Elektron - Outbox 8

Elektron Outbox 8 is a compact audio and CV breakout box that adds eight configurable analogue outputs to compatible USB gear. Connect a supported Elektron instrument and you can send individual tracks to your mixer, route sounds through external effects, or convert its MIDI into signals for your modular system. All eight outputs are DC-coupled, allowing them to carry control voltages as well as audio. You can divide them between the two duties to suit your own specific setup.

The audio routing is especially useful if you’ve been wishing your Digitakt had a few more sockets. Give the kick its own mixer channel, group the remaining percussion together, and send the snare to a favourite effects pedal. Multiple tracks can feed one output, and a single track can feed several, making submixes and parallel processing easy to arrange. Available tracks, effects and routing options depend on the connected instrument, with supported Elektron models letting you make the assignments directly from their own menus. No computer needed in between.

The CV side gives the Elektron sequencer somewhere else to go. MIDI notes become pitch and gate signals, clock keeps external sequencers in time, and MIDI CCs become control voltages. Those Elektron parameter locks we all love can now interact with your modular gear: stepping a filter’s cutoff while a MIDI track’s LFO handles an oscillator’s pulse width, for example. V/oct and Hz/V pitch modes accommodate different instruments, including compatible older Korg and Yamaha gear, with adjustable voltage settings within a ±5V range. You can also connect a compatible USB MIDI controller and play voltage-controlled instruments straight from the keys, using Outbox 8 as a standalone MIDI-to-CV converter.

Outbox 8 also works with compatible class-compliant USB audio and MIDI devices, and serves as an eight-output audio interface for a computer, with DAW MIDI available to drive CV outputs at the same time. A browser-based editor handles configuration where needed, and device profiles are stored in the box for later use. With 32-bit D/A conversion at 48kHz, an aluminium enclosure measuring just 176 × 90mm across and a weight of around 350g, it’s easy to throw in a bag and bring along for gigs. Extra audio outputs, modular sequencing and computer interfacing in one tiny unit make Outbox 8 an amazingly flexible and useful piece of gear to keep around as your setup changes.

Features:

• Eight configurable 6.3mm DC-coupled, impedance-balanced audio/CV outputs
• Simultaneous audio and CV operation
• Routing of individual tracks, groups and duplicated signals, depending on the connected device
• Direct configuration from supported Elektron instruments
• Output mixer page on supported Digitakt, Digitone and Syntakt models
• MIDI-to-CV conversion for pitch, gates, triggers, clock and modulation
• V/oct and Hz/V pitch modes with calibration and pitch-bend settings
• Linear CV from MIDI CC, velocity, aftertouch, pitch bend and program change
• CV output range: ±5V
• Adjustable gate/trigger polarity, levels and clock pulse intervals
• USB host operation for compatible Elektron and class-compliant USB devices
• Standalone USB MIDI-to-CV operation with compatible controllers
• Eight-output USB audio interface operation with a computer
• Browser-based configuration and firmware updates
• Storage for eight device profiles plus a dedicated computer/host profile
• 32-bit D/A converters operating at 44.1/48kHz
• Separate USB-C data and power ports
• USB powered; power adapter not included
• Aluminium enclosure
• Dimensions: 176 × 90 × 28mm, including feet
• Weight: approximately 350g