Hmm, haven’t experienced this. I slice by grid, use poly and playthru. I never change the beat count, tho, and don’t use these slices as sections that need to be in sync or tempo. So maybe I’m doing it “wrong” 
Certainly not wrong.
This is a bug for die-hard slicepunks, like me.
I think your music would survive even without a sequencer.
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Why thank you
For what it’s worth, you’re right on the spot there. I hardly used any sequencing at all for my latest stuff. Mostly loops, recorded live and then launched and stopped when appropriate.
Tho the Blackbox song mode combined with using the sequencer to just get more structure in what launches when, did help to create coherence.
Also, I don’t expect perfect sync without timestretch, but at least more than just one iteration in sync, if one follows a few rules.
Mathematically speaking, if the parent sample has a 2^n sample length and is in time, a division by four should be in time too
I have to check how the OT behaves in this case, when I get the time. I seem to remember it wouldn’t stay in sync forever either, which is to be expected, but still about enough to be usable in some contexts when playing synced to a clock.
Aaah … now I get it.
Interesting. Yes, for sure, that would be odd if it didn’t work like that.
I usually don’t go for Clips, but stick to the BPM for the recorded sample and work after that.
But that would mean that if I got my 128 bar something going and sliced it up into say four grids, and then expected those to play in sync with the BMP they were recorded in, the same BPM set on the Blackbox - they’ll actually start drifting?
I think I might’ve used that accidentally to effect on my latest work, then, kind of liking it but not realising it was actually a bug, just assuming the out of tempo thing was because I didn’t quite stick to the original bpm to begin with.
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Yes they would start drifting, when using the slice loop feature.
That’s unfortunate, because it would have opened up some lovely possibilites:
- It could have been used as a workaround to get more ‘pads’/‘clips’. (sample chain-style)
- Free up sequence slots, as correct slice looping would no longer have to rely on a SEQ.
- Great live performance applications. I really love the slice matrix and wish it could be used to surf through all the slices, in sync to at least the original tempo, if not any tempo.
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And now I juste received my bluebox…
Blackbox, Bluebox & Bitbox… what the heck am I even doing at Elektronauts ? 
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@AdamJay FYI, that little ravpower battery works great with the BB as well fyi ( I know you have a few of them). I just ordered a second one (this time with the sale30 discount code you mentioned in the typhon thread) so I can have nice little micro sessions with my new blackbox and the typhon.
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Great to hear it!
Yea I imagine it would work well with the TR-6S as well.
Low profile, affordable, and powerful enough. 
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Just ordered Bitbox MKII (self b-day present for upcoming b-day on the 4th). Might let the Blackbox go just because I think I mostly want to use it in a modular context anyway. I’ll hang onto it until I use the bitbox for a while.
I see you have both. Do you use them both at the same time or for different setups? Any reason you keep both?
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I usually work with one-shot samples and slices on the bitbox in order to make loops. Then these loops are recorded in the blackbox, ready for jamming. I could probably do everything with the modular but I like to have the blackbox as an all-in-one pocket-sized (almost) solution. Also I don’t do much sequencing from the blackbox but if you’re into that be warned that the bitbox has no internal sequencer.
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Thanks!
I am aware of the lack of a sequencer, but wasn’t at first before I read more. The sequencer isn’t important to me in modular as I have plenty of “better for modular” sequencers to use (Per|former, Rot8, ES FH-2 for using Octatrack, Ableton Live etc…).
Just curious of your use case since I know there’s quite a bit of overlap, so thanks again for the feedback 
My plan:
- Record, playback, and pitch CV modulations
- Encourage myself to sample things instead of just noodling around.
- Create drums, fx, one shots with modular and sample them for playback. Creating all sound sources from the same kit for cohesion in sound.
- Other creative things that I think of in use.
- FXbox and Synthbox will be coming to Bitbox mk2 sooner than later hopefully.
I could do much of this with Blackbox, but I seem less inclined with all of the hooking up and converting to MIDI. Also the control resolution of MIDI is much less than CV for control purposes.
I’m sure the Blackbox can record CV as audio. And subsequently send it back to modules as CV.
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It can, but it can’t be modulated with CV itself (is what I was getting at).
Common tricks include:
- sequencing slices from pico seq
- using the LL8 for a mini-TR
- using the bitbox as a modular rompler oscillator
- recording whatever I do with other modules
…
I went ahead and tried a basic load all with that specific samples from mars folder. It seemed to load fine. I’m just getting used to the machine so some tweaks need to be made for me with this method in terms of the internal adsr of the blackbox, but the base achievement of loading the multisample and having it automap (as long as it’s 64 samples or less) seems to work very easily. I also tried a a couple of different SFM multisample wav folders that had more then 64 samples and that creates gaps and weirdness with the octaves as I’m not sure what logic it uses to choose which files to load. I just need to delete some wavs from the upper and lower octaves before loading I think.
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I’m amazed Samples From Mars isn’t all over this. Modern hardware that can run their synth packs.
They should be in cahoots with 1010 right now.
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Yeah, it’s pretty sweet. It’s not what I got the machine for and I want to test more before declaring that a sure fire function but it’s got potential.
What kind of collaboration are you envisioning?
[By the way, the Deluge is another piece of hardware that can load multisamples (e.g. from Samples from Mars) and automap them, interpolating between notes when necessary.]
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I could imagine the Blackbox shipping with a few multi-sampled instruments from each synth pack, the same way Mars sample chains come with an Octatrack.
And I could imagine SFM packing special folders for the BB (and Deluge for that matter) of the multi-sampled instruments in their packs, for quick and easy import into the hardware, rather than sifting through the Live or Kontakt folders.
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