I’ve been asked on and off how I go about doing stuff with the blackbox, so I figured I’d create a thread on it. I don’t presume I have much worthwhile to say on the subject, prepare to be disappointed, but after getting the question for maybe the hundredth time, I suppose it’s worth to post the answer in one place.
First, there are no computers involved in my song writing. I don’t mind computers or daws, and I’m somewhat proficient with Logic. But for some reason, I reach the results I want a lot faster with hardware. I am in general a practically oriented person, so perhaps it’s just the way I’m wired. But it’s not a statement, it’s not an ideological preference, it’s just what I like.
I never approach song writing with intent. I don’t sit down and think, “Okay. It’s time to write a track. It’s the first one in a new EP or a show I’m putting together.” I follow a whim and do something with it. So one some days, I might think “I should try and record some improvisations from my piano” or “I should knock out some loops from my Prophet 12” or “I should bring out my Chase Bliss pedals and just resample a lot of stuff.” These whims can be quite specific, though. Like “I should record a long section from my Prophet 5, and use only that recording in as many ways as I can to see if I can build an entire track out of it. Resampling it, pitch it down, run it through a granular engine, and merge all these parts together.” I guess that’s intent in some way.
Whatever I do, I record it directly into the blackbox. Unless it’s resampling, I always record dry, with the exception when fx are used not to enhance but as an inherent part of sound design - say the Prophet 12’s delay, which is a pretty weak delay until you use it as anything else but a classic delay. Then, it becomes very powerful.
So the blackbox is my hub for all my material. It goes directly in there. Piano into blackbox. Chase Bliss pedal resampling into blackbox. Prophets into blackbox. Only exception is field recordings. I copy those into the blackbox.
Most of my material, as a consequence, aren’t midi sequences but just raw samples. You could look at it as meters and meters of tape, stored into the blackbox. It has the liberating effect that once a recording is done, it’s done. No sequences to tweak, p-locks to play with, drums to program. The flipside of this is that most recordings turn out pretty bad. If I record five things, I save maybe one. Maybe. The rest, I delete. There is no chest with unused material in my library. I have maybe 4GB of samples in total, most of them longer loops. One shots are drums, and I got maybe 30-40 of each category - kicks, hats, snares and so on. And honestly, four times out of five, I use my DFAM samples anyway from the time when I had one. Years ago, as it were.
This goes on for weeks and months. When I acquire new gear, whatever I do with them that’s worth something, I record into the blackbox. Syntakt loops? Into the box. Circuit Rhythm beats? Into the blackbox. Jamming with a mate on his Moog Grandmother? Into the blackbox. Trying out an Arturia Polybrute? Into the blackbox. I even have some old Monotribe loops that I’m going to use some day.
I never apply effects to the blackbox mix. Any delays, reverbs or distortions you might’ve heard, are loops that are resampled through Chase Bliss gear, out through the blackbox, through a pedal, back into the blackbox. The blackbox can monitor and resample hardwired inputs just fine, so there’s no need for an additional interface. Again, while this means I’m locked and committed to that loop, it also means I can’t tweak it much. Just get on with the song writing. If it’s no good, I won’t use it. If it’s good, then great.
I’m well aware there are enormous amounts of great outboard gear. I’m not committed to Chase Bliss out of principle. I am committed to Chase Bliss gear because I have little time to explore and find gear that I understand, can learn, and reaches a sound I want. Chase Bliss ticks all my boxes. They are literally the pedal version of my character. So I won’t be looking elsewhere for options, because time vs. the reason to do so, doesn’t add up.
Eventually, pieces of these whims start to fit together. Stuff I recorded months ago, fit with something I did just yesterday. And those connections might lead to something I did two years ago, and a recording I made maybe last week, and all these pieces gravitate towards each other. At that point, I start browsing and putting together samples in the blackbox with a purpose. I suppose you could call that intent as well.
Once I’m in this mode, I use the blackbox pattern sequencer to launch and stop loops from a pattern. Usually, I just use one pattern per sample but sometimes, I use two or three per pattern. Drum loops or very specific ambient texture experiences. Most of the time, I use the blackbox envelopes to create fades and transitions, since they’re both soft and long (very long, actually). When a sample is in Toggle mode, the transitions you can create with loops are seamless and beautiful. Who needs automation when you got this? Not me. And if you slice up a loop, set the slice playback to random, apply polyphony and start and stop it from a pattern sequence, you got a self-generating piece of music. I don’t use this trick much now, but I used it frequently when I first started out with the blackbox. And somehow, the granular engine applies a kind of melancholy to whatever that runs through it, which seems to fit my vibe pretty well.
Launching and stopping patterns from the sequencer all happen independently from each other, so once I got a batch of samples going that fit together, I improvise a performance by simply starting and stopping patterns. As soon as I got something that feels like it could be a strong part of the song, I record it into the blackbox Song mode. And once I got enough of those clips, I got a song.
The Song mode in blackbox is surprisingly powerful, since it further expands on the philosophy that each sample and pattern runs its own course in the blackbox. The Song mode allows for patterns to keep playing across clips without resetting, which means that if you got some idea of all the abstracts going on with your loops, you can create long and seamless performances that fade in and out independently of each other, with full control over when they start and stop. The envelopes make sure you get the soft transitions and your batch of patterns per clip in the Song mode, decides when to start and stop certain passages. Once you get an idea of how all this can fit together, there’s not much you can’t do within this realm of sampling and performance.
Once I got a song that I like, I use the blackbox filter to shape the samples to fit the mix and then the master EQ to further squeeze it into place. I always use the compressor and push the gain enough to just about hear that it’s active. If I write five songs this way, maybe one actually makes it into a Soundcloud post. Of ten Soundcloud posts, maybe one ends up on an EP or inspires a track that goes there. All my mixing and mastering is done on an SSL SiX and Fusion.
If I get enough songs that I feel belong together, that becomes an EP. I’ll never write a full album.
And that’s it, really.
I hope this helps you in some way and if you got questions, fire away.
