I sold my BB after trying to have fun with it as a standalone device. I cannot evaluate its abilities in setups with other sequencing gear, which seems to be the workflow demanded by the majority oft BB users and thus the key subject of software updates. It just wasn’t my workflow and I also missed p-locks in standalone use. Also other things didn’t get me like huge imitation in modulation and no simple global probability parameter per track instead of setting it for every single note. Still have no other device for that task. Think I could like the Roland MC-101 but it just looks like a cheap toy.
Honestly, I think the DN and DT represent a sweet spot. I sold my DN to fund a ST and while I don’t necessarily regret it, It was pretty sweet having a division of labor (DN on the majority of synth duties, DT on drums and other samples). With the ST the division is not so clear because it does so many different things. I also have an A4 (which is a beast) but running 3 Elektrons just isn’t where I’m at right now. I would stick with the 2, or maybe add an Analog Heat FX.
I am in transition (DAWless) to use the BlueBox as a “tape recorder” of some sort: recording stems from external synths then arranging them in a DAW. Well, not strictly DAWless but anyways… So are you doing this? How does it work well? Mixing and tempo part is the one I’m afraid.
I am not doing what you describe. I do use the Bluebox quite a bit but I was talking about the Blackbox above. I use the Bluebox mainly as a mixer. I’ve recorded two track stereo from the main many times. I’ve only multitracked with it a time or two but it worked great. I imagine it’d do the job you describe quite handily.
I don’t have everything hooked all together all at once so I like to use the Blackbox to capture samples because it’s easy to take to wherever the sound is coming from. Whether the object is one shots or loops, nothing is faster to setup, capture, and do basic editing of the sound and the results are always as expected. And even though my favorite sampler to compose and perform with (DT) only handles mono samples, I do have samplers around here that handle stereo samples so I like to start the whole process of creating samples in stereo. Anyhow, like the Bluebox, I have to imagine the Blackbox will do the job you describe above with ease.