1010music’s bento — Standalone Portable Sampler and Sequencer.
Bento takes what made 1010 Music's Blackbox sampler good and makes it great. It's a portable music studio that runs on battery power - perfect for making music away from your studio when inspiration strikes.
The 7" touchscreen gives you a clear view of what's happening, while the eight surrounding knobs provide direct control over parameters. The 16 velocity-sensitive pads respond well to playing dynamics, making them genuinely useful for expressive performances.
You can configure each of the eight tracks to suit different needs. Load drum samples on one track, slice a breakbeat on another, play a multisampled instrument on a third, and experiment with granular textures on yet another. This flexibility means you can adapt the Bento to your project rather than adapting your process to fit the machine.
The sequencing system is both straightforward and powerful. You can trigger any of four patterns per track, record in real-time as you play, or program step by step. This makes it easy to quickly capture ideas and build them into full arrangements.
Sound-wise, the Bento delivers clean 24-bit audio, and its effects sound surprisingly good. You can process your sounds with reverbs, delays, and modulation effects that sit nicely in a mix. The internal resampling lets you capture processed sounds or record performances directly back into the Bento. Connectivity is comprehensive with three stereo inputs and outputs, MIDI connections, and USB-C ports. The battery runs for about three hours, giving you plenty of time to work away from power outlets.
Bento manages to balance immediate usability with genuine depth — you can start making beats right away, but there's enough under the hood to support complex productions as your skills grow. For electronic musicians who want to break free from the computer screen, the Bento offers one of the most complete portable solutions available.
Features:
- 7" color touchscreen interface
- 16 velocity and pressure-sensitive RGB pads
- 8 endless encoders for hands-on parameter control
- 8 flexible tracks: sample banks, multisamples, slices, granular, loops, MIDI
- 24-bit audio quality throughout signal path
- Step sequencer, piano roll & real-time recording options
- Scene-based sequencing with four sequences per track
- Internal modulation: LFOs, envelopes, step sequencers
- Effects processing: delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, phaser
- Internal 24-bit resampling
- Three stereo inputs, three stereo outputs, headphone out
- Dual MIDI inputs and outputs (TRS, Type A and B)
- USB-C host port for MIDI devices
- USB-C device port for computer connectivity
- microSD card storage (ships with 5GB+ of factory content)
- Rechargeable battery with up to 3 hours operation
- Dedicated mixer with level control and track muting
- Multiple track playback modes: One-shots, Loops, Multisample, Granular, Slicer