Can Anyone Help Me Setup my MBOX?

[dedalus23]

Hey all,

Just bought an MBOX and installed Pro Tools 6.7.

I consider myself a pretty computer savvy guy, but I can't seem to get any levels from my inputs, let alone record. Here is a description of my problem:


Inputs:

- Audio Technica AT2020 Condenser Mic (XLR) - Dean Markley Humbucker Acoustic Guitar Pickup (1/4")

I have the mic plugged into Source 1 and the pickup into Source 2. Source 1 is set to mic, Source 2 to inst.

An Example as to what I'm doing:

For the Mic - I create a new track in PT and set the Mic/Line to 1 (Mono) and talk into the mic but the green fader level doesn't respond. Only if I turn the gain on the Mbox up all the way to max, does it begin to read a little in PT (the gain on the Mbox peaks). When I press record and play (the record ready is enabled) it seems as if it is recording, but I hit stop and attempt to playback and I get nothing. No waveform is created whatsoever.

I can hear myself talking into the mic through my headphones. Similarly, I set up a click track and can hear that during playback in my headphones. The exact same thing happens when I try the guitar pickup with the settings in PT adjusted accordingly.

I have checked and rechecked my inputs and they are set up right. I have phantom power 48v enabled for the mic. The very first time I tried to create a track I did get the green but couldn't record and even then I felt I had to turn the gain up on the Mbox far too much to get a decent signal into the software. Any ideas?

Please, please... I'm about to sell the whole rig and accept the fact that I'm too stupid to figure it out.

If someone could walk me through a simple recording process; such as recording my voice through the mic, I'd be eternally grateful!

[msg6794]

are you creating "audio" tracks for these (as opposed to instrument, midi, or aux)? before you hit record, do you see any levels on the track with it armed when you talk into the mic? if you don't, you won't get any good levels when you do manage to record. is there a pad on that mic? if so, make sure that's off...

[dedalus23]

hey, thanks for getting back to me.

yep, im creating "audio" tracks. is that right?

im not seeing anything at all when i talk into the mic (i did at one point, but can't now for whatever reason). however, if i turn the gain all the way up on the mbox, i do see the red peak led go on when i talk into the mic. im not sure about the mic cap, but i cant see any way to take apart the mic so im assuming that's not an issue. my main theory about that is because i have a pickup in my acoustic that i have tried as an alternate source and the same thing happens... i can see the red peak led when the gain is all the way up but no response from the audio track in the software.

so frustrating.

it's gotta be something simple that im missing...

[dedalus23]

ok, a little progress... with the mic, i do get a response well into the green when i create an aux track... but i dont have a record enable option for that kind of track. what's happening here?

[msg6794]

i didn't mean a "cover" by "pad" - a pad is a device that lowers the input gain on something (like a mic) by a certain amount. it's normally a little switch on the side of the mic if there is one... but i don't think that mic has one, so it isn't that.

yes, audio tracks are what you want. not sure what else could be going on... could be a bad mbox... did you get it new?

you are definitely plugging the mic into input 1, choosing "mic" on the mbox, and assigning the input to your audio track to be mono input 1? you are arming the track? the phantom power is definitely on? when you hit record, does PT even draw a region on the track where it should be recording? can you see any audio wave forms in it?

[msg6794]

i didn't see your last post before. you can't record audio onto an aux track... just for the hell of it, you can try to set the output of that aux track to a bus (say, bus 1), and then set the input of an audio track to the same bus 1, and then try to record on that audio track. it's roundabout, but it should work.

[dedalus23]

hey, yep that worked somewhat and it did create a region/waveform for the very first time, but the output is complete garbage it's just distortion and crackles and pops. how much are people turning their gain up to on the mbox? i have mine almost all the way, that doesnt seem right. man, i used to use soundforge and acid and just mic straight into my soundcard and that was easy enough. i wanted to step up a bit and got the mbox (it's brand new out of the box) and im just dyin here.

[msg6794]

you shouldn't have to turn the gain up all the way, most likely... something else is wrong. you might have gotten a bad mbox, or there might be something else simple missing here.

[dedalus23]

yeah, thanks for all the help.

since it's new, i'm banking on the mbox being ok and it just being something simple that im overlooking. the only other time that i had as tough a time as this with computer stuff was with a router and support at dlink was saying the same thing, they were stumped and it must be a bad router, so i went back to the store twice and replaced some parts, and it ended up being a simple setting in the end.

my fingers are crossed that this is another one of those cases...

[DigiTechSupt]

Please start with the steps in the OS X Setup and General Troubleshooting sticky at the top of this forum, specifically those areas on trashing preference and database files.

It sounds like a corrupted preference.