Music Thing: Roland Micro-BR and Trinity DAW

Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment:

Two new shiny boxes were announced this week. They both run on batteries and can record and edit audio, but they couldn't be more different. In the trashy and corporate corner is the Boss Micro-BR. It's a four-track, with guitar and mic inputs. It's "slightly larger than an iPod," runs on 2 AA batteries, has built in drum sound and effects, and is shinier than a cheap Korean DAP from 2005. This unit is the spiritual offspring of the cassette four-track, which anyone who was in a band in the '80s or early '90s will remember with a mixture of fondness and dread. If for some reason you're recording a demo by yourself, and you can't get to a laptop, it's probably perfect. No price yet, but it won't be much.

Meanwhile, in the open source startup corner is the Trinity DAW, a Linux-powered stand alone audio recorder. It's has the professional ins and outs that the Micro-BR so obviously lacks, and is built around a 500mhz processor, 128mb memory, 20gb hard drive and a real screen. It ships with Audacity software which, like most Linux software, is great/cruddy depending who you ask. It can record in stereo with professional microphones that need phantom power, and there's a nifty circular touchpad next to the screen to navigate around the GUI. Unfortunately, there's a whiff of vapour around the project, which currently only exists in rendered form, with an eye-watering price tag of $999. For which price you could probably buy 16 tracks of Micro-BR, or a decent laptop and a pile of software.

[aparaty cyfrowe @ Jul 15th 2006 1:02AM]

Boss looks like very cool piece of jukebox ;)

[Jay Vaughan @ Jul 15th 2006 7:40AM]

Linux rocks for Audio .. or haven't you tried dynebolic?

http://dynebolic.org/index.php?show=features

[Steelwurm @ Jul 15th 2006 10:48AM]

It's going to be hard to get anything done with just a rendering of a product. $1000 bucks for something that can't be photographed?

[farris @ Jul 15th 2006 12:26PM]

A CIRCULAR TOUCHPAD!?!?! iPod Rip-Off!!!

[/sarcasm]

All kidding aside, for the price, I'd rather have the Micro BR. It's shinier, AND it'll probably be 10% of the price.

[yup @ Jul 17th 2006 12:58AM]

Regardless of the spec differences between them, knowing no other details other than Boss Vs. No-name linux counterpart, my guess is that the Boss will sound wayy better, at least for the price.

Boss (a Roland brand) has an excellent track record of delivering audio devices that do what they say they are going to do, with good specs and even better sound. My guess is that the roland piece will retail for $499 & sell in stores for low $300's.

[Meg @ Jul 18th 2006 6:45PM]

You guys don't have the price yet, but I do. I work for a music store and we're hopefully getting the Micro BR in. I do believe it's going to be about 220-270 depending on where you go. I'll post again with OUR store (as well as the name) price when I'm sure that I'm allowed to do so for you guys. It'll probably be lower than a good few places.

Sorry I can't do it yet, don't want my boss to kill me.