In addition to my LE rigs, I bough a copy of M-Powered simply because certain M-Audio interfaces have specific I/O. I have friends with other interfaces, and it's great to just go over there with my laptop and not drag an interface around...
LE & MP interface fine for me, everyday. You won't get all the extras that come with a PT rig - lake Ableton Live Lite, the IK plugins, and Reason - but PT itself seems to be exactly the same as the LE versions. The only other possible downside is that M-Powered is authorized with an iLok - which takes up one of your few USB ports on a laptop - but you can still get UBS hubs much smaller than an MBox. :wink:

I just bought the MBOX 2 PRO Factory, It's pretty good it beats a roland stand alone machine. However, as i'm finding its limiting as far as other components you want to buy like more i/o . see my post on "is pro tools exclusive?". Some one told me after i bout everything to check out Digital performer. Though I haven't checked it out, I would seriously write down a pros and cons list of all the available software and compare them. As 'common sense' as that sounds , I did not do that. My Ego wanted a Pro-Tools Rig. I have a feeling that my gear options are a bit limited now.

And here I am, having been recording digitally since 1982 and I've never touched a ProTools system. I thought it time to give it a try and become familiar with it. So I purchased, recently, an M-Audio Transit, which would allow me to run ProTools on my laptop, if my laptop didn't have Windows XP "MCE"! C'est la vie! I still use it with my laptop but not with ProTools since ProTools won't run on "Media Center Edition", with the Transit.

Sure, I could load my laptop up with my Windows XP Pro upgrade disk but that would void my extended warranty on my laptop (go figure, I asked). I'll go ahead and probably install it on one of my desktop workstations until I decide to screw with my HP DV 8000 laptop. I could use an external 2.5 inch USB hard drive and install Windows XP Pro with ProTools on that for the laptop but I haven't bothered yet. Heck! Abelton Live Lite5, won't even run under MCE! So what do they mean by Media Center Edition when it won't run any of this media software??? WTF?!?!

Dazzled by delusions!
Ms. Remy Ann David

Remy

Installing another OS shouldnt void your warranty!
But for the sake of argument, there are a few who have dared to install Protools on an MCE machine with no issues. You could always install it, see if it works, if it doesnt uninstall it.
Digidesign never said it wouldnt work, but its not supported.

Or, try a dualboot MCE/XP pro

I just installed Protools 7.3 LE on my son's POS eMachine (Celeron) its way below the minimum spec accoding to Digi, but what th hay, it works very well.

I bought a lappy about a year ago, didn't want to run anything on it other than everyday stuff. Then decided 'what the hell'.

Well, that turned into an experience. I had an old Mbox laying around that wasn't getting used and wanted to try it.

I too didn't know Pro Tools wouldn't work on MCE. I bought XP Home only to find it still didn't work. I finally checked Digidesign's website and apparently the chipset in the lappy isn't compatible with Pro Tools at all.

I'm sure there are work arounds with MCE, but make sure you check the hardware as well.

Oh, and if anyone knows how to get Pro Tools to work on a lappy that's Digi doesn't list on the compatible chipsets, yet doesn't list on the incompatible chipsets - let me know!

fourone3

"Doesnt work" is a very vague and general statement.

Hardware requirements set by Digi for the M-Audio and LE systems are very
loose, they only list what was tested.
The software is not dependant on the computers hardware, only the OS.
What will cripple a Protools LE/Maudio is a poorly designed USB or FW bus.

As I stated Digi states Celerons are not qualified, yet I stuck an Mbox with 77.3 LE on it, and it works, albeit a little slow, but works well.

If you elaborate on your issues, maybe I could help.

Pro Tools ties you down too much to specific hardware and is pretty uninspiring DAW software. It is strong for audio and audio editing but not great for MIDI, has very limiting features, low track count, lack of real time mixing, supports only rtas plugins, etc. Also, M-Audio stuff is not that great either... it's OK-ish for the budget but there are better alternatives. The only positive thing apart from the audio about PTLE or MPowered is that you can take your project file and load it straight into a 'proper' Pro Tools HD DSP chip TDM based system as used by pro studios.

Spend a little extra and get an interface by RME, Motu or Echo Digital. Then get a system which allows much greater flexibility, higher track counts, more choice of plugins, better MIDI etc.

PC - Cubase 4, Sonar 6 PE, Samplitude
Mac - Digital Performer 5, Logic Pro 7 (heck even Logic Express)
all of this has a better interface, can run vst or au plugins, higher track count, better MIDI, etc, etc.

I really haven't aggressively tried to get ProTools to run on the HP DV 8000 laptop with its dual Centrino Celerons and M-Audio Transit. At first attempt, the trial software worked but the actual 7.3LE software was a no go. So I uninstalled it and haven't really bothered trying again yet. You know, I got those typical error messages telling me it couldn't find the hardware, while all of the other software could. Go figure? I really don't feel "M-Powered" I feel "M-Mad".

Of course it probably didn't help to borrow my friends ProTools 7.3LE, designed for the "M-Box2", since I'm using a Transit? Right. Stupid Broad.

Pro-Choice
Ms. Remy Ann David