Mbox 2: system performance and use

D

drewz0r

New member
I'm looking into buying an Mbox 2 and I have some questions about running it and its use in general. Please, if you can answer either of these questions.. please do!

1. The computer that I will be using has the following specs:
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80 GHz, 512 RAM, Windows XP Home
It is kept very clean and efficient, no BS... what sort of quality performance will I get with the hardware response and the included software? (Pro Tools LE) I will be using it mostly as one track at a time with direct-in guitar. (At this point in time, I am doing drums with a seperate hardware device that I can import the WAV to protools)

2. All I need is the mbox itself, usb cable, and computer to run it... correct? I am using a Pod XT Live pedal system for guitar effects, but theoretically I wouldn't need anything else..?

Thank you!
 
You must also have monitors to hear your recording. You won't be able to get the sound through your computer speakers.
 
I've used a P4 2Gig machine- laptop even- with the original Mbox and had no trouble run 24-28 tracks. I never really pushed it to see what it could do, but I was able to use plenty of meat-n-potatoes plugs (EQ, comps, etc.) and a couple CPU hogs (reverbs...) without too much trouble.

You'll get better performance if you have a second drive for audio and avoid recording to your system drive, but the sys drive will still work.

Your system should be fine. I still work with the P4 2Gig- its my backup machine for when the Mac is busy doing other things. Still a perfectly useable machine.

Take care,
Chris
 
We have mac G5s at my university which all have MBoxs, they all run fine ;) .
Haha, but i guess thats expected.

That setup would be fine for an mbox especially even if your recording one at a time. I'm running on 2.4Ghz, with a delta 1010 with 8analog ins/outs and its always worked great even with playback. Though effects may begin to chew up your CPU if you start getting effects-happy (ie, lots of reverb namely)...

I also have 1gig ram, you could upgrade that too if you wanted its not very much to do so, especially if you buy off ebay :)
 
i run a Dell Latitude D510, 1.6gig Pentium Centrino, 512mb ram, and can run pretty decent sessions with the m-box2 and PT LE 7.1. i'm talking using up all 32 active voices, with quite a bunch of plugs (at least 1 per track) and dont have that many problems. if you tweak your computer as well as PT it should run no problems on your system.

i do use an external HD for the audio, and dont think i've had much experience with using the sys drive for audio. you might want to add another 512mb stick to your ram just to be on the safe side...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top