please explain to me as if i were a child...

[cydonia]

I don't see the toolbox on this site, but i see the mbox.

[Avid]

http://www.digidesign.com/support/sp...box_specs.html

[M.Brane]

Well......

I recently purchased a Behringer 802A and a couple of ECM8000's. $180 out the door at my local pro-audio shop. Plugged into the stock RCA inputs on my PM8500 it sounds pretty damn good for the money IMHO. Actually the 802 sounds better than the Peavey board I bought several years ago for my PA setup which was $250. Yeah it's only got four mic pre's but it does have phantom power and more routing options.

Live and learn.

Thanks Digi! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Bastiaan]

To clarify:

Toolbox XP and AudioMedia III are the same!!! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[cydonia]

Just a few more questions... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Latency is a byproduct of USB, is this correct?

So would the solution be to have a sound card in a PCI slot?

I wouldn't get latency from an Audiomedia III?

Since the Audiomedia III is discontinued, is there a new card i can buy that comes with "real" pro tools software?

Thanks again

[love666]

latency is the time between when you hit your computer with a signal and when the signal comes out of the computer. however it is solved with a feature called Low Latency Monitoring that is specific to the LE software that comes with the Toolbox, Mbox and Digi 001, which is not incorporated in Free. this feature also eliminates the need for a monitor mixer to solve latency. the AMIII/Toolbox is discontinued but available on ebay constantly. the other option in a lower price range would be an Mbox, which is a USB system that does not use a PCI card. the Mbox has the advantage of having 2 built-in preamps, and the disadvantages of being roughly twice as expensive as the Toolbox and the inability to use all 4 inputs simultaneously.

[Bastiaan]

the advantage with a mbox is that if you do everything correctly you will not hear any latency while recording. The digi001 and amiii card do have some latency - hence low-latency mode- but it is barely noticable. The mbox comes with 2 good quality pre-amps and a headphone-connection. The amiii card has no pre-amps, only line inputs, so you will need some other equipment like a mixer to work with mic's. The amIII is a very nice card indeed....but it does need a pci-slot....

[cydonia]

Thanks for taking the time to help me out guys, i know it might seem like i'm asking the same questions over again but it's slowly sinking in! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Hopefully these options will work for me. In pro tools free i mute the track i'm recording, and just monitor it thru my 4-track and there's no latency, it's just when i mix down that it buggs. I've already been experimenting with the nudge command, but it sounds like it would help to get one of the two systems you two mentioned. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bastiaan]

Cydonia, the way you monitor yourself during recording is the good way.

Now you have to learn to comensate for the latency immideatly after recording, so you will forget it even was there at the first place.

get your setup as you always do, and record a very short sound (clap in your hands.....). Now you can:

1) take your microphone and push it into your headset.

2) connect the output of protools to the input.

And record this to a second channel.

Now you have to zoom in on both the tracks, and you'll see the latency....(second track more to the right then the first). Zoom is as much as you can, and select the space it takes from the beginnening of the first sound till tghe beginning of the second sound. Now look at your counters on top of the edit-window, and you will see the amount of deleay your system has. Write it down, as this is the nudge-value you'll need to compensate the latenciy.

[cydonia]

Thanks bastiaan, that sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a shot, maybe whatever nudge value works i can just use all the time.