Pro Tools Question

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IanBlack

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Hey,

I've recently been looking at the Pro Tools MBox. My questions is does the MBox act as the soundcard so to speak. It connects via USB, so is this the route the audio takes into your computer.

The reason I ask is that I'm currently using just a SBLive and have been thinking about upgrading to an M Audio Audiophile or similar soundcard, however, if the MBox is a soundcard as well it may be more cost effective to get the MBox.

If that is the case does the Mbox have superior sound quality to a seperate soundcard such as an Audiophile?

I hope I'm making some sense here and any replies are appreciated greatly!

Thanks,
Ian.
 
i have the mbox it fucking rocks, and im not sure cuz im new to all this but... mbox doesnt give sound through the CPU it runs directly out of mbox to a pair of monitors, headphones, ect... so i think that means it is its own sound card... cuz when i first got it i couldnt get sound lol cuz i was expecting it to come out of my computer speakers, then i read the manuel and discoverd i needed to buy studio monitors so thats what i did, and wow mbox is just great i love it... Click here if you wanna hear a recording of a band im working with now
 
Thanks for the reply. I looked around a bit more and I think the MBox is basically a standalone studio sort of thing. I would be interested to know, however, how it fairs quality wise against seperate soundcards.

Another reason the MBox appeals to me is that it comes with a version of the Pro Tools software which I thought would be very useful to be familiar with. Not to mention the plugins included. It seems to be too good to be true for the price. I did hear that it only allows 16 stereo tracks and I have used mroe than that before so that seems like the only downside so far.

I listened to the track you posted and it sounds prretty darn good. Not that I'm an expert at all or anything but it seemed all of the audio was panned dead centre? Maybe it would be cool for the guitars to be panned left and right just so the sound seems larger???

Thanks again,
Ian.
 
the mbox itself is an audio card...however it is not a standalone one in terms that you could use the hardware by itself as a live mixer. You need the software to use it. The 002 unit is standalone though.
I'm a Pro Tools fan myself. You actually can have up to 128 tracks but only play back 32 at a time. The Mbox is a small studio hardware device good for laptop, portable, and general pro tools use. However, you are limited to only 2 mic pres and 2 lines. Plus it's only USB. A lot of people seem to have qualms with the A/D converters on this site...just look at some of their comments. I don't know, it seems fine for me. Especially for a small, portable, USB device. The preamps on the unit are quite exceptional though. I think you might enjoy this unit if it's that is your price range. :cool:
 
From there point of view seems like a good idea to have the software only work with their hardware and I'm guessing the software is going to have more features than Home Studio 04 which I'm currently using!

The 2 inputs doesn't seem like it should be too much of a problem for me as I don't see myself ever recording say a full drum kit. I do have a UB1204 mixer so would it be possible to plug that into one of the MBox inputs and use the MBox pres instead of the Behringer ones?

About the number of tracks....I don't understand. WHy would it let you create 128 tracks but only play back 32? Also, I heard the 32 tracks are MONO and so if in stereo you will only have 16 tracks to play at the same time?

It just seems like an excellent deal as I was considering buying a new soundcard and have worried about the quality of the pres in my mixer and the MBox would cover both these areas and I would also have software which is a standard around the globe.

Thanks again for all the info!

Ian.
 
Yeah, with a mixer you can run that into the mbox and hook more mics up, im in process of learning that, i just got mine a few weeks ago, so that song you heard could probaly be better if i new more about recording and mixing lol...
 
IanBlack said:
The 2 inputs doesn't seem like it should be too much of a problem for me as I don't see myself ever recording say a full drum kit. I do have a UB1204 mixer so would it be possible to plug that into one of the MBox inputs and use the MBox pres instead of the Behringer ones?
Click to expand...

Plugging a mic into the mixer and then the mixer into the Mbox....you will still only be using the mic pres on the Behringer. Think about it...plugging a mic into the mixer and taking the line level signal out from the outputs of the mixer into the line inputs of the mbox....you won't be touching the forcusrite pres on the mbox.

IanBlack said:
About the number of tracks....I don't understand. WHy would it let you create 128 tracks but only play back 32? Also, I heard the 32 tracks are MONO and so if in stereo you will only have 16 tracks to play at the same time?
Click to expand...

That's just the way digidesign created it. The reason they give you up to 128 though is so you can still have aux tracks, a master fader and midi tracks and not go over the 32 limit. And true, it's only 16 stereo tracks. But most things you will be recording will be in mono. You even said that you wouldn't be recording a drum set, which is where one of the stereo micing techniques could be used. So I doubt stereo tracks will be a priority for you. :cool:
 
Remember, you don't need to use stereo tracks for everything. In fact, in my normal recording situations, the only time I use stereo tracks is if I'm actually recording something stereo (drum overheads or a vocal group) or if I'm recording something with a stereo effect, e.g. a Leslie cabinet, a stereo delay, etc. This is a huge mistake I see people making all the time. Think about it this way... if you plug in one mic, why would you record it to two tracks? People say it sounds "fatter", but you can get the same "fatness" by bringing up the fader--all having two identical stereo tracks does is make the sound louder. With 12 dB of gain above 0 in Pro Tools, you should not have any problem getting things plenty loud. IMO, all it does is eat up twice as many resources, for no good reason.

Vocals, guitars (without stereo fx), acoustic guitars, bass, snare, kick, and tom mics are all mono, and usually have no reason to be stereo. Remember, even though your tracks are mono, you can still put stereo fx on them, and you can still pan them.
 
Ah that's a petty about the mic pres but unless I was to record a drum set I would probably only use one input at a time so that isn't too much of a problem then.

I understand the stereo tracks issue now. That is a mistake I've been making. Every track I've created thus far has unnecessarily been in stereo.

Looks like I could sell my mixer if I do decide to get the MBox.

Thanks again for the info guys, it's really helping.

Ian.
 
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