Oh oh and one more thing, it’s power hungry - portable power sources aren’t always reliable. BBox can shut down when shit gets intense.
Hah. Got one.
Now I’m out of steam, tho.
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Something I don’t see the fellas mentioning here re: timestretch is the ability to adjust sample speed in granular mode.
This is different than pitch adjust.
I typically use it as a tweak effect, while playing.
I’ve never tried to use it as a means to re-timing a loop.
but it might be possible, if you don’t mind a few grains…
It lacks an assignable envelope and an assignable LFO. This is the reason why I also got a bitbox micro, so I can use the sampler with external modulations from my eurorack. Also entering notes in the sequencer grid can be difficult for big fingers. I use a stylus for this.
And that’s about it. Great piece of gear, really.
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Oh, another one which should be easy to implement but for some reason has not been done: I would like the file preview to go through the headphones out, not the output configured for the current pad.
And now I’m out of steam too.
Well… I do entire sets with just the bbox… but it’s more like clips lauching. I usually have a drum machine besides it for some live TR-style action: TR-8S, Digitakt, Model:Cycles…
I dislike:
- lack of internal modulation sources (only note velocity automation).
- beat count restrictions (this affects the way samples longer than 128 bars are synced)
- lack of modulation targets: FX send 1&2 and ADSR.
- the slice looping bug. (in short: one of the most useful sample playback modes is partially broken)
But there are workarounds and most of us have OT or Ableton in case we get stuck… 
The DT and M:S easily beat the BB in terms of modulation/automation, but they are stuck in the 90s, in terms of sampling time. The separate outs make the BB more flexible, also in live settings.
I found playing live with the BB very easy and more intuitive than with an OT, although I’d recommend a MIDI controller if it’s a sweaty night.
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what’s the slice looping bug?
- I don’t like the touchscreen.
- I don’t like the UI
- I don’t like the random bugs / behaviours I have experienced. Crackling and noises. Midi cutting out. Some related to power supply issues, some to firmware etc.
I was hoping to use it as a nice poly-sampler partner to my Digitakt - but for me it was too much of a hassle.
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Could you elaborate on that? Let’s say I load in a 4 minute long wav that goes beyond the 128 bars. How is it going to be synced differently than a 2 minute long (64-ish bars) long wav?
Clips longer than 128 bars (512 beats) will be auto-synced, you can’t set a higher beat count.
The autosync works with 2^n bars.
So the samples should be 256 bars, 512 bars, 1024 bars, etc. to be synced “straight”.
Values in between are hard to get in sync, leading to workarounds like adding silence or filler loops to get the clip to the right length.
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If you grid-slice a sample and loop any slice (triple press KEYS to get to the slice matrix), this loop will drift out of sync.
This is a bit of a shame, as it would be a really nice application of the slice mode in jam/live situations.
The workaround is to use SEQS for slice triggering, so the restart of the loop is given by the sequencer, not by the loop length.
Did you report this at 1010music? I experimented to the best of my understanding of your description but I don’t think I can reproduce it. do you have a video?
That’s not a bug, is it? Slices just aren’t time stretched. The effect is as you describe it but for better or worse, it’s by design, I believe.
I actually used it to effect on my all Blackbox EP. Polyphonic, random slice triggering with long releases make for some interesting overlapping effects.
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There already is a video in the thread linked below.
I can replicate this.
What firmware version are you on now?
If you slice manually or by threshold: not a bug.
If you slice by grid: unnecessary bug due to rounding errors.
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Hmm, haven’t experienced this. I slice by grid, use poly and playthru. I never change the beat count, tho, and don’t use these slices as sections that need to be in sync or tempo. So maybe I’m doing it “wrong” 
Certainly not wrong.
This is a bug for die-hard slicepunks, like me.
I think your music would survive even without a sequencer.
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Why thank you
For what it’s worth, you’re right on the spot there. I hardly used any sequencing at all for my latest stuff. Mostly loops, recorded live and then launched and stopped when appropriate.
Tho the Blackbox song mode combined with using the sequencer to just get more structure in what launches when, did help to create coherence.
Also, I don’t expect perfect sync without timestretch, but at least more than just one iteration in sync, if one follows a few rules.
Mathematically speaking, if the parent sample has a 2^n sample length and is in time, a division by four should be in time too
I have to check how the OT behaves in this case, when I get the time. I seem to remember it wouldn’t stay in sync forever either, which is to be expected, but still about enough to be usable in some contexts when playing synced to a clock.
Aaah … now I get it.
Interesting. Yes, for sure, that would be odd if it didn’t work like that.
I usually don’t go for Clips, but stick to the BPM for the recorded sample and work after that.
But that would mean that if I got my 128 bar something going and sliced it up into say four grids, and then expected those to play in sync with the BMP they were recorded in, the same BPM set on the Blackbox - they’ll actually start drifting?
I think I might’ve used that accidentally to effect on my latest work, then, kind of liking it but not realising it was actually a bug, just assuming the out of tempo thing was because I didn’t quite stick to the original bpm to begin with.
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