Members matt_tgpg Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 Hey there all, Further to my thread a few weeks back, I've now taken the plunge and bought a second hand MacBook Pro off a friend. Specs are as follows: 15" MacBook Pro, just under 2 years old but in great condition2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor2GB RAM (upgraded from the 1GB it shipped with)120GB hard drive2x USB / 1x FireWire 400 / 1x FireWire 800 (for connecting audio interfaces) So, now I need to choose my audio interface. I plan to use Ableton as my recording software, many friends have recommended it. So, from what I can see, the main contenders for my front end are the Duet and the Mbox 2. Is one better than the other? I can afford either really. My budget is about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ninja shrimp Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 pick one that has a firewire connection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Majoria Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 There's no question the Duet has better sound capture quality but also will cost more. I have an mbox2 which works fine. If you are using Albeton and the Duet is compatible, I'd recommend the Duet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 I use a Duet at work and an MBox 2 Mini at home and there's really not any comparison between them. You'd think that for roughly the same price and roughly the same feature set, they'd be comparable in performance, but they aren't. I'm not really keen on the UI for the Duet - the multi-function knob is a nice idea, but it makes adjusting input levels kind of annoying. That said, the sound quality is far superior. I use a PC at home and I like PT, so I'm stuck with the MBox, but if I had a Mac and a DAW other than PT, I'd have switched a long time ago. -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members matt_tgpg Posted February 18, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 I use a Duet at work and an MBox 2 Mini at home and there's really not any comparison between them. You'd think that for roughly the same price and roughly the same feature set, they'd be comparable in performance, but they aren't. I'm not really keen on the UI for the Duet - the multi-function knob is a nice idea, but it makes adjusting input levels kind of annoying. That said, the sound quality is far superior.I use a PC at home and I like PT, so I'm stuck with the MBox, but if I had a Mac and a DAW other than PT, I'd have switched a long time ago.-Dan. Hey Dan, Cheers for the input, that's really helpful stuff. I also figured the one knob thing could get annoying. People also seem to moan about the breakout cables... However if the sound is as good as everyone is saying, I could get used to it. Is it the kind of difference I'd notice in a home recording evironment too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 Hey Dan,Cheers for the input, that's really helpful stuff. I also figured the one knob thing could get annoying. People also seem to moan about the breakout cables... Yeah... I don't hate it, but I don't love it, either. If it's a hassle or if your fanout breaks, EMT Labs makes a "breakout box" with all of the connectors in one project box connected by what's essentially a vga cable. However if the sound is as good as everyone is saying, I could get used to it. Is it the kind of difference I'd notice in a home recording evironment too? My office, basement, and kitchen are hardly what you'd "pro" studio environments. The difference in noise floor is not subtle in any of these places, both in the preamps and in the headphone output. -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members oletorjus Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 People I know who've had mboxes said that their nothin' but trouble. People I know who've had apogees have been fairly happy with them. I'd buy one of those MOTU Ultralite things though, for my part. I haven't yet, but I want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zooey Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 You'd think that for roughly the same price and roughly the same feature set, they'd be comparable in performance, but they aren't. Twice as much = "roughly the same price" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted February 18, 2009 Members Share Posted February 18, 2009 Twice as much = "roughly the same price" MBox 2 = $450 Duet = $495 -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mosby Posted February 19, 2009 Members Share Posted February 19, 2009 My mBox worked for years before i upgraded. It still works as far as I know. The more important question is do you want to use Logic or Pro Tools. Cause if you want to use Pro Tools, and Mbox is your only option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zooey Posted February 19, 2009 Members Share Posted February 19, 2009 MBox 2 = $450Duet = $495-Dan. Mbox 2 Mini = $230Duet = $495 If you don't own a Mbox 2 Mini, then my mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alndln2 Posted February 19, 2009 Members Share Posted February 19, 2009 Cause if you want to use Pro Tools, and Mbox is your only option. Not neccessarily, he could always use M-Audio products with PT M-Powered. I'm not sure if Ableton Live uses Core