M-Audio Black Box

[WRGKMC]

Picked up one of these units on EBay the other day. I bought one awhile back and it didn't work so the guy told me to keep it and refunded my money.

 

This second one supposedly had a weak display but it worked. It came with the expression pedal unit for $25 and free shipping all the cable and adaptor so I figured how could I go wrong. I could swap the display from the defective unit because I knew it worked OK.

 

I got the unit in a couple of days ago and it worked fine. Apparently this kind of display is viewed at an angle like sitting on a desktop. I even swapped it out to be sure and the other was the same way. if you look straight down on it you can see anything but angled you see things clearly.

 

This is an older unit that was only sold for a short unit but its actually very cool. Its designed by Roger Linn the maker of the famed Linn Drums used in pro studios.

 

This was designed primarily for music composers who needed a simple all in one solution. Its a Multi Effects unit, Drum machine, 4 channel Recording interface all in one plus its got a built in Mix preamp for either vocals or micing amps. It can connect to a computer via USB or SPIDF and record up to 24/48.

 

The unit can be used in front of an amp too. Its designed to be mounted on a mic stand and the foot switches and expression pedal operates the unit.

 

There are a few limitations on recording. The Drums and Processed guitar get mixed together to two channels and the Dry guitar and Mic get recorded to two other tracks.

That's kind of weird. You'd really want the stereo drums recorded to two tracks and stereo guitar to the other two so you can mix them separately. It can record mono drums to one track and mono guitar to another however so its not that big a deal. You'd likely record leads as a multitrack anyway and so long as the guitar also records an additional dry track, using amp plugins and effects on that track is no problem.

 

The drums aren't spectacular but there are cool grooves which is important for writing music.

 

What's really cool about this unit is (and why I was persistent in buying a working version since they have been discontinued) is the effects can be synced to the drum tracks. Tap echoes, panning, Chorus, tremolo, Auto wah, you name it will be synced to the beat and you can select single doubles, triplets etc to those effects. This makes for some neat effects that don't drift in time compared to the beat. An echo for example can drift out of sync and sound like a cluster is you don't have exact tempo or a way of riding its speed to match the beat.

 

The other thing that's cool is both the drums and effects can be synced to a midi source. You can have say a midi track setup with midi drums and have the effects synced to the DAW instead of its built in drums. I have several drum machines I can likely use to sync to this unit or just use midi drums. This expands the range of uses this unit can provide.

 

I realize the units a bit dated and its surely no replacement for my 24 channel setup or even some of my other studio interfaces but I can see this finding a home in the living room next to my recliner and laptop when I'm in brainstorm mode. Lately I been recording clips to my cell phone which I then bring to the studio for tracking the composition. I can use this to record to the lap top.

 

I did get a chance to check out some of the amp modeling too. They have a pretty good range of amps and some of them sound pretty decent. Again this is where the unit seems to be older school stuff. The unit mostly uses EQ curves for the amp modeling and lacks cab impulse responses like newer units have. It also seems to use one stock drive at various gain levels for the amp modeling. Newer units like my Vox do a much better job at providing different types of saturations based around actual circuit differences to where the string touch actually changes. .You cant exchange cab types but I have other solutions for that if I record from the unit analog.

 

Over all I think its a great buy for $25. I would go as high as $50 which seems to be the going rate on these now.

 

I love buying these older units because you get to check out the technology and even get come cool recordings out of them,. If I get board with it or it doesn't cut the mustard I simply sell it off and make a little extra money. If it work well, It simply gives me more shades of color I can draw from when recording music.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I remember those.

 

The main thing I'd worry about with some of the older gear of that type is driver availability. Are there updated drivers for it that work with modern operating systems?

 

 

[WRGKMC]

I remember those.

 

The main thing I'd worry about with some of the older gear of that type is driver availability. Are there updated drivers for it that work with modern operating systems?

 

 

I haven't loaded it up and tried it with Win 7 yet. I'll do that this weekend. It does have drivers that will work with XP through Win 7 so I don't think I'll have a problem with it. . I realize its been discontinued so I don't expect the latest and greatest.

 

I'm not overly concerned about connectivity either because I can still record with its analog outs. Its also got a SPIDF out so I can record direct with that through my M-Audio cards.

 

I may try connecting a different drum machine which has midi outs directly to it via a midi USB cable and see if it recognizes the midi signal for triggering the effects.

 

I was using the unit last night exploring its effects banks. So far its been a real hoot. I haven't played through anything like this before.

 

There's 100 various effects which sync off the drums, many of which use a sequenced triggering envelope effect which works of various parts of the drum beats. Its obvious now this unit was built by a drum machine expert.

