Buying first audio interface, Mbox Pro 3 vs Focusrite Saffire Pro 40

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guitar_guru

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I am currently doing a uni course in creative production and am looking to purchase my first audio interface to start recording using Pro tools 9, and possibly other software in the future (e.g Logic, Ableton etc)
I have a 2011 15 inch macbook pro, 2ghz i7 quad core with upgraded 8gb ram. Ive decided for a firewire interface over usb and am pretty much tossing up between the Mbox 3 pro and Focusrite Saffire Pro 40.

Im leaning towards the Mbox 3 pro but as PT9 is now native I thought i shouldn't rule out getting a different interface. I can get both units for nearly the same price at my local music store at student pricing, (mbox 3 pro at $638 AUD vs focusrite at $599), so price is not an issue.

I'll be mainly recording guitars, bass, vocals and drums, either by myself overdubbing (as i will only have one mic for the time being), or with duos or bands overdubbing or simultaneously, probably not in a live situation yet but who knows what i may end up doing in the future so i want to get an interface that isn't going to limit me and as it is a significant investment, i want something that is as future proof as possible.
I also will look to buy a MIDI keyboard to use with virtual instruments within Pro Tools or whatever DAW I'm using.

What are the general pros/cons of each unit?

My uni uses the old mbox 2's, so i have some experience with them and am wondering how much of an improvement the Mbox 3 is over the previous generation?

From what i've read, Focusrite seems to be praised for its preamps, how are the preamps on the Mbox 3 pro?

Both seem pretty similar in features, but the mbox 3 pro has 4 mic pre amps and the saffire pro 40 has 8. (and seems to have more overall i/o) Am i better of going with the focusrite because it has more preamps and i/o's or is the mbox enough?

Im not sure exactly about the S/PDIF , ADAT or optical connections or what they are used for either, the Mbox doesn't have ADAT, is this a problem? I think both units have more outputs than i will end up using, as at the moment i will just be monitoring with headphones before i look at investing into monitor speakers.

Also the Saffire seems to have sample rates only up to 96khz whereas the Mbox 3 pro is 192khz? So does this mean i can get higher quality with the mbox?
Sorry for the long post and if some of these questions are obvious but i want to make the right decision before I fork out my money. I would appreciate any opinions and advice
Cheers
 
Hey,

I'm a student too at the mo, I cant speak for the focusrite but I have an Mbox Pro and its solid as a rock. I think the pre-amps are really good in comparison to others I have tried. I think they are really crisp, clean and accurate which serves the purpose of interface Pre-amps. AD/DA converters are quality as well, apparently Avid hired someone who developed the top rated apogee and HD converters.

The Mbox says its an 8x8 interface, it has 4 OB pres 2 Spidif which you can use for a further 2 channels by connecting a mixing desk or another pre, and 2 channels of digital in (this I'm not to sure about) but I know it bypasses the OB converters.
The focusrite on the other hand has ADAT, this give you an extra 8 channels so you can purchase an outboard octapre and plug it in for an extra 8 pre amps.

As for sample rates. . . I wouldn't worry about that for now, theres allot of interesting, conflicting arguments around about the use and quality change of using higher sample rates, but it is so tiny hardly anyone can hear a difference. However recording in bit instead of 16 bit does make a huge difference.

I'm going to be biased towards the Mbox, mainly cause I own one. But if your using Pro Tools it is always going to have better support and integration than a none Avid interface. But I don't think you can go wrong with either, both stellar interfaces. Think about your needs for inputs in 4-8 going to be enough or do you need up to 18 (or whatever the focusrite is).
 
Thanks for your reply,
Im presuming you mean onboard when you say OB?
So basically i can expand the Mbox with only 2 more channels using S/PDIF, but with the focusrite i can expand to 8 with ADAT? Also u say with S/PDIF i can connect a mixing desk, so could i use however many channels the desk has (lets say 8 for example) to mic the drums independently and then send this as two channel (stereo) to the mbox? Is that how it works? It would just mean I'm limited to the mix that i use on the mixer itself and would only be able to control the two channel stereo overall mix of the drums afterwards in a DAW right? Does the desk need to be digital or could i use an analog desk?
Also ill be mainly using the interface for home recordings, but want to be able to do live recordings in the future, when i have enough mics etc. So my question is does the Mbox 3 pro have enough preamps/channels to record drums live or in a studio setting, whilst also recording vocalists or will i have to sacrifice the mic inputs to be used with the drums? (is four mics enough to record a drum set?)
cheers
 
I think it's always safer to go for more channels especially if you may be recording bands in the future. I haven't compared the pre-amps but I started with an 8 channel mixer and within 2 months upgraded to a 16 channel.

Amazon has the focusrite used for $350

Amazon.com: Used and New: Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 Professional 20 In / 20 Out Firewire Audio Interface with Eight Focusrite Pre-amps

I think that is mainly a mic mixer since it has preamps for every input - not that it couldn't be used for anything of course - but it's designed to work with 8 mics.

