mbox question

[khroma]

I'm considering purchasing an mbox for my pc in order to collaborate with my friend that i'm recording with. at his house we're running the digi 002 and protools so it's pretty much a no-brainer what route to go.

i do have one question. when recording at his place with the 002 we can add live effects to instruments going direct line in as well as to the microphone (such as delay, distortion, chorus, etc) so as we play or record we hear those effects live. Will i be able to do the same at home with the mbox? I assume alot of the processing is done on the 002 so it will need more of my cpu with the smaller mbox and that isn't a problem i have a fairly beefy system.

any input would be greatly appreciated. thanks ahead of time

 

[TuoKaerf]

Sure you can. I'm assuming you're talking about applying plug-ins to the tracks (or are you sending the guitar through an effects pedal then into pro tools?)? Either way, there won't be much of anything different on the M-Box. Most of the processing for Pro Tools happens on the host computer, not in the M-Box or Digi 002. So your computer's processing and memory will determine what and how much you can do in the software. Only TDM systems process plug-ins and other tasks on PCI cards.

 

[bennychico11]

Sure you can. I'm assuming you're talking about applying plug-ins to the tracks (or are you sending the guitar through an effects pedal then into pro tools?)?

his use of "applying plugins to the tracks" is kind of a confusing term to use here....but i know what you mean.
applying them to the channel (or adding them to a track) is what happens when you put a plugin on the inserts in PT. Recording with plugins does not render them to the file...unlike what would happen if you recorded with a guitar effects pedal. Applying them to a track sounds like you're rendering them down.

the biggest issue with adding plugins on the inserts of a track is latency. Especially when it comes to the Mbox which is a USB unit. Adding effects means you won't be utilizing the zero latency mix knob on the unit, and you might run into problems with certain plugins. I also always suggest NOT putting plugins on the track because it's hard to judge what your sound is going to Pro Tools. You might pull off the compressor or something that you added to the track during recording, then find out that you were clipping a lot put didn't notice because of the plugin.
Of course, if you set your levels conservatively, you should be fine.

 

[TuoKaerf]

I read his post wrong, it seemed to me he was inserting plug-ins after tracking.