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JoeCo blackbox bbr1a, User Manual

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BLACK

BOX 

RECORDER 

- User Manual v2.2 

Controls and interfaces 

Front Panel 

The front panel of the BlackBox Recorder contains all the user controls for 
the unit. The buttons are all touch sensitive which prevents them wearing 
out through constant use – just place the flat of your finger on the button to 
operate. 

 

  

 

 

The left hand side of the unit contains the metering section. Each channel or 
Track [1 through 24] has 3 rows of metering LEDs [Green ( = signal present), 
Yellow ( = good signal level) and Red ( = getting a bit hot / clip)] above the 
Track Arming LEDs. The metering LEDs get brighter as the signal level gets 
louder and the Red LED can be set to stay on when an overload occurs. The 
meters are positioned above a two colour LED that indicates whether the 
track is armed ready for recording or not (Green for playback ready; Red for 
record ready). There are also indicators for Disk activity and Playback 
Lockout which can prevent you from accidentally entering playback during 
the performance. 

To the right of the JoeCo logo is the control wheel which has a number of 
functions explained later.  

Then we have the main Transport controls [PLAY, STOP, RECORD] with the 
four other control buttons above [L-R: BACK, MARK, LOOP, MENU].  

Finally, at the right hand side of the front panel is the colour LCD display.  

 

 

Metering Area 

 

Transport 

Controls 

Control buttons 

Display 

 

 

Data 

Wheel 

Summary of Contents for blackbox bbr1a

Page 1: ...ou do read it just in case there are some aspects of the product that are not immediately obvious This manual covers all variants of the BlackBox Recorder BBR1U BBR1B BBR1D and BBR1A and should be read in conjunction with the Quick Start guide More information is available in the LOGIN area of the JoeCo Website www joeco co uk Visitors can gain immediate access to more detailed information whilst ...

Page 2: ...rive 10 Power connection 11 Checking that everything works 11 Normal operation 12 Recording 12 Playback 13 File Names 15 Virtual Sound Checking 17 Monitoring 19 Summary of Combined Controls 20 Using the Menu 21 Menu Structure and operation 21 Setting up adjustable parameters 21 Software updates 29 Linking multiple BlackBox Recorders together 32 Using a PS2 keyboard 34 Troubleshooting 36 Safe n Sou...

Page 3: ...hich might spill into any openings Ventilation Do not obstruct any ventilation If the equipment is to be operated in a flight case ensure that it is constructed to allow adequate ventilation Heat and vibration Do not locate the equipment in a place subject to excessive heat or direct sunlight as this could be a fire hazard Locate the equipment away from any devices which produce heat or cause exce...

Page 4: ...ted such that they cannot be stood on or tripped over Copyright Warning JoeCo s recorder products are designed to enable you to record and reproduce material to which you own the copyright or material which the copyright owner has granted you permission to record and or reproduce It is illegal to record reproduce distribute sell hire lend perform or broadcast all or part of a work written or music...

Page 5: ...y for Live applications and will not necessarily be appropriate for use in a studio situation It will typically be used to record audio material onto a USB2 drive for subsequent editing and processing in a DAW A number of specific features have been added to make it suitable and safe in a Live environment such as built in analogue relays playback lockout protection against accidentally ending a re...

Page 6: ... as the signal level gets louder and the Red LED can be set to stay on when an overload occurs The meters are positioned above a two colour LED that indicates whether the track is armed ready for recording or not Green for playback ready Red for record ready There are also indicators for Disk activity and Playback Lockout which can prevent you from accidentally entering playback during the perform...

Page 7: ... as output cables can be plugged into any external effects required before returning to the console On the BBR1A lightpipe i o version the upper option area contains the lightpipe i o connections and the lower row of D types are unbalanced analogue i o See BBR1A Quick Start Guide for diagram On the BBR1D AES EBU i o version the upper row of D type connectors provide digital i o normally configured...

Page 8: ...terminated in 8 labelled TRS jacks which have both the send and return signals on tip and ring respectively with the sleeve being the ground connection The advantages of plugging into the insert break points are a you are as close to the mic amps as possible and therefore will be recording the cleanest signal and b you can use the BlackBox as a Virtual Sound Check device However some people will p...

Page 9: ...the balanced or digital versions as there are too many variants to cater for every eventuality However your dealer will be happy to supply suitable cable looms for your application It is not possible to use the balanced i o unit plugged into unbalanced inserts as if it were an unbalanced unit but it is possible to feed the inputs from an unbalanced feed providing you ground the cold ve input signa...

