mbox 1 : any good?

T

tojo

New member
I found a use mbox 1 on kijiji in my area. Do you guys know if there any good? I would get pro tools 7.0 with it... so could I upgrade that to protools 7.4? pro tools 8 when it comes out? Does anyone know if the pres and conversion and overall quality of the mbox1 is?

thanks!
 
tojo said:
I found a use mbox 1 on kijiji in my area. Do you guys know if there any good? I would get pro tools 7.0 with it... so could I upgrade that to protools 7.4? pro tools 8 when it comes out? Does anyone know if the pres and conversion and overall quality of the mbox1 is?

thanks!
Click to expand...

I've heard good things about the mb1 because of the Focusrite pres. I'm not so sure about being able to upgrade to 7.4 but I would guess pt8 is a definite no. www.digidesign.com should be able to tell you for sure. Look under product support and compatibility.
 
Mbox is koo from what I heard, never used it, I use M-audio fast track pro with my pro tools and I think it works perfect, I think it may be cheaper too. But I dont know exactly, check out studio gear sites and read reviews and compare prices
 
KyleAtGalaxy said:
I've heard good things about the mb1 because of the Focusrite pres. I'm not so sure about being able to upgrade to 7.4 but I would guess pt8 is a definite no. www.digidesign.com should be able to tell you for sure. Look under product support and compatibility.
Click to expand...

Why do you say it's a no? It's a definite yes for both 7.4 and 8.

vVShellShockVv said:
Mbox is koo from what I heard, never used it, I use M-audio fast track pro with my pro tools and I think it works perfect, I think it may be cheaper too. But I dont know exactly, check out studio gear sites and read reviews and compare prices
Click to expand...

The hardware may be cheaper, but you have to buy the software on top. M-Powered doesn't always end up cheaper.
 
pezking, do you know if the mbox 1 would work with leopard? and where can I find the info that says what version I can use it with?
 
tojo said:
pezking, do you know if the mbox 1 would work with leopard? and where can I find the info that says what version I can use it with?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Pro Tools 7.4.2 LE is the only version at current which can be used with Leopard. This will work with the mbox.

Of course Pro Tools 8 LE will function with the Mbox when it is released.
 
really? I checked some sites and they said that the first mbox didn't work with leopard. I know someone who's selling theres for $200 with pro tools 7.0... that sounds cool that digi would let you upgrade to 7.4... I don't think i'd buy it but i want to know pro tools for the sake of knowing it (i have logic but i don't have an audio interfaces so I need to get one eventually)
 
Old thread alert - Just an update for those trying to find out about Mbox 1, Leopard and PT LE 8.

I am running that combination on an 1.2 GHz 12" ibook with 1.2 Meg of RAM and it works great. I tracked vocals, bass and acoustic guitar the other day and it never gave any kind of error message, worked flawlessly for hours. I imported a scratch vocal/guitar track from a CD-R and put the Elastic Time Mojo on it to get the unsteady performance to line up better with the grid and it worked pretty well. I have also been playing back some sessions with ~ 10 - 20 tracks and no problems there either.

Luv that funky old Mbox 1

bilco
 
For the price, you can't do much better than the Mbox 1..esp for what its going for nowdays. I got it with 6.4 and still use it for some quick ideas at home...which sometimes make it to the final mix!

The pre's are so-so in my opinion...They are focusrite brand but only have like 40db gain, which isn't always suitable based on the type of music. Latency is the real issue...the way u adjust it is using the "mix" knob on the front..turning it more to the input side lowers the latency that you hear, but a lot of times the headphone mix suffers as a result.

Its a very personal controller..I wouldn't recommend it for recording anyone but you..it has no Monitor control and only one headphone input can work at a time. You are better off saving up and getting the mbox 2 or even the mbox 2 mini..as they come equipped with many features the mbox 1 lacks as well as the all too important MIDI connection.
 
Agreed.

Pain in the ass for recording someone other than your self, made that mistake.... Gonna have to drag the 002 desk on a 5hr bus trip now so I dont have to use the fucking thing.
Fine for monitoring though and getting pro tools working. Not much else
 
Going to agree with fish and deejay on this one too. I even have a MBox2 and found that I outgrew it the moment I decided that I wanted to record other people. Even if that "other person" is just a singer/ac. guitar player it isn't really enough. Also, though I didn't fully understand the value of MIDI when I first started this money-sink of a hobby, I can not imagine being without it anymore.
 
ilantis-studio said:
Going to agree with fish and deejay on this one too. I even have a MBox2 and found that I outgrew it the moment I decided that I wanted to record other people. Even if that "other person" is just a singer/ac. guitar player it isn't really enough. Also, though I didn't fully understand the value of MIDI when I first started this money-sink of a hobby, I can not imagine being without it anymore.
Click to expand...

+1...I sold my Grace m101 for $300.00 and an mbox 1..(needed the lute at the time)...All I can say is..I HATE IT...I had to sell my 003 back then to and this is just hard to get used to....Im thinking of picking up a 610 instead..


