Boss BR-1180 Hard Disk Recording Studio


This is one highly capable piece of equipment. I used it to create the music at churchofthedollar.com .
The entire process of recording, mixing, mastering and printing an actual audio CD can be completed by one person in minutes.

Features:

2 1/4" and 1 XLR input jacks on the back of the device
These jacks allow for any type of line-level input(seems to be specialized for guitars). Basses with active electronics
tend to sound better than those without. Samples played back from a laptop via cable and adapter sounded slightly crunchy.
Only 2 simultaneous channels can record input at a given time, limiting this device's use as a live show recorder.

Onboard bank of customizable digital effects
These effects include chorus, compression, distortion, modeling, and digital delay. Each effect is fully customizable.
Most of the included effects, however, are of very limited usefulness.

10 Sliding Mixer Controls w/Lighted Selector Buttons
These controls make the mixdown process easy. They are smooth and sensitive.

8 Virtual Tracks per Track
V-tracks make the editing/re-taking process much easier. They allow you to record up to 8 separate takes for any given part
and easily trade in whichever one you want.

LCD Status Screen and Jog Wheel/Button Interface
While the internal software of the BR-1180 is highly capable, its interface is somewhat clumsy and requires a learning curve.
A great improvement would be the addition of a USB of FireWire control cable that could connect the device to a laptop, allowing
A user to employ a full color display and keyboard/mouse controls to control editing operations.

On-Board Hard Disk and CDR Drive
This is the best part - once your recording is finished, you can burn it directly to an audio CD and share it with anyone.