A PT/ Mbox Question

[11miles]

Hey.

So i built myself a little home studio this summer, thanks all who have helped on this forum.

Shortly after the last screw was screwed i began THE search for some nice nearfields.
Boy that's hard. Tommorow i am going in for the last listening, to a store that only on my request got some pretty good nearfileds 8Tannoy, KRK, Dynaudio) All in the 600-700$ range. I think i'll go for the Tannoy reveal active's,

Anyway.
SInce then (building a studio) i've been asked for heloping out as a tehnician in a advertising agency. Well not really it's a studio that does commercials for companies TV and radio, and all that stuff.
The studio is pretty good, PT TDM, Pro console.....
Anyway, SInce than i was thinking of switching from Nuendo to PT.
Just for getting to know the environment a bit better, + i dont wont to look like an idiot behind the 50.000$ worth of equipment on my fingers.

So i was thinking saying goodbye to my Terratec 6 fire interface, and steinberg VST-'s and welcome the MBOX.

I've read the half of the threads here, but wasn't quite happy with the anwers. I mean i was looking for some real pro's and con's not the fact, the some bothers the fact that you can do Digi halfway.

I need hard core opinions on the use of Mbox and PT in general. Especially in comparisson to Nuendo?

Also, how good are the Focus' pres on Mbox, really?
Can i record simultenously 2 different channels with Mbox?
What do you do with MIDI, hence MBOX is midiless? USB controller...?
MBOX to monitors, how?

I would go and buy the 002 rack but dont have the $ right now and i really dont need the 8i/o right now

Thanks

 

[peopleperson]

Also, how good are the Focus' pres on Mbox, really?

The focusrite pre's are great

Can i record simultenously 2 different channels with Mbox?

Yes, and no more.

What do you do with MIDI, hence MBOX is midiless? USB controller...?

Yep.

MBOX to monitors, how?

Straight into the amp, or an active monitor. Unless you're like me and you want to use other applications in addition to PT, which would mean you would want to take the outputs of Mbox back into a mixer that's outputs feed your monitors.

As far as PT vs. other applications, I like certain ones for certain things. For making song demos I like Acid with BFD. For editing, I like Audition. For tracking and mixing I like PT the best. A certain handful of RTAS only plug ins are a big part of that.

 

[11miles]

The guy at the store tricked me!
The monitors are in on thursday so i have some time to write and ask questions.

The thing that bothers me abotu my current audio interface( 6 fire DMX, terratec ) is that although it has 2 different in's one mic, with a so so preamp, and a line in(also a phono in for turntables ...) you can only use one at a time.
The thing is that i hate switching form one in to another use different cables and patch it in everytime someone from my band comes to record something.

Abotu the focus pre's. How would you describe them?
What is so good about them.
Not that i dont believe you, i just want to know!


IS the digi 002 ack better than let say motu fire800? Both pretty the same specifications, and pretty the same price range?

 

[modson]

Why choose PT / 002

The reason that PT is pretty much industry standard is the sampling, the 002 (rack) supports 24Bit at 96 Khz and 192Khz on the TDM rigs), which is the bollocks! plus the front end software is very intuitive and is geared to work alongside tons of 3rd party software. Ive been using the 002 rack for about a month and im totally won over. tracking / mixing / editing couldnt be simpler, and despite what you may have read the midi sequencing is NOT AT ALL BAD.

I would however recommend the 002 to the mbox due to the sample rates / I/O's and the MIDI function, which although not essentiall is a nice adition. The use of firewire rather than USB means that the connection / stability of your setup is more robust.The pre's on the MBOX are focusrite so they should be ok, on the rack im not sure what they are (im assuming m-audio / focusrite) and they are incredibly accurate!

Cons to PT though is that most plugins are expensive, which for the destitute sound engineers among us is an obvious drawback.

I realise that my post is not specific to your Q, but you asked for opinions, so here they are. Hope this helps!

The Mbox is ok - because it comes w/ PT but the 002 is worth saving and waiting for!


Chris

 

[shackrock]

the MBOX 2 has midi in/out. You can also record 4 inputs at a time (2 from the pres, 2 from the spdif). Also, they say there are improvements to the pre's as well as the a/d converters.

I don't like that digi design, for some stupid reason, didn't make the mbox 2 USB2.0 or firewire. It's just a simple USB connection. With this, if you try to monitor what you are recording while listening to what you already recorded...you get this wierd chorus effect in your headphones because of the delay. That's what pisses me off the most. haha.

But, the mbox / mbox 2 does what they are supposed to. I use em here at school all the time, and they are great for mixing etc., i just hate doing big recordings with them! ha.