Pro tools

mad flows

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
Hey ya'll I been considering getting a pro tools setup, but wanted to see if it's worth it. I'm getting a new crib built and my parents are giving me a room just for recording with a booth and everthing. Five minutes away from the building site is a guitar center so you know i had to go there, and when i went to the pro audio section i thought i was gonna F***in flip, that S**t was dope! Anyway though, i was talking to the guys there and they both record rap like me, And gave me some suggestions, but even though they seemed cool i couldn't fully belive them, ya know. When i first was making my list for recording i wanted pro tools, but later on i kind of start looking at cubase, but from what the guy told me and the clips of music he played that was recorded with pro tools my minds kind of changing. Cubase sx 3.0 is 570.00 and the M box with the pro tools software is only 500 so that's very very tempting. Basicly make a long ass story short should i get the m box.
 

mad flows

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
erkl I wan't that 002 so bad, but can't afford it, but if i get the m box, later on when i get more money could i just buy the 002 control surface.


and friction I'm about ready to scoop up that m box, but everybody keep telling me that usb sucks and S**t and i should get a firewire or pci connection, have you had any problems. and by the way what computer do you run it on
 

TITO

MAESTRO
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 7
mad flows said:
erkl I wan't that 002 so bad, but can't afford it, but if i get the m box, later on when i get more money could i just buy the 002 control surface.

digi desighn has a trade up program where if you got like a mbox you could trade it in for a fraction of the price if you deside to upgrade later to a 002 or ect....
 

mad flows

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
TITO said:
digi desighn has a trade up program where if you got like a mbox you could trade it in for a fraction of the price if you deside to upgrade later to a 002 or ect....[


A thanks man, i gotta get it now. And where you stay at in long beach I'm on da west
 

Frictionbeats

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 51
Mbox

Yo MAD, I have had no problems with the USB, the Mbox was made for USB 1.1 ..... and it works just fine.

I have Dell precision 530
1.0 gig Rdram
Xeon 2.0 chip

c'mon Missy Elliot gots one, and so does her egineer.
Her engineer loves them so much he picked up a couple.

Dont believe the Hype.

just get a decent computer that meets Digi Specs. and your straight!

by the way the Mbox works with SONAR 4, Cubase Sx, and anything else that support ASIO drivers.

-Fric
 

young_keyz

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
If all you want to do is rap, then i would say get the mbox. If you want to record you music from hardware then i wouldnt look at the mbox and its really a joke for any other than recording vocals. Dont believe the hype Missy may have a mbox but thats only to be able to do stuff on the fly that will later get process in a big TDM system that cost way over 10 gess(Not 450 that the mbox cost). I feel alot of newbies get the mbox because of the name pro tools and not what the damn thing could do. I use a Motu 828 mk 2 and nuendo 2 but this for my home studio and i dont care what everbody else is using out there cause if it sounds good to me and my music is getting sold who cares. Right now the studios im dealing with are using alot of logic and steinberg products. If i was in a circle where pro tools was being used i would get the digi 002 rack just to be able to go back n forth and trasfer my work from my studio to theres. I dont like how digi design get you stuck with using there dogle to open up the software.
 

Frictionbeats

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 51
Mbox

YO....Wheather Missy does it on the fly or not......she still gets it done....regardless of vocals or Drum Tracks ( which she uses them for )....who cares where it is processed after that. I track out all of my beats from my triton With the Mbox, No Problems!

Then I take it to a Pro Studio for Mixing....on a HD system....

Its all preference if you ask me.....

I like motu & steinberg products as well.
but like i said preference...I get a lot of things done fast in pro tools, especially for audio.

For the price its a good deal. Other wise you have to buy the 200-500 dollar sound card, plus the software another 300-600 dollars.

Peace out!!

-fric
 

young_keyz

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Frictionbeats said:
YO....Wheather Missy does it on the fly or not......she still gets it done....regardless of vocals or Drum Tracks ( which she uses them for )....who cares where it is processed after that. I track out all of my beats from my triton With the Mbox, No Problems!

