There is no direct way to use Alesis hardware. For PT 7.3 you need modern Digi hardware. M-Audio interfaces can be used, but only with M-Powered PT versions.

You could use the Ableton Live Lite 7 included with your IO|26 or buy Reaper (cheap) or download Kristal (free) and use any of them for recording and tracking, then import your tracks into PT for mixing and post-production.

If your brother purchased a full version of Pro Tools without hardware, he bought a cracked version. Completely useless without Digidesign hardware. If he bought a copy of Pro Tools 7.3 upgrade, it's still useless to you.

Boswell is correct. You should have received some type of software with the Alesis. I think they're now shipping with Cubase LE 4.

Other than that, I believe the I/O 26 is CoreAudio and WDM & ASIO compatible, so any software that supports those should be fine.

Not to worry.... None of us use a single piece of software or hardware for that matter. Your Alesis device offers multiple microphone recording inputs. Along with numerous line level inputs. All streaming out to FireWire. All you need for that device is some low-cost multitrack software for recording purposes.

Then you need to get yourself a used Digi design M-Audio Box of any variety including the micro. This will allow your ProTools software to function for you for all of your mixing purposes. If you have a device with at least a single input, you could utilize it during overdubs with ProTools as well. But you're still looking at a minimum of $250 investment, all of which will include ProTools starting at that price. Otherwise, you have no way of using your ProTools and certainly not with any M-Audio device either as it is not necessarily the "MPowered" version of ProTools.

This all negates the fact that your computer may not fall under Digidesign's ProTools specific computer specifications. Don't have precisely what they specified? The software will not function at all. Doesn't even matter if you have their hardware. If the computer does not meet their specifications it's useless.

Happy birthday
Ms. Remy Ann David

thanks for the info guys! Great posts.
I'm cooled down today...I just was just confused/frustrated yesterday.

Anyway, the Pro Tools is labeled as "Pro Tools with M-Audio interfaces" and it was purchased from a 100% legit store. I did not do enough research to notice the "M-Audio interfaces" stamp. This is the same version my brother is running, but he has a M-Audio Project Mix IO...

Its funny how much you learn in such a short period of time.

My Alesis did come with Cubase LE, but I really want to run Pro Tools only because my brother is running it as well, so we can share our experiences with each other and learn two times as fast...plus we can mix each others projects as well.

Soooo, I think I'm going to put my Alesis I026 on Ebay or such, and then purchase a similar M-audio product.

Please help me out on what to purchase by checking this thread...
(Dead Link Removed)

Thank again for all the help,

I would prefer to run Cubase, even the freebie cutdown offering over Pro Tools M-Powered any day of the week and the IO26 is a superior interface to the Mbox too. And most M-Audio interfaces, especially their recent USB and firewire offering are worse than the Mbox in terms of drivers (awful drivers) and reliability (read any forum and see how many people have problems with FW410s and Fast Track Pros).

Boswell wrote:
You could use the Ableton Live Lite 7 included with your IO|26 or buy Reaper (cheap) or download Kristal (free)

The Ableton Live Lite 7 that came with my Profire 2626 I wanted to use to do live recordings on my laptop, but I can only seem to arm 2 audio tracks at once because the "Lite" version does not allow more that 2 audio tracks to be armed at one time. Am I doing something wrong, or is this correct?

Will Kristal allow me to record 8 tracks at once?

Perhaps I will have to install Protools on my Laptop as well. I was planning NOT to, only to do recording on my laptop.

Thanks,
-mark

unclejemima wrote: The Ableton Live Lite 7 that came with my Profire 2626 I wanted to use to do live recordings on my laptop, but I can only seem to arm 2 audio tracks at once because the "Lite" version does not allow more that 2 audio tracks to be armed at one time. Am I doing something wrong, or is this correct?

Will Kristal allow me to record 8 tracks at once?

Perhaps I will have to install Protools on my Laptop as well. I was planning NOT to, only to do recording on my laptop.

I've not used Ableton Live Lite 7, but it doesn't surprise me that it is limited to two track recording. Kristal will record from as many tracks as the ASIO driver for your hardware allows (up to 16).

Kristal is also a heap of trash for editing IMO.
Records well unless your soundcard craps out.

The ASIO support is garbage, or at the very least shaky with ASIO4ALL 2.8
You're too limited in options IMO.