Very cool. Thanks for sharing. Are you finding the FX usable at all in a live situation by the way? I loved doing long delay and reverb tails with the Kaoss Pad… But I have the impression the Blackbox doesn’t really go to that territory?
Yup the previous version of my setup was utilizing OT as a mixing hub (I was running the Rytm and Digitone into it)… And I also thought it made things sound a bit flatter. Not sure if the difference was big enough to notice in a live setting though. But you always want to get the best possible sound of course.
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Have you looked at the Boss RC 202? I’ve not used one but looked at it a while ago for similar purposes.
By all accounts, the MIDI sync is solid and the sound quality is good. Not sure how useable the on board effects are.
Yes, I could not figure out yet whether the RC-202 has the ability to adjust the amount of direct signal and loop in order to fade between the two smoothly. If someone knows, please chime in. Also I did read someone complaining about it degrading the quality of the audio.
Let me try later today. I find the effects useful, as i find all effects useful for effecting sound. Seems every reverb and delay I have has it’s own character, even the Blackbox effects can make sounds I like become other sounds. But, the reverb is very basic. I’ve never owned a Kaoss pad, but those thigs were made as effects boxes first and looper second. The Blackbox is the other way around. But, I will try to get a spacy endless reverb tonight ad report back.
The BB also has 3 stereo outs, that can be used as a effects loop. Also, something I haven’t tried yet. Looping on it is just super fun and I end up enjoying that part of it too much 
Great, thanks. The BB definitely brings a lot of options and future proofness.
As a sidenote, I actually found a lot of the Kaoss Pad FX to sound kind of crappy and artificial. But I found some of those suit my music very well 
Then having a Kaoss pad sounds like a great device to have around for effects. For looping and recording long phrases to be played back with different lengths, I’m not sure there is another device like the BB. Maybe in the near feature, now that someone has actually done it, other manufactures will follow. It is really expensive if you only use it for that purpose. I feel the guilt, believe me, but having a device that just does what I want outweighs it all. It kind of reminds me of how I work in Ableton with clips. I’ll make a pattern in one channel, then record that into an audio clip in another channel. Makes for fun. I like fun.
Although, for writing patterns, I still love the OT and my Monomachine. I’m just used to the workflow. Don’t know it I will be using the BB to its fullest. Who knows. It’s a pretty cool little thing.
I‘m looking for the same.
Will wait for the JOMOX T-RESONATOR MK3. Hopefully it‘ll be released someday…
Using the roll effect on a Pioneer DJ mixer to loop is a good idea and I have just tested that with my DDJ 1000. Unfortunately the timing is not accurate enough since there is no MIDI sync. The beats are drifting apart and at times the Pioneer is having a hard time figuring out the correct tempo with my material. At 128 BPM the roll effect is 1 bar at longest (16 steps on the AR at normal speed).
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Ah yeah, good point!
Took a little roll around the block with the reverb and delay. The reverb could be used as buildup-ish stuff if you used the high-pass filters on the pads… It does have dampening and decay. Decay all the way up on super high-passed stuff sounds pretty good. With mid and lower freq, kinda sounds like your in high school gym style room (at max decay). But a bit of tweaking you might get what you need. I’m sure a 75 dollar pedal would sound better. Delay is just super utilitarian. Can sound quite interesting with the tin can reverb… I’m not gonna sell my Space real soon (I use the OT for everything else really. Will prolly play live with the OT, the Blackbox into OT thru with effects, cue on the headphones. simple dj techno setup). Hope that helped.
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With correct gainstaging, it shouldn’t sound flat. 
To clarify, I’m talking about pretty small nuances. Not enough to matter too much when playing out, but definitely enough to matter in a recording context. I A/B tested it quite carefully with proper gain staging and mastering grade equipment. I definitely felt something was getting lost when running the AR through the OT as opposed to running it straight into my converter (Prism Titan). It makes complete sense to me as the internal AD/DA conversion of the OT can not be of the same quality as Prism or other comparable interfaces.
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Cool thanks for the info. So far the Blackbox seems like the most intuitive option. I might still first see if the iOS app looping would work for me though as it would be considerably cheaper for me.
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I’ve done this quite a lot - in different setup iterations… now it’s a lot more straight-forward if you’re using the Digi machines (in my case, my set revolves mostly around the Digitakt) since you can do class compliant audio+MIDI over USB.
Although I eventually settled on Digitakt+Octatrack (more on this later), I’ve been doing some new tests using Digitakt +iPad + Faderfox UC4 (for a super portable, powerful setup).
