Blackbox Recorder captures 24 audio channels from any mixer's inserts

Previewed at Winter NAMM show 2009 and at prolight + sound show 2009, Frankfurt, Germany, the Blackbox Recorder by UK manufacturer JoeCo underwent extensive field tests and started shipping in summer 2009. The Blackbox Recorder will also be on show at PLASA 2009 in London, stand 2-R10. The Blackbox Recorder is a high performance multi-track capturing device. Aimed primarily at the live music market, it records 24 channels of hi-res audio directly to a USB2 drive. It can be plugged directly into the insert points on any console and can also provide Virtual Sound Checking facilities. Recording to standard external USB2 disks as can be bought almost anywhere nowadays in Broadcast WAV file format (BWAV), any material can be instantly used in a DAW without any need for time-consuming file conversions or transfers. Providing 24 channels of 24bit/96kHz recording in a 1U box, the Blackbox Recorder has extensive synchronisation facilities and a keyboard interface via which you can easily rename recordings before using them in your workstation. Clocks can be synchronised to an incoming AES/EBU or SPDIF clock signal whilst LTC (Linear Time Code) can provide recordings with a time stamp from other equipment. In addition, the MIDI input can serve both for synchronisation (MTC) and MIDI machine control (MMC) purposes. The unit can accept 9-pin commands as well utilising the standard Sony PII protocol. A footswitch can be connected to the unit to easily mark the intervals between songs in a live set creating separate recordings for each song. A headphone output allows for individual monitoring of each input and can provide a rough 'mixed' output for confidence checking. Eight of the analogue inputs are looped through to auxillary insert points allowing external equipment to be placed into the live signal chain. Physically, the Blackbox Recorder is housed in a 1U rack-mounted box with 24 channels of metering and a full colour LCD display. The front panel touch sensitive controls are supplemented by a data wheel which doubles as a scrub wheel when locating material for playback. The user interface has been designed for ultimate simplicity allowing the live engineer to concentrate on the live mix secure in the knowledge that the Blackbox Recorder is capturing the performance. "For many bands, taking a complete workstation on the road is not practical and laptops can be notoriously fragile in the live environment," says Joe Bull, managing director of JoeCo. “The Blackbox Recorder has been designed to address these issues by making it robust, rugged and very simple to use. It’s ready to record within seconds of power up and being able to use the material immediately in your DAW afterwards saves so much time."