ProTools LE and The Mbox
Brent Seavers
The day has finally come. I’ve been eyeing it for months now in various magazines and music stores. And it came swiftly and extremely inexpensive. Mainly because I talked my friend into buying it so I could enjoy the product and simultaneously avoid the painful loss of money. He bought the Mbox from Digidesign. Retail is $495.00, but since no one sells at retail price (they only exist for companies to put a big fat red line through and show their far more affordable price) we got it for $449.00.
The Mbox was relatively simple and packaged nicely. The bundled software was hidden in shrink-wrap with the users manuals and other various papers to avoid clutter. Still, the only things I really cared about were the Mbox itself,
the USB cable that connects it to my computer, and the driver disks. The Mbox comes with three color-coded driver disks. One for Windows, One for Mac OS X, and another for Mac OS X 10.3 run on Apple’s G5.
The manual says to first plug the Mbox into a USB port on my computer, so I did. A window popped up saying that new hardware was detected, but I just canceled out of it. I figured it would be best to wait to see what the disk said to do. Rather then a fancy self-launching installation program, ProTools requires a very small amount of treasure hunting through folders before finding the right file to click on. Lucky, being the trained profession that I am, my first instinct led me to the folder marked “ProTools LE Installer” and a file called “Setup”. After double-clicking the setup file, everything else was just a series of ignorant “next’s”
followed by a resounding “finish”. I never really read what they’re installing, and I always agree to everything. So assuming that I didn’t agree to sell my soul, everything seems great.
A ProTools LE icon was loaded on my desktop, providing easy access to the program. The program launched, asked for my serial number, checked for the presence of the Mbox, and then did nothing. I waited patiently, but still nothing happened. So, I went to “File” in the Menu Bar, then down to “New Session” and that’s where the action started.
Soon, I was exploring a plethora of windows, getting excited about all the features and effects packaged in with ProTools. It comes with various customizable Reverbs, Delays, Compressors, Limiters and such. The effects didn’t appear to be in real time, but once a track was recorded, they were very easy to add or remove from the track.
ProTools LE can record a total of 24 tracks. Those tracks can either be monaural or stereo. I knew I wouldn’t fill all 24 tracks with my demo test, but having been in the studio before, I know how quickly 24 tracks can be eaten up.
The Mbox claims to have 4 inputs, and it does. But it’s a bit misleading. The Mbox has 2 Hybrid inputs (one input that can handle either XLR or a ¼” instrument cable) and two standard ¼” inserts.
But, it doesn’t send 4 separate signals to the computer. It sends only two. So, if you plug in 4 guitars, you can’t separate them in ProTools using the Mbox. 2 of them will be over-laid on track 1, and the other 2 will be over-laid on track two. So essentially, you haven’t gained any more inputs then a standard low-end computer soundcard typically has. But you have gained a great interface to plug your gear into. The Mic Pre-Amps are great, the sound quality and phantom power is great. ProTools LE is great. Well, it’s great, until you want to advance. Which brings me to my next point.
ProTools LE only works with hardware made by digidesign. It’s a great advantage to Digidesign to create elitist software. But, if you decide one day that you want to use your M-Audio 410 or Aardvark Q10, you’re simply out of luck. You can upgrade to the Digi 001 or Digi 002. It’s awesome hardware, but it’ll cost you another $1,000 or more to upgrade. And if you want more then 24 tracks by getting the full version of ProTools, plan on spending at least $10,000 because it only ships with the ProTools HD hardware.
So here’s the Basic Scoop. If you want portability, only two inputs, only 24 total tracks, and ProTools software, then the Mbox is incredible practical. It’s reasonable priced, it’s super stable, it looks cool, and heck…it’s ProTools. ProTools is still regarded as “Industry Standard” among most recording studios. If you want to record three people or more, want more then 24 tracks, and don’t have any loyalty to ProTools, then certainly keep looking for another solution. The Mbox seems great for the musician who just wants to lay down some simple demo tracks, and will never needs to record more then two people playing/singing at once. If that is you, then I defiantly recommend the Mbox by digidesign. |
