So I'm getting a new power book, 1.5 ghz 1gig ram etc etc.

I want to use protools, I am familiar with it/half my sessions are on protools.

What's my best bet for recording? My budget is somewhat limited so I was considering the mbox. I want to basically record guitar bass and vocals and then go to a studio to do drums.

Is this realistic? Will I be dissapointed in the Mbox/will the sound quality be horrible?

What's up with the USB and no Firewire? Will this effect anything?

I'd recommend you to do a search on this forum. Look for Mbox and powerbook etc... You'll find the answers.

If you are recording demos, I guess the mbox will be ok. Having said that, it would be wise to look into a better preamp and A/D converter. If you are on a budget but want a decent sound, maybe you should look in something like the Apogee mini me.

ouch. The mini-me is like $1300...might as well get the digi 002.

How does the sound quality of the mbox compare to the digi 002 rack?

That's splitting hairs. They are both adequate for any demo. I have mbox and powerbook and i can do some great recordings. Altiverb really helps out too.

That's good to hear. Altiverb is a little pricey though. Anyone else have an opinion? It's basically between the 002 rack and the mbox.

All I'm going to do is record bass guitar (w/ click track) and vocals and mix...then track drums in a studio.

I have tons of great mics. Is there anything else that I really need?

For what you say you want, the Mbox should be okay.

If you might want to do anything beyond that, though, you would be greatly benefitted by the much greater flexibility, inputs, etc, that the 002 offers. But, as I understand it, the quality should be roughly comparable. (I've heard it said that the mic pre in the Mbox is superior to those in the 002. I have no idea if that's true. But I've never heard that either was less than adequate or unduly colored the sound.)

The Mbox will get you in the PT door and allow you to do single track overdubs (or line in pairs). The 002R (if you don't need a control surface) delivers far, far more bang for buck. And the full 002 gives you a control surface on top of that.

is the sounds qual between the 002 and the mbox really that similar? IE splitting hairs?

IE has anyone actually compared/contrasted?

Was using PowerBook and mbox as well - works just fine for tracking on location.

I just swapped out my mbox for a metric halo uln/2 after using a friends and am finding the pre's to be considerably better. Check it out as I believe it's in the same price point as the 002.

eh...sticking with protools

I have the mbox and love it. If your song is good, a cassette recorder is adequate, right? I tracked a whole band on Sunday (well, mine, but it is a whole band!) using the mbox and my laptop (not powerbook,a pc, but same thing really). We did drums with a kick mic (sennheiser) and an overhead (tape op ribbon) both into an m-audio dmp3 into the mbox, tracked everything else similarly (mojave modded adk mic, superlux sdc's, and a senn e608 were the other mics used at various times), and I think it sounds great. We are doing preproduction for an upcoming cd to be recorded in a very nice studio, but I like the spirit of this recording and it was fun to work with these limitations. I also work at a studio with the 002, and take things back home all the time to work. Do the best with what you can afford and it will all be good. Plus. mbox can be had for $299 now at various places.

yup. ended up getting an mbox for like $299 with 6.9 and a bunch of plugins off ebay.

I figure it will be preproduction at worst (which is awesome) and at best we can release songs in advance to fans etc before we do them in a studio

That's exactly our thought as well. They may see a small release on our site first.