Just shooting out some ideas that could work until (hopefully) 1010 addresses the issue. I’m all out for now but I’ll let you know if I think of anything else.
Mine is put away in a case right now because I’m having a bit of a one on one love affair with my Analog Rytm MKII (mastering my new-ish instrument).
@josker
Hmm, I see … If you happen to have a USB hub (either powered or unpowered) connected to your RK-005, could you maybe try and connect the Blackbox AND the iPad to that hub (with the RK-005) and see if the Blackbox receives any Midi commands from the iPad (like at least Clock and Play/Stop)?
Only if it’s not too much of a hassle though, I’m really grateful for all the help I can get… Thank you!
@Airyck
Thanks so much for your help. I’m really hoping to get an answer from 1010music in regards to a workaround or a fix of the problem(s) - fingers crossed.
Hehe, enjoy your honeymoon phase with the AR2 
Ah! Cheers! Just wondered as someone might chime in with some issues sequencer side that may be arising.
Anyways hope you get it sorted!
Ran the Blackbox from a Pyramid a few months ago. Had the exact same problems and just gave up on it eventually and settled for the internal sequencer.
The Blackbox can run all sixteen samples in Clip mode with no sync issues, unless you push it hard witj fx and filters, when it runs on internal sync and sequencer. My conclusion was that it doesn’t respond all that well to a combination of external clock and sequencing of clip launches.
With that said, I ran a similar rig with the Octatrack as a sequencer and didn’t experience these issues. But I don’t think I pushed it as hard as when I used it with the Pyramid.
Heh, to be totally honest, I’m not sure what the cabling would be then… Both the iPad (after a CCK is connected) and BlackBox feature Type A USB outputs, so how would I connect them using the hub? This is actually something I’ve been wondering – I’m dense when it comes to this USB stuff…
This sounds like a result of the fact that BB clips cannot start after the interval of quantization (a bar), combined with the fact that MIDI is sent serially over DIN cables. Apparently, only some of the note on events make it to the BB in time before the BB decides it’s too late and cues for the next bar. Since you’re sequencing the notes to send right when the bar starts, it actually would seem logical that some are too late. Maybe it also has to do with the order of clock and note data coming from your deluge. USB must work a lot faster so they all make it in on time.
All just a big guess since I’m not a MIDI expert, but this is my hunch.
Your hunch is right. Sadly, MIDI still doesn’t support time travel, making in-time triggering of multiple loops right at the start of a measure pretty hard.
DIN MIDI is MUCH slower than USB (2.0) MIDI. It only can transmit 31250 bits per second in total. To transmit a single data byte 10 bits gets transmitted.
A note on message is 3 bytes long and takes therefore approx. 1 millisecond to transmit over DIN MIDI.
Another (potentially not useful) idea:
If you know you are going to be triggering a few loops together at the same time, you could set them to the same MIDI channels. This would reduce the amount of messages needed to start a “set” of loops.
Ah, very interesting @circuitghost ! Do you remember how you connected the Blackbox to the Pyramid and Octatrack (DIN or USB Midi)?
@josker - In order to connect multiple USB devices to the RK-005, you need an additional USB hub, that you connect to the USB A port on the RK-005. And in this USB hub you plug your USB A cables, coming from the Blackbox, CCK, etc…
I use an unpowered Anker Hub with 4 USB ports and it works without problems with all my devices (except for the Blackbox).
@vegeta897 - Thanks for the explanation, yeah, that makes sense. However, I found that I can indeed trigger all 16 pads via DIN Midi in sync for the next bar, IF they are set to regular Samples (instead of clips).
So I would assume the Midi messages DO arrive in time on the Blackbox. However, the calculation for launching the Clips (as opposed to regular Samples) seem to take some time as well. And I imagine that only the first couple of Clips triggered get “prepped” in time for the quantization threshold of the first bar on the Blackbox - the other ones get cued up til the next bar (sadly, this is also true for the NoteOff events).
@Airyck - Yeah, I tried it either way, with all pads triggering from one channel or all pads triggering on their own channel from 1-16 but it made no difference, sync-wise. But thank you so much for coming up with new ideas to solve my problem
Yep. USB to Pyramid, both running from the same power source. DIN to Octatrack, though.
Launching wasn’t the big issue. That worked fine. Timing was, tho. In time, clips just started drifting, as if they kept adjusting to changed sync conditions.
Hey have you tried starting and stopping it from Ableton or anything?
Hey guys, can I slap the blackbox on the stereo output of my digi combo and use it for transitioning? Can find some vids on live looping, but as I’m totally new to it I’m not sure if it’s what I think it does.
this is a rush jam of mine with blackbox and the default samples from 1010
Nice!
A lil rush jam from me as well for Jamuary Day 6