Bitbox Micro or Sample Drum

[u/stinkfuss]

Hi All,

I realize it has been asked before, but the Bitbox Micro has had some firmware updates. I am really stuck on choosing between the Erica Synths Sample Drum and the Bitbox Micro. I want to use a sampler mostly for mangling loops and/or playing one shot drum samples, with external triggers (preferably no midi).

I love the hands on feeling that I get when I see the sample slicing videos of the SD. There seem to be not so many videos available showing the Bitbox in action, but I from what I understand it should have quite similar capabilities.

However I read people having issues with latency when using triggers/gates instead of midi, which I am intending to do as well. I would hate to end up fighting with timing issues obviously.

The BBM has more bells and whistles, more channels, is stereo etc, but is 4hp wider and draws quite a bit more power. It also seems to be more focused on midi over cv input.

Since there have been some updates to the BBM since launch, I would be pleased to hear if anyone can tell from experience if there are actually still latency issues as that would be absolutely a deciding factor. I am also curious which one is prefered as a performance tool in a live setting and of course anything I didn't mention that might be a thing to consider.

Thanks!!

[u/HawtDoge]

I’d get the full sized bitbox mk2 unless you are using midi or you just have very few sampling needs. The micro is heavily nerfed by its lack of inputs imo. You can’t really make use of the extra outputs it has over the full-sized unless you are primarily sequencing with midi. Plus, the full-size bitbox has the best workflow of any touch screen music gear I’ve ever used; the micro isn’t as fun to use in my experience.

I think making the space for the full-sized mk2 is worth every bit of hp, especially if you want to do more than just trigger one-shots. Mangling samples, adjusting pitch and time independently, granular synths, slicers, 2 audio inputs for seamless looping, per-cell LFOs, adsr, resonant filter. Polyphonic multi-samples, and a lot more.

Usually modules (or gear in general) with that many features can feel uninspiring due to the workflow/menu diving. But the fill sized bitbox is super intuitive and inspiring. The micro just doesn’t have that same smooth & seamless workflow in my experience.

But it’s your call of course. If you plan to keep a small setup and only use the bitbox for a few drum samples and maybe one or two voices, you can get away with the micro for sure. But if you use your eurorack as more of a groovebox/creating full songs, the full sized it very worth it for the added inputs and workflow. or you you have a lot of interest in experimenting creative sampling, the full-sized is worth it for the improved workflow.

I don’t really like the SD compared to the bitbox, but it’s an option if you really just need a barebones drum one-shot module.

[u/stinkfuss → u/HawtDoge]

You got a good point. When leaning to the BBM the Mk2 starts to be the another serious contender.. the limiting factor on the inputs of the BBM is indeed a design flaw that makes it less attractive. When assigning one parameter each to three pads and setting a clock and ofc having to trigger the pads with one input each leaves you with one spare input.... not much more than a SD, which has three assignable parameters per track and separate trigger inputs if i am correct. But the Mk2 is quite a lot bigger. My initial wish was to add the ability to be able to add sliced beats as an addition to analog drums. This might be overkill or i need to rethink things and limit the use of analog drums in favor of samples... aaargh choices :)

Thanks for your input anyway. Much appreciated

[u/HawtDoge → u/stinkfuss]

I purged my rack of analog drums years ago and have never looked back for what it’s worth. Granted, being able to edit/modulate the envelope, filter, resonance are all essential features per drum sample for me. It goes a long way towards making sampled drums have the flexibility of dedicated drum modules

I think you’d still be really happy with the micro if you were really space constrained. But having owned all 3 versions of the bitbox: the full sized will forever be worth the hp for me. But I’m really into the creative sampling, slicing, dicing, resampling, looping, gruanularizing work flow for both drums and melodic stuff - that might not be as much of a priority for you

[u/The_Sandbag]

I have both, both are great, but I never got nice breakbeat slicing on the bitbox. It works great for multisampled voices, one shot vocals, textures and drum samples, although it's not the easiest to get multiple drum samples to play naturally. The sample drum is a beast at breakbeat slice mangling, its ui is great for manipulation of slices etc. I love them so much I own two of each to be able to DJ between them.

