a new buyer I have no way of knowing with certianty which of these "cons" have been resolved. So I would like to ask some experience users of this item who has some familiarity with it if they would please answer it for me. In one review I read a list of "cons" that I conseder quite serious & could possibly intefere with the way I work.
Here is list of the cons I read about, if possibe I was hoping if you could please tell if any of these have been resolved (or even if they are accurate) or has any work-arounds been provided to reduce these con's liabilities. Other than these things the review gave the "Boss DR-880" good stars. I must say also: I do like the "Boss DR-880" & feel it has some good qualities.
Cons:
You can backup the data on the DR-880 (a plus), but you can only back it up as a bulk file. There's no way to export a set of patterns, for example, edit them on your PC, then reload the updates for playback.
By far, the greatest limitation is the lack of expandable memory. Fewer and fewer recordable devices are fixed memory, but the Dr. Rhythm is one of them. Perhaps even worse, there's no way to know if you're about to exhaust available memory. When you hit the max, the machine simply says "Memory Full." Time to clear memory and restart from backup. RESOLVED-
Looping is a great way to play through a portion of a song: intro, verse, chorus, etc. but you can only turn the loop on or off once for any song, and there is no way to jump back to a passage (such as the chorus).
There's no easy, predictable way to control ritard (the gradual slowing of the tempo). If you need to slow a song down over a measure or two, it's best to simply drop any tempo-related drum beats out and restart with the new tempo.
I would also like to ask if one of Boss's loopers, etc. products would resolve these problems, such as the RC-300, RC3, RC30 or even some third party products such as Beat Buddy, etc. THANK YOU, best regards-
Please forgive any typos, it's late & I've just returned from a party... she's gorgeous; & I'm getting ready for round four.... if I can stay awake for "Ms non-stop", Don't ever believe that song called "no regrets."
After much learning & research on the Boss DR-880 (which I should have done more extensively before purchase)I have discovered there are some serious "cons" from users of this item; so detrimental that it has influenced a percentage of new buyers to return the item for a refund. I did just recently download what I'm assuming is Boss's latest firmware update to the unit. It did acknowledge that the "out of memory" statement was resolved; the one where you received and "out of memory statement with no resolution to salvage your composition & having to delete your project and start all over from scratch, etc.; (THANK GOD THIS PROBLEM WAS RESOLVED)!!!!! - it may have contributed to me - making a "return the item for refund" decision. I realize that I am viewing a substantial amout of older reviews on the internet, etc. As a new buyer I have no way of knowing with certianty which of these "cons" have been resolved. So I would like to ask some experience users of this item who has some familiarity with it if they would please answer it for me. In one review I read a list of "cons" that I conseder quite serious & could possibly intefere with the way I work.
Here is list of the cons I read about, if possibe I was hoping if you could please tell if any of these have been resolved (or even if they are accurate) or has any work-arounds been provided to reduce these con's liabilities. Other than these things the review gave the "Boss DR-880" good stars. I must say also: I do like the "Boss DR-880" & feel it has some good qualities.
Cons:
You can backup the data on the DR-880 (a plus), but you can only back it up as a bulk file. There's no way to export a set of patterns, for example, edit them on your PC, then reload the updates for playback.
By far, the greatest limitation is the lack of expandable memory. Fewer and fewer recordable devices are fixed memory, but the Dr. Rhythm is one of them. Perhaps even worse, there's no way to know if you're about to exhaust available memory. When you hit the max, the machine simply says "Memory Full." Time to clear memory and restart from backup. RESOLVED-
Looping is a great way to play through a portion of a song: intro, verse, chorus, etc. but you can only turn the loop on or off once for any song, and there is no way to jump back to a passage (such as the chorus).
There's no easy, predictable way to control ritard (the gradual slowing of the tempo). If you need to slow a song down over a measure or two, it's best to simply drop any tempo-related drum beats out and restart with the new tempo.
I would also like to ask if one of Boss's loopers, etc. products would resolve these problems, such as the RC-300, RC3, RC30 or even some third party products such as Beat Buddy, etc. THANK YOU, best regards-
Please forgive any typos, it's late & I've just returned from a party... she's gorgeous; & I'm getting ready for round four.... if I can stay awake for "Ms non-stop", Don't ever believe that song called "no regrets."