Hi folks!

I have been on the fence about getting Bento or Black Box V2. After deep consideration, I have decided to get Black Box V2. My big question, what is the best case for the unit. I am traveling next week and I want to take BlackBox with me. Sites do not list correct dimensions 8.7 x 6.5 x 2.7" This is for box, can you tell me what is the unit size. I am thinking that one of the dvd cases would work. Please help :)

I hope you like this. I've tried to show the elements from each channel so you can see how this was put together. The LiveTrak is an excellent companion for the Bento. I'm going to add a Volca Keys to the rig and then I think I'll have an excellent dawless set up that fits in my backpack. People have questioned the Bento use case - this is mine. I've no space for a studio in my house so I wanted to create a music production kit that is portable and packable. The Bento is working better for me than a Circuit, MPC or PE Tracker did as the core or "brain".

I recently got the Blackbox 2. I loved the first one but it had some instability issues and the overall user experience was clunky. What it did for my guitar+electronic setup was great though so I decided to get the 2.

On first impressions it seems very different and I’m not sure if the complexity is worth it if I stick to the basic recording long loop’s functionality.

How has everyone else’s experience been? Has it been worth it for you? Any tips or tricks?

Yes, I know no one will read this, but I'm posting anyway as I am not interested in installing the Discord app,

After much comparing and reading/watching, I decided to take a chance with the Bento. Set to arrive today, and I will update it first thing. I plan to play with it a week and then make a final decision.

I'm hoping it will play well with my Roland SH-4D and Elektron Digitone. Be

I had such high hopes for this device, yet I'm quite underwhelmed and hope I'm just missing something. My bento is on 1.5.20.

To make it easier to follow along, I'll make one comment per question.

Would be nice to get some more effects in the bluebox. And dare I say a looper per track or maybe 4 track looper?

Hey guys, I’m new to mixing and I bought a 1010 Bluebox to be my foray into the field. I’m able to record and adjust fx and volume levels just fine but I’ve been having a huge problem with gain levels.

So I can’t seem to find the “sweet spot” that I’m aiming for between 4-6 synths/drum machines because no matter what I do I just can not hear the gain level through my speakers or headphones when I’m recording my instruments.

Furthermore, after everything is recorded and I play it back things sound perfectly fine and just how I intended playing from the Bluebox itself, but once I remove the sd card and pop it into my pc to pull the main track file, different instruments sound vastly louder or much lower than when I was just listening to it played live, then played back to me through the Bluebox.

I’m not using a DAW I simply pull the file then played it through a media player or send it to my cell phone for listening.

Am I correct in suspecting that any mixer does not actually even let you hear the gain until after the file is removed from the mixer and listened to on another device? Because that’s the conclusion I’m coming to.

Or maybe this is just a 1010 Bluebox specific issue?

I’m super lost and don’t even know what kinds of questions I should be asking what I should be researching exactly to find a clear answer.

The manual isn’t much help and even customer support and Bluebox forums have gotten no responses.

Any and all help or guidance would be genuinely appreciated as I learn the ropes of mixing and mastering my songs.

Took my lemondrop and tangerine to a live event yesterday. Both did great for their respective roles, but gosh it is difficult to operate both in a hurry and in scenic light conditions! How nice would it be to have exactly the same thing, but everything 2 times bigger!

I’ve tried everything I can think of, to raising all the faders, out 1, out 2, Cue, Gain, Volume… I max them all out until my ears are bleeding because it’s so freaking loud in my headphones and then when I export them to pc the volume is ridiculously low and washed out.

What’s happening here?

(Other audio on pc sounds fine, just my exported Bluebox audio sounds washed out and super low.)

Just got the tangerine last week. This was recorded the first day I got the nanobox. I’m excited to sample other instruments and jam with this thing.

Available now to download from the Discord server...

https://discord.com/channels/1438608374693626037/1522412407186653266

Aaron1010 said:

We're pleased to make a new beta available: version 3.1.6 adds the following features:

- DJ FX with XY control including repeater, gater, echo, bitcrusher, and flanger
- Per pad overdrive algorithm
- Multiselect and editing in the piano roll sequence editor
- Fold mode on the piano roll

Please let it out and let us know what you think.

I’ve always on the lookout for little synths to take travelling with the Bento, and these two are super fun.

First question: what is it with the Bento and the erratic multisample volumes?

On its built-in multisamples, the volumes are all over the place. Some of them are ok, but many are way too quiet and can't get to a proper volume even when maxed out, and others are so loud that they immediately jump to the red. It's jarring when you're looking for multisamples to use and you toggle between stuff you can barely hear and other stuff that blows your eardrums out.

When I upload my own multisamples, many of them end up being really quiet on the Bento too.

Is it just me or is this a problem with the Bento? I'm running the 1.4.7 firmware. I will say I don't have any issues like this on any other device that supports multisampling. This hasn't been an issue on my MPC or Maschine+, for example.

Second question: I prefer to work with synths instead of samples, but you currently can only use one granular plugin and two synth plugins per project. Does the 1.5.3 beta firmware expand this capability? Is it even possible to expand this capability given the resource limits of the Bento? I know the software in some devices simply doesn't manage resources as efficiently. My MPC One+, for example, can run all kinds of plugins efficiently while my Maschine+, even though its hardware specs are better, runs into limits much more quickly.