Then I take it to a Pro Studio for Mixing....on a HD system....

Its all preference if you ask me.....

I like motu & steinberg products as well.
but like i said preference...I get a lot of things done fast in pro tools, especially for audio.

For the price its a good deal. Other wise you have to buy the 200-500 dollar sound card, plus the software another 300-600 dollars.

Peace out!!

-fric

The mbox is weak but cool but i have the up most respect for the digi 002!

i have a motu 828 mk2 and if i was to use my mpc by itself i could record a beat into my software in about how ever long my track is so lets say 4 min. If you have the mbox or anything with 2 inputs youll pretty much have to track everything in one at a time or two at a time. For kicks lets just say you do it all one at a time. lets say i have a 4 min. and it pretty much use about 10 tracks on the mpc. Well just tracking the beat one by one will take you 40 min. and thats not counting the time you have to take to set up the next track to be ready to record. Lets not forget what happens if your computer couldnt handle the strain of pro tools and crashes or your get one of them lucky lower your buffer or err statements. Youll have to reboot your computer and hopefully you saved all that. Plus the mbox dont come with midi ports so youll have to buy a another midi interface. Most of them are usb and are power from your computer and that adds more strain to your cpu. I dont care what anybody tells you the mbox was never made to do what some of yall try to do with it. im sorry. I got a motu 828 mk2 and it has about 8 inputs and 2 mic pres and the option for 8 more inputs via adat for a total of 18 inputs and im not counting the digital ins. If you was to do the math cost wise im paying 42 dollars a input ($750/18) if you do the math with the mbox($450/2) your paying 225 dollars a input, damn that must be some hella great inputs. So it will take you pretty much a hour to track a beat and it will take me 4 min.! I know most of yall will say that it dont bother me with the time. Well what happens when you start working with people and they want to get in. What happens if you have 8 beats laying around that you want to track in. Damn 8 beats taking a hour to track it one by one. Thats a fulltime job. You could take the time now to save up a lil more money to get something better or you could take the time when it comes to tracking your beats with any 2 input interface.
 

mad flows

Beatmaker
ill o.g.
young_keyz said:
The mbox is weak but cool but i have the up most respect for the digi 002!

A young, what about the 002 rack, how is that i want the control surface but i might just have trade up and pay the difference when i get enough cash.
 

young_keyz

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
The digi 002 rack is nice! Behinger has a 8 fader motorize control surface for 215 dollars and i did some research on it in while i was in the mall and the Future music magazine gave it high markts. Pluse you wont need to trade up cause if you want to spend some money just get The Tascam 32 fader for 1500 or just get a mackie controller for 1000. Digi isnt gona give 100 percent whay you pay for what you have so your gona take alost to get a gain! Look into that! I dont use pro tool but i have and i dont have nothing againts it i think they give ya the best overall package out there(as far as software and hardware go) so dont take it as if i dont like it. To ge anything we must know the facts and not the stats. I feel pro tools is not too great on everybody computers. On macs they work fine but with P.C.'s you need to do your home work first and find out what you it is you need to have cause i have seen so many times people having problems with pro tools cause they didnt have a good computer for it. Pro tools suck up so much cpu and if you add the fact the mbox is getting power from your computer that got to take away from the cpu itself. My friend said it best when he broke pro tools down like this................."If you live on a block or had friends that all had PS2 and all the hot games would you buy a xbox or get a ps2!" Everybody uses pro tools cause its what all the studios that they go into use but that dont mean its really the best! Alot of people dont know that alot of tdm users are not even using the pro tools software but are really using logic with the digidesign cards! I dont care what Missy uses. If i was the engineer and i told missy we gona flip it and use this program call nuendo, do you think she really gona care as long as it sounds good!
My cuzent has the mbox and he will come over and use my set up with my motu cause i can record up to 16 tracks in one take. If you do the math i just told you youll see that your geting jerk by getting a mbox cause your not paying for the softwar your paying for the hardware. Digidesign is not a software company they are a hardware company. Thats why they dont really stress adding big changes.
 