 

I can for example select a Latin beat and strum a single sustained chord and its sustain gets chopped up by a drum sequence which complements the drum beat. I had one which echoed the cow bell, another that had patters that matched what the bass would normally play, another that added what a drum riff would do, another took the sustained chord and made it sound like you were strumming a rhythm part to the song.

 

In another instance I had something going that sounded like the intro to the Who's song Eminence Front with the keyboard that opens that song. Another nailed the keyboard part to Wont Get Fooled Again.

 

Between the sequenced gating and the various effects envelopes, auto wahs, envelopes, panning flanges, echoes and all kinds of other effects you can create synth like effects in sequence with the beat.

 

When you change the timing of the effects it changes them in the form of notes. 64th, 32, 16, 1/4, 1/2 notes etc so the effects remain in tempo.

 

I realize this is pretty standard and simple stuff for keyboard players but because guitar is analog its effects aren't normally sequenced to the tempo of the song so drift id always a problem and it's up to the player to stop and lock as they play. I also know you can do most of this within a DAW if you're willing to dig into the midi side of the DAW and use click tracks, but for me that's the point in recording where its no longer a pure music art form and instead becomes a mathematical build. (left vs right brain)

 

This box does a good job at combining things fairly technical in a simplistic way that doesn't make you loose focus on simply generating music.

Like I said, its mainly a device for writing music and I write most of my music as I play it free style. The quality doesn't have to be world class and I can always rerecord a song with better gear once I have something built.

 

I'm surprised others haven't attempted building similar units. There's a great opportunity to build a hardware device which has a support service which allows the user to buy new downloadable/programmable beats, sequences, effects etc so long as they are affordable. I know they've made keyboards with program cartridges which allows the user to play different genres of music. They may plug in a orchestra cartridge, brass, woodwind etc. Something for guitarists built around genres of music like Jazz, 50's, rock, Vintage rock, New wave, etc could be developed and it changes the way the hardware works best for that genre might be worth paying for instead of using one set of generic tools you have to push to its limits to try and get it to work for that genre.

 

I can see this same thing for audio plugins too. Granted most plugins can be shaped to all kinds of extremes but it can take allot of work getting there. A paid service which takes common plugins and builds preset packages based on genre may be a big market give the fact there are so many beginners trying to get in the game and could use that help.

[mchad]

I have the Blackbox and all the Adrenalinn boxes. They are wonderful for pulling interesting tones that help you write tracks that are different. Simply hook them up to your DAW of choice via midi clock and see where it leads you. Every now and then I contact the Linn Design and remind them how good these boxes are and urge them to continue development. Pretty much I think Roger is busy producing other ground breaking gear as he has always done. At this time there is no other hardware box like them. It's an untapped territory and it would be awesome to see more innovation there.

[WRGKMC]

I did try recording directly with it last weekend. I had the drums on one track and the guitar on the other. I did a few tracks which were interesting but the beats were pretty basic stuff when compared to other drum machines I use. I did better simply using the unit as a stereo guitar modeler and used my regular interface and drum machines.

 

I spent a good deal of time setting up various guitar amps, getting my gain staging right. Towards the end I was getting some terrific amp tones. The overdrive is a bit crispy. Luckily I have a pair of cab emulators I can use to get rid of that. The clean Fender tones like the Tweed Bassman are killer.

The best lead drive tones seem to come from the Diesel, but I'm still in the process of refining those.

 

I got about 10 patches built which work great through and amp or recording but I'll need to spend a month before I have everything refined. I'll wait to judge the quality by recordings mixes with all the instruments completed. I think they'll hold up quite well however.

 

I'm holding off experimenting with the midi portion for some later date. I'm not a huge midi user. Its too much like being a construction worker then an artist when it comes to writing music. I prefer a free flow of consciousness when writing and midi is simply a PITA. Dealing with drum machines is about as far as I prefer to go into making a machine clock my music. Even then I'd rather tap my parts in or play my studio drums.

 

I may wind up doing this to a click track to sync the unit but I'll still likely record through my normal interface at higher sample rates. I've already determined the built in interface on that using is low quality and can only record 16/44.1. 24 bits makes a big difference in sound quality.

[mchad]

The guitar tones here are mainly Adrenalinn 1. I might have added to the track years later with an Adrenalinn 3.

 

 

My writing habit is to play with the Adrenalinn. If I hit on something worthy I'll turn on the PC and open a new DAW session. Get a simple kick drum loop going and midi clock the Adrenalinn with that. Record what I had come up with and then start building from there. I don't use the Adrenalinn drums on my tracks. They're great for jamming with in your headphones though.

 

My future gear wish is an Adrenalinn 4!

 

I like the Diesel amp model too.