Will the Mbox and Pro Tools LE be good for me?

[Blair]

Hi everyone! I just recently purchased a new G4 iMac 800 with 768megs of ram and a 60 gig hard drive. I want to record guitar, vocals, and do some midi sequencing. The Mbox looks like it is just what I need, and is also a good price for me. I was wondering if this set up would be effecient for me? I also would like to use some softsynths and plug ins also.
Another question I had was how hard is pro tools LE to learn how to use? The only thing I have sequenced with is a 16 step XOX sequencer. Whats the manual for LE like? Easy to understand, or like Roland manuals? Thanks for your time everyone.
Blair

[Chompers]

with an iMAc, its the way to go.

[Blair]

Can anyone tell me what the learning curve for pro tools LE is like? I had a look at cubase, and that seemed like a lot. I plan on mastering it eventulally, but I want to be able to start doing some basic stuff soon. Thanks

[Chompers]

CUbase is a nightmare. Pro tools is easy. Its deep, and you are always learning things. However, with pro tools, you can start multitracking in as fast as you can read.

READ THE MANUAL!

Many folks blow it off, and never learn.
You should be up and running in matter of an hour or so.

[Slim Shady]

There are a few quicktime tutorials here on digidesign's site:

http://www.digidesign.com/products/mbox/qt_tou r/

and also a few demo sessions come with PTLE that are helpful.

Also, if you're planning on doing MIDI with an external keyboard/sound source, you'll need to pick up some kind of USB MIDI interface as well. Search this forum, and you'll find lots of suggestions on what interfaces others are using.

[Blair]

Thanks for all the input guys! I already have a midisport 2X2 by midiman. So I need to buy my Mbox and a condenser mike next. Then I should be on my way. I'm really excited about pro tools, everyone I know says it is the gretest thing for a home studio. I'll probably be hanging around here a lot in abuout two months or so when I can afford the Mbox.

[Stone Knife]

Blair-
If you can split with $405, get a Rode NTK through BPM express in Colorado.
They ship 2 day FexEx free; It's the best mic you can get for that kind of money- you'll be able to skip the outboard processor stuff and wind up with vocals that are delicious.

[yin7yang64]

My two cents: I found the learning curve on ProTools to be pretty steep and I know I'm not alone--initially the wonderful flexibility and scope of options and parameters is overwhelming--but once I got the basics down and could actually create and produce a session, it became very satisfying. (I originally learning digital editing on a different system (The Audicy), so maybe part of my problem was conceptualizing how to do things a totally different way.) What worked for me was to read the manual enough to run some basic sessions, then use ProTools for awhile, then go back in a few weeks and read the manual again to pick up things I couldn't quite see the usefulness of the first time around.