1010music Blackbox

The Lounge Other Gear
#164

i expect they’ll sell a shedload of blackboxes. It is a superb little unit.
All you need from a tiny maschine/MPC live - i think they’ve near nailed the essential functionality you really need in such a box rather than trying to beat a laptop or ipad.

Also they’ve been in business a while with their eurorack modules so the codebase is pretty mature from their other developments.
I’m optimistic that they will continue to refine it. It is already really good. Mere usage enhancements and tweaks would be great, but sounds like they have a couple of significant features in mind too.

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#165

‘but sounds like they have a couple of significant features in mind too’…

Which signifigant features?

#166

Granular was the main one per yt clips with 1010 on BlackBox’s launch.


also has a lot of suggestions and measured responses by the team.

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#167

Thanks. I read the wish list, but no official promises.

#168

14:30 onwards … who knows what this means!

#169

Let’s wait and see…

#170

A couple of smoother workflow enhancements would be nice.

Also i’ve not yet tried it as a looper/16 track layer builder - but might have potential in that area if there are midi commands to footpedal it.
Mutes/switch track/split LR recording/overdub/replace commands etc

We’ll see indeed

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#171

Thanks for your input, appreciate it!

#172

By the way, is changing presets instantaneous? Trying to figure out how it’d be used live.

#173

Almost, but not quite. It’s fast, but you’ll get artifacts in the transition.

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#174

Perfect summary. Exactly how I feel. Sold my Live to fund this. Don’t regret it.

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#175

You know, when it’s so easy to get results with gear like this, it becomes embarassingly obvious how I’m lacking in ideas right now.

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#176

I’m so curious why you sold your mpc live and just have this now. I have a live and it’s so powerful but I am often overwhelmed. I’ve played with the black box briefly and it was really cool. What is it you’re loving about it vs the live when you had it?

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#177

That’s exactly it. The Live was overwhelming to me. I don’t need all that much, but I’m very specific about what I want to use a sampler for, and the Live did all that but then also a lot more (a LOT more), so I got lost.

The Black Box doesn’t do much at all, but what it does, it does really well. And the pieces all fit together to form some kind of complete system. It’s not stumped in any area, just very bare bones in some. I’m not just okay with that, I actually prefer it that way.

#178

I had a little time to try mine. But it’s getting back to the store, I liked it and it has great potential but I couldn’t justify the price (but that’s more likely due to my current mindset about spending money for gear).

I liked almost everything about the blackbox except :

  • The sequencer : It lacks essential features, especially if you use an external midi controller. It records velocity but you can’t edit it yet. The knobs are weirdly mapped in the sequencer view (it seems that it inherited controls from the bitbox). You can’t edit the start point of a note, you have to delete the note and draw it again (which is problematic if you live record sequences). For now, editing a sequence is quite painful (you have to zoom in a lot to be precise enough with the touch screen to draw notes), and it takes some time to do anything.
  • I experienced lag on some of the preset. Screen became less responsive, clock slowed down. I don’t know if it’s a common issue or due to my usb powerbank, but it’s something to watch out for.

Everything else was really painless, you have to figure out a few things about the interface at first but once you get it it’s super simple and every action is pretty fast. Sampling is really easy, and you can start jamming really quickly. The touch screen is pretty good. The form factor is perfect for portable carrying. My setup was a blackbox, a usb powerbank and the akai miniplay (powered by the blackbox) and everything worked seamlessly (and the default midi mapping from the blackbox is really clever, you can start and stop sequences by sending midi notes).

To conclude, I’ll wait for a few software update to start considering it again but it’s certainly a good and refreshing piece of gear.

3 Likes
#179

Thomann also has carrier or Germany customs issues. I ordered my little thing 8 days ago, and it still hasn’t left Germany. After Thomann’s initially requiring longer processing than other retailers–whether due to a German holiday or more extensive anit-fraud blah blah–there’s still no indication from DHL when the small parcel will leave Germany. Meanwhile, Perfect Circuit got it back in stock, and if I’d waited and ordered from them, I’d have it today even though Perfect Circuit is as far away from me as Thomann.

#180

I hear your sound logic, however i’ve kept mine so far. It’s a cool little thing for travelling very light (“man bag micro studio”?) even with its current shortcomings.
Offers quite a lot of uniquely good tools given its extreme portability and even better with another tiny sound source, be it a phone or iPad or TE device.
Different ballgame than lugging an mpc live

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#181

The sequencer does seem very rudimentary. My main interest lies in launching clips and longer samples, maybe externally sequencing some chopped drums, so it’s not a big hurdle for me.

Having read a bit, my main requests would be

  • CC control for everything, especially filter
  • Resonant filter
  • Variable send levels (want to ’fader throw’ one sample to many outputs for the dub music things)
#182

I’m keeping mine. Everything I enjoy about the MPC workflow is retained here, it sounds great, and I record most of my things live so the sequencer’s lack of coherence isn’t much of an issue for me.

With that said, when I do dive into the sequencer to make more detailed arrangements, I agree with @hommes_doutant - this isn’t the bare bones but efficient approach of the rest of the box, it’s just not very well done (yet).

Honestly, though, I wonder how appropriate a touch screen is for these things anyway. As great as the Live was in its own sense, I didn’t much care for editing sequences in detail, such as nudging, adjusting values and such. Elektron’s approach is my favourite here - hold the trigger, turn the knobs.

So I think that whatever the devs at Black Box will do with the sequencer, it won’t change the game all that much. It’s just not that kind of a device.

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#183

I think Digitakt & Blackbox could make for a great couple:

Digitakt for more drummery stuff, tweaked sequences and P-locks, whereas the Blackbox takes care of longer samples, streaming them in tandem with DT, with less trickery going on sequence-wise.

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