There are all these extra things you need in hardware rigs or Eurorack modular. You need to mix stuff together — and then add effects, and it’d be great to record, and you do still need to connect to your computer. Bluebox 1.5 fills out that wishlist with details that could make this an absolute must-have module or device.
It’s now a visualizer/analyzer, an interface, a sidechain compressor, a tuner.
I’m just going to paste their full list. But they had me at just one feature: Bluebox now not only solves your Eurorack mixing needs, but it’s also a 12-in, 18-out USB audio interface. In fact, now the iPad looks useful, too, as then you don’t have a big laptop onstage and you can use its USB-C interface (on current models).
That’s fantastic, given a lot of the other solutions involve cable spaghetti or a separate ADAT interface — which works, but means you also need another box with the rig. Here’s the list:
- Sidechain Compression: visual envelope control and trigger via audio, MIDI, CV/gate, or Clock
- New USB Audio Engine: 24/48k input and output with Mac, PC, or iOS – stereo for desktop and 12 inputs/18 outputs for Eurorack
- Micro SD Mode: Mount Bluebox as a USB drive on your computer to transfer tracks and samples
- Spectrum Analyzer: 32 bands of real-time frequency response on the EQ screen
- Tuner: Tune an oscillator, sample, guitar, or other audio source fast and easy
- Oscilloscope: See the waves you make with this cool new analysis tool
1010music has grown fast, and we’re keeping up with all they’re doing—more on the latest soon—but this one is a keeper on my list.
This is all in addition to the existing features — touchscreen access to volume, gain, 4-band parametric EQ, pan, reverb and delay effects, mute/solo, and record/play.
I wrote a full review of the Eurorack version:
And Andreas Roman wrote up the desktop version way back in 2020 at its debut:
Sidechain compression is great, too; I spoke to Kord over at 1010music. What’s great is feature parity across desktop and Eurorack. And as Kord tells CDM, “The big diff is the channel count for USB audio (stereo for desktop vs 12 inputs/18 outputs for Eurorack), and that the Eurorack has the CV/gate triggers, which can be REALLY fun, I gotta say (in the video I use a Pamela’s New Workout).”
For more in-use examples, see the full playlist.