Protools LE and Mac Intel

[Mr B.]

Hi guys,

I am seeking to buy a new Mbox and I have the new Imac Intel but I watched on the digidesign website and they say that the Mbox 2 is not supported by the PT LE 7.1.3 and only the 7.1.1.
Only the Mbox 2 pro is supported by this version.
I don t want to buy the new Mbox because I don t think it s really worth it because 96Khz it s good but you can only have 16 tracks with this sample rate!!
So does it mean that the MBox 2 won t let me have more upgrades and do I need to wait to see the prices go down!

I have also been told that if the Mbox 2 pro can go up to 96Khz she must be more stable in a lower sample rate because of better quality of the converters.

If someone can help me clarify this problem it will be great
Thanks

P.S I have discovered this forum few days ago and I just wanted to say that IMO it s the best audio forum on the net!!!

[Geert van den Berg]

The advantage the Mbox Pro has over the regular Mbox is that it uses firewire instead of USB, the Mbox 2 still only uses an USB 1 connection, just like Mbox v1!

In theory that USB 1 connection is capable enough to handle the stream, but it's not enough to handle anything higher than 48kHz, that's why Digi used firewire on the newer box. From my own experiences with the v1 mbox, I also had the impression that my firewire interfaces, motu828 & RME fireface gave a much better performance, even when recording and playing back more channels. That led me to believe that firewire is just a better format for playing back audio, it's also designed to stream video, so it must surely be able to stream audio.

But let's face it, if you got a fast computer and a good seperate USB port for the Mbox and you aren't interested in 48khz, I would go for the regular mbox instead of the pro version.

I am not sure what's with PT7.1.3 haven't looked on the Digi site yet. Maybe Digi made an update to PT LE to make it support the newer Mbox Pro that doesn't mean it has more features than PT7.1.1. When there will be a PT LE7.1.4 both the Mbox 2 and the pro will be supported, I am sure. This is also how things have been going in the past. The regular Mbox 2 is not going to be discontinued or anything, its introduction is also just a couple of months old...

[Mr B.]

thanks for your quick answer!

I also wanted to know if i could with the Mbox 2 pro or Mbox 2 bypass the converters and preamp ( preamp would be the most interesting!) with the spdif and connect a motu or a rme xternal soundcard!

Maybe a stupid question but I really want to be sure!

Do you think that the factory pack is worth it?

Last but not least do you or someone else knows if the dv toolkit and music production toolkit will be supported one day by the m powered PT because I prefer the M audio interface than the digi's?

Thanks again

[mups]

Hello,
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the Mbox 2 preamps can not be bypassed, unless going in the S-PDIF with a digital signal. Which is a huge bummer for me !!! What's the point in using high end preamps to go into cheap (shitty ?) ones ? One of the reasons I bought the MB2 for was that I could feed it with two analog signals AND two digital ones, through the S-PDIF. But, with that preamp issue, party's over. And lucky the DMCL has a built-in Apogee converter, otherwise I couldn't even use my UA-6176. Seriously thinking about getting a used Digi 002...

[funeral]

digi love to cripple their old systems by not allowing updates to new software, im running 6.4 cs9 and its great!

I would say 7.1 would be fine i dont see any major ajustments in 7.3.1

have you considered the mbox mini?

[Stiff]

Talk about digging!