MBox 2 Not Working

[mholley]

OK,

So I thought I needed to update the drivers, and now it's not working at all. i have an M Box 2, MAC OS X 10.11.3. Was working till I got tht bright idea.

I know it's not supprted, but is there a way to get the old drivers back? What would you do if you were me, and wanted to try and get this going?

Thanks so much

Mark

[Darryl Ramm]

Restore your last working backup would be the normal way of recovering....

What *exact* Mbox interface do you have? Your post says one thing and your signature the other. If not sure list a photo.

This was working fine on OS X 10.11? or you upgraded OS X and then tried to upgrade the driver?

[mholley]

Thanks, and sorry.

Not sure why it says MBOX3 - Yikes. It's an MBOX 2, and I just just got up and running on a new system, and so I don't have a backup.

O didn't upgrade the OS, just for some reason drivers for the MBOX, and now no lights, when I had them yesterday.

I should have left well emough alone.

I am at a loss.

Mark

[Darryl Ramm]

So you used the system migration assistant (aka assassin) to move your old driver onto a new system? That is *never* a good idea but in this case you were lucky it worked. If you still have the old system you could repeat the migration. Or try manually grabbing the kext file off the old system and dropping it on the new.

What version was the old driver? It may be the same version as the new one, and the driver/kext file may or may not be the problem, it may be peripheral things to do with the installer and support infrastructure around the drier. If you can't find a version that will install on El Capitan (I doubt you will) you will have to repeat whatever trick you did before.

Unfortunately DUC is full of folks hurting themselves with El Crapitan, including with the MBox 2. You could give up and toss the MBox 2 and get a better interface with current support. Many mainstream vendors besides Avid provides better (long term/faster release) driver support for audio interfaces. Id' probably cut my losses, and use of any Avid interfaces, and go that route. No shortage of vendors out here Focusrite, Apogee, MOTU, UAD....

[mholley]

Thanks,

What are some solutions that won't break the bank, and be similar. I am a demo writer, don't need a ton of in's....but like the form factor so I don't something on the desk...I had it sitting on a rack shelf....

Thanks

Mark

[Darryl Ramm]

The Scarlett 2i2 may do all you need for only ~$150 street price. A low cost way to cut your hassles with Avid interfaces. Like most vendors, Focusrite have had problems with drivers etc. but their support for consumer products generally runs rings around Avid. And in this case the 2i2 relies on being USB class compliant, so no drivers to install on Mac, which does not necessarily guarantee there will never be any problems, but hopefully that is the case.

https://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-i...s/scarlett-2i2

If you want digital IO or built in MIDI there are higher end models that will do that.

I really like Apogee Digital for higher end stuff on Mac.

And Focusrite (and Apogee) Thunderbolt interfaces can offer much lower latency than USB, not clear if software monitoring latency matters to you or not.

[mholley]

Thanks,

I started with the original MBox, then moved to this, and now I think it's time to move on. I wonder why Avid dropped off the map here?

I am torn between USB or Thunderbolt. It looks like Focusrite has the box for me, I know the latency is the main thing.

I appreciate allof your help and thoughts, as it's change is always hard!

Mark

[VRW]

Like mentioned by Darryl already, in the lower price range (up to 1k) Focusrite offer great quality for the price.

I personally use the Scarlett 2i2 for mobile applications (besides my Apollo desktop system) successfully with
OS X El Capitan 10.11.3, Pro Tools 12.4 on 2 different Macbooks, one 2014 Macbook Pro i7 Quad 2,5GHz, 16GB
Ram and one 2012 Macbook Pro i5 2,5GHz, 16GB Ram.
Here with these 2 systems at least the Scarlett 2i2 works like a charm. As mentioned by DR the advantage of the
small 2i2 Scarlett model is that it needs no driver nor any software (USB class compliant), it´s simply plug n play
which is a cool thing as there will be no hassle with drivers and stuff finally.

This little box works flawlessly here with the latest versions of Mac OS X and Pro Tools 12 and it offers surprisingly
good quality (definitely better than the MBox) as for mic pres and converters! Much better than you would think
considering it´s really low price now.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Scarlett2i2
https://us.focusrite.com/usb-audio-i...s/scarlett-2i2

However if you can afford a bit more, the new Focusrite Clarett 2pre would be a seriously interesting product for an
MBox replacement imo. It´s one of the most current interfaces out there and therefor pretty future proof as well.
It´s Thunderbolt connected which means really low latency on recording and it´s got superb, studio grade mic pres
and converters. Again it offers quality you normally find in much more expensive gear actually. You may check it out.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Clarett2Pre
https://us.focusrite.com/thunderbolt...s/clarett-2pre

The whole range of this series (if you should consider even more pres).
http://www.sweetwater.com/c1089--Thu...N1c3JpdGUiXX19
https://us.focusrite.com/clarett-range

2 other options may be an UA Apollo Twin which are serious stuff as well as for audio quality and reliability and the
brand new RME Babyface Pro if max portability is required.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ApolloTwinD
http://www.uaudio.com/interfaces/apollo-twin.html
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BabyfacePro
http://babyface.rme-audio.de
http://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/babyface_pro.php

Apogee do make fantastic products as well, I have owned many of their interfaces and I still love em and would buy em
again. As for audio quality Apogees are always among the very best out there! I owned and loved even the small Duet 2
for it´s exceptional audio quality in it´s price range however I had experienced some USB connection issues with the very
latest versions of Mac OS X (started with Yosemite and didn´t get better even with new drivers unfortunately). That´s the
only reason I have not mentioned the Duet here. All other Apogees are above 1k anyway.
Great stuff if one can afford it (very nice, high class sounding Quartet, the super cool new Thunderbolt Ensemble etc.).

So if you are on a tight budget, the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 might be a big bang for the buck. If you can afford a bit more
and want to be kinda state-of-the-art and have something future proof, check out the Focusrite Clarett 2pre!
Finally if you need max portability and you can afford it, the new RME Babyface Pro is a very good one too for sure.

All the best to you!

[VRW]

Ps: don´t think about your MBox 2 anymore. Darryl may correct me if I´m wrong but as far as I could see there isn´t any official driver for the MBox 2 anymore.
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...Mbox-2-Drivers

Avid skipped the support of the series 2 interfaces with Mac OS X El Capitan. This is why it says MBox 3. Only the interfaces of the series 3 units are still supported
with El Capitan and soon even those will be legacy. All those Avid interfaces were made for much older systems, computers and versions of Pro Tools obviously.

Maybe Avid will release new interfaces once which will work great with all the new systems as well. Until then you better look at other manufacturers if you want
it trouble free (as much as possible at least).

Pro Tools 12 DAW software itself is great stuff and works well in most cases.

The best of success!

[JoelG]

Here's the official word on the MBox 2: http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...ers&popup=true

Joel