Frictionbeats

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 51
Mbox

I see your points Young, I guess it comes down to workflow. But I'am updating to the Digi002 soon. But the Mbox is an inexpensive way to get Familiar with Pro tools. It has the same software as the Digi002.

If you have an Mpc, I can see the advantage of 8 inputs....my triton only has 4 outs, so im not losing too much. why would it take hours to record a beat? Most hip hop songs are repeatitive....8 bar or 4 bar loops....so you basically just need to throw down everything for 8 bars or so....then copy & move all your sounds around to fit. unless you have a Bridge ( which most hip hop dont )

so let me do the math 8 bars, thats 32 beats. So roughly 32 seconds.
8 tracks x 32 seconds ( one at a time ) = 256 seconds= 5 min

8 tracks x 32 ( 2 at a time ) = 128 seconds= approx. 2 1/2 min.

So 8 songs, 8 bars, & 8 tracks at 2 1/2 minutes =

20 minutes!!!

( another 10 minutes to copy & move your parts to fit song, Thats only 30 minutes!! )

So that seems to be pretty reasonable to me. But its all good! like I said Workflow, Preference. It all comes out in the wash....

I know 8 bars would take no time, tracking out all 8 outputs. thats 32 seconds.
but 20 minutes beats 8 hours!! for an Mbox thats not bad. as far as CPU, I have yet to see any bog down on my PC.

Peace out!

-Fric
 

Frictionbeats

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 51
the block

Hey young, It doesn't matter who got what on what block. With OMFI export/import....you could bring up a pro tools session in Sonar, Cubase, Acid, Etc, etc.

I never heard of Logic users, using Digicards... But sounds interesting. The new Logic looks promising!

well young, im done here...I 'am no expert.. I just know what works for me right now.

Good luck MAD!! hope everything works out for you. Just find something that works for your needs.

Peace out!!

-Fric
 

young_keyz

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
With OMFI export/import thingy your talkinga about your right but most people dont know that untill they get Pro tools or what ever program and not knowing that is one reason they may think that they have to go this way. Me myself, i knew that before i got anything and thats why i decided to go with nuendo cause i feel the sound engine is better than the pro tools le sound engine. Like you said if it works for you who cares right i just like to put myside on the story and give people some things too look at!
I respect your side and you respect mines, so much respect! One!
 

shadeed

Go Digital or Go Home
ill o.g.
young_keyz said:
If all you want to do is rap, then i would say get the mbox. If you want to record you music from hardware then i wouldnt look at the mbox and its really a joke for any other than recording vocals. Dont believe the hype Missy may have a mbox but thats only to be able to do stuff on the fly that will later get process in a big TDM system that cost way over 10 gess(Not 450 that the mbox cost). I feel alot of newbies get the mbox because of the name pro tools and not what the damn thing could do. I use a Motu 828 mk 2 and nuendo 2 but this for my home studio and i dont care what everbody else is using out there cause if it sounds good to me and my music is getting sold who cares. Right now the studios im dealing with are using alot of logic and steinberg products. If i was in a circle where pro tools was being used i would get the digi 002 rack just to be able to go back n forth and trasfer my work from my studio to theres. I dont like how digi design get you stuck with using there dogle to open up the software.


young keyz is on point, listen to this dude!

My suggestion to the dude who started this thread is find a guy at the Guitar Center who at least sounds like he knows what he's talkin about and build a rapport (be cool) with him. If you are a repeat consistent customer, you get good deals and discounts ---

Don't buy no damn Protools man, find out what type of producer you wanna be FIRST, (hardware/software, lo-budget studio or big baller etc...) and take it from there, and do your freakin research on sites such as zzounds and musicians friend.com
that alone will save you thousands!!!
 

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