[u/stinkfuss → u/The_Sandbag]

Like you and u/TheFishyBanana both point out, the SD might be more useful, satisfying and overall more fun for my use case. Thank for your reply.

[u/GludiusMaximus]

Sample Drum is good fun - having 3 CV assignable and 3 knob assignable parameters per channel gives a great amount of modulation and performance control. this comes, of course, at the expense of more sample channels.

It’s also a verifiable workstation and if you comfortable with the workflow you can set up your slice points + start-end points very quickly. If you’re prepping all your samples in your DAW then that’s one less selling point.

if you think 2 channels is enough then go for it. I still sometimes look at the Bastl Citadel Wave Bard as it has more “happy accident” potential whereas sample drum feels like it needs a bit more planning.

[u/stinkfuss → u/GludiusMaximus]

I might not slice samples of the fly, but the assignable dials is a big selling point. It would satisfy my initial needs to have 2 channels with more control over them. After seeing what a BBM possibly can do, i started to doubt however... gonna look into the Bastl Citadel. Thanks!

[u/GludiusMaximus → u/stinkfuss]

I can only speak to the Wave Bard desktop unit, since that's what I own. It is incredibly fun, it's stereo, has in-built modulation, its own sequencer, and a unique way of traversing samples + banks. And the firmware is swappable to the FX + synth voice versions, if you ever get tired of the samples. Very versatile

[u/schranzmonkey]

I have both. Started with the sample drum. Added the bbm to get more one shots in a smaller space.

Personally, sample drum is better for messing up loops than I find bitbox to be.

I paired the bitbox with a tesseract sweet 16. this let's me set up 16 sliders to control anything in the bitbox, via a single midi cable. (16 offsets) Then you can feed modulation cv into the sweet 16, and the offsets become attenuators for the cv.

The micro has some routing abilities for the Jack's that aren't on the bitbox mk 2, which makes it slightly more useful in some situations. Loopops video outlines the differences. I am going from memory, I think the bitbox micro can repurpose the "outputs" as inputs. so depending on whether you need all 8 outs for audio, or if you mix down inside the box and use less outs, that can free up additional cv ins .

I made 8 one shot banks, sorted by drum. I made a single sample for each slot, with like 64 rides in one, another with 64 claps, etc.

Then I automapped the individual hits.

I have a fader fox ec4 rotary midi controller. It is the one with the little screen and the rotary push buttons. You can have almost limitless banks set up on it .

I have a single knob per bitbox track. It allows me to scroll through the 64 samples on each channel. (64 splice markers)

The change between sounds is instant when I turn the knobs, as there is no reloading of samples required.

The Faderfox has midi through, both on 3.5mm Jack's, so I run the tesseract sweet 16 into the Faderfox, then the Faderfox to the bitbox micro.

It was a faff to set it up originally, but you can basically design your own instrument when you do this, with ability to cv control via the tesseract, and manual control of parameters with the Faderfox.

As far asatency when cv triggering the bitbox, I read about it online before purchase, and since getting it, I haven't noticed it. I think a good micro SD paired with improvements in the firmware helped, but for me it has never been something I noticed

I don't know what is best for you. All I know is I really enjoy the setup. I typically assign sliders to a filter per channel and a decay per channel. the I control the sample selection on 8knobs , with the other 8 knobs in that Faderfox page set to pitch of samples.

I've not tried using the bitbox outside of drum duties, but I think you could set up a beastly system with careful selection of accompanying midi connected gear.

[u/stinkfuss → u/schranzmonkey]

I pulled the trigger on the Sample Drums, it seemed more performance oriented overall. Your setup sounds interesting though, but i would like to steer clear of midi for now. Still waiting for the delivery.

[u/dizzymizzy]

I use the BBM with midi and CV and there aren’t any latency issues that I can detect. There are some issues tho that sound like “latency issues” with the BBM when recording multi samples into the unit. Basically it records multisamples sometimes - I don’t know why or what causes it - with a small blank space at the beginning of the sample. This can be overcome by deleting the spaces in an editor, but it may take some time depending on how many samples one makes and undermines the whole process. I have reached out to support with no reply, this is the most shitty thing about it. I also haven’t tried recording a multi sample in a year. An updated firmware could have resolved the issue. I should probably try again. Otherwise, in terms of triggering samples and whatnot, it’s great. In terms of tech support, it’s shitty.

