**in need of advice from experienced users please**

[holdenw172]

alright so i just joined the forum hoping to learn more about pro tools before i make my purchase. basically i play guitar, bass, and do a bit of singing, and i want to start creating music. ive heard many good things about pro tools, and so im pretty set on getting they're products. i don't know anything about recording software and so im hoping someone can tell me whats up. im just wanting the basic pro tools setup and everything thats needed to record my guitars and voice into it. does anyone have any suggestions for what i should start out with? thanks guys.

[LincolnT]

I recommend you get a firewire MBox 2 Pro. It has a lot of inputs and outputs and sounds better than a USB MBox. You don't need the sliders of an 003. Also the MBox 2 Pro is more portable than an 003 Rack.

If you only do guitar and like special guitar effects, then I'd recommend the Eleven Rack.

[LincolnT]

Also, get a 7200 RPM Lacie Rugged Firewire800/FireWire400/USB bus powered portable audio drive. And get two Studio Projects C3 microphones. And Melodyne Plugin or Editor for pitch correction. And get a Roland stage piano for midi.

PS: A computer with an i7 processor will give you the best results. You must use a second hard drive so that audio files are not on the system drive. At least 2GB of ram. 32 bit operating system.

[holdenw172]

thanks for the responses guys. see im a Complete noob here, so im not too familiar with those products. what im wondering is what verson of pro tools software should i buy? and waht products are neccasary for me to be able to use the software. im not wanting to dump awhole lot of money into it just yet. just want the basics so i can start recording then gradually get more and more.

[LincolnT]

Originally Posted by holdenw172

thanks for the responses guys. see im a Complete noob here, so im not too familiar with those products. what im wondering is what verson of pro tools software should i buy? and waht products are neccasary for me to be able to use the software. im not wanting to dump awhole lot of money into it just yet. just want the basics so i can start recording then gradually get more and more.

The current version of Pro Tools LE comes with any hardware purchase. The current version of Pro Tools is 8.0.1.

The most important things to get are an audio drive and MBox.

I recommend the MBox 2 Pro. It can do all the basics and more.

[holdenw172]

LincolnT, so you're saying I don't even need to buy the software, just the hardware? like and audio drive or an Mbox?

[TOM@METRO]

All Digidesign LE hardware comes bundled with LE software.

[LincolnT]

Originally Posted by holdenw172

LincolnT, so you're saying I don't even need to buy the software, just the hardware? like and audio drive or an Mbox?

Correct: you do not need to buy the software separate.

Just buy the hardware new. It comes with the software.

What I am saying is you need to also buy a hard drive that is dedicated to audio files. Pro Tools cannot record audio to the same hard drive as your operating system.

Your computer also has to be fast enough. I figured out how to use Pro Tools on a 2 GHz single core Pentium M. But you will want at least an Intel Core 2 Duo. But an i7 processor will give you the best results.

Your Pro Tools computer should not use integrated graphics. But it should have a dedicated video card.

The audio hard drive should be fast. A good internal audio drive is a Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM 32 MB cache drive.

If it is external, it should be 7200 RPM and have a high transfer rate. USB is too slow to handle an audio drive. FireWire400 works. But I recommend a FireWire800 or eSATA drive.

[LincolnT]

What kind of computer do you plan on using for Pro Tools?

[holdenw172]

sorry it took me so long to respond. but i have a sony vaio laptop. im not too familiar with all this so thats probably why all my questions sound kind of dumb. all i know is that it says centrino duo. so lincolin, you're saying start out with an mbox, which will come with the software, and get and audio drive? would any external harddrive work for storing these audio files? thanks for helping guys, im a Complete noob