suggestion on interface

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classic_rocks

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Hi guys, Im a newb and want to start a home studio. I am looking at either getting the M-box 5 (with protools), the firebox (cubase), or the alesis multimix 12 usb (cubase).

what would you guys suggest and if anyone had some advice on a good interface I'd love to hear it.

also If I was to get the firebox do I need any special software?hardware? or anything on my comp.....I have a fairly new one with windows xp.
 
classic_rocks said:
Hi guys, Im a newb and want to start a home studio. I am looking at either getting the M-box 5 (with protools), the firebox (cubase), or the alesis multimix 12 usb (cubase).

what would you guys suggest and if anyone had some advice on a good interface I'd love to hear it.

also If I was to get the firebox do I need any special software?hardware? or anything on my comp.....I have a fairly new one with windows xp.
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I'll assume you mean MBox2 otherwise you'll have to wait around eight or ten years for number 5 :D . Anyway you go, make sure you have firewire and usb, an external drive or second internal for recording on to, and you'll want a mic of some sort. :rolleyes: That and the above interfaces will get you started. I can't say you'll want the multimix though. Might want to start with 2 inputs at first. Multimix is a USB mixer/interface and streaming that many inputs at once through USB is kind of silly. I'd step up to the firewire option. Depends on what you're doing though. Firebox seems like a good bet considering 24/96, 48 tracks with Cubase, MIDI I/O for $299. Do some more reading around here. There's lot's of options out there. One somewhat newcomer is the Yamaha GO46. 2 mic, 2 trs, 24/192, 4/6 firewire, midi, cubase, plus a load of decent VSTs. That should get you going for a while.
 
lol....srry my mistake on the m-box.....also how do I know if I have firewire on my comp so that firewire will work.
 
I agree with the Above statement but want to add that with which ever interface you decide to use do NOT get a USB one as all USB Mixers will only send a Stereo Mix to your PC and not each individual Track, This is because USB it too slow to Transfer 12 Tracks up Uncompressed audio ......

Whatever you get make sure it is either PCI or preferably Firewire....

You will know if you have a Firewire Port if you go into your Device Manager in XP and Look for "IEEE 1394" which is a Firewire port....

If you don"t have one you can buy one for really cheap on e-bay ...I got the one I don"t use anymore for under $10 Pluss Shipping and it has 4 External Ports and one Internal port of a Standard PCI Card......

If you don"t have one and can"t find one cheap let me know and I"ll sell you mine for Cheap....

Cheers
 
Minion said:
This is because USB it too slow to Transfer 12 Tracks up Uncompressed audio ......
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That WAS true of USB 1.0 and 1.1. They could handle 12 Mbps.

But it is certainly NOT true of USB 2.0. In real terms USB 2.0 and Firewire carry the same amount of information. They are both 400 Mbps.

Please check your facts before posting this myth again.



:confused: :confused: :confused:
 
TimOBrien said:
http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcard...home_studio.htm
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If I was going to link a questionable site like this as often as you do, I would go there and distill it. Take the accurate stuff, leave the inaccurate stuff. Take the unbiased stuff, leave the promotionally inflected stuff.

Then I would write up the results and copy it to a note pad utility in my computer ready to be pasted into a question where appropriate.

We've discussed this before, and I decided that it would be futile --- or worse --- to contact Mr. Tweak about the inaccuracies in the midi portion of his site. He doesn't seem to me like the kind of guy who takes criticism well and I could very well open a virtual Pandora's Box of arguments and recriminations.


.
 
I think You are the one who is Pursureing a Myth...

USB 2.0 "Says" is has 480Mbits sec (about 50mb per sec)In ONE Direction were Firewire 400 is 400Mbits sec Upstream and Down stream, if USB 2.0 wants to send equal Data in Both Directions then it is relegated to 240Mbs which is Close to Half of Firewire 400 speed....

Also with USB 2.0 the More USB devices you run at the same time the less Bandwidth is available for it, were every Firewire Port (Not daisy chained) will have the same Max sustained speed , This is all because all USB ports on a PC will Share the same Buss were every Firewire Port will have it"s own seperate Access to the Buss which is Much more effecient....

