I am recommending the MBox to all my clients who want to do some of their tracks in their bedroom (after recording bass and drums here, and then bringing everything back here to mix). I have a number of clients who are interested in working that way, and had been exploring various hardware hard-disk systems for them - but the M-Box is so much cheaper and more compatable with my ProTools set-up, seems no need to look any farther.

My hidden agenda is that because they will all have to get themselves Macs, maybe Apple will stave off extinction for another year or two and I can maintain my Wintel virginity.

I have heard that the M-box lets you record two channels analog at a time or two channels digital. To bad you can't do both and get a total of four tracks at once. That would have been cool. But apparantly Digidesign doesn't like to give too much to the bottom feeder line.

Also, they hype the M-box as having no latency. I posted this and got a reponse saying that no latency is impossible.

It would be cool to overdub vocals will a little reverb and no latency. Is that possible??

I had been convienced that Digi 001 was the way to go. I can live with a 24 track limit and the other so-called pitfalls of 001.

But lately I've been noticing that the sound quality of Pro Tools is noticably poor. I have been interested in the discussions about RADAR going on. At any rate I'm not ready to decide so I'll continue with my double speed cassette multi-track synched to a computer. Some day...... :cool:

YUP....

regretably the Nevefreak is moving to Alsishad (very slowly).

I am buying myself an Ibook with burner and hitting the road and recording people and bands @ home or wherever they want with this setup. The AD/DA is no better or worse than 001 which i could live with (oh 2" tape where art thou!).

So with Ibook, 2 x 1073, Manley variable MU and pultecs i am ready to rock with my mobile rig.

My idea is like littledogs.. track @ mine for crucial stuff and then go to clients place record vocals and other incidental stuff at their leisure. They then come abck to mine and mix on 8024 or baby V.

I too think this will revoltuionize the scene again.. although i think it will be for worse rather than better, as the technology is becoming more andmore affordable and it will mean that we spend more time editing, fixing and trying to apease clients why their works dont sound like Bob Clearmountain sonic landscapes.

However the concept is awesome.. i mean who would have thought a few yrs ago we could do decent quality product on such a rig.. it was almost laugable.!

Have Fun with MBOX i know i will be.

PEACE
Wiggy

Wow, get Wiggy with it!

:)

I have an old adat XT in the studio because a lot of home recordings come in on that format. I'm thinking of adding an mBox for the same reason as I don't use ProTools and currently have to import those sessions as a bounce from zero. Can you open ProTools LE sessions from PCs on a Mac? How does it handle opening a 32 track TDM project? Will it allow you to select which 24 tracks are included, so you can work on all 32 tracks across two sessions? I'm not concerned with keeping theplug-ins just the audio with edits in place is fine.
One more thing, can you use the mBox with other audio applications? TIA

Jules....

To answer your question i am not sure yet..

I have a real problems... i am an abject gearslut!

So if i actually go and try an external AD/DA box i know i will HAVE to have it. So more $$ down the drain and the clientel generally can not tell the difference in the additional outlay to apease my own proaudio muse! And i have laid out so much $$$ recently on top shelf stuff it needs to start giving me some return other than making me feel all warm and fuzzy cos i have a great rack full of cool shit..... it needs to start making me some $$$ back so i can buy more fear and sleep a little easier.

Besides the idea of mbox for me is to use it for Incidentals on serious projects or as a tracking rig for demo/songwriting porjects. I have been toying with the idea of a lucid 24/96 box.. i have nice things about them. But i also dont have much time these days, cos of work and my gearpimping enterprises.

Also the thought of all my front end going into 'ok' converters onmbox should sort a few issues out onthe quality side. And they will be mixed through HD or ad8000's so that will help as well or bounce to 2" ...which i luv doing.... who says u cants make good albums with only 24 tracks.
SGT Peppers was only 4!!!!!!
:w:
But i will keeps you posted

Originally posted by wiggy neve freak:
who says u cants make good albums with only 24 tracks.
SGT Peppers was only 4!!!!!!
:w:

More like 4 to 4 to 4 to 4 to 4 to 4 to 4. Been there, done that, NO thanks!

