1010music Blackbox

Don’t know if it got mentioned already and I didn’t found anything about it - can you fx process the input signal? This would be very interessting for daisychaining different devices .

Nope, don’t think so. The fx is for the already recorded stuff, as far as I can tell.

Another one, same procedure - from the Matriach into the Blackbox, live from the store session. This one was trickier, had to record all sections live except for the drums. Lots of paraphonic stuff going on here, both in terms of chords and single note arps that just toggle between oscillators.

All put together in the Blackbox.

4 Likes

Lovely tracks. I got lost in them, especially the second.

1 Like

Thanks :blush: I don’t know, I’m in a bit of a creative rut (and I’m not fishing for confirmation here), so I can’t justify this beast of a synth to me until I’ve figured some shit out.

But it’s a lovely experience to play it, no matter my own level of rotten :blush:

Does the store have a Moog One?

Yep. Currently out, but yes. I tried it a few times when it dropped.

You know what my next question is…

Hah :slight_smile: if you wonder what it’s like, you might be asking the wrong person. First Moog I ever played, I easily walked away from. Clearly, I’m not the target audience for this one, price disregarding. It’s not like I ever could afford it, but I don’t even have to fool myself into thinking that’s the reason I’ll never get one.

So my very brief thoughts on it, after two or three store sessions with it, are that as a poly synth, whatever Moog did to the oscillators to allow them to stack, makes it sound much more like any other great poly out there. To me, Moog has a very specific sound. That got lost in the One. The interface is also much more like everything else out there, and didn’t have the same intimacy as much of Moog’s other gear.

It’s a great sounding polyphonic analog synth and it has the looks to match it, but so does a lot of other synths out there. As far as analogue poly goes, Sequential is my favourite and Moog didn’t change that.

Also, given that it’s tri-timbral and have the voices to match it, the sequencer’s pretty rudimentary. I’m not saying Moog should go Elektron (but only because I assume they can’t, not because it wouldn’t be great) but really, if you’re building something which clearly is designed to work three internal instruments at the same time and throw in a sequencer, and decide to charge a couple of months’ wages for it, you could show the sequencer more love.

I’ve also not heard someone else play it that got me thinking I just worked it wrong, whereas every time I hear a pro play the Sub37 for example, I go “Oooh” and wish that I had one again.

1 Like

Thanks for the hands-on. For several reasons, it would take a lot for me to go for a hardware polysynth before I finish giving Omnisphere every possible chance.

I was actually going to ask: Soundcloud?

1 Like

Nope, didn’t record anything. Didn’t come up with anything that stuck.

Yeah, as far as poly goes, the software vs hardware debate def isn’t a given. I could pick out a hardcore mono keyboard from a great plug any day of the week, but polys? As far as sound goes, I think the closest argument I’ve come where you’d go hardware before software is the Prophet-6 or the OB-6.

For the pleasures of sound design, I have an extensive modular. Then I’ve got other stuff, but with a poly, I’d want to just play keyboard most of the time, like piano or organ, which I always go back to after a short time. Even with the immediacy of lots of knobs, my ear fatigues on any one synth too quickly (but not piano) so that I’d have to have 3-4 or even 5 polys to feel like I had one satisfying poly experience at my fingertips. Even aside from the expense of 2-3000 USD per poly plus import duties (and then the One), there’s the space issue, not to mention the weight. Selling a used poly from my location would be difficult and expensive from my location. So using the laptop as a sound module (Omnisphere and Keyscape) is easily my best choice. I’m going to bump up to one of the new 16" MacBook Pros, and then I have my poly with me wherever I go (though sans keyboard). It’s just too fuckng practical.

1 Like

So with you on that one. I’m a pianist too and whenever I sit down and just play a goddam decent piano, I’m thinking it doesn’t get any better, and it’s pretty damn good as is.

Many years ago, my intended wife left me right before our wedding cause she wanted to live with another guy. In all this misery, I got lucky and found a great place to live with a space in the apartment which just cried for a piano. I was thinking, f**k it and decided to save up for a grand piano and sit there and play until the end of time.

Then, I met my current wife and we got three kids instead :slight_smile: so no piano. Yet.

9 Likes

See, but a real grand piano: there’s maintenance and logistics. God help you when you move to another place. I live in a humid location, and would hate to watch the thing turning to garbage in front of my eyes. I guess it’s all just a matter of money, paying for maintenance and moving charges and depreciation and a large enough space, but I’m spoiled from many years on institutionally maintained Steinway grands so that the expense required for my own is just too depressing a thought.

EDIT: Oh yeah, then there’s the neighbor factor with a piano. I couldn’t even play it when I want to.

1 Like

Hi I’m back, I’m still procrastinating over purchasing the Blackbox 1010 or OP-1.
I can’t make a decision, perhaps someone from can chime in and end this torture. I’m drawn to the the OP-1 just because it just seems so instant, built in mic for recording instant vocal madness, then there’s the radio, built in battery for portability and then there’s the OP-1’s beautifully designed interface. It does seem gimmicky but I like gimmicky.
The Blackbox looks a different beast, seems intuitive, less knobs and buttons and holding down shift keys etc, less bells and whistles and probably less chance of option paralysis, produce a track or jam on the fly. Bear in mind I’ve never touched a synth or sampler in my life, I play electric guitar I’ve played in a band and used to love creating songs on my Tascam four track tape recorder. Please help me!!!

1 Like

Go for the Blackbox. If you’re the kind of musician I get the feeling you are, you’ll love it. And the OP-1, you’ll love for what it is, but not for what it does for you.

I started my amateur career with a porta as well, a Yamaha MT8X. The Blackbox brings me back those multitrack memories, but with all the benefits of 2019. I remain the amateur but still love to make music.

1 Like

Thank you @circuitghost that’s great help, having listened to your stuff which is fantastic btw, watched the John Park stuff amongst some other amazing demos on YT the BB has convinced me the most. I love all types experimental guitar based stuff ranging from Mogwai, Sonic Youth, Sparklehorse etc, if I’m going to be recording guitars into the BB I may also get the newly released Strymon Iridium, I’m even tempted to just record guitars on my old Olympus dictaphone for that lofi vibe.

1 Like

Thanks :blush: the Blackbox can, despite its defined feature set, be experimental enough.

Record sixteen bars from your guitar. Slam it into granular mode. Reverse it. Pitch it down. Tweak up the delay and work the filter. Thom Yorke won’t know what hit him😎

2 Likes

After falling asleep while reading the manual last night I decided to get one to try out. My intention is mostly to play back audio files in a Live situation and for helping with transitional parts on my mostly Elektron setup.

The live rig /production holding pattern is looking like:

Analog Rytm MK2
VirusTI Desktop
Digitone Keys
Black Box
Eventide Space
T. C. Electronics Nova Delay
ER-M Multiclock

3 Likes