Two Choices

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draynes

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First I will start by saying I am completly new at computer recording. I am in a little delema so to speak, there are two different interfaces I am looking in to buying. First Is the firebox with cubase SE. With using the firebox I will need to buy a fire wire card. Second is the mbox 2 with protools le. They both Have phantom power and midi controls, which is good. The fire box cost around $299 with the software. The Mbox 2 costs $449 with the software. Now I belive that protools software is better because of the plugs it has. I will need a good plugin for drum sounds and Protools has one dedicated to that. I think that the pres on each unit are about the same. So which is better? Second question what about upgrades later if I would want to record, for instance a whole drum set, can the mbox 2 be used with another interface? What about the fire box same question? Any help to into this would be greatly appeceated.
 
If you think there's a liklihood that you will need more input channels in the future, you should probably consider getting a unit with more than 2 inputs now, like maybe the 8 channel firepod
 
I don't have the money for that right now. But am looking into being about to parallel units. Like 2 fire box's or get a fire pod later and I will have my more inputs I will need. But I need to start somewhere for now learn software and recording technices. Presonus says you car parallel firepods and the inspire with the firebox soon to come I am awating an email from them on that subject. what are some good monitors and mics. Around $150 for monitiors and A $100 for a condensor mic. Any help would be great thanks
 
between those two units...based on your needs....go with the firebox.

and no, PTLE does not support using two interfaces simultaneously. You may also want to look at the M-Audio units. Most support Pro Tools M-Powered software (purchased separately), and there are a wide variety to choose from as far as options go.
 
draynes said:
I don't have the money for that right now. But am looking into being about to parallel units. Like 2 fire box's or get a fire pod later and I will have my more inputs I will need. But I need to start somewhere for now learn software and recording technices. Presonus says you car parallel firepods and the inspire with the firebox soon to come I am awating an email from them on that subject. what are some good monitors and mics. Around $150 for monitiors and A $100 for a condensor mic. Any help would be great thanks
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Go with the FireBox. IMHO, it isn't even a contest.

If you go with Pro Tools LE, your projects are basically locked into Pro Tools LE, as it does not have a way to export its project files as OMF to import into other DAWs. Not sure about Cubase, but at least you can upgrade to Cubase SX (which exports OMF). With LE, you'd have to find somebody with a full blown Digi setup, since even the LE version can't do OMF export, AFAIK.

With LE, you're stuck permanently at 32 tracks. There's no place to go, as AFAIK, they don't have any beefier versions of PT available that don't require bigger hardware. Very costly to feel like your only choices are dumping your existing DAW or doing a $20k "upgrade" to finish a project.... With Cubase, you have a 48 track maximum, and you can upgrade to SX (which I don't think has a track limit) for not too much money.

The MBox 2 is USB, which due to a number of fundamental flaws in the design of the USB audio transport layer (and the underlying transport layer, for that matter), is significantly more prone to random glitches than FireWire. The FireBox, of course, is FireWire.

Finally, Pro Tools is very picky about compatibility. I've heard stories of compatibility breakage from OS updates/service packs. Not sure how often they have problems, though. I've never felt a need to use Pro Tools, personally....

Like I said. It isn't even a contest.
 
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Thaks for the help, Now onto some more questions. What are some good monitors and mics. Around $150 for monitiors and A $100 for a condensor mic? I have choosen Alesis ProLinear 720 2-Way Active Studio Monitor for monitors for $149. And MXL MXL 990/993 Studio Package $129 any thing else out there better for the money? Any input is Welcome
 
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