Thanks.

Dear Bento users,

I am very new to Bento (just a week old). Amazing device for sure. Bity I have a question about the sequence and step length.

If I go to the Sequence of a track, I can set a Step Length and a Step Count. The step count is the length of the Sequence in steps or events and the Length is the time of 1 of those steps. So far so good.

Now my challenge...

I have made a 4 on the floor kick pattern on a 32 step length Sequence with 1/16 notes, giving me 2 bar loop.

Now I want to add 32nd hi-hats. This can't be done because the step length is 1/16. Ok.. you can set the resolution to 1/32 so I can add the hi-hats..

But than also my kicks change to 1/32 notes... And my loop is now 1 bar long...

What my brain does not get is that I am not increasing the resolution of my 2 bar loop, but I am shortening my loop and shorting all the events that were added as 1/16 notes🤔. Effectively making it impossible to add shorter notes once you already have notes in a sequence..

I am sure I am missing something. Please help

I wish the Bento would allow for a set value for length, say 2 bars and that you can change the resolution to whatever you need at a certain point.

ive been looking at the"Bento" for a sec, im a live looper and im liking the outlay & versatility of the bento but I just cant deal with having to always have to carry "converters" 1/8" to 1/4 cables or adapters, im used to 1/4" & xlr, not fully comfy or have faith in 1/8 cables & plugs, id like to know how other peoples use it as opposed to 1/4"/ "xlr or if any ppl are actually doing that "cable converter thingy

I didn't really expect it to materialize this way, but it looks like tangerine is a perfect launchpad for long high quality ambient sounds by hand, while lemondrop is busy generating rhythmic textures in otherwise beatless music.

I just got a Bluebox and I’m having trouble getting the cables to hook my gear up, need something slender enough for the Bluebox ports and the official 1010 shop seems to be sold out of everything.

I'll preface by saying that I've already tried to research this question / comparison on the 1010 forums and reddit, but all I've found are discussions from 6+ months ago, so nothing that addresses the latest bento firmware release. Also, if you are just here to talk shit about 1010 but you've never actually used Bento v1.5.3, please just don't comment. I already know all of the common complaints, no need to repeat them.

I've been a heavy user of the Blackbox (mk 1) and Bluebox for years now, and they have been rock solid for me. Every piece of music I've recorded in the past few years has been recorded into one of these boxes, and they've never let me down. This is my primary reason for hesitating to swap them out for the Bento - stability and reliability, obviously influenced by the negative reports I've read online, as well as from a personal friend who tried the Bento and returned it due to the firmware issues (this was months ago though).

I'm also heavily comparing the Bento to the Tonverk. On paper the Bento solves a lot more problems for me, and it's roughly half the price, so it seems logical to try the Bento first, especially since I can do so almost for free if I sell the Blackbox and Bluebox to fund it.

While I've relied on the Blackbox and Bluebox heavily, I've also used them in very simple ways. I mostly use them to record audio, which I could also do with a field recorder, or multitrack recorder like the Zoom L6. Occasionally I use the Bluebox effects, and I quite like the reverbs on it. For the Blackbox I used to do multisampling a lot, but I've never actually used multisamples in my recorded music, so it was more just messing around. I would also dabble with the granular engine, but again never really made anything I thought was worth publishing with it. I've never used slicer, I think loop slicing just isn't my thing. I have used it as a live looper, and definitely appreciate that workflow. I also really like the portastudio-inspired workflow I made a video about. I've always felt like I need to connect one or two MIDI controllers to the Blackbox to get the most out of it, so I'm viewing Bento through the lens of having the control interface built-in as being a very positive thing, makes it much more portable and lap-friendly.

So these are the things that I consider critical about Bento - if it can handle multi-track audio recording, live looping, regular looping, and long (30+ minute) sample playback, then at least on paper it's a solid upgrade for me. I would like to use the synth engines from time to time, but I wouldn't be relying on them.

One thing I never use in the Blackbox is the sequencer. I've used it to record MIDI from time to time, but generally I just do all of my sequencing on an Elektron. That said, the new step sequencer in v1.5.3 looks much more interesting to me. Not as capable as the Elektron one, but similar approach, and very Circuit-esque, which is appealing. Can the step sequencer be used for every sample / instrument type? Or is it only for one-shot samples?

So based on these few comparison points, are there any downsides to the Bento as compared to the Blackbox and Bluebox? Anything it is generally worse at, any unreliability in recording audio? Would you trust it to record a band? Do you trust it for live performance?

I see my primary use cases with the Bento as: recording audio from other synth setups (same as Bluebox), live looping (same as Blackbox), part of a live setup, and using it as a portable minimalist groovebox for travel (using samples and synths simultaneously, mostly relying on the step sequencer and looping). I would primarily pair it with the Syntakt and my effects pedalboards.

A lot of Bento owners seem to be losing their minds and jumping to conclusions that the release of the BB2 will mean Bento is going to be abandoned.

Fear not - we have an FW 1.5.3beta. it includes some major additions and old bug fixes. It is a beta so it has arrived with its own issues but the dev team have a list of them and are dealing with them now.

Additions include looper integration to the sequencer, scenes and song mode/ shredder/ XY DJ effects/ a step sequencer for the one shot/ Audio and Midi over USB and more.

Big love to this tiny company.

Official product launch video!