Audio drivers on the Mac side of things or what state Digidesign Core Audio drivers are, but on the PC side Ableton uses ASIO drivers and Digidesigns ASIO drivers are not dual core compliant yet in their M-Box series. Something to investigate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members matt_tgpg Posted February 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 19, 2009 Not neccessarily, he could always use M-Audio products with PT M-Powered. I'm not sure if Ableton Live uses Core Audio drivers on the Mac side of things or what state Digidesign Core Audio drivers are, but on the PC side Ableton uses ASIO drivers and Digidesigns ASIO drivers are not dual core compliant yet in their M-Box series. Something to investigate. I likely won't be using Pro-Tools, probably Ableton as stated in the original post. If I do go with an MBox I may give the LE version a try but beyond that I don't think it will be my primary recording software. How do you peeps feel about Ableton by the way? It looked nice and user friendly. I'll mostly just be recording demos of new songs and a lot of acoustic guitar + voice stuff. I also want to get into doing heavily ambient electronic stuff / drone stuff. As long as Ableton offers a nice multi track recording environment with good midi support I'm happy. Last setup I used was a Roland VS-840EX and a copy of Cakewalk for midi sequencing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted February 19, 2009 Members Share Posted February 19, 2009 Mbox 2 Mini = $230Duet = $495If you don't own a Mbox 2 Mini, then my mistake. I have the Mini, but the OP was asking about the regular MBox 2. With only 1 preamp, I wouldn't say that the Mini has a similar feature set as the Duet, and unless the regular MBox has a completely different analog input section from the Mini, I expect my opinions of the Mini to extend to the MBox. -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members starsnuffer Posted February 19, 2009 Members Share Posted February 19, 2009 I wouldn't buy an mbox if you do not plan on using pro tools. That's really the only reason to buy an mbox. There are scores of equal/better/cheaper interfaces available at the same price point for use with any DAW other then PT. -W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members matt_tgpg Posted February 20, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2009 I was thinking about perhaps looking into something with more inputs than the Duet. There may be a situation where I want 3-4 inputs as opposed to just two. Say I want to dual mic a guitar and use DI. What options are there in the 4+ input range? For instance this MOTU interface is the same price as the Duet, offering 8 inputs. http://www.dv247.com/invt/36152/ No idea what the consensus on MOTU stuff is thought? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members matt_tgpg Posted February 23, 2009 Author Members Share Posted February 23, 2009 I was thinking about perhaps looking into something with more inputs than the Duet. There may be a situation where I want 3-4 inputs as opposed to just two. Say I want to dual mic a guitar and use DI. What options are there in the 4+ input range? For instance this MOTU interface is the same price as the Duet, offering 8 inputs.http://www.dv247.com/invt/36152/No idea what the consensus on MOTU stuff is thought? Anyone got any thoughts on the MOTU 8Pre Firewire? (vs. The Apogee). Sound on Sound review I read seemed pretty positive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hamsterMaster Posted February 27, 2009 Members Share Posted February 27, 2009 How do you peeps feel about Ableton by the way? It looked nice and user friendly. I'll mostly just be recording demos of new songs and a lot of acoustic guitar + voice stuff. I also want to get into doing heavily ambient electronic stuff / drone stuff. As long as Ableton offers a nice multi track recording environment with good midi support I'm happy. Last setup I used was a Roland VS-840EX and a copy of Cakewalk for midi sequencing! Just throwing my $0.02 here... I own both DAWs, and I still favor Live over PT. That being said, I just upgraded to PT8, which has some nice new features. I will be starting a new project on it in the forthcoming months, just to really make up my mind about if I should move into PT (at least for recording guitars/mixing) and leave Live for production. However, there's a certain mindset in PT's design I don't like. The Ableton folks are a LOT smarter around designing their app. Just take a look at the implementation of crossfades in both apps for an example (crossfades will be available in Live 8, but you can check out the videos at Ableton's website). The Digi guys seem to be stuck in this "Apple from the 80's" workflow (maybe it's due to restrictions imposed by an old codebase... but what do I know). Last comment... both apps come really short of instruments. They both have a good number of effects, though. In both apps, they're not terrific, but are useful in most cases. And I guess this is it... so, in short, Live still works better for me. The workflow is terrific, and the UI is super intuitive. I'm sure you'll dig it. