1010music Bento

Bento tester.

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Bento Boxer

Circuit benter

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Bento Bytes

Maybe they’ll add a browser to it so we can order take out when we’re in the woods.

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take it from someone who, in a professional capacity and for 20 years plus, has been a Hamster for an established consumer electronics company - it is a hell lot of fun to be a Guinea Pig. Some people don’t really appreciate rodent’s contributions to the field, but man, lemme tell you this, you’ll never look back :corn: :peanuts:

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I don’t know if it was a good idea for 1010music to put wishlist-threads for every device on their forum. Because when you look at them, you get confronted with pretty old posts of features that a lot of people like, but never get implemented. Most of it is not even crazy stuff, but would just make the device easier to work with

the energy they spend, arguing with people on their forum could be used for better things

…and now they bring something out, that is not fully developed (loopop). I wish them good luck, cause it also possibly means they put a little more work into the two devices I own from them

but I dont wanna be a grump here, the Lemondrop and Bitbox micro are neat and there are no other things that do what they do. still, they are not at the elektron level of being on point

you can overwhelm the Lemondrop for example and get a crackling sound. I can also overwhelm my iPad easily, but it’s not a musical instrument per se. I make it a musical instrument by using music apps. I also like to fiddle around with tech and often get into problems, but that happens with stuff I build myself

These 1010 devices appear super easy to get into because of their inviting interfaces but when you get into problems, ask them on their forum and get a ā€œprogrammerā€ answer that sometimes makes the user feel stupid, nobody is winning anything from it…

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So did anyone actually buy one of these yet or already received it? It says ā€œin stockā€ on their US website at least. German retailers are expecting it in 2-3 weeks.

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Interested to know about this, when people do get hands-on.

the problem is, everyone in this thread is assuming this. so far, we havent heard from an owner that anything isnt working properly

(sorry @robin. meant to reply to Shiggin, not you)

also i understand the differentiation between bugs and just features you want that arent yet implemented. ive never had a bug i couldnt work around in a piece of hardware that i owned, and i think i’d prefer to buy the Bento for what it is now, not expecting anything really, but with the assurance that cool new things will very likely come eventually. i think thats a nice deal

really? if the loop track mode is anything like blackbox, each loop has adjustable loop points, envelopes, lfo, filter, and fx sends. i was kind of hoping that a sort of simplified iteration of the granular mode ui would be on page 2 of the one shot or loop page so we could visually shape sounds like synths and play them polyphonically. i wonder if that would make sense as a feature request

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People are extrapolating based on experience with previous devices by the same developers. It isn’t much different from getting enthusiastic based on positive past experience.

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I did qualify my question with

Just waiting to hear how much is possible without explicit SCWF support.

Given the price of the Blackbox vs the Bento and also given the Bento capabilities, screen, I/O, compact size and internal battery I think this is a must-have device assuming the dev continues to support it. Even all we get is the next FW update without bugs then this will be well worth the price.

I don’t consider the MPC Live 2 really to be portable and it still feels very complicated. The Bento will surely win out on ease of use and it has a much nicer reverb onboard.

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To me it seems like there is a group of younger companies like 1010, Torso, and Polyend that push the limits of what a final release vs. beta is.

Products released with show stopping bugs or an obvious incomplete roadmap (why already announce a 1.1 update before the box is in customers’ hands?). Maybe it’s reasonable because these are smaller companies with limited resources but as someone above said you as the consumer take the risk that the company could go belly up at any moment leaving you holding an incomplete bag.

Of course every company including Elektron and Roland release products with bugs , but they generally feel more road tested and integrated than my experience with some of the former companies.

