1010Music Blackbox - review and in depth tutorial

Hi!

Here it is - a full review and tutorial of Blackbox from 1010Music - a standalone hardware "mashup" of their Toolbox and Bitbox eurorack modules.

This is quite an interesting one - despite its small size, it sets the bar very high for connectivity and hardware capabilities - a very responsive touch display, 8 audio outputs, 2 inputs (all 10 DC coupled), MIDI in and out, clock in and out and a USB host jack - all can be powered by a small USB power brick.

Each of its 16 pads can hold a sample (or stream up to a 4GB sample from the SD card) - and each pad can be played polyphonically (up to 4 notes each, 16 total). Samples can be looped, time-stretched and pitch-shifted, and it supports loop and sequencer trigger quantization (a-la Ableton Live session view) as well as live looping.

Best of all, it has an interface the just makes sense, which means it's easy to learn and remember - just like it "big brothers" Bitbox and Toolbox.

If you're into creating generative loops and soundscapes, the sampling and sample playback capabilities of Blackbox are a real treat.

However, as I guess is always the case, there are some limitations - sequencing, at least with the current firmware, is rather basic - note triggers/gate only, with minimal velocity support. No motion sequencing/parameter locks/chance functions/etc and limited modulation support - features we've started to get accustomed to.... hopefully these will be added in future firmware updates.

Anyway, if you're interested, a full review and tutorial is in the video.

Aside from that, I'm planning to slowly expand the comparative chapter in my book. It currently only includes expressive instruments - I'll start adding samplers/grooveboxes in the coming update. It won't include many devices to begin with, but I'll try and be as comprehensive as possible with a "features to look for" checklist, so that as you consider buying something, you'll have a handy checklist to see if features you care about are there.

That's it for now! Have a great weekend and coming week!

Ziv (digging into black boxes on youtube as "Loopop"...)