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members starsnuffer Posted February 27, 2009 Members Share Posted February 27, 2009 Live is by far more intuitive. PT is more powerful, but there is a steep learning curve. The previous poster mentioned cross fades. I'm curious as to which method he uses for using crossfades. With the multitool, it's just a matter of clicking on the lower left corner of the region you want to fade and then choosing the curve. I always liked Live for a composition standpoint, nothing beats it at that, IMHO. -W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted February 28, 2009 Members Share Posted February 28, 2009 Meh they will both work. The Duet if your going for sound, the mbox if you need pro tools. Honestly out of the box I think you get more with the mbox. Oh and they are not an issue at all, that was kind of a weird statement. If you can I would spring for the pro version though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted February 28, 2009 Members Share Posted February 28, 2009 Live is by far more intuitive. PT is more powerful, but there is a steep learning curve. I suppose it differs for people, but I got into Pro Tools largely because there was NOT a steep learning curve. Without bothering to look at the manual, after installing it, I was recording and editing within a matter of minutes, having never used it before. Although it is an extremely deep program, capable of quite a lot of things, recording, editing, and mixing on it was extremely simple and intuitive for me. As always, YMMV. I just wanted to present another point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted February 28, 2009 Members Share Posted February 28, 2009 I find live to be counter intuitive personally. I guess to each his own. The reason is because it doesn't seem to work the same as most other sequencers. Take reaper vs. cubase vs. pro tools. All three have horizontal tracks that show wav forms and the 3 basic buttons on each that anyone with even a little experience would be able to recognise (track arm, track mute, track solo). Live.... Not so much, I found it very frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members orbm1 Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 I find live to be counter intuitive personally. I guess to each his own. The reason is because it doesn't seem to work the same as most other sequencers. Take reaper vs. cubase vs. pro tools. All three have horizontal tracks that show wav forms and the 3 basic buttons on each that anyone with even a little experience would be able to recognise (track arm, track mute, track solo). Live.... Not so much, I found it very frustrating. a little bit of topic here, but I think you are a little bit mistaken on live.... first of all, live has 2 views, session view and arragement view, you can switch back and forth from this two.... one of them is the layout that lets you accomodate/record different loops and use them by started them in sequence, that way you create arragements on the fly, pretty cool actually, you can do a simple song in a couple of minutes! the other view, is your regular daw configuration, with horizontal tracks that shows wav files and the arm, mute and solo buttons (you can also add inputs and outputs, mixer options, and crossfaders, pretty cool) I just want to clariify that because Live is a powerful and sometimes "misunderstood" daw software that I think really competes with the best out there... Ableton live 8 looks like a winner and fair game against or complement of pt8... IMHO Omar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members samtrips Posted March 3, 2009 Members Share Posted March 3, 2009 I use Live lite 7, some kind of demo version that only lets you use 8 tracks. I also use Pro Tools 7.4. For me, they both kick ass. I found both of them to be intuitive to be honest - I suppose I had spent a year watching over my friend's shoulder as he did a sound engineering course on Pro Tools, then he started making dance music on Ableton and I followed on both. Now I have my own copies of the software and computer, I find them both a doddle in terms of the simple stuff. I thought programming drums on Ableton was going to be a nightmare, but in fact it's actually a pleasure most of the time, except when I'm too dumb to work out which time signature I need. The built in tutorials were pretty good I thought. Yes there are thousands of bits of Pro Tools things I can't do yet, but I am slowly improving, and for me one of the selling points was that although you can make really entry level simple stuff with little hassle, you also have the potential to go further. Not having the full version of Ableton I can't comment on that possible potential. This week I made my first composite track in PT - the first half of take one, and the second half of take 2, both 8 audio tracks of live band recording, and got them to line up and crossfade, you can't even hear the splice now, and that has made me very happy. I also learnt (almost!) how to route to external FX processors. However I probably need to forget this as all my mixes this week ended in a big delay pedal meltdown, good once but I think I overused my toys! I love Pro Tools so much, and I love Harmony Central. I love everything! (lets see how long this mood lasts when I hit rehearsal in an hour or two...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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