BUT...If the price is right..I would go for it even though I hate it..It may work out well for you...and YES..IT works well with my PT 8...God luck!!!
 
I don't know why I like it so much, I guess it is the simplicity of just having to setup the Mbox 1, ibook and a set of headphones. Then either a mic or the bass in direct. I have also gotten it to work with MIDI by just plugging my M-Audio USB keyboard straight into the other USB slot on the ibook.

I recorded a singer/guitarist a few weeks ago with it and it worked fine with him. I just made sure to mute the track I was recording to so that he didn't hear any latency delay, used the mix knob to get the right blend of the incoming source to the tracks for him and set it to mono so that he heard everything in both ears. Worked fine. I did run a patch cord out from the headphone output into a 3rd party headphone amp that can power up to 4 sets of headphones so that we both could monitor.

I started to lug the Digi 002 rack/ibook rig to where we were recording, but got overwhelmed by the prospect of having to disconnect the snake, monitors and everything else and just took the lazy way out with the Mbox. I have a session on Sunday where I will need to use the Digi 002 Rack to record drums and keyboard at the same time, but that will be the 4th time I have ever had to use it instead of the Mbox and I have had both of them over a year. I will sell the Digi 002 Rack long before I think about getting rid of the Mbox. Different tools for different folks I guess.....

bilco
 
bilco said:
I don't know why I like it so much, I guess it is the simplicity of just having to setup the Mbox 1, ibook and a set of headphones. Then either a mic or the bass in direct. I have also gotten it to work with MIDI by just plugging my M-Audio USB keyboard straight into the other USB slot on the ibook.

I recorded a singer/guitarist a few weeks ago with it and it worked fine with him. I just made sure to mute the track I was recording to so that he didn't hear any latency delay, used the mix knob to get the right blend of the incoming source to the tracks for him and set it to mono so that he heard everything in both ears. Worked fine. I did run a patch cord out from the headphone output into a 3rd party headphone amp that can power up to 4 sets of headphones so that we both could monitor.

I started to lug the Digi 002 rack/ibook rig to where we were recording, but got overwhelmed by the prospect of having to disconnect the snake, monitors and everything else and just took the lazy way out with the Mbox. I have a session on Sunday where I will need to use the Digi 002 Rack to record drums and keyboard at the same time, but that will be the 4th time I have ever had to use it instead of the Mbox and I have had both of them over a year. I will sell the Digi 002 Rack long before I think about getting rid of the Mbox. Different tools for different folks I guess.....

bilco
Click to expand...

No it is a good macine..It's just that you suffer doing some things (as far as speed and latency) if you need to use it heavy. Im a hands on guy, and have some picky artists..But definitely I agree, if its a one on one with an understanding artist, Mobox gets the job done
 
So y'all are saying it's a good machine for the price and if you're only going to be doing some solo recording?

I plan on recording some country/southern rock songs..so I don't know if they style calls for a different machine.
Is it a good tool for beginners? If not what would y'all suggest?
 
Texaslegend = So y'all are saying it's a good machine for the price and if you're only going to be doing some solo recording?

I plan on recording some country/southern rock songs..so I don't know if they style calls for a different machine.
Is it a good tool for beginners? If not what would y'all suggest?
Click to expand...

the thread says what it says. read it over.

I don't know about you guys but i ended up getting an edirol fa-101 a week ago or so, so this thread is useless to me. thanks for the info though.
 
Texaslegend said:
So y'all are saying it's a good machine for the price and if you're only going to be doing some solo recording?

I plan on recording some country/southern rock songs..so I don't know if they style calls for a different machine.
Is it a good tool for beginners? If not what would y'all suggest?
Click to expand...


It will work for country/southern rock or any genre if you can:

1. work one track at a time against a click track or drum loops

or

2. record your band's rhythm section live into a mixer with the mixer outputting in stereo to the 2 inputs of the Mbox, then overdub solos and vocals a track at a time.

I personally think it is a great interface for a beginner, especially now that you can pick one up for ~ $100.....

Austin Songwriters Group sponsored a seminar yesterday and one of the sessions was on recording home demos to pitch to publishers. The guy doing the teaching is a great engineer who recorded for many years and instructs full time now. Guess what interface he used to do a demo recording with overdubs yesterday? Yep, Mbox 1

I used mine again with my ibook last night to record a vocal for a friend who is recording a song for his son's wedding. I set it up during a break at our gig, took me less than 5 minutes to have a portable studio set up with headphones, Mbox, microphone, all powered by the battery in the ibook. Vocal take was done in < 10 minutes.

I love my Mbox 1, will probably buy more to give to my songwriting musician friends.

bilco
 
Just bought the mbox 2 and it sounds a lot better than my mbox1...I also had the m-audio 610 for a few days and it was better than both of the mboxes but I did not want to use mpowered so I got the mbox2....
 
I've been looking on Ebay for some used ones Cause I can't drop $500-600 on a new Mbox 2, for what I've seen the Mbox2 is only about $50 more than the Mbox. So I think I'll just drop a few more bucks into it and get an Mbox2 with pro tools 7 for around $200.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top