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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

MBOX w/ Pro Tools

M

Mike Dunn

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I have an opportunity to pick up an old MBOX (about five years old) w/ ProTools LE for about $50. It's so cheap I'm thinking it would be great for post production re recording, music, etc. I know it's not full blown ProTools or whatever and the system is old but my thinking is that it could be a useful tool and I hate to pass up a deal. I usually have others do my audio work but I'd like to get into experimenting on my own just for fun mostly. Maybe this is a good way to stick my toes in the water a bit...

Is this a waste of my time/money or could it be a useful tool?
 
find out if it comes with digitranslator ($500 value). You'll need that piece of Avid software to import OMFs.
 
$50 is supercheap (you could spend more on a cable than that), so anything you learn is good IF you have a compatible system
and plan to eventually buy into a more expensive Protools solution (starts at about $1000 excluding PC for Mbox Pro 3 with Pro Tools 9
with much better converters and improved software which gets around some of the issues that were in LE 8.)

The bigger question is how much time and money are you willing to spend to make a system work well with that outdated version?
If you have more time than money, go to http://duc.avid.com/ and you'll find good and bad experiences configuring Pro Tools, for Mac or PC...

I found my early 2000's PC with Cakewalk software with a soundblaster blew the doors off the Pro Tools 8LE in terms of configuration and usability,
but that was a dedicated machine for audio only and never updated (frozen in time). I've since configured a new PC for ProTools 9 and have
a 7.1 interface for surround, but that's several grand later, and it's still not the same as full blown ProTools HD...

YMMV, but if you consider it a learning experience and have a compatible system, it'll certainly help you do basic work and understand the limitations so you can
decide if it's worth further pursuing and upgrading at a later date.

FYI. Musikmesse 2011 is coming next week in Germany and that's the other big international music show (aside from NAMM in the USA) where announcements are made on new product releases...
 
Watch out -- the old MBox is not compatible with the new Pro Tools 9, so there's no upgrade path there.
 
Marc Wielage said:
Watch out -- the old MBox is not compatible with the new Pro Tools 9, so there's no upgrade path there.
Click to expand...

The original Mbox, or Mbox 1 (light blue, stands upright is not compatible, but the Mbox 2 and it's smaller and larger brothers are compatible with PT9.

As for my advice, I would go for it if for no other reason than to get accustomed to the interface. For 50 bucks you can't beat what PT is. That being said if you want to do work in production a few things will have to be purchased. Digitranslator is one of them, so is the DV tool kit. Both of them can be found on ebay relatively inexpensive. And if your lucky the version of DV toolkit you find will have digitranslator included.
 
Update: purchased the mbox and protools and have put a few hours in on it. Wanted to thank everyone for the advice. It's definitely a great learning experience. Will also be looking into Digitranslator this week.
 
If you're looking for digitranslator and/or dv toolkit. Check eBay, iLok licenses can be had for pretty cheap.
 
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