Does Mbox really suck this bad?

[Chris Coleman]

I just finished setting up and tweaking a little system I spec'd for one of my clients: Mbox, 12" iBook 1.2GHz w/768MB RAM, OS 10.3.5, PTLE 6.4cs9, 120GB/8MB firewire drive. Memory and fw drive are from OWC.

This system was throwing WAY too many "system interrupt" and "holding off USB audio" errors for my comfort - in short, it was unuseable. It was unpredictable, too...I got it to record 8 simultaneous tracks at the 512/85% buffer/CPU setting for a few minutes straight, but then it kept coughing at 2 tracks with the same settings. In fact, it coughed at 2 tracks no matter what settings I used...60% CPU, 85%, 256 buffer, 1024, didn't matter. Cough. Sputter. Choke.

It felt extremely unstable which did not lead to a great feeling inside my stomach after I've consulted my client to drop over $2000 for an all-in recording bundle.

I know PT and how to tweak OS X systems and I've done everything I can think of (short of disabling Journaling on the iBook's system drive). What's going on here???

(and before the obvious is stated - I know the 12" iBook 1.2GHz is not yet tested, but its 14" brother is supported...and 6.4 is compatible with 10.3.5 - could a bump to 10.3.7 help? PT6.7?)

Bottom line - is this typical performance for a respectably outfitted Mbox system? If it is, I think I may start feeling a bit more queasy...

[Chris Coleman]

Anyone? Are these results typical or not? Is anyone out there actually running a successful Mbox/iBook system?...or any successful Mbox system?

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Does Mbox really suck this bad?

Yes it does

[Eric Klinger]

Typical? It is for me. I hate - sorry... dislike my Mbox very much. I have 2 dual G5s... a dual 1.8 and a dual 2.5. The performance on my dual 1.8 is horrible with the Mbox... with my 002R setup, it's great!

I could never use my Mbox for a mix.... I have had an Mbox for about 6 months, never liked Pro-Tools until I got a Digi002.

I suppose that it's not really Digi's fault as much as a fault of the USB interface. I don't, however, know why Digi even made a USB box... I suppose it is only meant for 8 to 12 tracks with few to no plugs.

[Chris Coleman]

Yes it does

that is not what I wanted to hear...

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

that is not what I wanted to hear...

Sometimes the truth just hurts

Consider trading it in for a Mackie Spike or even a Lexicon Omega.
Spike at least has an onboard processor and Omega is a true sound card w/ MIDI and comes with an awesome reverb plug. You can always take the audio back into PTLE if you really want to. I still wish I hadn't traded in my OO1 for the OO2. Should'a left well enough alone

[tha k man]

Do a search on my posts Chris - you'll see I logged this problem ages ago - I've seen it over and over again. It is very common on Mac portables. No one has offered any solution, and no one has yet to date, defined what is actually causing that particular issue.
It has been ignored, or buried, however you choose to put it.
I have been searching for a solution to this for a very long time. I don't believe that it is fixable.
I have tried everything in the setup guides, answerbase, and the troubleshooting guide many times over. The syndrome seems to be able to transpire different software and OS versions.

F.Y.I

[LSRdigital]

I picked up an mbox shortly after PT 6.7 came out, and I returned it two days later. I know there are some people out there that use them and are happy with them, but it was just simply unusable for me. I could not get a simple 4 track mix with a handful of non-system-intensive plugins to playback at all. I kept getting USB errors and all kind of other wacky behavior. I even went through the trouble of installing a clean system and reinstalling PT and all my plugins, but nothing changed. I'm planning on getting a more powerful computer this summer, probably in the next round of Powermac G5 updates, so I've been looking at options to replace my 001. I was really hoping the mbox would do it because I work well with PT and I only need 2 channels of input at a time. I am REALLY hoping that Digi comes out with a 2 channel firewire interface to replace the mbox. If no such thing exists by this summer, I am going to switch to another DAW software that gives me more flexible hardware options. Good luck with your troubles!

[tha k man]

..... Good luck with your troubles!

Thanks - they ain't really my troubles though - I own a 002, which ( besides the obvious power harness problems) is great! (Love the control surface)

I'm the one folks call when they're mBox goes to hell !

[mobilemac'nstrat]

There are HORDES of happy Mbox users, myself included - just check out some of the threads here, including 'Any news on the new Mbox' which I see you have posted on, Chris, so you have read the Mbox fan's comments there.
I'm sorry for any with problems such as you describe and have no clue as to what the problem(s) might be, but I have used my Mbox on two different powerbooks and a G4 Tower with no problems for the last two years.
Good luck in finding a solution, and don't be deceived into thinking that the Mbox 'sucks' per se.