Bluebox as a Audio Interface

[jayneural]

There are many amazing options for giant XLR/6.5 jack with old-skool MIDI DIN interfaces for sure.

For the tiny world there is :
- TX-6 : also a mixer & recorder but without MIDI and priced >1K$
- IK Multimedia iRig stuff : very limited audio I/O, proprietary connectors
- Roland Mixer Go Pro : no recording, no midi, cheap but overall poor quality
- Zoom H6 : that one could have been compelling if instead of timecode I/O it was MIDI.

So definitely a Bluebox with 12 inputs, 3 outs and MIDI I/O in a tiny package would beat all of them if it also provided USB Audio+MIDI I/O.

[chrith]

It would be unbelievably great to be able to use USB to route individual Audio tracks to an iPad (AUM) for FX processing and back.

[komovsky]

BlueBox is a well-designed device and huge thanks to the creators. But I hope sometimes it will be a super gamechanger audio interface/mixer/recorder

[Nanotramp]

same, I'd love this. I've got the bluebox and an audio interface sat on my desk. Sure would be nice to get rid of that dedicated interface to get a bit of desk space back...

[rev-eng]

It's barely 24x17cm! But it's not a rack unit, so yeah, it needs to sit flat which takes up space

[datagreed]

datagreed the Keith Mcmillen k-mix works standalone and has up to 10 outs. Only 8 ins, frustratingly

Thanks! It's huge though and doesn't have ADAT.

I wonder if I can achieve this with EVO 16

[rev-eng]

datagreed the Keith Mcmillen k-mix works standalone and has up to 10 outs. Only 8 ins, frustratingly

[datagreed]

Does anyone know if the USB port is actually capable of data transfer on bluebox? Or is it connected only to charging pins? Because if the latter is the case then making bluebox behave as audio interface is impossible without hardware upgrade.

Meanwhile, I've got a question: I have bluebox and I love using it in dawless set up, but I also need to be able to use my hardware synhs set up with computer without replugging anything and having separate channels available for DAW.

How do I approach this? Do I just buy several midi interfaces with ADAT to have as many ports as I need seems ike a way to go (yes, that is a ridiculous number of cables), but I also want bluebox to be present as multichannel recorder in this setup.

The only way I see going about this is connecting everything to audio interfaces then routing their outputs back to blue box. Are there any audio interfaces that will work in this setup even when I power the computer down (so they wont be controller by host), but leave them powered to work on their own (I need them to still being able to route the incoming channels through to the outputs and still using ADAT)?

[sunflower]

As a feature, audio interface capabilities would be great! But given how tricky it is to achieve a noise-free setup with the usb-port connected to a hub or a computer I don't think it would be very practical...

[llorenzo]

One use of an audio interface is applying FX to tracks. With the Elektron Syntakt I just plug in my iPad mini 6th generation into the USB and are able to put FX on selcted tracks. And since it sends Midi it is also possible to sequence an iPad synth. Lots of possibilities here.

[tutschdamoon]

The BlueBox is great! But I am another Force user who is dreaming of audio compliance. And it would make my Laptop a portable studio in the rehearsal room as well.
+1

[tutschdamoon]

I thought the same with my AKAI Force. What a combo that would be.
It works with a cheap Behringer Mixer. It gives me 12 inputs on the Force. But I won’t cary that monster to a gig.
The BlueBox could be perfect for that.
I guess I have to continue dreaming.

[Weazel]

Great stuff!

[chrisroland]

yes, although i switched from Blackbox to MPC One for sampling, it does have the disadvantage of only a single pair of stereo outs. but 32 channels of USB Audio to class-compliant devices. so being able to ouput even three stereo channels from Bluebox via USB from the MPC One would also make it a no-brainer solution for me to getting multi-channel audio into my main mixing board.

[jayneural]

It's crazy how popular this thread is. I hope it's feasible technically (normally yes but I guess not very easy).