Probably too busy using it! I’m loving it 
It seems to me to be a very flexible box and can see myself using it for leads, pads, and fx.
The included sounds are top notch, the glassy tones and flutes are a breath of fresh air for my setup. I’ve added a few of my own sounds by resampling pads which work well. I also tried drum loops (with a bit less success so far). The live input is epic. I haven’t sampled into it yet. Barely scratched the surface of modulation.
So much to do…
Pretty good. The sound is much better than expected. Very straight forward, great workflow. I don’t even need any midi controller. I actually don’t like using small devices but this one is quite a versatile solution for my needs.
There are some great ambient jams made with it on Youtube. I’ve just tried to make a bit noisier stuff with it using only field recordings and the noise signal. No processing except some compression and subtle EQ.
Thanks for these updates!
I still love mine. When I first got it I was really focused on creating a bunch of patches using recordings of a vibraphone that I processed through various effects. It’s funny, I got so into the sound that I kinda just stopped putting new sounds into it. The Lemondrop became my official granular vibraphone instrument.
I mostly sequence my Lemondrop with my M8 and send it cc’s to shift various parameters per step, but I think this pairing would be especially great if I started using the Lemondrop to sample multiple layers of the M8’s synth engines… maybe it’s time to move on from real vibraphone sounds, into chordal fm vibraphone.
Awesome! You can play it without a midi controller? Is there a way to trigger sounds on the unit itself?
Yes there is a mini grid for playing notes within a scale. You can set the scale from a range of options.
The fact that it records to both oscillators, make it into quite the looper as well as what it already was. The Lemondrop is a great kit no doubt.
I absolutely love the 1010 black box. I really want this, but it hard to justify when I could get the newest iPad mini for that amount plus borderlands and a ton of apps.
I know they’re not the same thing at all, but that’s where my brain goes…I wish it were possible for black box users to download this software into the box for like 200 bucks. I’d do it in a heartbeat!
What do you recommend?
This is a really good point, and as many folks say, it really comes down to interactions, I think. Some people understandably love the iPad ecosystem, and some people want knobs. I totally get the former, even though I’ve never really been able to settle in there (if I had a nickel for every iPad music app I’ve bought, I could probably replace my iPad at this point, and never really done anything meaningful with it musically! Lots of writing, though, so it’s paid for itself.)
We’re really lucky at this stage in the music making world that we have a plethora of choices — perhaps too many for many (including me, I guess…) Lots of opportunities to find what works for each person in their price/affordance/music tastes and capabilities! I’m always excited to see what new apps people come up with on the iPad, as well as some of the crazy ideas for dedicated hardware (SOMA, I’m looking at you this week…)
I bought one to try it…I don’t know what to say, this thing legit sounds magical. Out of this world good sounds. I’m a fan and gonna keep this.
I still wish it were somehow possible to load this software on the blackbox for like 200 bucks. I’d buy it in a second!
Perhaps it is psychological, iPad can do everything as can a DAW/VST set up, but if you like hardware, the lemondrop is a brilliantly conceived little device.
I find something very enjoyable about it being a physical box that I can create my own folder of loops and drones (or sample audio from the lemondrop itself) and then play with it in my hands, with lots of exploration possibilities, save patches and know I can plug it in to my other collection of little boxes. Haven’t even tried to use it for live audio FX yet.
Even though I can do this in an iPad app, that sense of it all being captured in my own tangible little box is very satisfying. Not to mention the audio, midi and SD storage are all integrated, not requiring any iOS dongles.
1010’s workflow is very good once you get used to it, transfers well to the nano range and the sound quality is excellent.
Perhaps I’ve just not invested enough time in using an iPad for this.
Agreed with all of this, and I have and love the iPad mini and the tons of incredible apps for it. Nevertheless, the lemon drop somehow totally justifies its price and existence!
Though I wasn’t that interested in the past, the nanobox fireball is also looking attractive as a similarly very portable polyphonic library of all my favourite hardware and software synths and samplers … though lemondrop can be used without it’s granular parts to achieve a similar usage to pitch single samples.
Literally about to make a similar post 
very curious to try the fireball now.
One thing that’s not said enough about these two kits, is just the stellar output quality. Like the blackbox, the raw output from these things touch studio polish quality, Toraiz style. I’m using the lemondrop as a looper right now, recording separate sections into the two oscillators and then running it all through the Syntakt, and the natural lush and shine from both lemondrop and fireball, that’s just top dollar value. Not that I paid in dollar. I’m in Sweden. We don’t even have Euro. But still.
Yes!! Agreed. So would you say the fireball is as special a box as the other two?
Ok I see you wrote a whole review, gonna read it now!
Well, yes, in so much as that the Fireball is a cracking good wavetable synth which allows for import of your own wavetables and recording of new ones - which many wavetable synths don’t allow.
But it’s still along the lines of what you can expect in a high quality synth, whereas the lemondrop just keeps spitting out stuff you couldn’t even imagine until you’ve just put it in the yellow box and see what comes out.
think i need to figure out whether the sounds i want to keep in the nanobox are better in the lemon or fire style. I think it might be the former as i’d get more use out of a longer sample than a wavetable as I’m more of an acoustic sounds than synthy sounds type. will experiment…
Arrived last night. Waiting to hook it up to my Syntakt when that arrives, hopefully today.