Well, technically 2047 because one of the slots is permanently taken by Timothée Chalamet. But it’s still plenty of slices
received my blackbox today, started building up a sample library already
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question to sample librarians among you - I have it set up to send midi out to my takt/tone/whatever and am recording perfect loops to pads by just setting a rec threshold and length then hitting rec/play so it all triggers from the bb. seems like a grand old way to get loops in - am I missing anything as to why this might not be the best set up?
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the SD card was totally clean, no presets no samples, do you make sub folders on your comp to plop the samples into or do they all live in ‘presets’?
cheers!
Best to sync the clock and to deactivate Rec Thresh. Then set Rec quant to Custom or any of the fixed values. Always push the Rec button to either start or stop recording because rec quant only works when the clock is running. Btw Rec Thresh and Rec Quant don’t work together.
Use Rec thresh for recording one-shots and Rec quant for recording clips/loops.
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thanks 
Yes I just made folders for existing samples - kicks, snares, bass, loops, name of certain packs, etc.,
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Well put. Sold my Blackbox long ago and just bought a Bluebox, simply for the form factor, since I’ll be traveling with it for a while.
Both could be great, but they aren’t. There are just too many conceptual flaws, oversights, limitations, and half-baked firmware enhancements. Not having USB audio central to such a device (especially the Bluebox) remains a mystery to me. A lot to rant about, yet not much of an alternative available — sadly.
Underpowered
Underengineered
Underdeveloped
Great potential in a unique form factor — given away.
Not sure why no other manufacturer has been tapping into a similar, more powerful thought-through product.
Are the Blackbox and Bluebox still useful? It depends on the scenario, possibly yes. I wanted to love them, but it didn’t work out.
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The BlueBox has USB audio.
Just stereo main, though.
I’m also frustrated at the lack of updates for obvious features, but your judgement seems a bit radical to me. Their products are still great in many respects. And quite reliable, I would say - built like tanks.
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Disagree, had both, and still have the blackbox.
It works perfectly for what its intended for. So does the bluebox, if you needed USB audio in why would you buy the bluebox to begin with.
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I think that’s an overly harsh critique, and possibly fairly specific to your use-case.
For example for me the Blackbox is a fantastic host of multi-samples, better than anything else in its price-range or form factor.
It’s also great at hosting long audio files, such as stems, in addition to being a solid basic sampler.
Is it underdone in other areas - oh absolutely. Would I like a better interface? yes! Is the sequencer is let down by the inability to transit control changes or program changes. (I’m guessing that it’s a limitation in CPU power.)
It does seem that they’ve tried to make the Bento their ‘everything’ device, that combines Blackbox, Bluebox and Lemondrop etc, rather than making mk2 editions.
But even with its limitations it’s a capable little device.
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It was a cool product idea- i tried a BB at the London expo last sunday but to be honest I could not stand the interaction via a touch screen
Most Blackbox frustrations stem imo from the fact that the users try to impose their experience and mindset on its workflow. Once you understand BB’s workflow and how to handle its flexibility, it is blazingly fast to use.
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For what it is, and what it costs, in 2026, the Bluebox appears to be an outdated product. I wouldn’t say it’s radical to admit. As this is the Blackbox thread, I’d rather not go into details.
However, as mentioned, depending on the use case, both the Black and the Blue might fit perfectly well. It took me a bit of thinking to integrate into what I need, and it works, yet not without moments of thought like “oh boy”.
Above all, it’s still a unique product, and unless an MK2 version or another product shows up, it might stay in my setup for quite some time, despite the gripes.
What I do like is the way of operation, workflow is really quick. The reverb is utterly useful, the routing isn’t.
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The USB audio is a nice addition — I didn’t buy it for that, though. Multi-channel USB audio and more flexible routing options would make the Bluebox a killer product.
I’m not asking for it — who knows for an MK2?
Pretty much agree — and in an ideal world, 1010music would evaluate/embed user feedback (harsh or not) into a clearer/more concise update/product strategy.
I sold my Blackbox, and have not missed it a single day, whereas the Bluebox seems not as trivial to replace. Once more — all depends on the specific use case.
Great, such products even exist & out.
1010music is highly responsive to user feedback, in particular to good ideas, and by far more than you could ever expect from a company like Akai or Roland. I think that this is the reason why Blackbox users tend to feel more entitled.
In the end, such a tacit arrangement is a double-edged sword and one can’t expect any company to listen to each and every user idea or to be completely open about the next steps. Nevertheless, any user can and should absolutely vote with their wallet.
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@g3o2 You will have better insight than I regarding 1010music’s responsiveness, hence I took your feedback as motivation to contribute to a specific issue via the 1010music forum, which remains unsolved.
Agree with Roland (that’s kind of a sealed universe — I worked with them years back), Akai improved quite a bit from my immediate observation, but well, these are big corps.
A recent post on 1010’s forum exhorted the company to release the 1010’s OS software under open license - or at least for the Bento. While Aaron (the founder) politely rejected this, I do think it would make sense for a tiny company like 1010 - which has a lot of plates to spin, an ambitious do-all product (Bento) and a growing list of bugs to tackle (and of course feature holes) - to do this. They then make their money on the hardware, and the software benefits from the talents and time availability of the (already-invested) open source community.
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Here’s the thing: the Bluebox offers a genuinely compelling combination of form factor and price point. It’s somewhat tiring to hear criticism aimed at limitations the product never set out to address. Much of that feedback tends to come from a lack of understanding of what it actually takes to bring a product to market—especially in a niche like this.
You may not like the BB boxes, and that’s perfectly fine—use whatever suits your needs.
However, describing them as underdeveloped or underpowered runs counter to the consistently positive reception both the Blackbox and Bluebox have received over the years.
They’re not perfect, but within their intended use and price point, they perform very well.
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