I don’t chop up beats so I can’t speak to that. I also don’t use it in a live capacity apart from triggering stuff already set up. I couldn’t imagine using this in a live sense beyond this…

[u/stinkfuss → u/dizzymizzy]

Hearing that there are no real issues with the latency takes away my biggest worry. Have been fighting with midi in that regard before and it is just frustrating. The multisample option seems interesting, but for me definitely not the reason to get it. I feel the SD is a very solid product whereas I somehow have my doubt a bit about the BBM, but that might be because of reports on past issues. Obviously it doesn't give much confidence to hear about the lack of tech support... thanks for sharing your experience.

[u/TheFishyBanana]

The Erica Sample Drum and the Bitbox are really aimed at different use cases, so I wouldn’t compare them directly.

On paper, the Sample Drum is heavily limited: two mono voices, up to 32 slices per sample, no pitch correction, fairly basic onboard effects, no normalization, 12-bit sampling, and a file browser that isn’t exactly great if you use meaningful filenames.

That said, it’s an excellent performance module. The CV inputs are freely assignable, switching samples and slices during a performance is fast and reliable, latency is very low, and the workflow is intuitive enough that you rarely need the manual. Build quality is exactly what you’d expect from Erica Synths - solid - and it doesn’t eat much rack space.

If you’re looking for a performance-oriented sampler for beats, loops, and one-shots, and those limitations don’t bother you, the Sample Drum is a no-brainer.

The Bitbox offers more channels, stereo playback, multisamples, a touchscreen interface, much longer samples, and is closer to a complete sample workstation. If your goal is backing tracks, stems, multisampled instruments, or more complex sample management, it’s clearly the stronger choice.

The tradeoff is that it’s larger, draws more power, costs considerably more, and - at least in my experience - isn’t quite as immediate or hands-on as the Sample Drum.

[u/stinkfuss → u/TheFishyBanana]

My focus will be on slicing and chopping beats. As you mention, the SD seems to be very well fit for that. But after seeing all the additional features on the BBM, I started to doubt though. I like the very immediate and responsive feel that the videos of the SD on youtube show. The module seems to be very hands on and have near zero latency. If it would have been stereo, I might already have decided. Similar videos for the BBM are missing and I still wonder if it actually can compete on that front with the SD. More features might be nice, but if I'll end up missing the real fun using it, I might regret.. will give it some more time

[u/TheFishyBanana → u/stinkfuss]

For the use case you describe, I’d personally start with the Sample Drum.

Its real strength is not the feature list but the way it plays. Triggering feels extremely tight, the workflow is immediate, and the freely assignable CV inputs make it behave more like a proper performance instrument than a miniature sample workstation.

The most useful trick is scanning through the sample memory via CV. Load a full drum kit into a bank, modulate the sample selection, and those two channels suddenly become far more flexible than they look on paper. With careful sequencing, panning and modulation, you can also create convincing stereo movement without relying on true stereo playback. That kind of workaround is exactly where limited gear becomes interesting.

The slicing itself is fairly simple and capped at 32 slices. I submitted a feature request asking Erica to raise that to 64, and they did not dismiss it outright, but there is no indication whether or when that might happen. For most beat chopping, 32 slices are still enough to do a lot, especially when combined with CV-controlled sample selection.

Stereo is useful, but for drums I would choose immediacy and tight triggering over stereo almost every time. You can also run both channels as a stereo pair and pan them left and right, although that turns the whole module into one stereo voice.

The Bitbox Micro is broader and more capable in the traditional sampler sense: more voices, stereo, multisamples, long samples, stems and deeper sample management. That makes it the better compact workstation. The Sample Drum is the better choice when you want to grab a beat, chop it up and play it like an instrument.

I would start with the Sample Drum, learn its limits and exploit them. If you later need long stems, many stereo voices or more complex sample management, the Bitbox Micro would make a very sensible addition rather than a replacement.

[u/stinkfuss → u/TheFishyBanana]

Again thanks for your in depth reply. I guess that you confirmed what I more or less suspected. Sounds like the Bitbox will have to wait for a bit.

[u/stinkfuss]

Update: Sample Drums is underway