List of compatible midi controllers for Blackbox

[jgartner]

Arturia Keystep 37 works but occasionally has power issues that cause the bb to power cycle when on a power bank unless the Keystep is powered separately. This does not happen with wall power.

Arturia KEYLAB 49 works as expected works better with wall power too.

Akai MPD218 pads map 1:1 to the bb pads. All types of pads respond as expected. Velocity response is nice!

Arturia Microbrute Keys work as expected.

Akai APCKeys25 does not work as expected and is not usable.

[minimaltom]

with my roland a-500 pro lcd lights up but its totally blank and doesnt play, anyone vouch for this?

[Steve]

You have to check the manual for each of your controllers. Any controller that requires more than 5v 500mA is going to need its own power. There is no way around this. Also, controllers that rely on many LEDs will either need to be in low-power mode or will need their own power.

If you have not - please check this out. It has been a rock-solid solution for this very issue.

https://www.bome.com/

[Werdeepscience]

Xone K2 does not work.

Same here Xone K2 does not work. Some other guy said his did... not really much info given So does it work or doesnt it work that is the question?

[Rick77]

I have tested the Midi Fighter 3d (Firmware 2.1.5)

It kind of works, BUT:

1.When using Midi Fighter 3d as a Midi Controller to trigger Pads, everything works fine,
unless I press one of its four upper switches to trigger Sequences, Midi recording, or Erasing of a pad.
Unfortunately each switch press triggers a Note On/Off signal ranging from C-2 to D# (in my case on Channel 1),
which will stop a playing pad on the same channel.
2. Power Consumption:
Even if I turn off animations, from time to time Midi fighter stops working when utilizing Black Box USB host mode.
(It can also lead to strange behaviours, which I mistakenly regarded as bugs.)
So to make it work properly, it would need a separate USB-Host and some sort of note filtering.

[Rick77]

Esi Xjam:

Worked quite well.

Pros:
you can change settings like Midi Channel on the device. You can also set a fixed velocity value, which is useful when you want to trigger pads with the same velocity value.
Cons:
While you have 16 memory slots, within each slot you can only access 3x16 pads via switch.
So you can only access 3 out of the 4 functions Blackbox provides (Trigger Pads, Sequences, Record Midi, Erase) directly (i.e. by a simple switch press)

[Rick77]

Arturia Keystep:

Worked quite well:

Pros:
You change the Midi Channel almost instantly, which is very useful (e.g. if each pad is assigned to a separate Midi channel). Even the Keystep Pro cannot do this without some menu diving.
Cons:
You cannot set a fixed velocity value.
Mod-Wheel was Midi-assignable but not the pitch wheel.

[Rick77]

CME XKey Air 25:

Worked quite well:

Pros:
You can both change the Midi Channel and the Velocity curve (or a fixed value) almost instantly without any PC or Tablet involved.
Full size keys.
Cons:
Feels like a Apple Magic Keyboard

[Rick77]

Keith McMillen K-Board:

Worked quite well, BUT:

Unfortunately, you cannot change the Midi Channel on the device itself. Requires some app to do so.

[bfraysse]

does it work with a presonus faderport ?