Boss BR-600 User Manual

BR-600 Digital Recorder

Workshop

Using the Built-in Rhythm

© 2007 BOSS Corporation U.S.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the

written permission of BOSS Corporation U.S.

BR600WS02

1

About the Workshop Booklets

Hot Links

The BOSS BR-600 Digital Recorder packs an incredible amount of recording
power into an amazingly small, portable package. With its eight playback
tracks—and 64 V-Tracks—built-in effects, and onboard drum machine,
the BR-600 is truly a studio-to-go. It even has a built-in stereo microphone
and can be battery-operated so you can capture new music wherever and
whenever.

Each BR-600 Workshop Series booklet focuses on one BR-600 topic, and is
intended as a companion to the BR-600 Owner’s Manual.

About This Booklet

The BR-600’s rhythm function is a full-featured drum machine with 12
velocity-sensitive pads and 14 different drum kits. There are hundreds
of built-in patterns in many musical styles, and you can create your own
patterns as well. Using rhythm arrangements, you can play patterns in
sequential order to add the perfect backing to your songs.

In this workshop, we’ll cover BR-600 rhythm basics such as selecting patterns
and drum kits and playing sounds with the pads. We’ll also show you how to
create your own patterns and rhythm arrangements.

Understanding the Symbols in This Booklet

Throughout this booklet, you’ll come across information that deserves
special attention—that’s the reason it’s labeled with one of the following
symbols.

A note is something that adds information about the topic at hand.

A tip offers suggestions for using the feature being discussed.

Each Workshop booklet is meant to be read in order from beginning
to end. However, if we mention an upcoming section—and you see
this arrow—you can click the arrow to jump there immediately.

Getting Started

The BR-600’s rhythm acts as an onboard “drummer” that’s always playing
along with your song. It’s integrally connected to the eight audio tracks, so
you never have to worry about synchronization—whenever you press the
PLAY button, the rhythm always starts with the audio; when you press STOP,
both the rhythm and audio stop together. (Of course, if you don’t want to use
the rhythm in a particular song, you can always turn it off.)

Before we begin learning about the rhythm, let’s clear the slate and create
a new song. It’s best to set up the desired rhythm and tempo first so you’ll
have something to play along with when you start recording the song’s
audio.

To create a new song:

1

Press PAD so it’s not lit.

Press UTILITY.2

Use the CURSOR buttons to select [NEW], and then press ENTER.3

Use the TIME/VALUE dial to select the recording type.4

Press ENTER. When “Are you sure?” is displayed, press ENTER again to 5
complete the new song process.

Warnings contain important information that can help you avoid
possible damage to your equipment, your data, or yourself.

As we move forward, you’ll need to monitor the sound of the BR-600,
either with a speaker system or headphones. To learn how to make the
proper connections, see the BR-600 Owner’s Manual.

2

About the BR-600’s Home Screens





The BR-600 has two top-level “home” screens. These are the screens you’ll
always be coming back to after performing operations on the BR-600’s
various other screens.

Labels

You can return to the home screens from any other screen by pressing EXIT
one or more times.

The Play Screen

The Play screen is the screen that’s displayed when you first power up the
BR-600. It shows the current song position—in both measure/beat/clock
units and time (including frames)—and the tempo of the rhythm.

Song position (measure/beat/clock)

Song position (hours/minutes/seconds/frames)

In the measure/beat/clock display, clocks are subdivisions of the beats.
Similarly, in the time display, frames are subdivisions of the seconds.
These subdivisions allow you to view and set the current song position
in extremely fine resolution.

On the Play screen, you can move the song position and adjust the rhythm’s
tempo using the CURSOR buttons and the TIME/VALUE dial.

Tempo

To display the Level Meters screen from the Play screen, press the 6 CURSOR
button. To return to the Play screen from the Level Meters screen, press the
5 CURSOR button.

Key Rhythm Elements

Let’s go over the BR-600’s main rhythm elements.

• A drum kit is a group of drum sounds that are used by the

Drum kits—

rhythm. The BR-600 contains nine different preset drum kits that cover
a variety of musical styles. Additionally, you can create up to five custom
drum kits per song. These “song” drum kits can use any of the drum
sounds in the preset kits, WAV or AIFF files imported from a computer
via USB, or audio that’s been recorded in a BR-600 audio track.

• The drum pads allow you to play sounds

Drum pads—

in the currently selected drum kit, either for pattern
creation or live playing. There are 12 pads, and each triggers a different
sound in the kit. The pads are velocity sensitive, so they respond to your
playing dynamics. If desired, you can set them to play sounds at a fixed
velocity instead.

When you’re not using them to play drum sounds, the drum pads act as
selection buttons for various BR-600 functions. Use the PAD button to
toggle between this functionality. (When PAD is lit, the drum pads play
drum sounds. When it’s not lit, the drum pads act as buttons.)

