Subject: New Protools computer

I am getting a new protools computer very soon, Is there any equiptment that anyone could reccomend using for protools. So far I just plan on getting th mbox, but i need help figureing out what else to get for it.

It depends on your needs.

Pro Tools is just a recording program, like GarageBand, Logic, Cubase, etc. Pro Tools is very very good at manipulating real audio tracks. Other programs have their own strengths.

So it depends on what you want to record. If you want to record vocals, a good mic is a must. I'd also recommend an outboard reverb, a decent outboard compressor (no stomp boxes) a good mic stand with a boom and a pop filter, and a mixing board. If you get a board with two aux sends OR a board that has at least one group bus, that will give you some cool options such as singing with reverb on the vocal in headphones but recording the vocal dry.

If recording a whole band you'll need more than the mbox for simultaneous track recording. There are many 8 ch firewire boxes on the market. I can also personally recommend the eMagic a 6/2m - it can record 6 tracks at once over USB and it works great and costs less than the firewire 8 ch boxes.

You'll also need a good set of headphones, a decent stereo amp, a decent set of monitor speakers, and a decent sounding room to set them all up in, and some sound deadening materials to put on the walls to kill those nasty standing waves.

hey Tony Cuz! Welcome to MacJams. Rmaclema has some good advice above. What you want to get for hardware really depends on what you are looking to record....

I can speak personally on recording with a ProTools system, as I have an Mbox (1st gen.) running into my G5 Tower, using PT 7.0 as the sequencer. I must say that I really like the set-up, but there are some drawbacks that don't often get discussed. Here's my Mbox experience:

Pros:
1) PT software, although many people on this site will say otherwise, is very easy to use. It takes awhile to get up and running, but once you know what you are doing, it is pretty fast and efficient. It is much, much more versatile than entry-level programs like Garageband. You have intimate control over the audio tracks that you record, and the new 7.0 software is very efficient, so you can put in a lot of inserts (effects) on different tracks. At 24 bits, PT also sound pretty damn good.

2) The Mbox hardware is simple enough to work with. Typically, you plug-in, get some levels, and then you're off and running. The Mbox 2 has line/mic/instrument inputs, a mix knob, a monitor output knob, and a headphones knob. One of the nice things about the Mbox is that you can output your audio directly from the Mbox to your monitor setup, without having to worry about a mixing board or power amp, or anything like that.

3) ProTools is hugely popular, so it is easy to get your hands on a lot of effects and plug-ins. There are a bunch of great free plug-ins that you can get your hands on over the web, and also there are many companies that make excellent effects that run as RTAS (real time audio suite) inserts.

4) If you are smart about how you record, you can virtually eliminate latency. I have listened to a few friend's recordings using the Tascam and M-audio entry level stuff and they typically have some timing/latency issues. It takes a bit to get to know the ins and out of the hardware, but it does a good job of keeping up with what you are recording for the most part.

5) The MBox comes with tons of bundled software like Reason Adapted, Live Lite, IK Amplitube (a personal fav), and Tracks EQ. The 2nd gen box even comes with some pitch correction software and BFD for drums.

Cons:
1) The 1st gen MBox - I found the preamps to be pretty decent for the price of the hardware, but as I got more into the recording, I decided to pick up a PreSonus TubePre to use as a dedicated preamp prior to feeding the signal into the MBox. There is a noticeable improvement in the warmth and clarity using the dedicated preamp. I'm not sure how the preamps in the MBox 2 sound.

2) The MBox is USB only, which leads to the next problem:

3) One of the real downsides of using the ProTools stuff is that you are essentially "stuck" with using their hardware if you want to use the PT LE software. There is a huge price gap between their entry level hardware (the Mbox ~$350 to 500 depending on which model you buy and which software options that you choose) and their second step up (the digi02rack). The rack costs about $1200, so there is no intermediate level firewire device in there, which I find annoying. I'd like to have the option to buy a ProTools firewire interface that doesn't cost $1000+.

The alternative is to work with the M-Audio USB or Firewire audio interfaces and buy digidesign's M-Powered Pro Tools software. However, going this way you have to spend $300 for the software, plus whatever you're going to spend on the M-Audio hardware (which will range from $200-1000 depending on what you want). The M-Powered ProTools option would be nice because you would have a much broader array of audio interfaces to work with, but it will generally end up costing you more to get started than it would to just buy an Mbox.

There are also literally dozens of other options out there. Many people on this board use other programs like Cubase, Logic, Digital Performer, Reason, the list goes on and on. If you are looking for a versatile solution, you want to research the interface you're going to use very thoroughly so you know what sequencers will run with it. If you are just getting started with digital recording, I recommend GB as a great entry level program, but the MBox is notorious for not behaving well with GB. I can get it to work, but usually it's a bit of a hassle, so I tend to go straight to PT instead.

In terms of the rest of what you need - I would suggest that you get a decent pair of headphones, and I think most important is a good set of studio monitors. You want something with a really flat response that is uncolored so that you can hear all frequencies as well and clearly as possible. Mixing through crappy speakers = guarenteed crappy mix (you can listen to my stuff on this site as an example - everything I have up here was mixed through a piece of shiite stereo and it shows). There are some decent entry level speakers that you can buy that run around $300-350 (M-Audio's BX5s and the Tapco S5's are well regarded), but to get a really good bass response you usually need to go up to 6 or 7" speakers, which will then run you $500 to whatever the hell you're willing to spend (Genelecs anyone?). Personally I don't think it's important to have a mixing board at the intro stages, and midi keyboards will depend on what kind of music you want to do. The new Mbox 2 now has midi inputs and PT 7.0 has greatly expanded midi support, which was one of the primary knocks on the older version.

Anyway, hope this helps. Feel free to respond or email me if you have any further questions.

Malachai

I'm guessing if you're going for the MBox option you're on a budget. a lot of what was said above, whilst sound advice, is overkill if you're just starting out.

This song... Kaleidoscope was reocrded with ProTools LE and an MBox - check it out for an example of what can be done in a small spare room.
Drums and Bass are all programmed in ProTools with SampleTank and the guitars are recorded direct into ProTools using Amplitube. I also use SampleTank mastering suite.

So, the hardware used is...
1 Microphone (a Shure Beta 58a with stand and 'pop' shield)
1 Electric Guitar (Charvel 750XL with EMG pickups)
1 Electric Acoustic Guitar (Fender Telecoustic)
1 Headphones (Closed back so you can record with them as well as mix)

N.B. Monitor Speakers are on my list but they are not essesntial when starting out.

Apart form the standard plugins that come with ProTools (you'll be surprised what you can get out of the standard ProTools plugins) I purchased Amplitube, SampleTank and T-Racks (all form IK Multimedia). But also note that all new versions of ProTools come with Amplitube LE, SampleTank LE and many others. So before you go on a mammmoth shopping spree just play around with all the freebies that come with ProTools.

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