Bad advice: Mbox with Digi 002 on XP laptop

[Fred in NM]

I've had two major pro-audio focussed national music stores mislead me in the past week about something after following down the path of a Digi 002 with an XP laptop solution. I believe neither did it intentionally, but both claimed to be experts.

My question to them was simple:

"Ok, I want to be able to edit, mix, demonstrate etc while I'm traveling on unrelated business/pleasure trips with just my laptop and a firewire drive. Dragging around the digi 002 on trips and internationally isn't an option. What can I do?"

Their response:

"PT software requires some sort of Digidesign interface to be connected to it. Yes, the Digi 002 is big, but if you also buy the Mbox, it will be perfect for that. Track on the Digi 002 at home, and when you travel just throw in the Mbox in your laptop case instead and take some headphones. Lots of guys are doing that. blah blah blah. "

I was ready to plunk down my $$$ this week to buy both. I also needed a very portable (for international travel again) two channel laptop interface for various foreign language spoken-word projects/products I do as a business. The added Mbox seemed like the ultimate solution to that need as well - giving me everything I needed to do all my work under one software platform.

Ok, I now know from this site and the forums that LE 5.3.2 and 5.3.3 are required for the Digi 002 and Mbox respectively and that neither work with each other. Sigh.

Ok, now do I have to decide which one not to buy? Gosh!

I haven't called these salespeople back, but I'm sure they'll say "Digidesign's working on it."
Fred

[QuikDraw]

If I was in your situation I would still buy both the 002 and the Mbox. When PTLE 6 comes out it is planned that one version of the software will work with all LE interfaces, the 001, 002, and Mbox. (it's planned to work that way; that doesn't mean it'll actually happen)

In the mean time I would pick up a copy of PQ Partition Magic and set up a dual boot system. One partition for the 002, and one for the Mbox. It's very easy to set up, and works perfectly.

I know, it's an additional step, and expense, that you shouldn't have to take, but for now a dual boot system seems like the best way for you to work until one version for all PTLE hardware becomes a reality.

Mike

[8mmOverdose]

you say you want to use your laptop and firewire cinnection? it appears you were mislead again- mbox is a usb interface, not firewire.

i wonder if it is possible to have two seperate versions of ptle on one partition? 5.33 for the 002 and 5.32 for mbox. you can partition the drive keeping the audio partition seperate from the OS and programs. maybe its possible to open 5.33 sessions in 5.32 and visa versa? or maybe not, i dont know. is this possible digi guys?

OR. . . (assuming you cannot have 2 versions of ptle on one partition) partition the drive into 3 partions and setup a dual boot system (as mentioned above). one for audio, one for the os and 5.33, one for another OS and 5.32. this could work IF it is possible to open 5.33 sessions in 5.32 and visa versa.

i just woke up. maybe these are bad ideas, but its the best i can do at the moment!!! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[QuikDraw]

Originally posted by 8mmOverdose:
you say you want to use your laptop and firewire cinnection? it appears you were mislead again- mbox is a usb interface, not firewire.

True, the Mbox is USB. Still, any modern PC is going to have USB, so that shouldn't be an issue.

i wonder if it is possible to have two seperate versions of ptle on one partition? 5.33 for the 002 and 5.32 for mbox. you can partition the drive keeping the audio partition seperate from the OS and programs. maybe its possible to open 5.33 sessions in 5.32 and visa versa? or maybe not, i dont know. is this possible digi guys?

It is NOT POSSIBLE to have two different versions of PT on one partition (that's why I suggested the dual boot in my above post). It IS POSSIBLE to open PTLE 5.3.2 sessions (002) in PTLE 5.3.3 (Mbox). As a matter of fact, any PT 5.1 or later session can be opened in any other 5.1 or later version (the sessions are all the same after 5.1). You'll get a message as the session is opening that the PT engine is different, is that okay?, and then it opens just fine with the different version.

OR. . . (assuming you cannot have 2 versions of ptle on one partition) partition the drive into 3 partions and setup a dual boot system (as mentioned above). one for audio, one for the os and 5.33, one for another OS and 5.32. this could work IF it is possible to open 5.33 sessions in 5.32 and visa versa.

I wouldn't advise this 3 partition setup however. Two partitions, one for OS with 002, and one for OS with Mbox is all you'll need. You really need to run an external (Firewire or USB 2.0) hard drive for the audio sessions. You'll get terrible performance using the internal laptop hard drive with PTLE.

i just woke up. maybe these are bad ideas, but its the best i can do at the moment!!! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Mike