Encountered no issues when I djed with it recently. Hooked up to a mixer and with preparation of your material it easily serves as a 3 channel deck.
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Thatāsā¦ Actually kinda awesome. How was the equivalent of ābeatgriddingā? Properly setting the sample start to first downbeat, and set bpm as per track? Thereās no way to do a temporary speed up to beat grid, right?
Coming from the octatrack and not being a fan of unwanted timestretching artefacts on any platform, Iām used to strict pre-editing and hard decisions:
- bounce tracks with a length in bars divisible by 8, (edit: 2^n)
- decide on a tempo for the whole set and stick to it, (edit: not quite, might elaborate later)
-set exact start point for each track, etc.
If you apply those rules, you can play tight beatmatches without beatgridding/sync, apart from quantised clip launching.
If you need sync, the BB will calculate a sample tempo from the length you enter in beats (quarter notes) but it currently wonāt take an actual bpm value.
Beatgrid nudging can be done, depending on how you have it set upā¦ I use a combo of master tempo and sample pitch.
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Thank you! Very insightful, bummer about the lack of sample bpm though.
Hi all, firstly new to this forum, Iām a complete newbie to sampling and canāt decide between the blackbox and digitakt. A couple of question re inputs, can I record my electric guitar into either of these standalone units? Iāve heard that Iād need some kind of preamp/cab sim for this to work properly? Many 
You will likely need some sort of amp between your guitar and the unit to get the right sampling volume.
You wanna go with the Blackbox. The Digitakt cuts sampling after 32 seconds. If you got a good thing going and want to record for a minute or ten, the Digitakt wonāt do it. But the Blackbox will.
For straight on, fast layering and multi-tracking and capturing a performance when you decide to stop recording, not the gear, the Blackbox is the better option.
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Thank you, lookās like itāll be a blackbox on finance. I also love the portability of the bb, Iāll be taking it into work and playing with it on my lunch break
Be aware itās not battery powered though. So in that respect itās not any more portable than other devices like the Digitakt.
Thanks for that! Iāll keep that in mind, I suppose I could get one of those USB charging banks from amazon? Also can anyone chime in with opinions of the Teenage Engineering OP-1 V Blackbox? seems so expensive but seems like so much fun.
BB is a much more capable sampler than the OPs, with various modes like slicing, time stretch, clip, sample, granular, multi.
Lots more functionality - 16 tracks, multiple outs, better quality audio and stereo.
Can take a massive SD card of WAVs.
Midi trs, USB host.
No synthesis though and simple grid sequencing, though has a song mode.
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Yep, get a USB bank and youāre good. Iād argue itās slightly more portable than a Digitakt when it comes to the power issue, since the Digitakt isnāt designed to run on USB power (though it can, with the right stuff connected to it). The Blackbox is, however, and you even get the appropriate USB cable with the box for it.
Iāve velcroed a slim power bank underneath mine
Still thinking about making a clamshell case for it
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Iāve never used a Blackbox, but have a decent amount of gear, I have a lot of samplers & the Op-1 is my favorite music making device out of everything I have.
At the same time there are a lot of people that just donāt gel with itā¦ itās kind of like a love or hate type of box. I adore it, I feel it fits me in so many ways & it has endless possibilities. The sampler portion is limited, but still, a lot of work arounds & options to extend the functionality (for example it has 12 second max sampling at 1 time, but you can also sample directly to tape which gives 4 tracks of 6 minutes each track to sample to & you can transfer the audio to the samplers to chop &/or manipulate further).
I think pairing up the Op-1 with another sampler that fills the gaps of the Op-1 is the way to go (for example the Op-1ās limited sample memory), like pairing the Op-1 with the Blackbox or Digitakt orā¦
But again, the Op-1 is different & not everyone likes the workflow.
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Op-1 stand-alone is the definitive desert island box, if youāve got your solar power bank with you.
BlackBox stand-alone is right up there with it.
They donāt really overlap (maybe tape machine vs 16 track sampler do, but still different) but do complement each other very well.
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Technically, with a short enough waveform, you can have basic wavetable synthesis 
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Thanks all for your input, I think Iām favouring the Blackbox but the OP-1 is very close too.
Sorry another quick question re Blackbox can I plug in a microphone something like an SM58 to record vocals?
Youāll need to pre-amp it before going into the BB.
Would that also apply to something like the Digitakt?