Mbox 2 Micro- The Biggest Joke (well, smallest.)

surfmaster

surfmaster

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http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Mbox2Micro/

why would anyone spend $250 on an interface with one headphone out and a volume control?!?! there are no inputs!!! ok maybe for the guy who "needs protools" to mix and wants to do it on his laptop at home, but still, $250?? considering that the mbox 2 mini is going for $300, with 2 channels of inputs and a mic preamp, it seems like its not worth it in my eyes. in my eyes, this is the worst idea digidesign has come up with in a while. all it is is an expensive dongle with a headphone jack, really.

discuss
 
you're paying $250 for Pro ToolsLE software and a dongle to use it that happens to have a headphone jack. Ive had countless Pro Tools clients requesting this type of thing for a very long time. People can now do a session in a studio in PT, save it to a DVD, and drop it on a laptop to mix while theyre on the road or flying somewhere with no device to plug in except for a tiny dongle. Its a pretty great idea if you ask me. And if you think $250 is too much, consider that Sonar Studio is $299, Cubase Studio is $399, and Logic Express is $199. These are all lite editions of the bigger programs which have feature sets similar to PTLE.
 
That's some funny ass marketing though. I would have thought they just would have sold LE in a box and just included this like the dongle for M-powered. Instead they are going to call that an "interface." I guess that way when you rip it out with the heaphones (which looks like it would happen constatly) and destroy it they can charge you another $250 for another instead of a replacement cost for a $10 dongle...


Wait till SSL Pro-Convert comes out. If it's reasonably priced I think Pro-Tools golden years are gonna end.
 
i think it's a bit pricey too. It's a good idea...but they needed to make it a hardware dongle only and sell it for under $100. That way users who already have PT can opt to purchase this just to use their program on the road without the bulky 003.
 
bennychico11 said:
sometimes you don't have a choice ;)
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In the rare cases where I don't have a choice, I make it a point to write my own competitor and release it under the GPL. Life's too short to put up with that crap.

This isn't really buying PT LE; the hardware doesn't provide any input capabilities, and thus, this is strictly an edit-only version of PT LE---useless unless you already have another license for PT or PT LE. Thus, for most people, they'll already have a licensed copy of PT or PT LE on the same machine. No, this is paying $250 for a dongle so you can have the privilege of continuing to use software that you already own, which is really a pretty disgusting thought. This thing should be $20 without a license or $250 if you actually need another license....

IMHO, the only reason anybody buys PT anymore is the perception that it is the only DAW that professionals use---an attitude that is quickly fading. Apparently, Digi didn't get the message. I'm sure there are plenty of Stockholm Syndrome victims who will buy these things out of familiarity, but this continued lock-in extremism is just one more step towards Digi's eventual irrelevance.
 
nah... They'll pack this stupid shit up and start making real products when theyt loose enough market share. Capitalism at work!!!
 
i've seen people do nothing but deride this thing since they announced its launch a few days ago...but in all honesty, i bet you they'll sell shitloads of them - mostly to people like myself, who already have a DAW and all the i/o they need, but have been considering getting PT

regardless of one's personal opinion regarding PT/digi, it definitely helps business to both own and have a working knowledge of PT. it doesn't take a lot of looking around to find people who were selected to perform a job because they had PT, and the other guy didn't. i've been thinking of dropping the bones on an m-box mini for this very same reason, but haven't done so because i didn't want another device sitting around with its redundant pres and converters.

now they're telling me that all i have to do is get a little dongle, plug it into my USB, and i'm good to go. sold. i do have to agree though that it would be nice if it was less than $250 - i think i'll hold out for a bit, and see if that price comes down a little.

oh...and the reason they won't ever, ever, ever, sell PT in a box is due to piracy concerns. as soon as you can run the software without the accompanying hardware, millions of kids get a "free" copy of PT.
 
Hard2Hear said:
you're paying $250 for Pro ToolsLE software and a dongle to use it that happens to have a headphone jack. Ive had countless Pro Tools clients requesting this type of thing for a very long time. .
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Yeah I think the key here is your interfacing with other PT users. Otherwise I can't imagine anyone in their home studio bothering with it.
 