If you are thinking of expanding into a mixing board you might just want to look at some of the existing interfaces that are mixing boards/fire interface/pre-amps
already in one unit - for your price eange you should be able to get an all in one unit with 8-16 channels -

Alesis Multimix, Some Mackie Onyx, Zoom, and many other people make full duplex mixers
 
A friend of mine has a focusrite and has nothing but trouble out of it. But then again he is an idiot and probably doesn't know what he's doing so its a toss up for me.
 
I would go with the Focusrite. I have a Saffire Pro 24 and I love it. I know you may not need the extra inputs right now, or quite understand the ADAT input, but it is something that you will benefit from down the line.
 
I can speak for the Focusrite, having used both interfaces!
You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned pre-amps. The pre's in the focusrite really are a step above the m-box ones, Focusrite do harp on about them being award-winning pre's, but in all fairness they really do deserve to be. They would be enough for me to sway my choice towards the Focusrite without a doubt.
 
I think ill end up going with the Focusrite for the extra mic inputs, and overall it seems to be better value for money.
Also ill need to buy an external hard drive that is dedicated for recording and playback. I have looked at the Avid website which recommends a minimum of 7200rpm aswell as saying that the drive should have a certain oxford 912 or 914 chipset.
Ive also read that Pro tools requires a drive with less than 10ms of drive seek time. So my question is what is the cheapest drive out there that meets these requirements. Will any drive do the job fine?
I was looking at something like the WD My Passport Studio as it has both USB and Firewire.
Is firewire a must for an external drive to be used for recording/playback? Is it preferred for the same reason it is ideal for an audio interface to have Firewire?
Also, as my macbook pro only has one firewire port, do you just plug the HDD into the firewire port on the interface and plug the interface into the computer?
Sorry for asking so many questions, i just want to be clear before i make a purchase
Cheers
 
If you're going to install Pro Tools on a machine that doesn't fit Avid's frustratingly limited compatability requirements, then make sure that you try it out first before you buy it. Borrow it off a friend or something.

The chipsets really can screw up a pro tools installation, as it's surprisingly fussy. Don't ask me why it's like that, but I speak from experience having learnt the hard way myself :(

Not sure if it's still the case, but when PT was Digidesign, they used to say never record to a drive bigger than 250GB and for good reason because it made PT unstable in record. Perhaps in PT9 it's not an issue anymore but probably worth double checking. Anyone know the answer to this?

Firewire is preferred yes, because of the way it prioritizes streams of audio data. However, 90% of my external drives are USB and I've not had a problem recording high track counts to it so long as the OS is vetted carefully to get rid of anything unnecessary.


You are absolutely right to ask questions, I wish I had when I was building my first install.
 
cobaltaudio said:
If you're going to install Pro Tools on a machine that doesn't fit Avid's frustratingly limited compatability requirements, then make sure that you try it out first before you buy it. Borrow it off a friend or something.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to installing PT on a computers internal system hard drive or an external drive?
I will be installing Pro Tools 9 on my Macbook Pro HDD as it was my understanding you install the software (and plug ins) on your computer and use an external drive for recording and playback of files. When you say try it out first are you referring to its installation on a computer or trying out an external hard drive with it?
I have used PT LE installed on an older Macbook Pro that they loan out at the uni, and it ran fine and i also didnt use any external drive and just saved the files to the desktop and it all seemed fine, although i wasnt using a massive amount of tracks or anything
 
Sorry for the late reply, have been away.
I mean try out the installation on the machine you want to have it on permanently if possible, but I see that this may not be do-able.
I'm fairly sure that there was an edition of the macbook pro maybe two or three years ago that had a compatibility issue with the motherboard chipset. Can't remember exactly what though, might have been a USB thing or something.

You're right about using two different drives, one for audio and one for executables. If you don't it means the drive has to work a lot harder jumping between different locations and reading/writing. Not an issue with low track counts, but it will definitely become a problem with more tracks/plugins etc, much sooner than if you use a separate drive.
 
Here's some findings I discovered between the Mbox Pro 3 and the focus rite that I posted on gear slutz so I decided to also put here also.

My usual set up is a TLM 102 into a Grace model101 into the focusrite line ins to PT10. Today after reading this, I went out of the Grace into the Mbox line ins, out s/pdif into the focusrite into ProTools.

and the winner is (as far as the A/D).....

MBOX!!! The A/D was way cleaner, very noticeable in the Top end, it almost had more reach and it was a way cleaner sound. I'm upset that Ive never done this because I always hated on my Mbox because I thought the Focusrite was better but now I'm rethinking everything.

As far as the Pre's, if anyone is dying to know which is better, i can do some tests and post some findings but I have a Grace so I really never use the Focusrite or the Mbox but I will say that the focus rite pre' ARE NOT as good as I thought when compared to the Grace. the focus rite pre's were VERY cloudy especially in the low end and I never realized it before. I thought it was my miss.


Hit me up if you have questions or want some feedback on gear. I'm also doing a series of Shoot-outs with audio gear so SUBSCRIBE to my channel on youtube so you can check them out!!! Nathaniel Coe III "natecoemusic" - YouTube
 
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