Page 10: ...ystem because it is compatible with all major Operating Systems and it s also the format chosen for the AES31 digital interchange standard However USB powered drives such as the Western Digital Passport series typically draw more current during spin up than the USB2 specification allows limited to 500mA and can therefore not be used without providing a separate power supply Most standard Flash RAM...

Page 11: ...u read this Although the unit can accept a suitable dc input between 7 5V and 15V it should always be used with the power supply provided Checking that everything works Once you have powered the unit up and the disk drive is connected and powered up you should be ready to record Press the record button and away you go The basic screen should look something like this when first powered up with a dr...

Page 12: ...corded during a typical concert will still be kept together The controls are all touch sensitive Just place the flat part of your finger firmly on the panel over the control the area your finger covers is more important than the pressure you apply Recording On power up the BBR is ready to record within seconds of logging the drive just press the REC button and it will begin recording The record bu...

Page 13: ...ernally so you should only have to set these things up once You might want to record at a different sample rate or bit depth to that which the BBR is currently set at page 24 The unit may be set up to only record certain tracks and you may want to record on more or less tracks page 22 You may want to timestamp the recording against timecode page 24 or to set up the unit to use an external audio cl...

Page 14: ...ress the MENU button Move the data wheel until Song Select is highlighted press MENU again Select Song Folder if required and then move the data wheel to select the song you want to playback press MENU to confirm When a previously recorded Song is loaded for playback the 24 Green playback ready LEDs positioned underneath the meter section indicate which tracks are present and ready for playback If...

Page 15: ...ard connector on the BBR is a PS2 style Mini DIN connector This was chosen specifically to avoid getting it mixed up with the USB connection for the Disk Drive most PC or Electronics shops will sell PS2 keyboards It is possible to name Songs and tracks using the menu buttons and data wheel see page 27 but you ll find it much quicker using a standard 102 key PS2 keyboard To rename a song use Ctrl S...

Page 16: ... rename a track use Ctrl digit digit T on the keyboard where digit digit is a number between 01 and 24 to select which track you want to name then type in the name that you want The BBR will accept the same characters as for Song Names above Finish renaming the track by pressing Enter on the keyboard or arrow up down if you want to immediately name another track The resulting tracks will be called...

Page 17: ...ringbone Kick WAV 001 03 Herringbone Snare WAV 001 24 Herringbone Daphne Nose Flute mic WAV The next Song might contain files named as follows 002 01 Haddock Marsala Bass WAV 002 02 Haddock Marsala Kick WAV 002 03 Haddock Marsala Snare WAV 002 24 Haddock Marsala Daphne Nose Flute mic WAV But it would use the track names you have entered automatically It is completely optional whether you rename So...

Page 18: ... a continuous loop If however there are no later Markers pressing the LOOP button will create a Loop between the last Marker and the current playback position LOOP mode will remain active until you press LOOP again You are able to STOP and restart PLAY whilst remaining in LOOP mode In STOP holding down MARK and using the data wheel will jump to the next and subsequent Markers within the Song so th...

Page 19: ...f each pair of tracks panned hard left and right The Monitor section of the menu controls the level and pan settings in the MIX mode The Monitor Menu allows you to set the BACK button to toggle the data wheel function between selecting the PFL solo channel and controlling the headphone volume In this mode the MARK button will cancel PFL and return to the MIX setting allowing you to quickly switch ...

Page 20: ...toggle mode MARK Exit solo and return to mix setting In STOP STOP or Fast rewind or Fast forward wind In STOP MARK or Select MARKER for PLAY position In STOP MARK Select Previous Song IN STOP LOOP Select Next Song In PLAY MARK DELETE previous MARKER s In PLAY MARK DELETE subsequent MARKER s In PLAY LOOP Enter LOOP mode at next MARKER or immediately if no subsequent MARKERS In PLAY RECORD MARK Set ...

Page 21: ...es Submenu These are shown by an ellipsis after the name e g Control When you press MENU the BBR loads to the submenu Multiple choice These show a colon after the option title e g Ref clock Internal When you press MENU the option turns red and you can scroll through the available options and press MENU again when you have the correct choice Tick box These are preceded by a tick if selected or an e...

Page 22: ... the setup menu you can decide to control Playback Lockout manually or set it to be asserted automatically whenever you enter record as a safety measure Track Arm Arm All Arms enables recording on all tracks Disarm All Disarms disables recording on all tracks Arm ticked Arms the tracks listed below that have a tick sometimes called a check mark beside them 1 24 the tracks which can be ticked or un...