I do agree that 24 is enough for most common music applications considering that you also have the playlists for comping parts.

subspace..

All good questions! But I don't know the answers. The Digidesign Users Group DUG (digi site, then support, then DUG) will be a good source of answers.

:eek:

Julian are you writing the SD files to an external FW drive ?

My version of compatability with PT is exporting raw waves from zero (start). That way I know they can be imported into any DAW or HD recorder on the planet. Make a backup of the original, of course, but don't rely on the plugins to sound the same in the future. My motto: If you want to keep it, PRINT IT!

Haven't gotten rolling yet, I do belive ext FW is a good way to go!

:)

RO Moderator
Member # 2133
posted April 03, 2002 05:48 AM                      
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Wow, get Wiggy with it!

Are you going to feed all that quality gear chain into the MBox converters? or are you going to supercharge it with a 3rd party - outboard A/D?

--------------------
Jules - Producer / engineer Julian Standen
"I don't know how to build or fix it, I just use it"
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Posts: 1046 | From: London UK | Regist

After an exhausting look at the options to Mbox/LE, in a quest to be truly portable (no external usb box, just a pair of phones into the pbook mini plug while commuting on the train)
the Mbox still looks to be the way. I'll be getting a duplicate set of monitors for home for more critical listening and pre mixing/comping and pre production (i use Reason, Battery, and a few others) and I'm looking to an externa a-d converter. Mic pre to spdif for those remote overdubs ( same thing Julian's doing)
A friend came in with an DBX 386 (i think that's the model) that had 96k support and spdif out as well as Lite pipe. Pretty dang nice sounding stereo pre for the money.
I'm also interested in the Mini Me..(does int have spdif?) or any thing else you guys might have heard of....under 1500 bucks ..for this remote rig. :)
Craig Z

Wiggy,
I don't know ...... with all that beautiful front end gear, your still gonna use the Mbox converters? Ah what's another grand or two or three ?? :confused: I spent about 6 months using the 001's converters and was not thrilled to say the least, but maybe with that front end it will matter less. Kind of like buying a beautiful mansion in a crappy neighborhood.

Tony

I suppose I could schlep around an AD8000 but that is hardly portable.. :eek: Mini Me isnt ready for a while yet...

No I was thinking of using it's own converters.. for the time being... actually I wan't planning on recording with it much more editing but then.... I am sure I will...

Jules

I'm probably missing something but what's all the excitement about the M-Box making ProTool so portable?

Couldn't you have a nice preamp, converter and Digi 001 in a relatively small rack/box and schlep that around with a notebook computer?

Just asking :confused: not being sarcastic.

Laptop
MBox

or

Laptop
001
+ Magma 2 slot PCI card expancion chassis for the 001 PCI card
+ Small analog mixer to provide Mic pre's + blend of incoming & recorded tracks to overcome latency.

Originally posted by Sir Bob:
[QB].

Also, they hype the M-box as having no latency. I posted this and got a reponse saying that no latency is impossible.

It would be cool to overdub vocals will a little reverb and no latency. Is that possible??

[QB]

I think they meant zero latency _MONITORING_ which means you can hear what you are recording before it hits the converters. In some situations it is handy.

Direct signal and a 'late reverb' should be fine.

I feel in the context of latency and running reverbs live in DAWs or sending to them externally people shouldn't over concern themselves in area of REVERB latency problems...... as reverb is, after all, 'late'!

:)

With a 100% 'wet' setting a few milliseconds tardiness on a REVERB isn't going to mess anything up!

It's the source signal that is key, if there is a method to hear the in-going signal prior to conversion then you can overdub with no timing / feel problems....

BTW that's all theory!

The MBox is still in it's MMMMMMMBox!

Been too busy to play with it.

:D

:D ), here's a nice home recording/project studio solution:

--Digi 001 to record basic rhythm track at the initial session, i.e. drums, bass, guitar, etc.
--Switch over to the M-Box for overdubs and especially the vocals.

