M-Audio Black Box Reloaded (v.2.3.1)

Before buying BB Reloaded, I have used Behringer V-amp through a small Behringer mixer into Audiofile soundcard. BB includes interface and also a mic input which makes it a whole lot easier. BB itself is easy to operate I just wish you could dial in the patches for drumpattern or amp to reach them faster, now you have to press down the button and wait.
The manual is ok and easy to understand.

The V-amp is good but its amazing which development BB shows. This thing sounds so good, also when recording you get the same sound. I have not tried any Line6 products but I dont think anything can beat BB right now.
Favourite amps are: all marshalls especially JCM 2000, big90s (MB rectifier) no problems getting Metallica or Rammstein sound, and last but not least the Angle (ENGL) Jesus christ, I just cant stop playing. The clean sounding amps are just as good as the distorted ones, the Fenders, Chieftain etc. As almost all guitarists - I am always looking for that perfect sound and trying all kinds of pickup??s, guitars, amps etc. The reloaded Black Box sort of stops that quest.
The guitars and PU??s I use are: Fender Strat (-73) DiMarzio SDS-1 bridge, Epi Les Paul Std (DiMarzio Super2 neck and Fred at bridge), Epi Goth Explorer (DiMarzio Evo bridge) and sonn a ESP/LTD M-107 with EMG 81/7 bridge. Bas guitar: Epi Thunderbird.
I have not tried to line out the BB through an amp or PA yet.
The effects are everthing you can ask for, to many tremolos though. The filters and sequenced effects are funny and inspiring.
10 is not enough on the rating . . .

No problems so far - BB looks just as reliable as the competitors.
I would sure use it live - with a backup of the PC and or harddisc.

No opinion - no need of support.
But I have dealt with M-Audio earlier and they always answer quickly.

Well I play most styles - mainly heavier rock and Black Box delivers my sounds and moore. I`ve been playing for 25 years and have had Peaveys, Fenders and Marshall amps. Right now I use a Hughes & Kettner Ed. Blonde 50W combo for home use, V-amp2. Couple of different guitars, se above.
If you are going to start homerecording this thing has it all since you get amps + effects, drumpatterns, recording software and ab interface for the price of a simple interface/soundcard. Ambleton 4 is ok and what you need, 4 audio and 4 midi tracks. Easy to handle and better than my Cubase SX.
I will stick with the black box the rest of my life and I do recomend it to everybody.
Just remember its your ears that have the verdict.

I dont know who has been writing this garbage.... you need to talk to someone who owns one. The asio drivers will NOT load, no matter what you do, THEN IF you actually get ahold of a service rep. They will try and tell you how you loaded everything wrong. I didnt think a product had to be so difficult to use. All of these people writing in have to be employees of M-audio, for I just cant believe they would write this stuff.I bought a korg pedal, and just use it now, I dont have digital drivers , but it will have to do.
One last comment, I have a state of the art notebook with 3,4 gh and 2 mb ramand awsome sound card gforce.... , so if someone is hoping their computer will cut the mustard, you better find someone who owns one first.

Ok if you dont expect digital. Below average

Not reliable at all keeps cutting out, and you have to go to My coputer and disable and the re-enable.. at least 4 times a week.

yeah right ... none.. Look at the most recent update.... 2005 lol

ok sound... I would say it was an overpriced metranome

I agree that the new "Reloaded" Black Box deserves it's own catagory.
I read the reviews on here before buying mine, and I'm glad I did!
This site was more than helpful, hats off to the HC people!

The sounds this box came with sucked. The models were dead sounding or thin & metallic sounding, (well, most of them). The effects were good, but....
After "reloading" the update from the web site (which worked the first time for me) this box became awesome! The models were accurate sounding and the effects were spot on! (yes, even reverb)

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it?
Yes, the new models are fantastic and the tweaking is easy and intuitive.
How about Editing patches? I've not edited patches yet, I don't plan on playing live with it, so I may never get into that side of it. But, from my experience with it, it should be easy to do.
How is the manual for it (if there is one)? The manual was sketchy and short, but gave enough info for me to work the unit. It is user friendly and works like most stuff out there....only thing I miss is a jog wheel....but other than that....it's awesome!

