Back in May, 1010music unveiled a successor to its Blackbox sampler at Superbooth 2026, promising a creative and more portable successor to its 2019 original. This week, Blackbox 2 has landed and is now available for purchase.
Like its predecessor, the Blackbox 2 is a portable, touchscreen-equipped instrument that houses a self-contained sampling workstation within a compact, rugged device. However, for version 2 1010 has significantly reworked the interface, adding a larger touchscreen and new layout that promises an improved workflow.
According to its creators, “Blackbox 2 is heir to its own portable sampler throne with more creative features for the studio and stage. An even more elegant workflow, great sound, industry standard IO and portable size.”
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The central feature of this new look Blackbox is its four-inch hi-res colour touchscreen, which is used as the primary interface for sequencing and sample editing. A bank of four multi-use rotaries sit directly above the screen while a bank of transport and navigation buttons are placed below.
Blackbox 2 is a four-track workstation that can load up-to four one-shot, loop, slicer or multisample instruments, with the one-shot and loop instruments capable of supporting 16 samples per-patch. Blackbox 2 expands the song-creation features of the original, introducing new launch, scene, song, mixing and effect screens for editing various elements of the composition.
Unlike its predecessor, which required an external power source, Blackbox 2 contains its own rechargeable battery, allowing for 3hrs of fully portable use. It also adds USB-C host and device ports capable of transmitting multichannel USB audio and MIDI.
Other elements of the Blackbox workflow are unchanged from version one. As before, the instrument has a sequencer with step, grid and piano-roll modes, which is capable of probability sequencing. There are DJ-style effects with XY pad control for filter, echo,, gating, flanger, bitcrusher and repeater effects.
Sample editing tools include multiple filters, envelopes and LFOs, distortion and a flexible mod matrix. It also features a four-band EQ with cut, shelf and parametric modes for each band.
The hardware features a stereo main audio in and three stereo outputs, plus headphones output. It’s equipped with an automatic multisampling function allowing users to easily turn external gear into sampled instruments.
Blackbox 2 also has a microSD card slot, allowing users to expand the memory for projects and samples. Longer WAVs and detailed multisampled instruments can be streamed directly from the microSD.
Between this and the likes of Akai Sample, Teenage Engineering’s KO II and Casio’s forthcoming sampler, we’re living in something of a golden age of portable samplers. If, as 1010 states, “Blackbox 2 is heir to its own portable sampler throne”, then it’s facing Westeros-levels of rivalry.
Blackbox 2 is available now and priced at $649/£669.
Head to the 1010music site for more information.
