Yeah, I was able to get a BB for $350 so to able to just plug it into all these things in my studio and record everything synced up how I want is pure gold. So much faster than messing with the DAW and syncing it up then exporting the audio…etc.
I think at full price I would want more features like track export and more effects,etc for making complete tracks on it, but for what I needed it has been amazing.
is anybody abusing the master eq + resampling through the compressor to make fat ass kicks? im skurred for my eardrums and curious if anyones been intrepid enough?
I’m trying to figure out a good way to do more asynchronous looping. Im not too familiar with ableton’s session mode/clip looping workflow, but it seems like you can record any length at any time and I really like that technique
With the Blackbox, I use clips and I normally set it to quantize 1 bar and record around 4 bars, and if I want a shorter loop, I hit stop around 2 or 3 bars. If I set it to “custom” loop length, it won’t play after recording, which isn’t going to work for me. Also I think you have to remove any quantization, which has the same issue.
Does anyone have a good practice for more natural looping that’s a little less strict or tight than quantized set loop lengths, that will playback immediately after recording and continue to loop as lo by as my clip pads are set to “Toggle”?
maybe @circuitghost has an idea?
Not for live looping, no.
You could use the sequencer to trig your loops in real time, I suppose. It plays whatever samples you assign to it, including those you’re recording real time. Tho I have a feeling, it could get messy.
Thanks for the input. That is interesting, I’ll try it.
I guess I never made the distinction between live and not live looping. But I suppose that’s what’s going on in ableton and how my workflow goes
I will have to try to get a clearer picture of the differences between live looping and just looping, what the limitations of live looping are, if it’s necessary for what I’m trying to accomplish just for the purpose of “studio” song creation/layering, and how either blackbox or ableton workflows specifically would be classified in those terms
Generally, Clips aren’t good for loops that go with their own flow. Try Sample instead, set it to Toggle and loop with a decent cross-fade value, and that might work. If you just want smooth loops that are asynchronous, that’ll
do the trick.
TX-6 really proves its worth here in flexibility. With this micro rig, I can, without changing a single connection -
To upload, just unplug the stick, insert it into a computer, transfer the track and send it to SoundCloud.
This little mixer from Teenage Engineering is quite the marvel together with the blackbox.
Am I not making any sense or did I just spark something? 
Both might be equally true. I’m still going “Oh, wait, that’s not the - GODDAMMIT MY EARS” when I hit the wrong button in this rig.
ive thought the TX6 is the perfect companion for the BB. funny how it might be even better than the bluebox as a blackbox partner. pricy sure,but a blackbox, a tx6 and a modern big screen iphone is so.much.power. in a daypack
The latter. But the “my ears” portion if the comment worried me.
Still with they has updated the BB to make that workflow easier. Heck, wish all samplers would be updated to make that workflow easier.
The blackbox workflow for this is pretty straight forward, though. You can separate the outs and even control the monitoring back into the blackbox, so it does work pretty well just using the blackbox on its own.
What the TX-6 enables is more like having all these inputs that I can rewire to different sends, depending on purpose, but the basic workflow itself isn’t so much enhanced as the fact that I can integrate it into a rig which can also monitor, mix, master and record.
My recollection was that via headphones it was a too dangerous game…
Yes, there’s risk, for sure. The Eurorack outputs are hot. I handled that by turning down the gain substantially and once it was time to record, I removed the headphones and increased the gain to around -8 - -2-ish.
But yes, some caution is advised.
I’m afraid the answer is going to be “no” but
Can you change project without interrupting transport on the BlackBox?
I’d like to try using it mostly as a MIDI sequencer (so not too much sample loading time).
You can. You get a small audio gap. Clock stays tight.
Excellent! I was really not expecting it to work so seamlessly.
I guess I can make sure to use no samples (just MIDI) for the moments of transition between projects.
putting on my 1010music hat for a minute…
For those using the blackbox, especially with MIDI, we’d love to get some impressions as to how you’re using it and what you think is important. We’ve posted a survey with a few questions, and would love your input as we consider the possibility of another release.
Thanks!
…taking off the hat so I can hang with y’all again!
Done!
this is exciting. new firmware or new product?
just finished my survey as well. i forget mostly what made midi out sequencing such a hassle, but i remember not loving it. would be incredible if they perfected that midi>record to seq>midi out to synth workflow
