If the OP-Z sends step components over midi, you got a sequencer that can do twist and turns, repeats, velocity, conditionals, polyphone, changed directions, stutters and shit, charged from a battery and acting as a USB host.
And you’ve paired it with an almots equally small, stylish and battery-powered super sampler (well, super as far as audio and flow goes).
What’s not to like with that? 
If, though, the Zed sends step components over midi. I don’t know if it does.
That’s how I see it too. Even if they went deep with the sequencer, they could never match what the OP-Z or Squid or Pyramid got going. And given the other qualities of the Black Box. I think that’s fine.
I’m leaning towards the Black Box being the ammo and an external sequencer being the gun. Charge up the Black Box with awesome content and fire away with the sequencer of a lifetime.
For that purpose, I’ve borrowed a Squid to see what it can do.
Agree. The basic hygiene still isn’t in place when it comes to sequencing. Even if it remains bare in terms of features, you’d want those features to match in quality, what the rest of the box already does so well.
It’s not like the sequencer’s bad, though. It just stands apart from the rest, I’d say.
I would also like to know. Any OP-Z user here have this detail?
Pretty much everything is output on midi including cc, midi effects, step components…
So are there cc numbers for the currently controllable parameters on this box? If so, what are they?
There are some CC’s (pan, modwheel, others?) that can be assigned to control a few things inside the blackbox. Fairly limited still. It’s in the manual.
Yeah, as far as controlling things remote through midi with the Black Box, it’s not there yet.
There’s low hanging fruit, such as the envelopes for the sample, fx amount, the filter amount and such things. If a few of those got midi support, this thing would be even more awesome.
But - I have to say - it’s pretty damn cool as it is already. Even if they’d go just the Tempest route, which is very limited in how you can control it from midi but what’s there, is still pretty powerful, I’d say it would go a long way. Not everything damn digit needs to have a CC slapped on it. But maybe we can go for maybe more than five, at least?
Hi, I seriously think about to buy the Blackbox. Maybe you can help me with this decision.
I own an octatrack, a rytm mk1, modular Synth, a few pedals, an Organelle and a Mackie mixer. Of course also a laptop with interface (Motu 828 mk2) and daw.
What bothers me the most is that I jam on my machines and feel it is a pinta to get all into the daw. I never finish a track outside the daw.
What brings me to the Blackbox? I want to use it to record the single machine parts and patterns into single sequences or pads. Than I like to rearrange it and finalize it inside the Blackbox it or take the recorded tracks from the SD card and import this into the daw.
What do you think about this workflow? Is it to complicated? Is there a more easy way?
Also the portability of the BB is very nice.
It’ll work, but why would you want to? If you finish the stuff in your DAW and have a sound card, why not record these parts directly into the DAW?
I’m sure I’m missing something, but if you want the Black Box just for recording things - which it will do well, though - and then copy those things into the computer, is that step in between necessary?
Unless you want to keep it air tight - hardware only to get the right stuff down and recorded, and then software only to finish the thing. In terms of process and workflow, I can understand that, though the Black Box is an expensive option for that purpose. Essentially, it’d be a sound card with a multi-track recorder function. It looks the part and has the size for it
Yes, you are absolutely right. I came from daw only a few years back and that workflow is still tattooed in my mind. I want to do as much as possible without the computer. Also, I have just 1 or 2 hour bits of time a week. To fire up the PC and get going takes more time. Also, I did not point out enough that the portability of the Blackbox is damn appealing to me. So, once I recorded all patterns I can sit on the balcony or garden or beach or car or, yeah you name it and fool around with different arrangement ideas.
I want to change my workflow how it is right now…
Makes sense. I’m still wrapping my head around how to best use it, but not because it’s hard to get into, but the opposite - there are so many ways this could work.
I’ve tried a few different approaches with it. First, just using the factory samples to create a few beats and loops. Satisfactory, but the sound engine doesn’t offer all that much in terms of variation, so the slightly stale nature of a kick drum on repeat eventually gets to you.
Then, I hooked it up to a Digitone and recorded some live loops, keyboard playing and stuff. Given that the Black Box can record long takes, I soon had a few minute long clips that I could slap on those above mentioned stale drums, and now we were getting somewhere. A 16 step drum loop combined with a 32 bar keyboard improvisation in a box this size, isn’t a bad prospect.
After that, it was Tempest time where I recorded one shots and loops from the Tempest into the Black Box through an Analog Heat. I meshed those up with the Digitone stuff and the on-board factory one shots, and things got very interesting from there.
Now, I’ve borrowed a Squid to see what that kind of sequencer can do to the Black Box, if I added nothing else to the mix. The Squid feels very funky, but I wonder if it’s overkill for what I want to do. But as far as getting things to swing and get out of control and still get you back to the safe zone in an instant, this one feels quite unique.
It would be a lovely rig, to have all your sounds in the Black Box and the song itself in the Squid, and nothing else. But we’ll see.
Thank you so much for this inside look. That is what I had in mind with that little box.
The bad thing now is that you spoiled gas into the flame of gas… 
Soundcloud?
With a midi keyboard you can record velocity changes (you just can’t edit those in the sequencer yet), which helps avoiding stale drums.
Don’t think it’s worth sharing there. They’re just clips, not songs.
But I can put some files in a public drop box?
Yeah, sorry 
Thanks for all your feedback and comments about it. Definitely contributing to some real GAS among a few of us!
Videos are a pain to make, it’d be fun to see your workflow even if it’s done quickly and not well. But either way, thanks for the responses!
Thanks
I could record straight from the phone, I guess. Won’t be much in terms of quality, but maybe that’s not necessary for the purpose.
I could give that a try, actually. I’ll see what comes out of it.
Yeah, I know there’s a pressure to make a video really good but there’s nothing wrong with whatever video we can get of a new product that only some people have. And as a massive fan of the tempest I’m extra interested! But whether you make one or not the responses are still appreciated!