Pro Tools with non-digidesign interfaces ? (Myth or Reality )

S

sushi-mon

New member
I bought Mbox2 to get Pro-tools LE. I dig it, but am considering upgrading to a better interface, possibly an RME rig. However, the guy at the music store said that you can only use pro-tools with digidesign interfaces ? Somehow I just don't think this can be correct. I should be able to configure the sequencer I/O to any interface I have, Ptulz may not want to recognize it by "name", but it should still work fine. Thoughts or experiences with this ?

Sush
 
Nope. LE will only work with digidesign hardware. PT M-Powered will work with some m-audio interfaces. That's how they get you.
 
think of the hardware unit as a dongle. Pro Tools will not start up without recognizing it.....try it. Unplug the Mbox and try to start Pro Tools and read the error it gives you.
 
bennychico11 said:
think of the hardware unit as a dongle. Pro Tools will not start up without recognizing it.....try it. Unplug the Mbox and try to start Pro Tools and read the error it gives you.
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I was hoping you would pop in.

How about using it as a doorway to ptulz, but using a better interface ?

I am considering getting the RME ADI-2 for much better a/d and d/a conversion and using the SPDIF of the M-box 2 for synching.
 
you can use any device you want that has S/PDIF (Mbox/002) or ADAT (002) out....you just can't use a different audio interface that plugs in via firewire, PCI or USB (exluding such MIDI devices as the M-Audio UNO that transfer MIDI data only).
In fact, I would suggest you DO get the best converters you can and use the S/PDIF inputs. The Mbox will still act as the dongle and the audio interface for you to hear sound off of...the RME ADI-2 will just convert the signal to digital for you and pass it on for the Digi to give to Pro Tools.
 
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Digidesign is extremely propietary, that's just the way they are. Frankly I'm surprised they even opened up enough to make a partnership with M-Audio. Strickly speaking, I suppose you could use the M-Box just for their Audio I/O, but as people have said Pro Tools will not recognize anything else except their own hardware.

Pick up CuBase or Sonar (are you on mac or pc?) and then you can use any interface you want.
 
bennychico11 said:
you can use any device you want that has S/PDIF (Mbox/002) or ADAT (002) out....you just can't use a different audio interface that plugs in via firewire, PCI or USB (exluding such MIDI devices as the M-Audio UNO that transfer MIDI data only).
In fact, I would suggest you DO get the best converters you can and use the S/PDIF inputs. The Mbox will still act as the dongle and the audio interface for you to hear sound off of...the RME ADI-2 will just convert the signal to digital for you and pass it on for the Digi to give to Pro Tools.
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This is true but just remember that it will only give you stereo I/O that way. I guess if you were using an Mbox to begin with then that's all you had any way. ut if you have a Digi002 rack or somethong plugging in the 8 channels from your other interface into the S/PDIF on the 002 will only give you 1 stereo input. So if you do that, make sure your mix is good from the other interface going into the 002 too record into PT.
 
sssaudio said:
This is true but just remember that it will only give you stereo I/O that way. I guess if you were using an Mbox to begin with then that's all you had any way. ut if you have a Digi002 rack or somethong plugging in the 8 channels from your other interface into the S/PDIF on the 002 will only give you 1 stereo input. So if you do that, make sure your mix is good from the other interface going into the 002 too record into PT.
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yes...this is what the S/PDIF protocol usually is; two channels. If you have something with 8 channels with S/PDIF out, you're going to get two channels...this usually means the 8 channel piece of gear is summing those 8 channels before digital conversion. Gear that usually has 8 channels is most likely going to use the ADAT Lightpipe protocol.
 
bennychico11 said:
well, they're not partners....Avid owns them now
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Yeah, I think it's mostly an upper-hand decision. With programs like Cubase, Nuendo, Logic and Digital Performer (amongst many others) gaining ground, I think it was almost a necessity for digi to alow other interfaces, M-Audio beeing the most logical choice because it's also owned by Avid.
 
by using the spdif in, as well as the analog ins, you have a total of 4 simultanious inputs on the mbox 2. not so on the original mbox. frankly, i dont mind the proprietary hardware. by doing this, the system just works. no trouble shooting. (for the most part)
 
bennychico11 said:
well, they're not partners....Avid owns them now
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I know, the word partnership was just a figure of speech, but to the public it looks like Digidesign is becoming more open, don't you think? I think they should support ProTools free again.
 
RAK said:
but to the public it looks like Digidesign is becoming more open, don't you think?
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I do...but most people still complain about it. It's not as proprietary anymore (especially in the home market where most of the complaints were coming from), but software complaints are still being voiced. If it's not one thing, it's another.
I doubt they'll ever open it up to third party hardware, but hopefully some of the software issues get addressed soon so they get on par with some of the other programs out there. Even if they finally get rid of the track limitation, I don't see why TDM systems will be in jeopardy...the extra processing power and I/O is worth the cost.
 
Digidesign has definately changed some in the last years. My bet is that the M powered idea though had nothing to do with what Digidesign wnated but more to do with papa AVID wanted. They have made some changes on the HD side too though. You can now connect Apogee X series rack units that have the digi add on card directly to your HD card with no external digidesign rack gear. In the past, to use any converters besides the Digidesign ones, you had to spend about $3k on the digidesign interface, and then whatever you needed to get your converters of choice as well. I think that the days of mandatroy proprietary hardware for Pro Tools LE users at least are almost over. I would suspect that changes well before the track limitation does.
 
I hope that these do really change, since it is extremely frustrating that I can get a much better interface for considerably less than the price of an 002 rack, i.e, the RME Hammerfall Multiface with the PCI card instert for my laptop (no CPU load). I bet this would blow the pants off anything digidesign makes that is not HD.
 
music-man said:
is it a good buy? I only need it to run pro tools, a friend let me borrow the program, installed it, went to open it then a message came on sayin there was no m-audio hardware.
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why do you want to run pro tools?

There are certain limitations to M-Powered, such as the lack of using the Toolkits (check digi's website for more info on these)...but for the most part, M-P and LE are the same.
 
Am I having a false acid flashback memory, or doesn't MOTU also make at least some gear that will work with the PT stuff?

Personally I don't see a whole lot of need (and even less desire) for using PT if you have non-Digi hardware, unless you plan on working on collaborative projects with other studios already running PT, and you want to be able to share project files.

G.
 
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