Blackbox, first day ..

[Jay Vaughan]

> 
> Just curious, can you multi sampling as the bitbox Micro does ? 

Yes!  And it is such a smooth workflow, almost fire and forget.  Set it up to multi-, hit record - the Blackbox takes care of the rest.  Full scale multisample setup in a couple of minutes .. this thing is so deep and full of powerful features, it blows me away how well the UI works to access what has, in other hardware samplers over the years, been a complicated workflow.  Not any more.

I also recently worked out how to set it up as a 16-track multi-channel live looper.  This changes things for me immensely.

And then I put the Endlesss app (which I love with a fiery passion) into the loop, and its almost like I really don’t need anything else in my life .. oh, of course the Microfreak  is  an essential part of this setup too, but I haven’t been terribly motivated to use anything else in my studio for the last few weeks.  This little rig is just so satisfying, easy to use, and delivers results in seconds.

Getting ready for a summer of new jams with the local crew - probably I’ll have the BB filled to its gills with new material and won’t need to bring much else with me to the jams.  I once yearned for a hardware device that gave me the same kind of flow I’d get into back in the 90’s with SF Acid - well, this is it, for sure.

That said, there are some warts I’m discovering: the lack of a tap-tempo is a real burden, although it’ll probably make it into an update soon enough.  I also find myself wishing it had certain features, only to later learn they’re there, I just have to dig into the UI a bit further - and the UI is deceptively simple, which might be a strength or a weakness, I’m not sure yet.  But 1010music seem to be really enjoying the prosperity of their firmware updates, so lets see what else is on the horizon for this amazing machine.

(The Zynthian isn’t getting ignored, its just on reserve duty for when I get back from my Blackbox honeymoon .. and is another thing I can’t recommend highly enough, in terms of bang for buck there is NOTHING like it out there.  Use it as a complex multi-effects guitar pedal rig?  No problems.  Multitimbral synth?  Easy.  A total workhorse device, which I’ll incorporate into the setup soon enough..)

j.