Nice! Sounds good and defined/clear
Curious, do you have to overdub the whole length each time? Or is it easy to bring in and out clips of a couple of bars, synced to a tempo grid?
Also like others have said: this whole journey you’re taking us along with is super enjoyable and appreciated!
Thanks 
You touched on a potential weak spot on the Bluebox right there. So far, I’ve found no way to rewind or fast forward in a track, nor does it do punch in - out or loop takes. The last, I’m okay with, but not being able to move back and forth is starting to get to me. Say you got something entering at around 3 minutes or so, and you’ve tweaked the eq some and maybe touched the reverb a little. You have to listen through the whole thing now before you get there, to hear if you’ve done a tweak you actually like.
I’m still thinking I just haven’t figured out how to rewind and f forward yet, or that it’s coming at release or close to it. This is one of the things I’ll be asking 1010 as I wrap up my review, to see where they’re at with that.
If this is intended primarily for live recording, I can see the reasoning behind it. But there are so many ways to use this in a small studio context, it would be daft to not give us an option to just scrub across the tape, kind of.
Cool track 
I dig it!
Can the tracks be exported to computer over USB or do you have to physically move the card to the computer?
Thanks 
no, it doesn’t show up as a USB unit, so it’s like the Deluge and the Tracker (I believe?) that way. Connect the card to your
computer.
File structure’s very direct, tho, so it’s not much of a hassle.
Yep. It’s not pretty. Very digital.
Compared to say the Heat or the SSL SiX, which both have lovely hints of subtle saturation when you push them to places where you maybe shouldn’t go, this one’s very harsh. It can’t be used for effect or flavour, at least I can’t
However, you can go slightly beyond the red without breaking the track, so it seems to be somewhat forgiving. In general, you can push the Bluebox pretty hard to make your mix loud and big. Headroom hasn’t been an issue so far.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Well, maybe they can add an input saturation fx in the future.
So here’s another one made on the Bluebox. I pushed this one more, recorded straight from all the Blackbox three stereo outputs into the Bluebox and then did the entire mix in the Bluebox. Reverb, delay, eq, compression and obviously panning and gain, it’s all Bluebox as is the actual recording itself.
I’ve done an SSL SiX version of this as well. I don’t think comparisons are relevant, since they’re so different in terms of both sound and workflow, but all the same, there’s a clear difference between the results and not just because I’m not great at mixing and sound engineering.
Anyway -
I would love your comments on the above. I really got ear fatigue on this one and can’t tell if I got this right and if not, where it might have gone wrong. Some might be prescribed to my very basic mixing skills, some might be due to the character of the Bluebox, so I’d love to get feedback on this to better understand how I can work the Bluebox better. I’ll bring in a few here that I know usually offer solid feedback, so my apologies for dragging you into this @cold_fashioned @ddiamond84 @captain8 @GovernorSilver @lesstalkmoredisco @papertiger
Overall, I enjoy the tune. I used headphones, and it still seemed as though the kick & bass line were a little low in volume. That might be contributing to a little lack of cohesion, since the higher pitched elements are panned a decent amount. I don’t think the panning is too much, though - I like that aspect. Of course, I’m no pro, so take my comments with a grain of salt. I also just woke up. I’ll listen again a little later & with different headphones, just to check again.
Thanks all that’s on me, not the Bluebox, so that’s good stuff. Appreciate the feedback and the honesty thank you.
So because of this I decided to be your laptop-speaker ears @circuitghost In all honesty I listen to music more often then not on my phone/laptop these days, especially bits from Instagram or Youtube. So it’s good reference speakers for me;)
Nice tune, I like the sweet and uptempo combination. Nice and dreamy.
Soundwise, I’m really inexperienced in mixing myself still, so take my take as a layman’s take:
Cheers!
Hmm, I felt this at times (a little) as well. I didn’t say anything because I generally think I’m just sensitive to higher tones. If anything, maybe the highs were sharper earlier and then mellowed (or my brain adjusted?).
I would also say that it seems clean and clear (not a bad thing). I actually would be curious to hear the SSL version, if only to hear what you’ve been saying about the SiX all year long. Hehe.
Right here -
Thanks, great feedback you’re right, the highs are a bit too sharp, and in a way, that’s a testament to the Bluebox. Source material is a bit too sharp and I couldn’t get around it without muddling other things up, so it’s a bit of a compromise. Couldn’t be save because I never got the source quite right, which became obvious when I mixed this.
The drums are supposedly intended to be low, as is the bass, sort of subtle and in the background to be more part of the overall texture and not drive the piece more than anything else. I think that worked slightly better in the SSL version, though.
Overall, all of which you’re pointing out is really due to my lack of mixing skills rather than the Bluebox itself, except perhaps for the clean sound. There’s no way getting around that, unless you actively work dirt and grit into the material through outboard sources or the material itself.
It looks like it indeed. But for a small (and relatively affordable?) box that does lots, it’s not a bad thing that it also doesn’t beautifully color your sound right? Fact that you get so much and it sounds good and clean is quite exceptional already. Plus, most of my gear I like because it adds some character or roughness; for example why I moved from DT to Rytm (for my taste DT was very pristine, whilst Rytm has more to offer on the overdrive/roughing side). With the built in effects of OT and Rytm there’s already lots present to rough and dirty up my sound, so capturing that cleanly in the Bluebox would be fine.
Yep, totally agree.
Hi circuitghost,
hows does the bluebox pairs with the blackbox? Have you made something only with those two?