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I'm using reason 5 on a laptop
if I understand correctly, m-track or m-track plus will be good for me,
do I need the m-track or m-track plus will be enough ?

Comments

anonymous Tue, 09/16/2014 - 07:19

Well, the only difference I'm seeing between the two is that one comes with a SPDIF I/O and Pro Tools LE, (the "plus") ... and one doesn't.

SPDIF connections are useful if you wanted to get into a better caliber of pre at some point and bypass the stock converters that are in the interface, or, if you have external synths or another preamp that has SPDIF outputs, you could connect a SPDIF cable from your synth or preamp and connect it directly to the SPDIF IN of the M-track. Whether or not this feature would be useful to you or not depends on what you want to accomplish.

As far as Pro Tools LE, it's a "light" version, no more powerful than the Reason program you are currently using, and considering that you are currently using Reason as your DAW platform, you really don't need the PT LE software package that comes with the "plus" model.

Differences that matter most are more along the lines of the quality of the preamps and converters. Regardless of whether you choose the "plus" or the "basic" version, this is a budget model, designed for entry level recording. You won't get the same audio quality as a professional studio, but, it will suffice for home recording at a "hobby sound quality" caliber.

d/

Boswell Tue, 09/16/2014 - 07:52

A well-respected audio engineer I know keeps an M-Track Plus just for its S/PDIF I/O. It's one of the few cheap USB-powered S/PDIF-equipped boxes that passes the input digital bitstream through to the PC without any mangling. It looks a bit out-of-place sitting between an API A2D and a top-of-the-range laptop, but it works.

Don't overlook the fact that the M-Track Plus version has a switch to select either analog or digital inputs - it's still only two channels whichever you select. On output, the S/PDIF digital output always mirrors the main analog output, again, 2-channel only.

anonymous Wed, 11/05/2014 - 02:30

Debi, post: 420743 wrote: Hi,
Just want to thank you all again,
I got the M-Track and it's working very good !

Debi.

Thanks for checking back in with us, Debi... it's appreciated. So often, we give advice to new members or guests, and then we never hear from them again, which can be somewhat frustrating, because we don't know if we actually helped them or not... so thank you again for having the courtesy to check back in with us and give us an update.

Glad that things are working out well for you. Good luck :)