Page 23: ...re are errors or clock slippage on those channels The input status display is echoed at the top of the main screen if an error or any digital slippage occurs Any clock errors are noted in the error display area of the main screen The Clock Error Display can be cleared using the STOP button The information area of the main screen will indicate when the Reference clock is missing or when a digital s...

Page 24: ...r from the real time clock built into the BBR The BBR can only read timecode i e act as a timecode Slave it cannot generate timecode i e act as a timecode Master The BlackBox does not chase timecode or lock to it Sample rates Selectable between 44 1kHz 48kHz 88 2kHz and 96kHz Wordsize 24bit or 16bit We recommend that you choose 24bit unless you re really short on disk space or your post production...

Page 25: ...ou have chosen TC Auto This setting sets the internal timecode frame rate to match the incoming timecode Please note that this can cause problems later in post production if your source of timecode is intermittent and happens to start at the same time as a recording It s better to set the timecode frame rate explicitly Line In Mon This adjusts how the unit monitors the Line In signals on all 24 ch...

Page 26: ...ainly be overloading the A D converters on the BlackBox Digital distortion is not pleasant to listen to and will probably render your recording useless You may not notice it live but you will hear it on the recording Please leave yourself enough headroom when you re recording a concert If you ve set the level correctly the red meter LEDs should flash infrequently if at all Playback Lockout You can...

Page 27: ...nitor Monitor AGC This sets up the automatic gain control on the headphone monitor outputs helping you to hear what s going onto disk in a noisy live environment Hi res metering turns the row of Record Enable LEDs into a high resolution level meter showing what signal level is one the PFL bus Monitor Mix and Monitor Pan allow the adjustment of level and pan for each channel feeding the headphone M...

Page 28: ...on so that each track name will be taken from the template Track 1 Track 24 These are the template names for each track Clear track template Removes all the template names Copy trk names from song This copies any track names in the current song into the template Show song tracks on load This will populate the list with the track names of the current song t also updates template When ticked using t...

Page 29: ...this part of the menu you will first have to Select the partition that you want to format The BBR defaults to partition none as a safety measure to prevent accidental formatting of a drive Having selected the partition the BBR displays the current status of that partition You can then move onto Format Partition to actually format the drive Again there are warning messages to try and prevent accide...

Page 30: ...efore an important recording please give yourself enough time to fully test that the software works to your satisfaction before you need to use it in anger Ensure that you have a stable source of power during the update process we have endeavoured to make the update process safe if the power fails during an update but there is always the possibility that something could go wrong requiring a return...

Page 31: ...tely remove a field update that you have already installed reverting to the original factory version or replace the original factory version with a field update The only reason for replacing the original factory version with a field update is to speed up the boot time typically a field update will add about 10 seconds to the boot time of a BBR which still makes it about 10 times faster to boot tha...

Page 32: ...e to replay the material later in a DAW environment The BBR1 achieves this link using the Ext Clk RCA sockets on the rear panel The Master unit will output a clock signal to the other units embedding the control data and timecode into the sub code of the SPDIF data stream This clock signal is intentionally silent with no audio data present to ensure that there is a clean feed of clock signals betw...

Page 33: ...r unit to an external clock source if required by plugging an external AES Clock into the Ext Clk In of the Master unit or on digital units clocking all the systems to external word clock However do not wire the clock output from Slave 3 back into the Master unit as this will create a feedback loop may cause the clocking to become unstable The link signal between Master and Slave units is propriet...

Page 34: ...nt to set Playback Lockout on the Slave units to Manual Using a PS2 keyboard The BlackBox Recorder can accept a standard 102 key PS2 style keyboard Currently most mini keyboards are not supported especially those that require some set up drivers to be installed on the PC The most consistently reliable keyboards we have found are the Microsoft 500 style PS2 keyboards which can be obtained in most c...

Page 35: ...track ixml note accept current item edit and move to previous next Return Enter complete and accept edit Esc abandon edit no change to text NB the return Enter key is the character key not the keypad enter the cursor arrow keys are the dedicated cursor keys not the keypad keys Keyboard navigation These are the cursor keys not keypad Right arrow or Enter Same effect as pressing MENU Left arrow or E...

