The compact Blackbox 2 sampler from 1010 Music is now shipping, having been demonstrated at this year’s Superbooth.
Intended for DAWless music creation and performance, it offers a professional way for creating and manipulating samples, including loops, one-shots, slices and multisamples.
It’s had a design revamp compared to the original Blackbox. It’s hard to do a full specification comparison because the units have their features and specs laid out differently to one another, with the new version being a little sketchy on some details; however 1010 Music did release a video outlining the main differences/upgrades, shown below with our summary.
Features
- 2X the power of the original Blackbox
- High resolution 4″ colour touchscreen
- Create and perform with 4 flexible Tracks supporting Shredder, One-Shot, Loop, Slicer, Multisample or External Instruments
- One-Shot and Loop instruments supporting 16 samples per Patch
- Sequence the way you like using step, grid / piano roll and probability
- Launch, Scene, Song, Mixing and Effects screens like bento for beatmaking and playing live
- Stun the crowd using DJ effects and XY controls for filter, echo,, gater, flanger, bitcrusher and repeater FX
- Perform using live looping with MIDI triggered recording and playback
- Stream multichannel USB audio and attach MIDI controllers with USB-C host and device ports
- Jam anywhere using a 3 HR battery
- Stream long WAVs and more detailed multisampled instruments from microSD
- Easily sample your favorite synths with automated multisample instrument creation
- Design custom sounds with synth features like multiple filters, envelopes, LFOs, overdrive and the modulation matrix
- Four band EQ with Cut/Shelf/Parametric settings for each band
- Layer effects or capture spontaneous ideas by resampling internally
- Flexible MIDI integration with extensive MIDI CC support for external controllers
- 1 stereo audio in and 3 stereo outs, plus stereo headphones output
- Load high-capacity microSD cards with Projects, Patches and immense sample libraries
Specifications
- High resolution 4” color touchscreen
- Battery-powered with 4 hours of play time
- Requires a 20 W or higher USB power source for battery charging
- USB-C host and device ports for multichannel USB audio and MIDI
- TRS MIDI In and Out
- TRS Clock In and Out
- Analog Clock In and Out supports 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, or 24 PPQ
- 24-bit ADC and DAC
- 1 stereo audio in and 3 stereo outs, plus stereo headphones output
- microSD slot
Blackbox 2 vs Blackbox
The following video outlines the major differences, which we summarise below.
| Blackbox | Blackbox 2 | |
| Size | 5.5″ x 5″ | 5.25″ x 5″ |
| Ports | 1x Stereo in 3x Stereo out Headphone TRS MIDI In/Out type B Clock In Clock Out USB A device | 1x Stereo in 3x Stereo out Headphone TRS MIDI In/Out type A/B Clock In/Out config via software USB C host/device – 3x stereo out, 1x stereo in, MIDI in/out Card reader mode mounts card on computer |
| Mount | – | VESA threaded inserts |
| Display | 3.5″ | 4″ at “higher resolution” (unspecified) |
| Encoders | 4 at side of screen | 4 above screen |
| Buttons | mode buttons | mode buttons and arrow keys and track controls |
| Battery | – | Internal rechargeable 4h usage |
| Pads | 16 | 16 x 4 tracks |
| Editing | Piano roll | Chromatic piano roll with fold Oneshot piano roll Step sequencer |
| Synthesis | Granular Auto multi-sampling | Granular Auto multi-sampling Shredder (combined granular/slicer) |
| Mapping | MIDI learn for CC mapping | Fixed mapping |
Comes in at $649.