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To be frank, I don’t think there is any reason for things to be so complicated, it’s just an agreement where a product is made and a road map is published for the product… on the other side money is earned and then paid as promised to the developer of the product (the devs asking price I might add)… each party just does what they are supposed to do… dev makes product that works, and customer pays money that isn’t counterfeit…

the only reason why there are even discussions like this is that there is a history of a breakdown of this simple agreement in the general collective minds of people regarding these things…

we are no longer living in the time of static productions when there was no such thing as Firmware Updates or upgrades… it doesn’t do anybody any good to pretend like we do… Devs should be paid for their work and people should get what they pay for, and that includes bugs being addressed and feature updates if the Dev has stated that the product they are making will include updates and even provides a place for customer input on those updates … imho.
Everybody wants 1010 to win and they wanna win with 1010

I don’t want to get too deep into the discussion, but it’s not 100% clear to me at this point whether the features listed on 1010’s product website will actually be what I will be able to use if I buy one now. Or if some features mentioned will (most likely) come later through an update. One example is the MIDI sequencer, which is clearly advertised as a feature on their website, yet was also mentioned in their roadmap for updates.

Maybe that’s a me error, but maybe communication was also a bit too unclear. If we want to make ā€œonly buy if you like what’s there at the moment of buyingā€ a standard (which makes sense to me), it should be 100% clear what it is that you’re actually buying day 1.

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very clear description on how 1010music forum is

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Off topic re: buying for now vs. future updates

I certainly like this idea in principle — the best way to feel good about your purchase decision is to assess the product in front of you, as it exists now, so you know what you’re getting when you hand your money over. Makes sense and avoids unnecessary disappointment when your fantasy updates don’t materialize.

However, I’m not sure that this is the right approach when we’re talking about technology products (which most of this music gear is, in one way or another). In the world of tech, ongoing support is an essential part of what makes a product successful. At the very least, you’ll need bug fixes and maintenance, but more likely you’ll want refinement, improvements, and updates that continue to add value.

The brands that do a good job supporting their products over time earn loyalty and trust from their customers, as they should. The brands that capitalize on temporary hype and abandon their products soon after launch develop a bad reputation and lose out on sales, as they should. I feel like this is a healthy dynamic in the tech product ecosystem, even if the notion of having confidence in a brand is trepidatious.

So yeah, I’m kind of stating the obvious here, but just wanted to make the case for including a trust factor in a purchase decision — yes you should buy the product for what it is today, but you should also factor in the track record of the brand you’re buying from. Do they seem trustworthy? Do they have a good reputation for support and updates? If so, they deserve to be rewarded.

I bought a DN2 in part because of Elektron’s excellent history of supporting their devices. I’m not hanging my hopes on any specific features that may come down the pipe, but I feel confident that the Elektron team is going to keep working hard to improve it. If it turns out I’m wrong and Elektron abandons DN2 tomorrow so they can go all in on Tonverk, I won’t be mad necessarily, but I’ll have lower confidence about buying from them in the future. All’s fair in love and gear.

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Despite good reasons for skepticism, I’ve decided to order one. The more I looked into it, the more I got the impression that this is the centerpiece that I envisioned OT and then DT II to be. Meaning a sample based device that helps me get things done faster by committing to audio and sampling everything on the fly. And having multiple ins and outs for sampling, FX chains and mixer duties. There’s enough for me there to try and see if it can do what I want it to do. I don’t like that it has a touch screen, but it looks minimalist enough to not be too distracting.

I especially like that the sequencer has up to 256 steps and you can set exact lengths for loop recordings, and that they can be triggered by clock start or threshold. I also like that loop menu screen, as I’ve found over the last months that I just want something like that on my DT II, a menu where I can just trigger longer loops without having to work the sequencer hard to make things happen. Plus a slice mode like on OT but with less clunk. And then you get things like multisamples and granular on top.

So yeah, it seems to have a lot of the functions I’d desire in XY, DT II, Push 3 or an MPC at a price point that’s okay and in a portable format. Biggest missing feature might be mic and speakers.

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can’t wait to hear more about when you get it

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Let’s hope I’ll get it before I’m on vacation :D. Let me know if there’s a specific thing you’d like to know.