Avid Mbox Pro Firewire - any way to connect to usb?

[jmac146]

Hey guys, I know people are saying firewire is ancient, but so was my setup (win7, using my desktop I made back in 2008). It ran great but I received a much newer laptop computer which is only USB / USB-C.

I totally just assumed there were converters out there since everything under the sun seems to have one, but couldn't believe the struggle when looking for a firewire converter to USB. Does this seriously not exist? I have been happy with my mbox 3 pro and for consistency of what I'm used to and to keep this hobby going didn't want to have to drop any more money into a new one.

If anyone has any way to simply connect the Mbox 3 Pro to an Asus windows based USB laptop, I'm all ears! Thanks for the help.

https://www.amazon.com/Avid-Mbox-Pro.../dp/B004TD27W8

[Sardi]

No.

Different protocols.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[albee1952]

As Sardi said, its not going to work. Best to sell the old(and not supported) Mbox and move to a new USB or USB-c interface. I had solid results with the Presonus Studio 1810c so I would expect the same from all in that lineup(and they go from 2x2 up to 24x18IO). If you have more money to spend, then there are plenty of options(RME being one of the best)

[jmac146]

Originally Posted by albee1952

As Sardi said, its not going to work. Best to sell the old(and not supported) Mbox and move to a new USB or USB-c interface. I had solid results with the Presonus Studio 1810c so I would expect the same from all in that lineup(and they go from 2x2 up to 24x18IO). If you have more money to spend, then there are plenty of options(RME being one of the best)

Thanks for the note, I was hoping there was a less expensive option since with kids taking over my life its only a hobbies now and hard to justify the cost to upgrade anything these days. was hoping for a loop-hole solution $50 bucks or less...

Anyone know if there's a way to add firewire to a laptop? Its a zenbook pro if that helps.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by jmac146

Anyone know if there's a way to add firewire to a laptop? Its a zenbook pro if that helps.

The only option to add FireWire to laptops today is if they have Thunderbolt ports. That does not just mean USB-C ports, they must be USB-C ports with Thunderbolt support, or older style Thunderbolt 1 or 2 over Mini DisplayPort connectors.

We are multiple posts into this and you are just wasting time when you could have given the *exact* model number/specs of the laptop in your first post.

But not only do you need Firewire you need a device driver for the Mbox Pro that will work on the PC. https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...ox-Pro-Drivers With old end of life products the driver will eventually stop being compatible with new Windows releases. So maybe not the end of the world to just give up and buy a new interface.

[jmac146]

Exact model is UX501VW - US71T. It mentioned that the USB c was "thunderbolt" and I recall downloading an updated driver for that.

I'm ok upgrading eventually but I feel like I didn't even own the mbox pro very long and it does exactly what I need, so I saw no need to upgrade it based on what I do. Maybe when the kids are a little older and I have more time to get back into it I'd upgrade but for now I just want it working as a hobby

[Darryl Ramm]

Uh now with some actual clarity. Yes looks like from online reviews etc. your laptop has Thunderbolt 3.

There are multiple Thunderbolt to Firewire adapters. Apple makes one that is widely used (mostly on Macs obviously but does work on Windows as well), Thunderbolt to Firewire 800:

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...rewire-adapter

and you would need to use that with Apples Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt adapter

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/M...bolt-2-adapter

That combo should work, but there have been some reports of windows users having issues, often *not* caused by the adapters but by other crap. You will need to get and test and bear in mind the other issuse of driver support. If you are running Windows 11 you might want to confirm with other users here that the final drivers releases (years ago) still work on Windows 11. Hopefully they will but you need to pay more attention when using well beyond end of support life products, especially from Avid. Avid finally did the right thing for everybody and gave up on the consumer interface market. Esp. the lower-end stuff was a cluster****, the Mbox Pro was an OK box, but poorly supported and killed off early compared to better vendors, Avid don't even bother to list the Mbox on list of end of life dates. Lots of third party vendors to choose from who do better with customer support and longer term support than Avid did: RME (for sure), UAD, Focusrite, Motu, ...

[jmac146]

I went ahead and ordered everything needed - a new firewire 400 to 800 plug, and the 2 apple plugs (found some used in amazon warehouse since they are freakin expensive for plugs), and downloaded the driver from AVID website - and it worked! such a bizarre workaround but now I can ride this out a few more years till I actually want to or need to upgrade to something better. Thanks!

[JoelG]

Probably would have been cheaper to get a new USB interface :)

Joel

[jmac146]

Originally Posted by JoelG

Probably would have been cheaper to get a new USB interface :)

Joel

Trust me I weighed my options there.. getting the cords used ended up being about 50 bucks as opposed to dropping 300-500 for one that has the same or better features than my mbox pro