I don’t think anyone would disagree that if the Bluebox worked as a USB audio interface, or could just transfer files over USB, it would be a game changer, and 1010 would probably sell 10x the amount of them that they do/have.
I use mine mainly as a mixer, and sometimes as a recorder when I want to catch something quick (it’s great to have that capability). I agree with @sid6581, it’s best to set up a new project if you know you’re going to record, but I usually treat mine like a 4-track and ‘tape’ over what’s there, or skip to where there’s free space… if it’s of value to me, I’ll grab the files off the SD card into my Mac.
I just bought one of these to make getting the SD card in and out quicker and easier… Plus less wear and tear on the BlueBox… https://amzn.eu/d/0FocFw0
I use mine with modular but after needing more 1/4 for keyboards and mixer, went with a Zoom Livetrak L12 that works better for me. Still use the Bluebox with modular and TX-6 for on the go stuff.
Both Bluebox and Blackbox would do well if they were also AC powered instead of only USB powered. For devices this power-hungry, USB power is a major source of trouble. Sure, with a battery pack it’s all fine, however, imagine using it as an USB audio interface, hypothetically speaking of course.
I have a wild idea and probably gonna buy a BlueBox for this purpose.
Anyone using it like this?
Analog Four 4 voice outs into BlueBox
Rytm all 8 voices out into Bluebox
That exactly 12 channel.
Now the question is how my Octatrack could join the party, and what about the effects… Maybe remove some voices from Rytm to make space for an ext fx send return.
Is why (IMO) is such a shame it can’t act a class compliant audio host. Imagine if you could just plug RYTM/four into that host port and route all channels to tracks 🫠
Just a question about the sound… does the Bluebox sound at last like Mackie-mixer? I mean within this price-range a digital mixer with recording, 12 inputs, just AD/DA conversion, a mobile format and and and …
From a professional audio engineer I have heard that there appears to be a miniscule noise, albeit he’s not yet sure if it’s the BlueBox. All in all, there is either no noise or very unnoticable.
(Apologies in advance if I’m missing something obvious…)
Also, is there a way to fine-tune the frequency (and other controls)? (Like the way Elektron defaults to fine tune and ‘press and twist’ gives you the wider range.)
Each channel (incl. master) has a separate EQ with a wide range of types (LP, HP, etc.). One of those types is ‘none’—which disables the EQ for that channel.
The controls for each type are pretty granular, e.g. for the parametric EQ you can select the exact frequency you to to boost/cut/etc—although the granularity gets lower higher up in the frequency band. Those encoders aren’t push encoders though and there’s no alternative way to toggle between very broad adjustments and fine adjustments that I know of.
If I understand correctly what you’re aiming for, you should be able to do that.
If you select the ‘parametric’ EQ type for a particular channel (or master), you’ll have four bands to play with. For each of these bands, you can select the frequency you’d like to boost or attenuate, plus the gain and Q. If you need only 3 bands, you could leave one at zero gain. To then bypass this, you’d select the ‘none’ EQ type for that channel. The settings for the parametric EQ type for that channel will remain as-is, i.e. if you want to engage the EQ again, all you’d have to do it change the type for this channel pack to parametric (no need to reconfigure the bands).
Do note that this way of bypassing isn’t super usable in a live setting though, since changing EQ is done by turning a knob that cycles between EQ types. To get from ‘parametric’ to ‘none’, you’d invariably briefly engage some other EQ types (low shelf and low cut, iirc).
Update: the above isn’t actually correct; you can select different EQ types for each band, so bypassing the EQ means changing each band’s type to ‘none’.
I appreciate you taking the time to answer in detail, but it still sounds like the answer to ‘is there an eq on/off button?’ is ‘no’.
That’s a really basic, but essential, function in my mind… is there a suggestions/request system with 1010?
I was playing with my BlueBox earlier, in the EQ window the A button takes you through the bands… B does nothing, seems like that could be used as an on/off for the EQ to me. Or hold the EQ button and press B, etc.
It would help.
Otherwise, I’ve just come back to the Bluebox after only using it briefly when I got it and put it away… I’m really liking it though, it’s now clicked with me.
The EQ in/out thing is a minor inconvenience in the big picture of what it does.
Agree that it’d be super useful to have this. Especially since it’s actually a bit more involved than I seemed to remember: you can actually set different types for each band for each channel, so to bypass you actually have to change the EQ type a couple times (but I suppose you already noticed that—didn’t know you had a bluebox).
I see the guy had the same thought as me about using B too. That would be great.
Yes, I have one already. I’ve brought mine back out to use as synth mixer in my home studio, and it’s working out great.
I have my A4mk2, Prophet Rev2, MPC Live 2, Nov BassStation 2 (…man, all the 2’s, I didn’t realise!?) and Roland JDXA going into mine, then a Strymon Big Sky on the final input being fed from Out 2.
It’s turning out to be a fantastic sound design setup… I feed the main output into my OTO Boum for further processing, then to my Tascam Model 12 > Ableton.
I love that I can go to town on blending/playing all my synths (via the JDXA midi ctrl) and fx to create sounds into Ableton… but can then also catch the individual devices and ‘clean’ master mix in the Bluebox as ‘insurance’.
So I’m using the eq quite a lot for sound design, and the inbuilt FX.
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