Thinking Outside the Stompbox
Thinking Outside the Stompbox
Guitarists Michael “Fish” Herring and Oz Noy write and record with the Black Box
Guitarists Michael “Fish” Herring and Oz Noy write and record with the Black Box
At first glance, it might be natural to assume that the Black Box is just another digital effects pedal—but that’s only a small piece of a much larger story. The Black Box is much more than a simple replacement for a traditional amp and a floorboard worth of effect pedals. As guitarists Michael “Fish” Herring (Prince, Christina Aguilera, Anastacia) and Magna Carta recording artist/guitarist Oz Noy (Toni Braxton, Chris Botti, Phoebe Snow) will attest, the combination of amp modeling, beat-synced effects (culled from Roger Linn’s AdrenaLinn DSP technology), drum patterns with tap tempo, and a USB connection for easy recording on a Mac or a PC make the Black Box the perfect companion for writing, recording and playing live.
Michael Herring does a lot of session work and finds the Black Box indispensable for just about everything. “Lately, I’ve used it on TV, movies and records,” he says. “I’ve used it on the TV show Wanted, a couple different movie trailers, and I’m actually using it on a movie that I’m scoring. You just plug it in with USB, and anybody’s computer can see it. It’s just so much easier.”
One of the distinguishing factors about the Black Box is its unique beat-synced effects. “The main thing that really attracted me to the box was the ability to synchronize the tempo of the effects with all of the different patterns,” says Oz Noy. “That makes a huge difference that helps in the studio. It’s really inspiring because it can get you to write a certain way or just to play a certain way.
Noy is about to start working on an electronic project called Noys Reduction. “With this new project, the Black Box is going to really influence the writing,” he reports. “We’re going to use Live, and we’ll be able to synchronize effects from Black Box with the live playing.”
The Black Box’s beat-synced effects are a major draw for Herring as well. “It’s useful for a lot of things,” he says. “For one thing, it’s inspiring. It’s great for writing. It’s really cool just to sit down with it and come up with ideas. I’m using Reason and Digital Performer and syncing the Black Box with DP, and that’s pretty seamless.”
The quality of the Black Box’s amp modeling is another reason why the product is winning favor with guitarists. “There are 12 models, and I’ve used them all,” Herring says. “They’re great. I’ve tweaked a bunch of patches and created a few of my own. There is one that I created that sounds really close to the channel 2 sound on my Rivera Knucklehead—I kind of modeled it after that.”
While it’s one thing for guitarists to like the amp modeling, the acid test is how it sounds in a track—especially given the discerning ears of most engineers and producers. “After it’s plugged in, and they hear it, they love it,” Herring reports. “There is a great engineer that I’ve been working with named Dan Certa. He definitely looked at me sideways when I brought in the Black Box. This was on a session we were doing for Lindsay Lohan, and we had a ton of amps and a box full of pedals. And I pulled that out, and he was like, ‘but we’ve got all of this other stuff.’ But it was perfect. Lindsay was doing a cover of ‘Edge of Seventeen,’ and we used it on that, and it was great. We used the beat-synced effects on the intro part.”
The Black Box’s integrated audio interface is another factor that makes the unit a major score. “It’s amazing,” says Herring. “I wish that I was going on the road right now because I could just take the Black Box and not have to worry about taking another unit to record through. The last tour I did, I was using the FireWire 410. I recorded a bunch of stuff in hotel rooms and on the tour bus. There are two songs that I just cut for an artist, and they were tracks that I had done in hotel rooms.”
The Black Box has recently been reloaded with new version 2 firmware. This free update brings the total number of guitar amp models up from 12 to 40 and adds bass amps to the mix. There are also 121 effects including compression, five different reverb types and new tap tempo modes. Additionally, the Black Box now functions as a Pro Tools M-Powered-compatible USB audio interface for recording guitars, vocals and acoustic instruments directly into Pro Tools M-Powered, and the Black Box's beat-synced effects will automatically lock to the project tempo. The Black Box is currently available in retail stores nationwide, and can easily be updated to the new firmware. Read more.
Michael Herring does a lot of session work and finds the Black Box indispensable for just about everything. “Lately, I’ve used it on TV, movies and records,” he says. “I’ve used it on the TV show Wanted, a couple different movie trailers, and I’m actually using it on a movie that I’m scoring. You just plug it in with USB, and anybody’s computer can see it. It’s just so much easier.”
One of the distinguishing factors about the Black Box is its unique beat-synced effects. “The main thing that really attracted me to the box was the ability to synchronize the tempo of the effects with all of the different patterns,” says Oz Noy. “That makes a huge difference that helps in the studio. It’s really inspiring because it can get you to write a certain way or just to play a certain way.
Noy is about to start working on an electronic project called Noys Reduction. “With this new project, the Black Box is going to really influence the writing,” he reports. “We’re going to use Live, and we’ll be able to synchronize effects from Black Box with the live playing.”
The Black Box’s beat-synced effects are a major draw for Herring as well. “It’s useful for a lot of things,” he says. “For one thing, it’s inspiring. It’s great for writing. It’s really cool just to sit down with it and come up with ideas. I’m using Reason and Digital Performer and syncing the Black Box with DP, and that’s pretty seamless.”
The quality of the Black Box’s amp modeling is another reason why the product is winning favor with guitarists. “There are 12 models, and I’ve used them all,” Herring says. “They’re great. I’ve tweaked a bunch of patches and created a few of my own. There is one that I created that sounds really close to the channel 2 sound on my Rivera Knucklehead—I kind of modeled it after that.”
While it’s one thing for guitarists to like the amp modeling, the acid test is how it sounds in a track—especially given the discerning ears of most engineers and producers. “After it’s plugged in, and they hear it, they love it,” Herring reports. “There is a great engineer that I’ve been working with named Dan Certa. He definitely looked at me sideways when I brought in the Black Box. This was on a session we were doing for Lindsay Lohan, and we had a ton of amps and a box full of pedals. And I pulled that out, and he was like, ‘but we’ve got all of this other stuff.’ But it was perfect. Lindsay was doing a cover of ‘Edge of Seventeen,’ and we used it on that, and it was great. We used the beat-synced effects on the intro part.”
The Black Box’s integrated audio interface is another factor that makes the unit a major score. “It’s amazing,” says Herring. “I wish that I was going on the road right now because I could just take the Black Box and not have to worry about taking another unit to record through. The last tour I did, I was using the FireWire 410. I recorded a bunch of stuff in hotel rooms and on the tour bus. There are two songs that I just cut for an artist, and they were tracks that I had done in hotel rooms.”
The Black Box has recently been reloaded with new version 2 firmware. This free update brings the total number of guitar amp models up from 12 to 40 and adds bass amps to the mix. There are also 121 effects including compression, five different reverb types and new tap tempo modes. Additionally, the Black Box now functions as a Pro Tools M-Powered-compatible USB audio interface for recording guitars, vocals and acoustic instruments directly into Pro Tools M-Powered, and the Black Box's beat-synced effects will automatically lock to the project tempo. The Black Box is currently available in retail stores nationwide, and can easily be updated to the new firmware. Read more.