I use AUM (essential imho) as a mixer, and Enso as an AUv3 looper. The most complicated part is the crossfading. If you use two faders, you’re all good - but if you’re a nerd like me and want to crossfade with a single fader, same as a dj mixer, it’s a bit more complicated.
Yes, you can map a single fader with opposite values as to raise the volume on one track while lowering the other… but in that case, both tracks end up having 50% gain in the middle - which is not how crossfaders work. To address this, I bought another app called MIDIFlow (can’t remember if it’s free, but I know that I bought and Inter-App Purchase module to be able to do this) and configured in such a way as to have logarithmic curves for the faders… it’s too boring and long to explain here, but just to note it takes a bit of planning, if you want to do it this way.
I’ve also used Kaoss Pad 3 to transition in the past (the only gear I bought - and sold - twice)… while it’s absolutely great for looping and sync is pretty great for transitioning between patterns, the effect quality is not great (more quantity than quality) and it ended being a bit complicated for whole other aspects. First of all, I needed a dj mixer or something to crossfade between the OG signal and the loop - and also, if I wanted to use KP3’s effects on the loop, I would have to remember to change the input to the mic (as to avoid the OG signal to come through as well as the loop when pressing on the XY pad)… and of course this would mean remembering to switch it back to the RCA input before looping the next pattern.
I finally went back to using my Octatrack for live performance, since it seemed more stable/easier for me (as a mixer, stem/long audio player, transitioning between tracks, fx box, etc.)
I did look into the 1010BB (portable, dead simple to use, multiple outputs, good for sketching ideas and recording long stems) but I decided I have more than enough gear already, plus I feel I might be able to pull something better for my workflow using Digitakt + iPad, an enviroment I already own and know.
As a sidenote, I can’t believe there isn’t any (single-device) alternative other than the Octatrack for transitioning from source to loop with a crossfader. Seems like a pretty big gap in the hardware musician world, and that it could be solved with a well-thought out, portable option.
Anyway, sorry for the long post!
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How are you routing all this? Is everything going thru the iPad using a soundcard? If you are getting a good sync with the iPad, why not use your OT? Send the output of the iPad to a thru, and crossfade within the OT? But, I do see your point if you are trying to use all the power of the iPad on your DT.
For sure. I feel you. The OT is just extremely capable. It can do anything most of my gear can do, including synthesis using single cycle waveforms…But, for me having something simple, that does one thing really well is “fun”. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Totally hear you on the iPad man. If you get it working, let me know how it goes. I have an iPad and use it mostly for the synths and samplers. Never liked using it live cuz switching between apps is kinda fumbly (Sometimes that robot lady ends up asking me questions if I press the button the wrong way 
)
Edit: that just reminded me…I turned off Siri. Jeez. Soulda done that a while ago.
In my latest incarnation at least, I don’t need a soundcard - I just use DT and iPad (DT sends MIDI and audio via USB with the latest, class-compliant firmware.)
I don’t use both iPad and OT with my DT because it’s a bit overkill for me - in both cases I use them as a sidekick for the DT (mainly handling the transitions and playing long/stereo samples)… also, I don’t like big setups - before going DT+OT+Faderfox controller, I used to also have a Virus Snow live… which I only used for one gig and it was a bit too much, I rather focus on less variables (I made a whole post about this)…
so that’s why I eventually resorted to sampling long stems and play them from the OT. Even this way, I sometimes feel like I could simplify more (ie. have loops instead of long stems, reducing the number of elements in use for each track, etc.)
If you would like me to explain my iPad setup in more detail, let me know.
Of course! I 100% undestand this. In fact, i’ts the reason I bought the Kaoss Pad the second time - I love it’s immediacy, simplicity, visual feedback… but in the end, it also had it’s caveats, as I already commented. And that’s what seduced me about the 1010BB, but I can’t justify it when already having so much gear around (including things I could dive deeper into).
I have some videos here playing tracks and livesets with my setups… I don’t think I have any full liveset with DT+iPad (yet), but I’m looking into it’s possibilities… I love Samplr (the app) so it might end up being my companion app for that ride, I want to keep it (somewhat) simple. (ie. no iOS synth sequencing… I’ve been done that road and it ends up being too time consuming / falible imho)
I’ve been using an iPad for the better part of 5 years now live and I’ve build some dedicated midi controlled to limit touching.
This mapped to command+tab keys has been a lifesaver (~20$)
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Very interesting. If those were midi out buttons, that would be awesome for triggering record tracks. But, yeah how do you use those buttons?