This thing sounds great. I mean to say that the models sound accurate and reproduced faithfully. Is the Marshall JCM 800 noisy? You bet! As well it should be! But then if you ask, "Is the Fender tone good?" Yes, it is! I'm a Fender amp man and I've owned them for 15 years or better (own 5 right now). I'm very satisfied with the amp sounds.
The effects are fine. I've never been much into effects. So fo me to rate this catagory would skew the results, but there it is. I'll just say that for me the effects are satisfactory. (I still prefer my Dunlop Crybaby)
The tie in with the drums is really a cool feature.
I don't think many people will use this with an amp....it's made for computer recording.

seems reliable
never gonna gig with it...doesn't seem that sturdy to me. The road can be harsh.
Feeling it now....it is hard thick plastic....hummm, might stand up to the road.
hummm?

they were helpful in solving the riddle of my soundcard.

What style of music do you play? Everything but Jazz.

Is this a good match? It can wash dishes and cook the bacon!

How long have you been playing? 27 years

What other gear do you own? $40,000 worth of stuff

If it were stolen or lost, would you buy it again or get something else? Buy again, for sure!

What do you love about it? The price, the models the effects, the drums.

What do you hate? soundcard characteristics

What is your favorite feature? Marshall JCM 800

Did you compare it to other products? Like what?

Which ones? I don't know.

Why did you choose this one? Cause I'm smart.

Anything you wish it had? A better tuning system

Does it help you make music, or does it get in the way? What a stupid question. Yes, it's a great recording tool.

Anything else you'd like to share? if you play online you might have to change your soundcard settings. just remember to change them back when you record.

This is a copy of the review I wrote for the Black Box.
After upgrading to firmware version 2.3.1, this unit becomes a different tool.
Therefore, I thing it would be just fair to create another header for the reviews: Black Box Reloaded.
Anybody interested in the BB would tend to walk away from the pretty low (but once justified) sound quality rates people gave to this unit, BEFORE the upgrade!

GET THE UPGRADE!!!!!

If you know what a cranked up SLO-100, Plexi, Bogner Extacy or Ubershall sounds like, you won't regret buying this device ;-)

Ease of Use: 8
Well...seems like I get the honor to review the reloaded version of the Black Box. Firmware upgrade on 17/03/2006.


Easy to use. Version 2 includes a new shift function giving you access to:
* mid control
* compressor
* 5 types of reverb


The updated user manual can be downloaded from the M-Audio website in pdf format and is very well written.
Once you get the picture, this enhanced Black Box is very easy to use.

Sound Quality: 9
I first bought the new Line 6 TonePort, which turned out to be a downer for me. Not because of the sound quality, I thought it sounded very good, but because of a chipset problem on my laptop(acer aspire 1804 3,2Ghz). Using TonePort, USB has an unreliable sound stream when controled by Intel series 915 chipsets. This would cause the stream to interrupt and replace the audio by nasty white noise every now and then. I tried a pcmcia usb card with a NEC chipset but the problem persisted. I eventualy got fed up, brought the TP back to the shop and swapped it for the Black Box. I had never heard of the BB before....


My first impressions were rather negative. It sounded metalic, dull and soulless. I didn't realy recognize the Plexi, Twin reverb etc
Also no reverbs, no compression, no bass amps...
I kept on playing for a couple of hours but in vain. I had already stored it away again in order to return it when I found out on the internet that a firmware upgrade had just been released.
Not having anything better to do on this rainy day, I started downloading and installing the firmware upgrade and gave it a second try.


Wwwhooooow... Now that's what I call good tone !!!!
If you have a BB, upgrade now!!!!!


It's a different product, it sounds alive, it sounds convincing.
The Bogner Extasy is a killersound.
There are 40 amps and 120 effects to chose from and they realy sound very good.
So far, the best I've heard in this range of products.
(I've tried out pretty much everything: korg, boss, line6, native instruments...)


The beat sync effects work very well. Very usefull.




Reliability: N/A
No clue, just got it a few days ago. It looks sturdy though.

Customer Support: N/A
I don't want to find out...

Overall Rating: 10
I was looking for a not too expensive device/software being able to offer decent guitar and bass tones mainly for home recording activity and I am more than pleased. The BB delivers.
I have played loads of amps (from Class A to solid state) in 22 years of music playing and I think this product is closest as can be to the real things. Try it out for yourself.
Most factory presets come without effects or delay/reverb.
M-Audio is not trying to hide mediocre simulation behind a wall of effects. When you play the amps without anything added to it, it already sounds close to the real thing. Check it out.


Cool features: all BB owners can exchange their presets over the internet, the beat sync effects.... a must!, pretty convincing drum loops to play along with and also a nice addition of drum loops and samples on cd rom to be used with your favorite multi-track recording software, very convincing bass amp simulations and more...


All this for 289 euro, I'll give it a 10.
(20 years ago, one would have gotten 2 stomp boxes for this money. Isn't life great in the 21th century?)


Submitted by steven at 04/02/2006 19:59