It's all about timing

[matts9383]

Hey,

About to get rid of my current setup (G4 Digi001), and I'd love to stay with Digi, but I need an affordable firewire interface in the price range of the mbox. Something like the firewire 410/presonus firebox. Should I wait a little to see if digi comes out with something or should i jump ship? Thinking like logic express and either of the two aforementioned interfaces.

matt

[pk_hat]

I think you should wait.

If you feel comfortable with ProTools and it allows you to do what you need, then jumping ship to an M-Audio + Logic combo will, IMHO, only bring you a new set of headaches, and by the time you reach a comfort zone with it all (which could be many months), Digi will have introduced some new gizmo and you'll be wishing you had waited.

I'm not gonna diss Logic, it's poweful and can do wonderful things, but I think it offers way more than what most people need (and only realize after the fact). I've been messing with sequencers for a while before I even got my first PT/Digi001 over 4 years ago and gave Logic Pro a try last spring. Two months + $999 later it was up for sale. I wanted to like it and convinced myself I would get throught the learning curve and conquer it, feeling triumphant like a golden-aged man on Viagra, but alas, I found it to be the most illogical program out there. Ableton Live is my go-to program now.

That said, perhaps you're already familiar with Logic, in which case disregard my comments, but think about this seriously. You're gonna go through a bumpy ride for the sake of, what, firewire bandwidth vs. USB? I would give Ableton Live a try before spending money on Logic. I say don't do it unless you have stronger reasons.

[Seeee]

you want a firewire device for the price of an MBox but want to spend 500 dollars for the software to run it so in the end you've spent 1k. for anything decent anyways. disregard if your using garbage band or cool edit pro already.

[tele_player]

you want a firewire device for the price of an MBox but want to spend 500 dollars for the software to run it so in the end you've spent 1k. for anything decent anyways. disregard if your using garbage band or cool edit pro already.

He's talking about Logic Express - it's $300. And the new PreSonus Firebox looks really nice (I got to see it at the AES show.) Much nicer features than the Mbox, and should be arriving in stores pretty soon. One place is taking orders at $400, and including an Apex 435 mic. That's a nice deal. So, about $700 for interface, software and a surprisingly good microphone.

GarageBand is pretty nice too, the new version lets you record multiple tracks. It's totally different from ProTools, but I don't think of it as a toy.

[matts9383]

tele player is right on...

with my student discount i can get logic express for $150 plus the $400 for the interface and i could potentially upgrade to pro and do surround sound later on...

I mean i understand about the learning curve, but it just seems like theres too many features for price with the competition to stick with digi unless they beef up their stuff. When can we expect some new product announcements for LE?