In simple Tests useing Firewire hard Drives Compareing them to USB 2.0 hard drives the Firewire Drive was up to 70% faster in read tests and up to 48% faster in write tests and the More Data USB 2.0 has to Process the slower it gets which can Not be said for Firewire....


It is no secret that most all USB mixers only send a Stereo Mix to your PC and it is also no secret that Firewire mixers send a seperate audio Track for every track being recorded....why do you think this is?? It"s not because they Like useing USB to its" lowest potential, it is because it has Much Lower bandwidth and "CAN"T" send 8 or 16 Tracks of uncompressed audio through USB......


Next time Please check your Facts before telling me to Check my Facts , But I guess that is the Facts of life...

:D
 
Minion said:
Next time Please check your Facts before telling me to Check my Facts , But I guess that is the Facts of life...
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LOL.

All the mispelling and unnecessary capital letters in your post sure add to your credibility...

Here's a link to a PC Magazine article from the dawn of the USB 2.0 vs Firewire debate. Read it and weep.



.
 
OK, so it seems that firewire has a slight advantage, but this doesn't answer the question at hand. I have an m-box with Protools LE 7 as well as Cubase and a firewire 410. For the money, Cubase wins due the it's compatability with other interfaces. Protools seems to be in their own world with compatibility, which drives up the cost. Unless things have recently changed, you will be limited to a 48K sampling rate with Protools LE/ m-box, which may be sufficient for your needs, but as the upgrades in the industry continue, may not be in the future. I tried the Protools system just to see how user friendly it is, and to me, it isn't. It may work for you since we all have individual ways of doing things. For stability, cubase works very well on my pentium 4...crashes are very rare. I couldn't get protools to record for 5 minutes on my pc without problems. It's probably something I was doing wrong though. The other day I was recording a live graduation ceremony, 2 hours in length. I tried Calewalk Sonar 5 during the rehearsal (to avoid having to use the dongle thingy since losing it means u have to buy a new license at full cost) and it would drop out after about 10 minutes. For the real thing, I fired up Cubase and it ran flawlessly (6 channels) for the 2 hour event. I have and use Sonar, Cubase, Samplitude, and Protools (collecting dust). Cubase is the tracking program I find most dependable.
 
Who cares about my Spelling ...Fact are Facts no matter who says them and who spells them....

(I have Dyslexia so if you like Picking on Disabled poeple I suggest you go Beat up a Cripple)


Everything in My Previous Post was "FACT" ...were your Post links to a Page that doesn"t even seem to exist.....


Fact: USB 2.0 has 480Mbits sec "Total Bandwidth" and ONLY in one Direction, were IEEE 1394 has 400Mbits Sec in Both uptream and Down stream Bandwidth which means if Firewire was rated the Same was as USB 2.0 then Fireire would be 800Mbit Sec (400 Upstream and 400 Downstream), Or if USB was Rated the same as Firewire it would only be 240Mbits Sec (240 Upstream and 240 Downstream)

Fact: The More USB Ports you use at the same time the Lower your the Bandwidth becomes as there is a Major Bottleneck in the USB architecture as they all share the same Buss...This doesn"T happen with Firewire because of the way it access the buss....


Come on, Your supposed to be the Scientist here, Do YOUR own tests or at least read some rescent ballanced comparisans and Don"t believe the USB Hype propigated by Intel, On paper USB 2.0 seems to be the Shit but in real word performance it fails to beat Firewire in most all Real world applications.....

http://www.usb-ware.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm


Then again you will probably find some test that show USB to be Faster (it Can when writeing smaller files but with larger files Firewire usually wins)



:D
The reason why Mostly intel and it"s Partners are Pushing USB so hard and even createing myths about it is because Intel Invented USB but they didn"t invent Firewire so if they can Force Manufacturers to Use USB instead of Firewire then Intel Makes more money.....


Since the USB 2.0 specifation hasn"t been totally Finalized yet maybe Intel might make some Arcitectural changes to the USB Buss so is performs better....
 
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