Sound Card, Correct Me If I'm Wrong.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by King Of World

I use Pro Tools 10 with the M-BOX MINI THIRD GEN...

It's my understanding the sound card inside it has a fairly low sample rate in comparison to say...an Apogee Duet 2...

It's also my understanding that the sample rate is the amount of individual samples that are transferred into my midi in Pro Tools from a sound - so if I play a kick, snare, brass, etc - the sample rate will determine how many samples of the individual sound have come through and are recorded.

My question is, first of all, am I right about this? And also, if I'm using this low quality Mbox Mini third gen does it make a difference sonically, or does it only effect latency and stuff..? And one more thing, is the mstering process (I'm going to get my beats mastered before I use or sell them) make my low quality mbox mini third gen not a problem to be using for my music or is it more like, once I make the beat on the Mbox mini it's that quality forever and there's nothing someone can do to change it because the sample has been played through the low quality sample rate already.. plz enlighten me. lol

Erm...no, you're not right at all!

Sample rate - just about every interface ("sound card" is a very 90s Soundblaster-type term!) made today is capable of 96k. that's higher than most people need. Most rock and pop is still made at 44.1k or 48k. EVERY interface can do this.

So your interface doesn't work at a lower sample rate - it's fine.

The difference between interfaces is generally a) the mic preamps built in and b) the conversion quality (not sample rate, just how accurately it converts analogue to digital).

The MBox 3 has, according to those who've used it and not me, fairly respectable conversion, and assuming you're not needing a whole shedload of gain, useable mic preamps.

So - stop worrying. Your limitation is not going to be your interface.

In addition - if you're using softsynths within pro tools - you're not even USING the Mbox to capture the sound, and if you bounced down the mix monitoring it through the Mbox, or through the computer's on-board sound, the result would be the same (although when actually making mix decisions, you should be using the best quality interface available to you).

So yeah - stop worrying. Your Mbox is just fine.

[ncoak]

you should probably spend a little time familiarizing yourself with those terms and what they mean...you are way off!

for starters, 'sample rate' refers to the number of samples (digital slices of audio) captured per second - the resolution of a CD at 44.1k is 44,100 slices of audio information per second. very high resolutions can be acheived, like 192k, which is 192,000 slices of audio information per second.

a higher resolution means a more detailed, accurate representation of the sound being captured. however, as mentioned above, most folks find that 44.1k or 48k is sufficient for their needs.

as far as your 'mastering' question, if you are creating everything in the box (using virtual instruments as opposed to recording them through the inputs of your mbox), the mbox won't be imparting any sound to your compositions. by recording through it, however, all the recorded signals will have the sonic imprint of the mbox 3, which is decent/usable from what i understand.

midi is simply a data signal which triggers virtual intsruments, samplers, etc.