Hey all. Looking for a few other opinions as well as any commentary on what I'm thinking about. I'm going to need an audio interface for some of the ideas I have in my head with Max/MSP and my senior recital in the spring, something that only really needs four inputs (only 2, really, at the moment). First off, I'm not to keen on Protools being my main setup, so a digidesigns solution would seem not to be the best idea, so originally to get something from echo audio like their audiofire stuff. But it really wouldn't be that bad to have protools around just to have, so I could just get a digidesign box and use it with other software, especially since it would only really be a small Mbox type thing anyway, no huge investment. My question is, how well do digidesign interfaces work with other software (Max/MSP, maybe logic someday)? Can I just use it just as any generic interface? Also (big) if I were to someday get an Intel Mac, would I be able to use a digidesign interface on the PC as well as the Mac side? (I'd prefer to someday use Samplitude/Sequoia as my main audio workstation.) I'm itching to try some of the ideas out, and now that this new Mbox pro thing is out, it might be plenty Good Enough for now. I don't need a huge number of inputs, especially if my laptop would be more of a mobile studio setup (I'd probably make some PC box in the future with all kinds of DSP cards for Samplitude when I decided/had-enough-money to start to want to do like 24-in basic tracking and such). What say you all?
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interface advice
- Thread starter ifjake
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Digidesign portable interfaces are very poor. The mbox can only handle two channels, and being usb cannot be any super high bit and sample rates.
Check out http://www.m-audio.com, or http://www.alesis.com/
Lots of good affordable interfaces there.
I'd recommend getting a firewire interface, no matter what. M-audio hardware is compatible with pro-tools. They are owned by the same parent company.
Check out http://www.m-audio.com, or http://www.alesis.com/
Lots of good affordable interfaces there.
I'd recommend getting a firewire interface, no matter what. M-audio hardware is compatible with pro-tools. They are owned by the same parent company.
what do you think of the newer Mbox 2 Pro? That's firewire. How does the M-powered protools compare with Protools LE?
i'm rather of the opinion that PT h/w is overpriced. if you're not using the s/w, then get someone else's hardware.
if you're willing to pony up the cash for an mbox 2 pro, then consider adding metric halo uln-2 to your search.
if you're willing to pony up the cash for an mbox 2 pro, then consider adding metric halo uln-2 to your search.
I understand it's about $700-$800. Yee-ouch. Expensive for those specs. But does have balanced XLR, I see.
The m-audio FW 1814 would be a cheaper competitor, I would think.
I THINK there is little to no difference between Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered. Though I'm a Logic person and cannot confirm. Any Pro Tools power users here?
Check out the FirePod by PreSonus. Right now its $499 at Sweetwater.com.
I have a friend who uses it and its easy to use and sounds excellent. It comes with Cubase LE which I don't particularly like but then again I'm a Digital Performer man myself (I hate ProTools). The general consensus is that it sounds much better than the MBox
I have a friend who uses it and its easy to use and sounds excellent. It comes with Cubase LE which I don't particularly like but then again I'm a Digital Performer man myself (I hate ProTools). The general consensus is that it sounds much better than the MBox
I had to look back at the thread. Sounds like something I would say, too!
I find Pro Tools to be good for hard drive recording. It is EXCELLENT for that. But for music creation, I find it's not as good as Digital Performer, Logic, Cubase, etc. Esp for midi and plugins of all kinds.
scottlinux said:I had to look back at the thread. Sounds like something I would say, too!
Agreed
Pro Tools may be the industry standard, but I can't understand why....
Logic is so much more intuitive for me, heck even Ableton makes more sense to me for HD recording. But I'm sure there are a million PT users that would strongly disagree...
Also, for just straight up HD recording, I really like RADAR.
zimv20 said:
Somewhat regular.
Friends of mine go to fancy recording school..
I leech off of them to use the toys.
...works for me !
zimv20 said:lucky!
which do you like better, the interface or the sound? and which converters are they using? and what kind of desk is it tied to? and? and? and?
i have a million questions
The interface is really nice. Almost OS X like in it's simplicity. Very big and bold so you can see things from a distance.
It just does it's job, and does it well. Record. It has a nice "jog wheel" controller
zimv20 said:
Ha,
I leave that to the students.
And from what I can tell, they use RADAR as a big dumpter for recording, then do most of the mixing in Logic.
What do you mean by "comping tracks?"
zimv20 said:
We only use one recording studio/room
so, there is only one Radar system in there. It is it's own computer/HD everything. There is also a Mac in there, so we can switch from Radar to Mac with a dial switch. There is one giant desk, and one bad ass control surface to manipulate Radar, similar to a video editing scroll wheel controller.
I wish we were patient, and pro enough to sort through the takes and patch the best parts together, but we mainly just over dub if something needs to be redone..