1010music blackbox

this thing is easy to use, right out of the box.... load one of the factory presets & it brings with it a load of samples, sequences & even a song structure. getting your head round the architecture is a breeze, even with convoluted workflows. the "keys" screen is useable, bit smaller than most you'd find on ipads, but the box will 'host' a usb keyboard, so no real worries there. there's piano roll editing for triggers & polyphonic note playback. it will drive external synths &c at the expense of one or more of the pads.... there are sixteen pads available in each "preset" (which are sets of samples & sequences that can be regarded as a high-level 'state' of the machine); each pad can be loaded with a single-hit sample that can be played with the keys or triggered from the pad or the sequencer, or with a 'clip', which can be automatically time-stretched to fit your master tempo. there are many options within the setup for each pad... looping, pitch shift, basic filtering, adsr... so it's possible to get a useable range out of (say) a single piano sample. no multisample support, but you could spread an instrument over two or more pads if you badly needed to use the box this way. delay (syncable) & reverb, basic but useful. many outputs, & these are dc coupled so you can use them as controllers or audio. I could go on.... you can run up to 16 sequences at once, or chain groups of sequences into songs, with loopable sections.... essentially what we have here is a baby octatrack, & then some. if I could change one thing, I would give it an internal battery. maybe make the audio looping a bit more like an electrix repeater, with an overdub/undo mode. but I'm very impressed. will use this for playing long background loops, for midi looping, for running basic midi sequences, for grabbing audio & looping it.....

It's tiny but/and great. Built like a tank. Very easy to use. And the team behind it is great: they listen to the customers and keep adding features with new firmware updates.

I switched from the Electribe 2 Sampler to the blackbox and I'm glad I did. Yes, the Electribe has more features, but the blackbox has no gaps between patterns and no sample time limit. And it's sequencer is so much faster to work with.

I'll get my sounds and effects from other gear/sources. All I want my sampler to do is record and play samples in a fast and easy way without limitations. And that's exactly what blackbox does best.

This is a genius little thing that makes my life so much easier. Very inspirational device that helps me create stuff I wouldn't otherwise think of making in a traditional DAW environment. I even use it with my post-rock band (where I mostly focus on the guitar) to trigger sequences and samples and send click to all bandmates. Thanks to this I've been able to completely remove laptop and audio interface from my stage setup. It's built like a tank and survived some falls on stage without any damage and with nearly no scratches. The OS is being updated quite regularly and new features are being implemented based on fans suggestions. Very intuitive and easy to use. The touch screen is very reactive and a surprisingly great way to control the machine.

I use in two ways - one as a portable standalone unit to make full tracks fast and two, as the centre of my set up with all my other synths and equipment and acting as a sampler and sequencer.

Pro's
Very fast and clear workflow to get tracks down quickly.
Great sample manipulation
Practically unlimited memory (i use a 128g sd card)
Excellent online community (1010 forum)
Great sampling capability
Enough presets to get you going
responsive touch screen
So portable (plug in to a battery via usb), take anywhere
Good connectivity options
Everything just works as it should

Cons...
Exporting stems not yet optimal (doable but just could be faster), but expect to be fixed in next firmware update

Fabulous tool for creativity. Extremely intuitive. Endless Possibilities in music making. On the go or in the studio. Comes with a huge library of sounds. Great selection of audio and midi ports. Nice sequencer. Small size is a definite plus. Touch screen works well. Sequencer is a little small but it's easy to zoom in. I'd recommend this for all kinds of musicians. This is not just a sampler this is an ausio sketch pad. I haven't even scratched the surface of what is possible. There are certain limitations compared to the big boys like AKAI and such but this is a different animal. Looking forward to an update of software as I believe there is room for more effects. I would recommend getting a battery pack straight away. With a set of nice headphones this makes air travel pass in the blink of an eye. Did I mention I like this? :)

I bought this sampler due to its small size and portability. It turned out to be extremely easy to use and it sounds great.

The hardware is sturdy and it features plenty of connections: usb, midi and audio ins and outs on mini jacks. The touchscreen is incredibly responsive. It has 4 handy encodersand 8 high quality backlit buttons. The software UI looks beautiful and it's easy to learn.

It may lack some of the most advanced sampling features, but the 1010music team is constantly coming up with new software updates. Personally, I'm able to do anything I need with it and it is a joy to use, plus the price is not extremely high in comparison with other samplers on the market.

I'm satisfied with my purchase and if you are looking for a sampler, I recommend you try the blackbox!