Page 36: ...drive Check disk for errors as soon as possible on a PC or Mac BBR boots ok but does not log find disk Check that the USB connector is plugged in correctly to both the BBR and the disk drive Check disk drive power supply as above Try a different USB2 lead disk Try powering up the BBR without a drive attached and then plugging the drive in afterwards Check that the disk drive is formatted with a FA...

Page 37: ...eck the drive in a normal laptop to locate the previous night s folder Power removed before BBR has finished writing to disk It is often possible to recover files even when the BBR has been powered down whilst still writing to its disk See Disk Recovery page 37 If the above list does not solve the problem you are having please contact your dealer in the first instance and then your local distribut...

Page 38: ... PLAY or RECORD is pressed but disk is not connected DISK BUSY displayed if PLAY or RECORD is pressed but disk is busy reserved e g for song selection DISK TOO SLOW displayed if requests to the DISK have not been serviced in time NEW SONG displayed if the user presses RECORD during record to start a new song NO SONG SELECTED displayed if someone presses PLAY but no song is selected SELECT VALID DI...

Page 39: ...LLED displayed when in remote control or slave mode and a disabled operation is attempted PLAY OUT OF RANGE when in remote control or slave mode PLAYBACK is attempted outside the time code limits of the selected Song DIGITAL INPUT MISSING A source of digital audio is not correctly plugged in DIGITAL SLIP A source of Digital audio is not properly synchronised with the BlackBox and is slipping with ...

Page 40: ... legitimate user hereinafter referred to as a User is a person or corporate entity or employee of a corporate entity who is the owner of a Product following its original purchase from JoeCo or an authorised JoeCo distributor or reseller or its subsequent purchase from a legitimate owner and has accepted the terms of this agreement using a Product on loan from its owner where the owner has given th...

Page 41: ...ity whatsoever for any claim arising from such use 2 Limitations of Liability Except for JoeCo s limited Hardware Warranty see Warranty Information in the relevant JoeCo User Manual or via the JoeCo website at www joeco co uk to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law JoeCo hereby disclaims all warranties and conditions with respect to the Product and any services performed by use of the Pr...

Page 42: ...ADDITIONAL LICENCE TERMS THAT ACCOMPANY ANY SUCH UPDATES IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE ADDITIONAL LICENCE TERMS THAT ACCOMPANY SUCH UPDATES YOU MAY NOT DOWNLOAD COPY INSTALL OR OTHERWISE USE SUCH UPDATES Definitions Used In This Agreement JoeCo JoeCo Limited Product Any product designed manufactured distributed or resold by JoeCo including the BlackBox Recorder which may be abbreviated to BBR The ter...

Page 43: ...r Licence You the User are entitled to use all parts of the Software for the duration of the life of the Product If the Product is sold on to a third party a new user is entitled to the same use that is to use all parts of the Software for the duration of the life of the Product provided that they agree to all the terms of this Licence 3 Additional Charge Items From time to time JoeCo or third par...

Page 44: ...ta inability to use or to continue to use the Product itself or any connected device damage to property damage based on inconvenience loss of time or interrupted operation and to the extent permitted by law damages for personal injury In no event will JoeCo s liability for any damages to the User purchaser or any other person exceed the price paid for the Product regardless of any form of the clai...

Page 45: ...expressly excluded Warranty Information 1 Warranty Except as specified below JoeCo Limited hereinafter referred to as JoeCo warrants the hardware elements of this JoeCo Product hereinafter referred to as the Hardware to be free of defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one 1 year for parts and labour from date of original retail purchase provided that the Product is owned by the orig...

Page 46: ...duct requires repair because of abnormal use misuse abuse neglect or accident it will assess a fair repair or replacement fee The purchaser will have the option exercisable within thirty days of notification by JoeCo to pay this fee and have the Product repaired and returned or not pay this fee and have the Product returned un repaired at their expense Thereafter JoeCo reserves the right to dispos...

Page 47: ...ranty constitutes the entire warranty provided to you by JoeCo and supersedes all prior written agreements and all representations undertakings and promises given or implied by anything said or written by JoeCo or by an authorised JoeCo distributor reseller or representative JoeCo will not be bound by any modification or amendment of this Warranty unless it is in writing and signed by JoeCo In the...

Page 48: ...ct returned un repaired at their expense Thereafter JoeCo reserves the right to dispose of such unrepaired product without further notification JoeCo reserves the right to update any Product returned for repair Product and End User Registration It is recommended that you register yourself as an end user of the BlackBox Recorder product on the JoeCo website at your earliest opportunity This complet...

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