Pro Tools For Under $500: Digidesign's Mbox
Playing With the Big Boys
Digidesign's ProTools recording
systems are the worldwide standard for digital audio production. So
much of today's popular music is recorded and/or produced on a ProTools
rig, it'd be easier to list the songs that aren't done this way than the
ones that are. While much has been made of the effect that ProTools'
immense editing capabilities have had on the way we produce and listen
to music -- in the right hands, the system can literally correct bad
pitch, tempo, and other "errors" in a live recording -- the fact of the
matter is that Digidesign created a killer app and the music industry
has eaten it up.
A full-blown ProTools set up can easily run into the tens of
thousands of dollars, which explains why mere mortals will pay hundreds
of dollars an hour to rent time in a ProTools studio. A few
years ago, however, Digidesign decided to bring a scaled-down version of
their award-winning platform to the masses in the form of the Mbox. Even
though it's been around awhile now, the $495 list ($450 street) Mbox is well worth
consideration if you're thinking about setting up a home project studio
based around your Mac. The Mbox is a worthy performer in its own right,
and if you're dreaming of one day making a career out of audio
engineering, learning to speak ProTools is almost a prerequisite for the
gig.
Preamps, Plugins, and 32 Tracks
The Mbox is comprised of a
USB audio I/O unit and ProTools LE software, along with assorted other
software goodies Digidesign is now bundling with the system. The
hardware is a vertically standing, blue and off-white box that's about
6.5" x 6.5 x 2" in size and weighs less than two pounds. The box
features two Focusrite preamps with combination XLR/Instrument jacks --
these inputs yield superior sound quality over RCA jacks and also
allow for direct connection of microphones, line-level signals, and
guitars and other instruments to the unit. Mbox converts audio signals
into two digital streams that ProTools LE can work with at up to 24-bit
resolution and a 44-48 KHz sampling rate. In layman's terms that's better
than CD-quality audio but not quite state-of-the-art. When you start to
notice the difference, it'll be time to either call a studio for a job
or step quietly away from the computer. Mbox also supports S/PDIF digital I/O.
The box also features two 1/4" analog outputs that can handle
balanced (TRS) or unbalanced (TS) plugs and two 1/4"inch insert jacks
for adding an external processor in to your input signal chain. In
other words, Mbox can be used right out of the box but also leaves
plenty of room for growth with both hardware and software-based effects
units and other sound-sweetening goodies. Easy-to-use controls on the box
also include phantom-power indicator LEDs for the pair of input
channels, a source button to switch between mic, line, and instrument
level inputs for each channel, and gain knobs and a single peak LED
indicator for each channel to help you set your levels. A mix knob
lets you balance your input and output signals, and output can be routed
through one of two headphone jacks (with volume control) -- 1/4" or 1/8" -- as well.
That's a lot of stats, bells, and whistles, I know, but this is what happens
when you get deeper into this stuff -- the options open up and so does the learning
curve. This principal is exemplified by the ProTools LE software, which is quite
powerful considering its price point, but also demands a fair amount of time and
patience before you begin to feel comfortable with it. ProTools LE supports 32
tracks of audio recording/playback, 128 virtual tracks, and up to 256 MIDI tracks
(with your own MIDI I/O box). Actual results will depend on your system, but you
should be able to work with 24 audio tracks with a PowerBook G4 or recent iBook. Of
course, you can only record two tracks of live audio at a time with the Mbox -- you
start piling up tracks as you mix together all of your prerecorded (and MIDI) material.
The ProTools system is quite powerful as is, but really has grown in popularity because
of its plug-in architecture. The ProTools LE software that comes with Mbox can't do everything its
big TDM brother can do, but it can do a lot, and many, many plug-ins are available for extending
its capabilities. A host of effects modules can do most anything from simulating a grand piano
to pitch bending the human voice to make bad notes sound good.
The Specs Look Great, But How's It Sound?
I took the Mbox, along with my PB G4/500, to a recent rehearsal/recording session with my
band. (Note that Pro Tools LE now only runs on OS X, though that's more or less the way things
are in the Mac world nowadays.) First we mic'd up our instruments, amps, and singer through an 12-channel outboard
mixer and ran a mixed stereo signal through the Mbox into my Mac. Setup of the system itself
(installing software from the CD, hooking up the USB connection, setting a few system preferences)
took all of 15 minutes at the most -- enough time for the rest of the band to get a jump on
rigging the microphones and mixer.
