i wish the blackbox would record sustain events over MIDI in its sequences - and pitchbend

Your BB Portastudio Workflow made me get out my BB to start using it again. Now this one with so much practical advice and v3 updates has me revved up to try it!

Very helpful review. Thanks for doing it.

Great video! Nice thoughtful comparison and explanation. (Although I got different math: 256 steps is actually just 16 bars, not 64 bars, if you have 16 steps to the bar. (At 11:16) Still 4X longer sequences than Digitakt I and 2X longer than Digitakt II, for people seeking those long sequenced passages without using a DAW! You also confirmed what i thought that led me to buy the BB: playback of long, high-fidelity WAV samples (even songs). Another function of the 16-bar sequence length I discovered recently is recording MIDI basslines and audio piano/guitar comping for jazz tunes with AABA forms of 8-bar or 16-bar sections. It’s a fast way to create backing tracks for soloing or singing over. Thanks again!😎

hey man, your videos are great and i see you've been going for a while and still growing ur channel. keep going i really appreciate ur calm & humble demeanor. thank you

Great observations, and use tips. I learned a lot. Thanks. I have had mine for a little while now, and I agree with the points made. Feel lucky that I got interested in BB after the recent V3 update 🎶🌎☮

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Your videos on the Blackbox are both inspiring and helpful. I was inclined to use the sequencer more when I just got it but it really shines when I have a few pads looping and others controlled by the tight sequencer of Yamaha RS7000. A solid combo.

Great analysis of the Blackbox. I got one a couple years back. I originally was mostly into real instruments (guitar, bass or drums). After a tendinitis scare in my arm I explored electronic music options. I first got a Roland MC-707. Still have it and dig it both as a tone source and a fun composition tool/sequencer. I first got the Blackbox to supplement the sampling limitations of the 707. I also multi-sampled many 707 tones. However, I am always trying to figure out what best use it has compared to the 707 or my iPad. I think you really nailed some of it's unique strengths. I find that it's immediacy of use to be pleasant. I often use it to record guitar or bass loops over sequenced beats to write layered ideas. I may finish elsewhere but it's a great looper for quick ideas. I like that I can preset bar lengths and don't have to perfectly click a pedal like a normal guitar looper. I like sampling speech or whatever into it. One of my favorite uses is as a quick way to record full clips and then preview anytime as a looping clip. I record clips made on the 707, the Blackbox, or the iPad. Then it's like a fast catalogue of ideas across devices and I don’t have to open projects on many devices to find an idea to further develop. I have also used this collection of ready made loops as background music beds for a podcast. I can send out to a mixer and fade in and out clips during the podcast on the fly so I get cool background music and need no post editing. I still need to explore more the longer ambient stuff on the BB. I love the stuff others have done down that road. I also need to watch your video on odd timed loops.

Really superb video, cheers.

Superbly helpful overview, thank you. So few gear reviews consider non-traditional usage cases, refreshing to hear it eloquently mulled :) cheers. Your final point about this being a great partner to the more rigid rhythmic sequencer kings (and also that it’s not really great for that kind of sequencing) is probably the biggest sign of differentiation...1010 really could shout louder about that!

Interesting takes. I agree that the BB sequencer is cumbersome. It's as though the device was designed by engineers, rather than musicians, in certain contexts. The utilitarian and clunky UI certainly doesn't help its usability.

i'm thinking about to give up my octatrack (has too many or way too often load sample card errors) and replace it with a blackbox 3.0

Very informative video. I already have Elektron devices but I was considering blackbox just for triggering long stereo samples/loops already prepared in a DAW (like pads ) in a live situation. Is it ok for this purpose? How the midi connection with external gear behaves? Is it tight enough for live?

256 st= 16 bars

i found the bb seq tedious. had fun sequencing the bb from a circuit tracks. sold it: next wingman: Digitone.

Thank you for the great info. Can you please explain how to utilize more than the 16 different sounds , since from what you explained 16 sequences with each having 16 different pads. Hopefully I’m understanding correctly. Thank you.

I really wish it had better drum and one shot performance abilities - would mainly use it for that with eurorack noises i make - but definitely cant bring myself to learn elektron.

I would love a video breakdown of your songmaking process with the blackbox I’m Not sure there’s a good way currently. I hope they fix it. But I really want to use my blackbox as an sort of ableton “live clip launch phrase recording” compositional loop tool where I build loops in real-time with clips, one at a time and stack them like layers, then once I have enough for a “song”, I toggle them on and off while a pad sequencer track is recording each action and building a composition from clips loops coming in and out as I have toggled them You could do this almost perfectly in the earlier fw, maybe 2 firmware versions ago, definitely pre song mode fw. I am not going to use the piano roll manually with my finger and as i understand song mode now, as is, it’s not live triggering of sections/layers and it’s ridiculously meticulous and unmusical to select one pad per section, then create new then add 2 in the next section, then 3. I use Elektron for sequencing everything midi. My digitone/Digitakt is my main synth seq. But even my Octa can’t handle multiple track layer sequencing for composition because I’m often left with less than 5 free tracks for layering at any given time. Usually three

so many things in numbers maybe are not capable in terms of cpu usage