My last question is that if I were to do the above idea (yeah I am buyin the software twice), wouldn't it be better to run on a G4 than a laptop?

I suppose I can buy studio time for the inital drum track recording at a studio and get the benefit of having a nice room to record in and then overdub and mix at home. :td: or :tu:

By the way, the original Roman signal to kill the gladiator was :tu: . The thumb was motioned across the neck to indicate cutting the throat and then held up :tu: .

I think you've got it! USB isn't really reliable for more than 2 in/2 out, so having to chose analog or digital is to be expected.
Using a studio for tracking and transferring over to ProTools LE on the mBox for overdubbing is what everybody is excited about. I'd pass on the Digi001 for tracking purposes, it's only got 10 digital ins to put a decent front end ahead of, and no wordclock. With the mBox you buy one good pre, a nice stereo A/D, and go in digital for overdubs only. You can easily take it to who you want to work with if you go the lap top route, and go back to a studio for the mix. While a G4 and a Digi001 has more power and ins and outs, it's not enough to replicate what a studio could do. The mBox has just enough to let you remove the overdub process from the studio without compromising it. That can add up to a lot of time savings on some projects, while still using a studio for it's strengths, tracking and mixing.

Another question for when that mBox sees action: If you select the digital in, can you still use the analog input to mix an external signal into the headphone feed? I'm thinking of splitting an outboard pres out to feed an external A/D as well as the built-in monitoring... if you see what i'm gettting at here... just fishin'!

Yarz! Interesting...!

:)

Er.. yes, that IS a point.. by using ext. converters are you screwed for using the latency busting 'blend' knob.. I bet not Ashley, for that is a pre converter and perhaps separate circuit (????) Good question.

I heard that Mariah Carey was doing her next album with 2 x SM57's an RNC and an MBox hooked up to a Palm Pilot.

:)

supspace,

A couple of newbie questions, if you please.

1) This "word clock" that is missing on Digi 001, can't I get an outboard one?

2) Why wouldn't I want to mix at home so I don't have to look over my shoulder at the clock?

I suppose I could track the drums at a real studio and do the rest at home on a laptop using the M-box or a G4 using 001??

I must be missing something here? The 24 track limitation is not an issue for me.

Originally posted by Sir Bob:
supspace,

A couple of newbie questions, if you please.

1) This "word clock" that is missing on Digi 001, can't I get an outboard one?

2) Why wouldn't I want to mix at home so I don't have to look over my shoulder at the clock?

I suppose I could track the drums at a real studio and do the rest at home on a laptop using the M-box or a G4 using 001??

I must be missing something here? The 24 track limitation is not an issue for me.

1) Ah, sorry, I should have been more clear. The Digi 001 has no wordclock in and out connections. So, you can either use the built-in clock or slave it to one of the digital inputs. Some external clocks provide an output in S/PDIF form, so you could give up that input for use as a dedicated clock source.

2) You're not missing anything, it's a question of expectations. If a Digi 001 provides everything you need to get together a good mix, then you're fine. Some feel that top-end outboard is still required at mixing time, especially reverbs. Some want physical faders , or an analog mixing path. Monitoring and acoustics is also a factor in this. Regardless, the point I was driving at is if you have one good channel for overdubs, these little ProTools systems can be used just as effectively at home as in the studio. HTH

Just had a thought, hang an SPDIF dual engine reverb / FX unit off the Mbox !

:)

Either print the FX to a stereo track or 'run it live' during a BTD ?????

:)

That would sure save on Plug in power usage!

:)

albeit somewhat dearer, i'm still stoked about the g3/400 p/book + motu 828 + fw drive combo i've been carting around everywhere

after living with a 7300/180 desktop for five years, i feel like i've got wings

Originally posted by Julian Standen:
Just had a thought, hang an SPDIF dual engine reverb / FX unit off the Mbox !

:)

Either print the FX to a stereo track or 'run it live' during a BTD ?????

:)

That would sure save on Plug in power usage!

:)

Great!... and you would monitor that how?... 2 ins/2outs, ain't that a bitch...