Track bouncing is one of the many tricks that can help you bypass the limitations of a recording device such as the Boss 1600. You can record eight sources simultaneously. If you use all eight of those tracks to record a drum set, for instance, you can sub-mix, or combine, all eight drum tracks after you are finished to two tracks containing the entire drum kit in stereo to free up extra tracks for layering. This will leave you 14 tracks -- the original 16 minus the two now used for the stereo drum track -- in which to layer other sounds, including bass, guitar, vocals and keyboards.
One time-saving trick that can be performed on the Boss 1600 is simultaneous recording. You can record all the instruments at the same time or just a few. Musicians' playing at the same time saves time and often enables them to play better. You can record live songs this way by sub-mixing the drums to two tracks using an external mixer. This process will result in the use of only two tracks for the drums, which leaves six more available inputs for simultaneous recording. You can then layer an additional eight tracks on top of that, either simultaneously or track by track.
Roland has included sophisticated modeling that will allow you to record many of the instruments directly. Amp simulators eliminate the need for microphones on amplifiers, which can be very loud, and offers multiple choices in amplifiers, adding flexibility and versatility to the recording. Roland uses COSM modeling, which replicates the sounds of some of the most popular guitar and bass amps including Fender, Marshall, Roland, Ampeg and Trace Elliot. Eliminating the need for microphones also lowers your overall cost for recording.
Although the Boss 1600 is limited to 16 tracks of recording and playback, you can record 16 virtual tracks per each available track. This will allow you to pick the performance for that particular track that best suits the song. Virtual tracks allow you more flexibility as you will not have to use up valuable tracks that you may need later down the line. A total of 256 virtual tracks can be saved along the way, but you will be able to use only 16 tracks, one final performance per track, for your final mix, so pick the best of the virtual tracks at your disposal.