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Hatsubai « Short lived »
Published on 06/28/11 at 19:37The M-Audio Black Box was an all in one little jam station. The thing could do all kinds of stuff from drum loops, crazy effects, guitar modeling and more. It was super versatile, but it was only sold for a short period of time for whatever reason. To get the most out of it, you really need to hook up some sort of MIDI board to it or something as there are so many things you can do with it that it's very limiting to have to keep pressing those small buttons on the interface all the time.
UTILIZATION
The device itself is decent in terms of the way it's set up. If I wanted, I could simply put this through my amp's loop and run a few basic effects. That would work out nicely. Another thing I could do is have it act as a preamp and use my tube amps as a poweramp. There are tons of drum loops and stuff you can program, too. On top of all of that, you can even tune your guitar with this device. Scrolling through all the menus can be a bit of a pain, but I'm not exactly Mr. Tweaker here. I like simple setups most of the time. The less menu scrolling I have to do, the better. I never read the manual, so I can't comment on that.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound was pretty decent. There wasn't anything mind blowing going on here, but it didn't really sound bad. It sounded on par with a POD or any other modeler device like that. The thing that made this stand out was the drum loops. Those gave you that extra little bit that the other modeler devices out there didn't have. That's not to say the drum loops and programming are awesome; they're mediocre. However, it can work great for those who want some sort of all-in-one solution.
OVERALL OPINION
These can be pretty hard to find, but if you find one at a cheap price and need some sort of carry along solution to go with you when you travel, it could work out nicely. Everything sounds pretty decent, but it still sounds like a modeler. If you don't mind that aspect, check it out. You might be surprised.
UTILIZATION
The device itself is decent in terms of the way it's set up. If I wanted, I could simply put this through my amp's loop and run a few basic effects. That would work out nicely. Another thing I could do is have it act as a preamp and use my tube amps as a poweramp. There are tons of drum loops and stuff you can program, too. On top of all of that, you can even tune your guitar with this device. Scrolling through all the menus can be a bit of a pain, but I'm not exactly Mr. Tweaker here. I like simple setups most of the time. The less menu scrolling I have to do, the better. I never read the manual, so I can't comment on that.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound was pretty decent. There wasn't anything mind blowing going on here, but it didn't really sound bad. It sounded on par with a POD or any other modeler device like that. The thing that made this stand out was the drum loops. Those gave you that extra little bit that the other modeler devices out there didn't have. That's not to say the drum loops and programming are awesome; they're mediocre. However, it can work great for those who want some sort of all-in-one solution.
OVERALL OPINION
These can be pretty hard to find, but if you find one at a cheap price and need some sort of carry along solution to go with you when you travel, it could work out nicely. Everything sounds pretty decent, but it still sounds like a modeler. If you don't mind that aspect, check it out. You might be surprised.