My wife just purchased a new mac G4 laptop, which fortunately I will be using more than her. I'd like to set this up for use as a remote DAW and have been looking at various approaches to do this. My studio DAW is a PC (mainly Sony apps: Vegas, Sound Forge, Acid) and anything recorded in the laptop would be imported to the PC for overdubbing, mixing, etc. I wouldn't be using this much and typically would not be recording more than 2 channels at a time so the Mbox looks like a decent choice (complete system) and is quite a bit under $500. Although I'm not a ProTools fan, it would be helpful to become more familiar with it. I'd prefer to go firewire but I'd be looking at a great deal more $ investment. Anyone have experience with the Mbox or other mac approaches you would suggest?

Thanks,

drbam

I use the Mbox in my Pro Tools class and I'd highly recommend it. YOu can't really beat it for the money. It wouldn't be a problem to import wav files from PT into your Sony DAW. Just make sure that all your regions/tracks start on Bar 1 Beat 1 as that will make it easy to allign if need be.

>>I use the Mbox in my Pro Tools class and I'd highly recommend it. YOu can't really beat it for the money.<<

Thanks Johnny! This seems to be the overriding sentiment on all the other forums I've visited as well. The Mbox has a lot of limitations, especially latency, but for the $, it doesn't appear that there's anything else available for a mac that will produce this level of quality.

drbam

FYI - The latest versions of PTLE for mBox (6 and above) do have latency compensation, but just for the audio tracks - not for plugs and such.

...it might be a little bit of a headache if you where to use a UAD-1 card, or something similar to that, but otherwise (with native plugs) I wouldn't really be concerned about it -

There's ways around the latency issue. If you think about it, all Native DAWs have latency. Hell, even my HD Accel system has latency (not very much but it does). On an MBox, just make sure your buffer settings are set to the lowest (128 or 256). Don't use any plugins until you've done all your recording and are ready to mix. You should be fine. Either that, or monitor and record through a mixer like a Mackie or something (only if the latency is a big issue for you.)

In saying that, I think nowadays, there's a lot of great affordable DAWs on the market. It all boils down to which GUI you like best as well as what you need out of the DAW. If you're working with mostly audio, I'd go with Pro Tools. If you're doing mostly midi stuff, I'd go with Logic or Digital Performer, or even Cubase.

Don't let anyone tell you that this DAW "sounds" better than the other. That's BS. The difference in sound depends on your AD converters not the software. Once you're audio is in the computer, it's 0's and 1's and that's it. Digital audio is digital audio.

Good luck on whatever DAW you chose, as there all great in their own way.

Hey Johnnie, While your right that the quality of the conversion is the main factor in determining the fidelity of the recording, the statement that dig is dig applies only to summing at unity. once you start changing gain and pan positions, or running automation, many of the software mixers and audio engines have huge differences in the way they handle audio, giving them what at times can be substantial differences in the final product.

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Don't let anyone tell you that this DAW "sounds" better than the other. That's BS.

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Actually, I've pulled the same WAV files into different audio mixers(apps) on the same PC with the same third party plugs and same D/A and they absolutely do sound different.

Logic does not sound like Sonar does not sound like Nuendo, which despite their claims it's the same engine, didn't sound like SX1.

And none of them have the fidelity (or more specifically the headroom) of my Akai DPS24. And in turn all sounded better than my old Roland VS1680's mixer.

"Actually, I've pulled the same WAV files into different audio mixers(apps) on the same PC with the same third party plugs and same D/A and they absolutely do sound different."

Well, according to Chuck, they should sound the same unless you adjusted the gain or pan or automated anything. Was this a blind test?? If not, then it doesn't count as you're going to pick the one that you think sounds better. Your mind is playing tricks with you.

"Logic does not sound like Sonar does not sound like Nuendo, which despite their claims it's the same engine, didn't sound like SX1."

What you need to do is stop playing with toys and get a real DAW like an HD3/Accel. LOL!! Just kidding. Use what YOU think is best because at the end of the day no one's going to give a shit what or how you recorded something, just as long as the song rocks, and the recording was right on.

Digital summing is simply addition. 2 different apps cannot add 2 and 2 and come up with a different answer, so summing at unity SHOULD give the same result no matter the application. Yes, different software mixers will have vastly different sounds , due to their mix engines treating gain changes, EQs, plug in handling, pan law, ect. in different ways. Even the same aftermarket plug ins can be processed differently in different apps. And then there is the ongoing debate between fixed point versus floating point procesing, but thats a whole 'nuther topic.
Try this.... get some .wav files, and just mix the raw files, with no plug ins, processing or gain change, at unity. They SHOULD give a mixdown that is identicle, unless a given app is doing some trickery with the gain at mixdown. Once you alter the faders on any of the apps, then that aps particular algorythms for performing that operation take over, and the resulting files will be vastly different.

Maybe they would be different, but who's to say which one "sounds" better? What sounds good to you might sound like total shit to me. So when someone says Nuendo sounds better than logic sounds better than Sonar sounds better than Pro Tools, I just laugh and say whatever. What "sounds" better is subjective, and no one can tell me that it's a fact that Nuendo "sounds" better than Pro Tools, or Pro Tools "sounds" better than Logic. It's an opinion. That's all it is. That's like me saying a Chandler LTD-1 is a better sounding mic pre than a D.W. Fearn. Or Macs are better than PC. OSX is better than Windows XP.

All I know is no one has ever called our studio and asked if we have Sonar, or Logic, or Nuendo. It's always "do you have Pro Tools?". Pro Tools is the best DAW for our studio and my way of working. The 3rd party plugin developers for PT are f**king excellent. To me it sounds great, my recordings sound great, and it's basically brought a lot of business to our studio since we've brought it in. Enough to pay for itself a few times over. Would we have the same kind of success with any of the other DAW? I seriously doubt it. But hey, whatever floats your boat. Like I said before, at the end of the day, the person buying your music or downloading it for free, doesn't give two shits about how you recorded it, or what equipment you used. If the song sucks, and the performance sucks, it doesn't matter if you recorded it in Pro Tools or a Playstation 2.

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Try this.... get some .wav files, and just mix the raw files, with no plug ins, processing or gain change, at unity. They SHOULD give a mixdown that is identicle, unless a given app is doing some trickery with the gain at mixdown.

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Well...I wouldn't try that, because it means nothing-except that your theory is right, which I can accept on face value. The key is that mixs of the same WAVs result in different sounding 2 tracks.

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What "sounds" better is subjective, and no one can tell me that it's a fact that Nuendo "sounds" better than Pro Tools, or Pro Tools "sounds" better than Logic. It's an opinion. That's all it is.

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Right. But, they sound different. That's what I'm saying. Better is an opinion. Different is not.

OK, so we all agree then..... I love it when there's love and understanding.
And yeah Johnny, a LOT of people are gonna ask for PT, so from a commercial standoint, you're exactly right. Strictly for sonics I prefer Nuendo, but I'll use whatever the client wants. Most of the PT stuff in Nashille stil gets sent out as discreet tacks, or at least stems, and mixed on an SSL anyway, so the PT mixer is a non issue.