Ironklad Audio said:
oh...and the reason they won't ever, ever, ever, sell PT in a box is due to piracy concerns. as soon as you can run the software without the accompanying hardware, millions of kids get a "free" copy of PT.
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And yet none of the other DAW manufacturers tie their software to a particular model of interface. Somehow they manage to do just fine.

While I don't condone piracy, I'm a realist. Most people who pirate software are not likely to buy it anyway---usually for price reasons (unlike pirating music where it is usually just because the person is cheap). Smart companies realize that this is not truly hurting sales.

Indeed, the most popular software on the planet is also the most heavily pirated. Here's a hint: it is popular in large part because of the mass piracy. I'm talking about Windows. If Windows hadn't been pirated in record numbers, something else would have been needed to fill the hole---to provide a similar function at a lower cost for those who couldn't afford it---particularly in emerging markets like China and India. The result would have been a very, very different landscape than we have today, and it is quite possible that Windows would not have majority market share, much less the near monopoly it enjoys today.

Similarly, a million starving musicians pirating Pro Tools would be the best thing that could happen for Digi. It would mean that when all those people get real jobs and can actually afford to buy software, a significant percentage of them will go legit with Digi products instead of with somebody else's product.
 
Ironklad Audio said:
i've been thinking of dropping the bones on an m-box mini for this very same reason, but haven't done so because i didn't want another device sitting around with its redundant pres and converters.

now they're telling me that all i have to do is get a little dongle, plug it into my USB, and i'm good to go. sold.
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I don't understand this. Won't you need Digi hardware to record into PT in the first place? Otherwise all you can do is export/import wavs....
 
mrT said:
I guess that way when you rip it out with the heaphones (which looks like it would happen constatly) and destroy it they can charge you another $250 for another instead of a replacement cost for a $10 dongle...
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Obviously you wouldn't plug the dongle directly into your laptop. You'd use a six inch USB extension cable to avoid just the scenario you are describing.

I don't plug any USB hardware directly into the port for this reason, I always use an extension cable.

I agree that Digi is going to sell a ton of these things. It finally allows PT users who want to edit on the road to go portable without having to carry anything bigger than a dongle.

Since it is an audio interface with DA converters on the size of a USB dongle, it has other uses as well. I need to hear how it sounds, as far as the DA converters, but I could definitely use a tiny interface like this for my live gigging. I use a laptop with Kontakt2 for my keyboard sounds, and the thought of having to carry one less piece of hardware (the audio interface) is very appealing. The headphones out is a stereo output and could be cabled directly to the DI's or the amp.
 
dgatwood said:
And yet none of the other DAW manufacturers tie their software to a particular model of interface. Somehow they manage to do just fine.
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None of them make as much as Digi makes off of their music software, and all of them acknowledge that piracy is like a tax on their profits. Many of the other manufacturers have used hardware dongles as well. Digi just made theirs harder to crack, by requiring their hardware.
 
I wonder where they got the idea for this :)

250 for a dongle that allows you to import PT sessions? Sign me up, it eliminates some MAJOR headaches

Its their proprietary closed crap that they suckered tons into, they get to set the price.

While 250 is ridiculous in an apples to apples feature comparison between this and anything else, 250 is a BARGAIN to be able to plug in, consolidate the files to wav and get to work
 
bennychico11 said:
i think it's a bit pricey too. It's a good idea...but they needed to make it a hardware dongle only and sell it for under $100. That way users who already have PT can opt to purchase this just to use their program on the road without the bulky 003.
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a-frikin men.
 
I don't understand this. Won't you need Digi hardware to record into PT in the first place? Otherwise all you can do is export/import wavs....
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i can still track stuff in another DAW, then import the files into PT for mixing/editing, should i choose to do so

but the kicker for me is the fact that just having PT opens a lot of doors. it seems as though there's a lot of people who have stuff that was tracked in PT, and need someone knowledgeable to do their mixing/editing for them. in all honesty, i could probably earn back the $250 that i'll end up paying for the dongle in a matter of days. on top of that, i have a couple of connections at some gear retailers, and can likely pick it up for around $200, which makes it even more appealing.
 
I really just wonder how it sounds though. I wouldn't want to pay $250 to only have 2 outs that sound like crap because they were made for a size factor.
 
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