Mbox2 or stick with DMP3?

acoustic84

acoustic84

New member
So heres my little setup right now...DMP3 which only has one channel working right now. The other one mysteriously blew out somehow. It goes to a delta 66 to Audition 1.5. I want to upgrade to pro tools, so my question is...Should I just get another DMP3 and get M-Powered Pro Tools. Or should I get the Mbox2 bundle that comes with pro tools le and extra plugins? I am recording only acoustic stuff. I will mainly be using AT 4041's or 51, and the 4033. Im assuming the M-audio setup would be a little better sound quality wise, but I just wanted to get an experts opnion. Also, Ive used the m-powered demo, and Im not really impressed with the digirack plugins it comes with. they sound similar to auditions in my opinion. So if I go with that, what would some good mastering plugins be that arent to pricy. maybe Voxengo's stuff? I have the elephant limiter demo, which seems to do a pretty good job. Thanks in advance, and sorry if Im asking to much at once.
 
You might wanna check out the new MBox Pro (96k Firewire 4 in/6out). Better converters and preamps.
 
Try that line 6 ux2 and see why I reccomend it...it models several expensive pro preamps with exellent results. Neve 1076...API...Avalon...vintage RCA...etc...
 
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i was Lookin into the mbox 2 and wanted to upgrade from my emu1212M, only cuz the mbox is an external soundcard too right? but from what i hear, your choosin to use it as a preamp. i already have a voicemaster pro, i would be able to connect it to the mbox right? or am i better off just usin the mbox separate?
 
Yea, the Mbox is an preamp and interface. I dunno anything about the voicemaster pro, but I would assume you could hook it up to the Mbox. Dont know which pre's would give better quality though. Im seriously considering the mackie 400f now by the way. At first I thought it was weird that people were recommending that. I thought that mackie was sorda outdated, but after doing some research it seems like a pretty good deal for the quality. Everyone seems to say the pre's are very clean and the converter is good. I assume it would be a pretty good upgrade over my dmp3 and delta 66. Right??
 
I had the toneport ux2 and ebayed it. It's ok for what it is as far as the amp simulations go. But that wasn't my thing. The preamps sims give you some color but nothing like the real thing. It still has that 2D digital sound to it. I think you'd be best served with a clear solid-state pre thats within your budget. I've heard a lot of good things about the DMP3. You might hang on to it and feed it into an m-box. I havn't heard the m-box so I can't comment.
 
acoustic84 said:
Yea, the Mbox is an preamp and interface. I dunno anything about the voicemaster pro, but I would assume you could hook it up to the Mbox. Dont know which pre's would give better quality though. Im seriously considering the mackie 400f now by the way. At first I thought it was weird that people were recommending that. I thought that mackie was sorda outdated, but after doing some research it seems like a pretty good deal for the quality. Everyone seems to say the pre's are very clean and the converter is good. I assume it would be a pretty good upgrade over my dmp3 and delta 66. Right??
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I suspect it would be a sideways move at best.
 
The 400f is a seriously good deal for the price. I had an Mbox 2 and ended up selling it and buying a 400F. I've now switched my setup to incorporate a large format board but I still use the pres on the 400f. If you would like to hear a recording I did with them let me know. I was much happier with the sound then the Mbox.
 
KamikazeKyle said:
The 400f is a seriously good deal for the price. I had an Mbox 2 and ended up selling it and buying a 400F. I've now switched my setup to incorporate a large format board but I still use the pres on the 400f. If you would like to hear a recording I did with them let me know. I was much happier with the sound then the Mbox.
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Yea, it would be nice to hear a sound clip.
tdukex said:
I suspect it would be a sideways move at best.
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So ya really think the 400f wouldnt be much of an upgrade over the DMP3 ->Delta 66? If not than great, but Id still have to get another DMP3 because one of the channels is blown. By the way, anybody interested in buying it from me? Could be an easy fix. I also want to sell my 2 HM-1's. Let me know if yall are interested. Ill make a post in the selling forum soon.
 
Here's a song I did right before switching up my set up for a client from out of town. This was done using only the 400F and a handful of plugins.



If you would like to know the mics I used on what I still remember that since its only been a little over a month or so now.

By the way this is just a rough mix. I'm waiting for the guy to return to town to finish things up. I think we may be doing that this saturday.
 
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backpage said:
I had the toneport ux2 and ebayed it. It's ok for what it is as far as the amp simulations go. But that wasn't my thing. The preamps sims give you some color but nothing like the real thing. It still has that 2D digital sound to it. I think you'd be best served with a clear solid-state pre thats within your budget. I've heard a lot of good things about the DMP3. You might hang on to it and feed it into an m-box. I havn't heard the m-box so I can't comment.
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I only had that experience using the tone port with the computer program...but with the Digi outs it sounded real...but I dont otherwise use my computer even I have an Akai Dps16 and with the digital out I have 10 inputs.

But in general all computer based systems leave me thinking 2 dimentional.
 
I think that sounds pretty good kamikaze. The acoustic is nice an transparent. I would like to know what kind of mics you used, at least on the acoustic. Although Im pretty much stuck with my church's mics. The best acoustic ones they have are the at 4041's and 4051's. And the best vocal is probably the 4033, but they also have a 3060.
 
acoustic84 said:
Ok, but are the line6 ux2 pre's better than the DMP3? The main thing in my decision will be which unit has the best clean pre's. Thanks
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While I've not personally used the DMP3 or the MBox2, I have heard that the pres in the MBox2 are worse than the original MBox. My understanding is that Focusrite built the pres in the original MBox, but then split off their partnership with Digidesign. Personally, I think Focusrite does make great pres (I've used the Octopre) I'll see if I can Jimmy2Sticks to chime in here, because he's the one who has told me about this.

If you go the DMP3 route, how are you going to interface that with the computer? Where you thinking just one of the M-Audio PCI devices or something like that?
 
RAK said:
If you go the DMP3 route, how are you going to interface that with the computer? Where you thinking just one of the M-Audio PCI devices or something like that?
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Yes, I already have a DMP3 and a delta 66. But my DMP3 has a blown channel... So if I stuck with it I would hopefully find someone who would by my old pre and fix it up and than I would buy a new one.
 
acoustic84 said:
Yes, I already have a DMP3 and a delta 66. But my DMP3 has a blown channel... So if I stuck with it I would hopefully find someone who would by my old pre and fix it up and than I would buy a new one.
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I missed the part where you said you had a delta 66 in the original post. I see that now.

If you were to buy a new mic pre (any kind) to use with the Delta, what would you say your budget was?
 
hindustudiosgod said:
You should strongly consider the Creative Soundblaster Live! audio interface. It is an amazing soundcard for professional studio recording.
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I already have one...thanks for the tip, though. :D
 
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