M-Audio Black Box

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JamesD

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Anyone have any experience with this product? Looks interesting for quick recordings and what not, any input is appreciated!
 
I've got a Black Box Reloaded with the pedal controller. I bought the Guitar Box Pro bundle to get Pro Tools M-Powered and the plug-in suite that comes with it (Bomb Factory Fairchild Bundle, Pultec Bundle, moogerfooger Bundle, Voce Bundle, Sansamp, Tel-Ray, TL Space, Maxim, etc.)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MAudio-GuitarBox-Pro-?sku=700457
I use a Lightbridge in the studio with PT-MP so the Black Box was just a thrown in bonus for me. It's sitting on the corner of my desk at the moment so that I can carry the Macbook from the studio to the house and continue working with PT session files. I keep a little Steinberger next to the desk for noodling/ throwing parts down as well. The Fender, Gibson, Marshall, TriAxis rigs live in the studio and are a bit much to deal with if I'm not in the middle of a production.
The amp sims on the BB are okay, similar to what you'd find on other devices of this ilk. The Fender/ cleaner sounds don't really do much for me, but the hi-gain stuff actually offers some boutique tones I don't have on hand otherwise. The Bogner Ecstasy is pretty cool, and the Soldano, Diezel, ENGL, 5150, and various Marshall models offer some nice variety. I dislike most modelers recorded directly and this one is no exception. The presets are all set-up with effects so the first thing I did was store dry versions and re-amp them through a little EL84 amp section/ 10" Celestion. This got some credible tones and has earned the BB a spot as the second hi-gain rig option during tracking.
I do quite a bit of re-amping during production, using the Little Labs boxes, and the BB fits in here nicely. It's SVT, G/K, and SWR sims have been pretty cool on bass. As a recording interface, it works well as it allows you to record 4 channels, the modeler's stereo output, the dry direct signal, as well as the microphone input. So you can blend the direct modeled sound with a mic'd speaker, or reamp the dry direct signal later. Pretty flexible for recording quick ideas and honing them in production.
The one bug I've run into was after saving new user presets, the one's that used delay developed an audible click that repeated with the delay. Re-setting the unit to factory defaults then re-loading my presets from the computer solved the issue.
I don't use the drum machine, it's not programmable, think of it as a glorified metronome. HTH
 
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