I've had my BR-80 for a couple of days now, and I think this is something every guitar player should own, even if you have little or no interest in recording.
It's an amazing practice tool. It's a solid-state modelling amp with a ton of different amp models and effects that you can fit in your pocket. Guitar goes in one end, headphones in the other and you can play away anywhere without bothering the neighbors or housemates. Clean tones are good, light crunch and overdrive is passable, but the high-distortion tones aren't great....but yeah, this is a sub £200 battery powered, pocket sized device...you can't really expect high-end, valve amp tones from it.
If you're an absolute beginner, this is worth a buy because you get a portable, pocket sized amp with lots of amp models and effects to play with. If you're an intermediate guitarist, you get lots of backing tracks (conveniently organised by genre and key) to jam along with and practice soloing. You can also put your own music on the SD card and can shift it to a different key or slow it down without altering the pitch when you're trying to get that one part right.
If you're an advanced guitarist or a singer songwriter, this is a perfect sketch-pad for recording demos or song ideas. It fits in your guitar case and you can either just record and go in 'live' mode, or use the surprisingly full featured multi-track recorder.
My only real negatives for this product is being so small, it can be a bit fiddly to use as you have to navigate through mutliple menus to edit settings instead of using full size faders and knobs that you'd get on a full sized mixer... and while double-A batteries are convenient, it would be nice if it had a larger, internal lithium-ion battery. (Although a good tip is I noticed when it's connected to a PC, it draws power through the USB port....so if you set the USB mode to 'audio' so it doesn't look for a file system, you can connect an external USB battery pack and run it off that).
Basically, the BR-80 is a modelling amp with a ton of effects, an amazing practice tool with the backing tracks, drum loops, metronome etc and a good sktchpad recorder for recording demos and getting song ideas down AND also works as a USB audio interface if you use a DAW on your computer. I can't recommend this highly enough.
| Product Dimensions | 8.6 x 13.8 x 2.2 cm; 140 g |
|---|---|
| Batteries | 2 AA batteries required. |
| Item model number | BR80 |
| Colour | Silver |
| Compatible Devices | Personal Computer |
| Hardware Interface | microSDHC, USB, 3.5mm Audio |
| Speaker Amplification Type | active |
| Size | (BR-80) |
| Battery Type | Alkaline |
| Media Format | Live |
| Standing screen display size | 2 |
| Item Weight | 140 g |