The sound was fantastic.
When you consider that neither our mics nor mixing board were super-high quality, the
actual signal we got was even better. The Focusrite preamps produce a nice clean, warm signal,
and the D/A conversion is great.
I honestly didn't like working with the Pro Tools LE software all that much at first. To be fair, lots
of people love it, and I'm a
creature of habit and am used to using other programs, so the learning curve associated with
Pro Tools frustrated me rather quickly. This isn't at all to say that the program is unlearnable;
far from it, Didigesign offers their own online tutorials and there are plenty of online and
in-person user groups out there to help novices and advanced users alike get the most from their
systems. Me being me, I quickly realized that I could use the Mbox hardware with other audio software
and got to experimenting with Garage Band, Live, and a few other apps. I wound up recording the
band using Live 2.5 (Digidesign is now bundling a limited version of Live, along with limited
versions of Reason and other popular audio apps with the Mbox) simply because time was limited
and I knew the program better. As I said, the results were great -- we had some problems with our
PA system, which rendered the vocals somewhat useless, but that wasn't the Mbox's fault in
any way. Later on I spent some time with Pro Tools LE, and it became clear that the system offers
more robust and creative recording, mixing, and editing features than other software I've seen
at this price point. The system is also compatible with ProTools TDM systems, which means you can take
your Mbox project into a professional ProTools studio (one of those $200/hour setups) and experience
virtually seamless integration -- now you're really playing with the big boys. Its widespread usage amongst film and video sound artists and producers also
means that it provides myriad options for integration with professional-quality video production
systems, including Digidesign's DV Toolkit. This is definitely something to consider if you're interested in sound design for a variety of
applications in addition to music-only production.
I also experimented with running a guitar and some microphones directly into the Mbox, taking
advantage of its combination inputs and switchable signal padding features. Again, the
results were quite impressive. I'm a drummer, not a singer or guitarist, so I can't vouch for
the quality of my performances, but the Mbox yielded a clear, detailed recording with minimal
tweaking necessary on my part. I was able to get distinct, separate tracks from mic'ing my
hands (for clapping) and voice separately, and both microphone-captured and direct instrument
signals were clean and loud. The hardware controls over signal levels and output mix were very
handy, especially when I got down to the fun of overdubbing more and more guitar tracks atop
one another while monitoring it all through headphones.
I did this at about 7 a.m., by the way, and was able to play quietly enough so as not to wake
anyone else in the house and still get recordings I could edit and mix to my heart's content.
Conclusion: A Great System For Dedicated Use
The Mbox system is a great way to start a home project studio, and the only cost-effective
way to enter the world of Pro Tools editing. For under $500 you get a top-quality home studio hardware
setup bundled with a scaled-down but fully capable version of the world's leading audio recording
software, not to mention some bundled plug-ins and other goodies. Digidesign's next step up,
the $1,295 Digi Rack 002, adds full 24-bit/96 KHz-recording, four Digidesign mic preamps, and MIDI I/O (amongst
other things) and is built around a FireWire data transfer system. But it's $1,295.
My only reservation in recommending the Mbox has to do with that bit about USB. FireWire can transmit
significantly more data at faster speeds than USB 1.1, and FireWire ports are now standard on
iBooks and PowerBooks. Didigesign told me they don't plan to release a FirewWre Mbox in part
because not all PC systems ship with the interface (and many PC laptops have a 4-pin firewire
port which can't carry enough power to run the box; USB ports aren't similarly limited). Being a Mac owner, however, you have a
choice. Several companies now offer sub-$1,000 FireWire-based recording systems that surpass
the Mbox's feature set (with 24/96 recording, integrated MIDI, surround sound support, and more output channels) and claim to rival its sound. Next time we'll take a look at once such
set up.
Of course, these other systems don't offer Pro Tools. If you want to play like the big boys do
and don't mind investing a fair amount of time and energy learning the ropes, the Mbox is not
only the only way to go, it's a great way to go.
For more information, visit the Digidesign website.
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Noah Kravitz runs the Technology
and Culture blog Threebase.com.
He is an educator, musician, and writer who calls Brooklyn, NY home and
the author of the forthcoming book, Teaching and
Learning with Technology.
