Nice, I don’t have a printer but it’s nice 1010 is working on it. I’ll be gentle with her while we wait, digitakt needs my attention anyways.
From time to time, I still miss the Octatrack, for various reasons.
Anyone made the trip from the OT to the BBox and back again? Care to share any experiences on that?
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from OT to BBox yes… but not back again 
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Hi all, I have quite the itchy mouse-click finger on one of these atm.
I understand from reading this thread that it can be a bit picky with power, but there’s also been a few mentions across the forum of folks powering it via battery.
Given there’s been a few firmware changes and features added since most of those comments, was hoping i could get some up to date comments or confirmation from users running it off a usb powerbank?
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Pick the right bank and you won’t have power issues. I’m not sure how these things work with power specs and all, but don’t cheap out on the power bank. You’ll regret it.
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Still have both, but i havent really dived into the BB to give any deeper perception… still obetalt appreciate the ease of sampling and the length you can sample on the BB.
Was it anything in particular you wondered?
BB and Octa makes a great sampling station in theory… you could use two outputs of BB into Octa and Octa cue into BB and that way go into resample heaven…
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I got a bonus at work, so I sprang for one, figuring if I didn’t like it I’d hand if off to my son (that’s the expensive yet thing about having a kid interested in electronic music — instead of having to sell gear, you can share it with with your kid).
I’m impressed by how easy it was to learn how to use, and how good it sounds. In about an hour of dithering around last night I had a little dub techno sort of kit going with the preset sounds, and tonight after a bit of fiddling and just one peek at a YouTube video I had a sequenced song, and a second project using the granular synth with a couple of sound samples I’d made.
It’s definitely an interesting little box, and scratches the groovebox itch quite well.
I don’t think the kid is getting it anytime soon, but when he comes over for dinner next I’ll let him play with it.
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Yes, I’m oscillating between the two, BB audio into OT, OT midi into BB. Great combo. Wish the OT was the BB’s size.
Also tried Digitakt, but I’m giving it back. Love the design and build quality, but coming from OT, Digitakt feels functionally crippled.
Thanks @MichaalHell and @MichalHo for replies.
Context is, I’ve been asked to do a gig in September, around my two EP’s. But club versions, kind of. To which I’ve thought, why not? I’ll give it a go.
The Blackbox isn’t great for me for longer, coherent sets, the 16-slot limit just isn’t working for me in that situation, and since I’m proficient with the Octatrack, I figured I’d go back to that one and see if I can build something that might work for this purpose. Of all the kits I’ve used through the years, nothing beats the OT when it comes to making longer sets. For me, that is. I’ve tried using the Toraiz but the short sample time per track and the somewhat feature-barren sequencer, doesn’t work for my style right now. Which is too bad, the Toraiz sounds absolutely fantastic.
So it’s down to the OT. However - workflow aside, the multiple outs from the Blackbox as well as the pure sound quality of the output, with the filter, the pitch algoritm and the envelopes, they’re pretty damn great. I’m just wondering if I’d miss its character too much as far as output goes, and also the lack of multiple outputs, since I’ll be running this through my SSL SiX.
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Can’t you find a way to have both?
I think you could really cool things with that…
For instance you could sequence BB from Octa. Run the outputs of BB to Octa and use Octa effects. And when you need to change presets on BB you could have one track on octatrack to resample a cpl of bars of your main output and have that running while you change presets on BB…
To me that sounds like a killer live set up! Compact and flexible. You just need a small bag with you
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Why not a 2nd Blackbox? Just because, 3x cheaper than OT?
I’m not a “have both” kind of guy 
one box, one purpose, for one situation.
But you’re right, as an idea, it’s a killer setup.
Nah, the loading of presents during live sessions isn’t a risk I’d be willing to take, less alone the workflow of building say a one hour set that stretches over more than one box.
I’m really OCD and square that way.
I’m surprised since that’s one of the things I routinely do with it… but I guess it depends on your workflow. Mine is loading stems on the fly, so the 16 slots limit is really not a limit. Of course if you want to go from preset to preset I understand the problem.
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That’s a shame really. But I get it… I have a strict policy of how many devices I can own as well… I’m at a one in one out policy as it is now.
But still, I’d urge you to consider. Maybe that combo will take you to new heights… since you’ve seem to found a zen state with the BB .
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Yeah, that wouldn’t work for me. Though it sounds like a cool approach 
Well, how do you feel about the core issues I highlighted? The lack of multiple outputs on the Octatrack, and how does it fare in raw output quality compared to the Blackbox? I mentioned before, I’ve put away the Deluge for all purposes but sequencing because it just doesn’t quite glue stuff together and doesn’t give everything space to breathe. The difference is obvious even in just plain stereo out mode, and likewise, when I move from Blackbox to Toraiz, the Toraiz is even better.
So I don’t want to fall back on something that doesn’t at least match the Blackbox in this regard.
I’ve always used Octatrack as my end of chain sampler. So whenever I use it, everything runs into Octa… this is a limitation, but for me, a really freeing limitation, cause I know what I have to work with… I have four inputs, so that’s the amount of outboard gear I can work with.
If I was in your shoes I would have used bb and Octa, run everything through Octatrack use track 8 as master track (with compressor and EQ). Use 1-3 flex tracks for drums and 3 tracks for thru (one stereo for visciral stereo samples and two mono) from BB. Track 7 would be a flex track which I use for transitions while changing presets on BB.
So basically BB takes care of longer unquantized samples and Octatrack does mixing, effects and drums and of course resampling.
You say you have the Toraiz SP-16, I would personally have sold that instead of BB. The BB Octa pairing makes a whole lot of sense in my world… but I’m not an audiophile, I’m not to fuzzed about sample quality and all that, so it might not make sense for some that are more concerned about audio quality… it hasn’t bothered me atleast.
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Oh, I’m not selling the BBox. That’s never gonna happen
This is more like, if I want to do this specific thing, in this way, the BB just can’t do it. I know the OT can, but have some concerns about how much I’d miss the multiple outputs and the very specific character of the Blackbox output quality itself.
Engaging with the Octatrack again will give me the answer, I suppose, I was just fishing for experiences on the topic.
But I realise I got nothing much to show for yet as far as writing these tracks go, and I can cover some distance by just writing at least two or three sections on the Blackbox first. If it feels like I got something going here, I’ll see if I can pick up an Octatrack to borrow, work those tracks into it and get some idea of the difference and if it’s worth it.
Thanks, all, for sharing and for your replies! As usual, always very helpful.
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My current OT&BB pairing, for generative techno sets:
OT audio:
1: Thru – strangely, I’m only using one stereo output from the BB at the moment, which is elaborately set up to generate a constantly evolving “meta-stem” from whatever I drop into it (e.g. slices & stagger mode, on 16 pads), and that I can duck selectively in the OT (think automated kill-filtering). I guess I’d need to explain this better, but so little time…
2-4: Neighbours with FX filled to burst, and I’m trying to fill all the scenes, for glitchy live fun.
5-7: Flex Drum chains (BD/SUB, CLP/SN, HH/CYM, etc.)
8: Master (EQ/comp)
OT MIDI:
1-8: synced LFOs going into BB, generating mostly filter automation for the 16 pads in the BB. I sometimes let the BB learn and unlearn CCs on the fly, but I try to avoid that.
BB sends the master clock, OT is synced to it.