Firewire Mixer Inputs to MBox 2 Pro ?

[mikegreene]

I'm very new to all this - I've used the forum search engine but can't find an answer to my question... apologies though if it's out there already.

If I were to buy a mixer with a firewire output that sends out 16 or so discrete channels of signal, can I plug it in into the '2nd' FW socket at the back of the MBox 2 Pro and, through the other FW port plugged into the PC, send those 16 channels to their own discrete tracks in the software ? I aim to be able to record my band live but want to isolate bass from guitar from keyboards from vocals etc...

Whatever I buy, I am going to stick with ProTools. So if the 2nd MB2P FW socket doesn't do what I think, would I be wasting my time buying a FW mixer and have to accept that I can only record from the desk to the 'standard' IOs on the MB2P ?

Very grateful for any advice offered - thanks.

Mike

[albee1952]

Hey Mike, that won't work for Pro Tools. PT only recognizes the inputs of its own interface. Mbox 2 Pro can do 6 inputs so its not well suited for band recording. What you really need(for Pro Tools recording) is the 002/003 interface with a lightpipe addon* to give you 16 inputs(which could be 16 signals from another mixer direct outputs, or 16 mic preamps). You could use a firewire mixer to track in another DAW program(like cubase or Sonar) and then import the tracks into PT for mixing and overdubs(using the Mbox). Another possible option is M-Powered protools with the new Mackie firewire mixer that claims to work with M-Powered. I have not seen this in action yet, but it sounds good on paper.

*lightpipe addon refers to any of several 8 channel lightpipe preamps such as:
Behringer ADA8000
Presonus Digimax, firestudio, D8
Mackie 800r
M-Audio Octane

[mikegreene]

Thank you very much indeed - that clears up a really important question for us before we commit a great deal of our money to a mixer !

I'm now only left wondering what the 2nd Firewire socket is for; if there is already a FW output to the PC and it isn't for input, to what is it supposed to output ?! Probably a rhetorical question as I've run out of stuff to plug it into anyway !

Most important is thank you !

Mike

[LincolnT]

Originally Posted by mikegreene

Thank you very much indeed - that clears up a really important question for us before we commit a great deal of our money to a mixer !

I'm now only left wondering what the 2nd Firewire socket is for; if there is already a FW output to the PC and it isn't for input, to what is it supposed to output ?! Probably a rhetorical question as I've run out of stuff to plug it into anyway !

Most important is thank you !

Mike

Ideally, you should have two FireWire ports on your computer: one for the Mbox Pro and one for an external FireWire audio hard drive.

You should only use one of the FireWire ports on the MBox Pro, which should connect to the computer.

In the undesirable case that there is only one FireWire port on the computer, it is possible to daisychain the MBox Pro and the hard disk together. That is what the extra FireWire port is for.

Read this whole thread for more info: http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=255473

[mikegreene]

Thanks again, everyone. I really appreciate all your advice.