M-Audio black box User Manual page 15

amount of delay (latency) you may experience depends on many things: the speed of your computer, your operating system and
your audio hardware. Even settings in your software application can make a difference. Additionally, using plug-ins can increase
latency. When recording guitar parts on a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), some people will use plug-ins. These are software-based
effects processors that can be inserted into your dry input signal. Many plug-ins can sound very good. However, using plug-ins
also adds even more latency. It comes down to the fact that if you can't hear your guitar sound at the exact moment you play it,
you cannot possibly play in time with the rest of the tracks. You'll be happy to know that you don't have to worry about ANY of this
silliness using the Black Box.
When recording with the Black Box, you are ALWAYS monitoring your guitar sound in real time. There is no delay whatsoever. You
are NOT input-monitoring the track you are recording. You are monitoring the DSP sound output of the Black Box. Simply set the
Input/Playback knob on the unit to 12 O'clock (right in the middle), MUTE the track in your sequencer that you are recording on, and
adjust the Output level to taste. When you are done recording that track, turn the mute off. Turn the mute ON for the next track you
wish to record. When you start recording a new track at the beginning of the song again, now you will hear your previous track
along with the input of the sound you are recording on the new track. If you find that you need to hear more of the input signal or the
playback signal, simply adjust the Input/Playback knob. Even when using the Black Box as a class-compliant device, you will never
experience any latency when you record.
MIDI Clock
One of the coolest features of the Black Box is the fact that the effects are beat-synced to the internal drum machine. However, if you
install the Black Box drivers on your computer, the drum machine and beat-synced effects can also lock to incoming MIDI Clock from
the DAW via USB. This way, if you set your session tempo to 135 BPM, the internal drum machine and beat-synced effects on the
Black Box will also follow that tempo. There are a few settings that must be made to make this happen. On the Effects & MIDI tab of
the Black Box control panel, you must change the timing source to External MIDI Beat Clock. Then, in your DAW software, you must
tell it to send MIDI Beat Clock to the Black Box. For example, in Live Lite 4 GTR, select PREFERENCES and then click on the MIDI/SYNC
page. In your Active Devices area, check Black Box as OUTPUT. In the Sync area, select MIDI CLOCK, and under Output, select Black
Box. Now, the drum machine and the beat-synced effects will follow the tempo you have set in Live. When you click on Play in Live,
the drum machine will automatically begin to play and the tempo LED on the Black Box will blink to the incoming tempo. If you don't
wish to hear the drum machine and only wish to clock the beat-synced effects, press the Utility key on the Black Box, then change
the GTR/DRM BAL parameter to P50. Now only the effects will be heard.
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