Updates & Boss Micro BR

Yesterday, it was a bit of an unusual day with it officially being "interview day" so my group was mostly off timetable. We still had our Live Sound session in the morning, but after that we had to organise ourselves to work on our collaboration projects because Matt, our tutor was busy with interviews and meetings all day. He did pop into our practice room a couple of times in between to check up on us and see how we were going and I did manage to show him my new toy that I got for Christmas at the end, the Boss SY-300 Guitar Synth.

We finished up earlier than usual having missed out on our Music Industry lesson, but our creative music technology practice session was much longer than usual and stopped once we thought we couldn't do anymore, meaning we finished about an hour early. With this extra time, I decided to nip into Nottingham briefly after Uni to have a nosey around the shops. It felt like it had been ages since I last went into the city centre, it probably wasn't though. I moved my car from Uni and parked up at the Park n' Ride to get the tram, a much better alternative to the fifteen minute walk. I walked towards Broadmarsh first from Market Square and aimed for Playtime, a retro games store I always have to visit. I stopped off at a Charity shop first, where I found a few pocket scores which I thought would come in handy, a Doctor Who spinners and pencil top set and a large Thunderbird 2 to amuse my dad.

Eventually, I found myself at Victoria Centre after catching the free bus from Broadmarsh. I didn't buy anything from Playtime in the end, but it's always worth a look. I had spotted something in another window, mind. In the window of Cex... a small, silver box and it intrigued me. I didn't really know what it did or could do except record sounds so I assumed it was just a decent dictaphone, but what were all the buttons for? There was a guy in the way of my view so I couldn't look at it properly and quite stubbornly he wouldn't budge, so I moved away for a moment hesitantly and went into Pulp next door. They have a clearance sale at the moment which really quite upsets me because next month the store is officially closing down. It was never my favourite shop if I'm truly honest, but it certainly played its part in my development. The "band t" years and David and Goliath hoodies. I brought a few bits from their, almost out of sympathy, but couldn't help but feel a little guilty with how little I had contributed. I spent £6.50 on a t-shirt and a fiver on some purple jeans. Hardly anything.

The magic silver box. I give you, the Boss Micro BR.

Eventually, I went back to Cex to stare into the window more. A guy had just walked off after taking a photo of the display when I arrived back at the scene. There was no one in my way anymore, yet I still couldn't quite work out exactly what it's function was but I didn't want to leave it there anymore. I had already walked away from it once. It was marked up at £40 which I though was a decent ask. It looked reliable and like new, so I went inside to ask to buy it. The problem with Cex is that they really don't get value. They've recently started selling retro gaming systems across all stores because of it's rise in popularity and demand when a couple of years ago they would have turned them away because they were too old. Even worse, is that these are the very same guys that hike up the prices just like on Ebay. I saw a Nintendo 64 in this very same shop yesterday priced at £65 which is at least £15 more that what Playtime would ask for and it's mostly because its a larger organisation. Just like Game, but I'll shut up now before I go too far off subject. My hate for Game as a business is very intense.

The guy that sound me the unit didn't seem to have a clue what it was or that it was even a product available in store. Being from Cex means that it is second-hand so he let me check it over. It is always a bit awkward when they come through the till doors and pass you the unit so you can inspect it. There is a certain trust that isn't quite there which entails the possibility of me running away with it without making payment. I imagine it has happened before, but I'm not like that. I paid the man his £40 and went away smiling, still intrigued by just what this little silver box of tricks can do.

I kept picking it up out of my bag and playing with it during the journey home. I found it very difficult to leave it alone that night, even when it became frustrating to understand but I soon realised that it might be in a silver mirrored casing but this thing is golden. It has so many extra things about it that I count have possibly seen just through the shop window. It turns out that this thing is a portable four track recorder and because BOSS are so fancy it also has COSM Guitar sounds too. I did some research after buying and found that they still tend to sell on eBay for around £100. This is technology from 2006 and BOSS have since released a never model. It's complicated to use, but there definitely seems to still be a place for this practical gear and it is still very useful. I'm amazed that it can run off battery power and that it stores everything to an SD card. This will also act as my new guitar tuner... See! There's just so many features! (Ahem, this is starting to sound like an advertisement now.)

It seems I aways make good impulse buys in January. This time last year I brought myself my Washburn six string electric guitar, which is now my favourite six string out of my collection. It's like there's just something about this month that makes me buy good things.