The Level Meters Screen

The Level Meters screen displays the levels of various audio signals in the
BR-600: inputs, audio tracks, the rhythm, and the left and right master levels.
The individual audio signal levels are shown above the corresponding labels
on the display panel.

• A pattern is a drum performance that’s one or

Patterns—

more measures in length. You can have a single pattern
play over and over along with your song, or you can
string two or more patterns together to create a rhythm “arrangement.”
The BR-600 provides 327 preset patterns, as well as 100 patterns in
each song in which you can create and store your own custom drum
patterns.

3

Some musicians refer to drum patterns as “beats.”

Working with Drum Kits

Arrangements—• An arrangement is a series of steps that

tell BR-600 patterns to play in a particular order. There are
50 preset arrangements and five song arrangements.
Preset arrangements utilize the preset patterns, while song
arrangements are created by you using any combination of preset or
song patterns. By creating an arrangement, you can add a sophisticated
drum backing (with beat variations and fills) that perfectly matches
your song.

• The RHYTHM fader in the TRACK MIXER

RHYTHM fader—

controls the volume of the rhythm in relation to the audio
tracks. Adjust it as necessary to create the proper balance
for your song. Setting the RHYTHM fader’s level near the
dark band (as shown) is a good starting point.

Turning the Rhythm On and Off

With playback stopped, you can turn the rhythm on and off using the
RHYTHM ON/OFF button.

1

Press STOP to stop playback.

Press PAD so its indicator goes out. 2

Press the Rhythm ON/OFF button to toggle its setting.3

On

In lieu of turning the rhythm off, you can simply turn it down with the
RHYTHM fader instead.

Off

Selecting a Drum Kit

Press PAD so its indicator goes out.1

Press RHYTHM ON/OFF so its indicator lights.2

Press PATTERN so its indicator lights.3

Press RHYTHM EDIT to display the Pattern Edit screen.4

Use the CURSOR buttons to place the onscreen cursor under [KIT], 5
and then press ENTER.

Use the CURSOR buttons to place the onscreen cursor under the 6
leftmost character, and then use the TIME/VALUE dial to select the
desired drum kit group: “P” for preset or “S” for song.

Song drum kits are empty until you load them with sounds. If you select
one of these empty kits, you won’t hear any sound when you play the
pads. For our purposes here, you should select the preset drum kit
group.

7

Use the CURSOR buttons to place the onscreen cursor under the
drum kit number, and then use the TIME/VALUE dial to select the
desired drum kit.

You can audition the selected drum kit using the drum pads (press PAD
so it lights, and then strike the pads). We’ll discuss the pads in detail in
the next section.

8

When you’re done, press EXIT twice to return to the home screens.

4

About Song Drum Kits

As we mentioned earlier, the BR-600 provides five different “song” drum kits
with each song. If you can’t find a preset drum kit you like, you can create
your own custom kit in a song drum kit. When you first create a new BR-600
song, the song drum kits are empty. If you want to use them, you’ll need to
manually load sounds into them.

Creating song drum kits is beyond the scope of this workshop. To learn
how to create them, please refer to the chapter “Creating Original Drum Kits
(Tone Load)” in the BR-600 Owner’s Manual.

Using the Pads

Before playing drum sounds, make sure the MASTER volume is set to a
comfortable listening level. If you’re in doubt, turn down the MASTER
fader all the way, and slowly raise it to the desired level while playing
the drum sounds.

Playing Drum Sounds with the Pads

PAD Button

Drum pads

When you create a song drum kit, you’re free to assign any sound you
want to any drum pad; as such, the sounds you assign don’t have to
correspond to the label on the pad.

3

If needed, adjust the drum sounds’ volume with the RHYTHM fader.

Adjusting the Pads’ Sensitivity to Playing Dynamics

You can easily adjust how the pads respond to your playing dynamics. There
are four different settings available:

• is for a heavy playing touch.

HEAVY—

• is for an average playing touch.

MID—

• is for a light playing touch.

LIGHT—

• sets the drum sounds to play at a fixed level, no matter how hard

FIX—

you strike the pads.

To adjust the pads’ sensitivity:

1

Press PAD so its indicator goes out.

Press UTILITY to display the Utility screen (on this screen, UTIL is 2
shown in the upper left-hand corner of the display).

3

Use the CURSOR buttons to place the onscreen cursor under [SYS],
and then press ENTER.

4

Use the CURSOR buttons to display Pad Sens.

Press the PAD button so it lights.1

Strike the drum pads to play sounds in the current 2
drum kit. The bottom part of each pad is labeled
with the drum sound it will play in a preset drum
kit.

This pad plays a

snare sound

Use the TIME/VALUE dial to select the desired setting: HEAVY, MID, 5
LIGHT, or FIX. To try out the selected setting, press PAD so it lights,
and then strike the pads.

6

When you’re done, press EXIT twice to return to the home screens.

5