So what if I have an old Mbox and Snow Leopard? no CoreAudio?

[caruso7r]

If you install pt 8.0 you will be able to use the mbox for core audio.

[MattyEss]

This whole issue really upsets me.
Whats so difficult about supporting the mbox?
How much is it really going to cost to develop the drivers?

At a time when smaller studio operators/owners are much more prominent in the industry and at a time when we have MUCH more choice when it comes to a DAW. I mean there are several DAWs that are less expensive, some free, many come with more bells and whistles for your buck ie. Logic, most have a much wider range of I/O compatibility, etc.

And with SO VERY MANY Mbox original users out there (the same users who have obviously been using PT for a while) why on earth do Digi want to potentially lose their loyal customers? Adding insult to injury considering they only recently forked up the cash for the PT 8 update.

I really would have thought that Digi would want to keep all the customers that they've got, not give them a reason to go looking for something else. If they put in the time and money to keep supporting it, their users will continue to use PT and therefor, buy updates, control surfaces, digi plugins etc.

Also, the original Mbox is a great little unit, sturdy (mine has taken quite a few falls), reliable, it has 2 insert points which are amazingly handy, the pre's are half decent and its never clicked or buzzed in its lifetime. Which is more than I can say for my mates who have some of the later reincarnations.

So tell me why its so difficult and so expensive to support this lil unit?

Why must I replace it with a newer unit that by my understanding isn't as good as what I already have?

[stiefelmusik]

Originally Posted by caruso7r

If you install pt 8.0 you will be able to use the mbox for core audio.

Would that be plain 8.0 or with one of the cs updates? What about 8.0.1? I know it's totally unsupported, but I would be interested in using my original Mbox at least for *something* on Snow Leopard. Any more info would be greatly appreciated!

[aa milne]

Unbelievable!

Would it have been that much harder to support the original Mbox if all the other old systems are still being supported by the standalone driver?

This isn't a question of staying profitable as a company; develop new and innovative products to that aim.

There's no way I'd buy anything associated with Avid or Digidesign in the future after this. A perfectly decent piece of hardware is now effectively a piece of junk.

[stiefelmusik]

Yeah, I'm not very happy about this either. What really disturbs me is that since my last post I decided to conduct a few experiments with Snow Leopard and the original Mbox and actually got it working with PT LE 8.0cs3. I could also use the CoreAudio driver with both Live 7 and Reason 4. Although I did not do extensive testing, IT WAS WORKING! So, I simply DO NOT UNDERSTAND why they decided to drop the Mbox 1 from 8.0.3 when it seems clear to me that it COULD function!

I feel the decision to drop the Mbox 1 from Snow Leopard was rather arbitrary and lazy. What a waste! I'm not talking about the money. I only paid $500 for it nearly 10 years ago and it has paid for itself many times over, so I'm not feeling "ripped off" or anything like that. Rather, it's the principle of the thing that bothers me: unnecessary technological obsolescence. I'm willing to bet the developers could have tweaked the Mbox 1 drivers for Snow Leopard in a single day, if they had been allowed to!

Would I want to be working on a computer from 2001? No. Would I want a cell phone from 2001? No. Then why would I cling to an audio interface from 2001? Well, because 44.1kHz and 24-bit recording are still valid in 2010. Advances in technology simply can't be applied across the board like that. I can see no reason why the original Mbox should be cast into pre-mature obsolescence when USB 1.1, 44.1kHz sample rates and 24-bit recording are still commonplace today.

[GordonFreeman]

Come on, people.
We're talking about Digidesign/Avid.

I intern at one of the biggest studios in Los Angeles, responsible for most of the top selling hits, currently.
Starting a conversation about Digidesign, every single engineer and assistant agrees that "Digidesign is a bunch of greedy little bastards".

These are people who have worked side by side with pro tools and digi for 10+ years and counting. And even they are against their practices...

Nuff said.

[rhender]

I went to listen to some old stuff I had recorded on my original MBox, that I bought new for $500 as well in 2004 I think. Anyway, it gave me the message "Digidesign hardware is in use by another application (-1133)"

I am using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 on a macbook pro and I am getting this.

I am also pretty pissed as some of you are. For $500 I believe that they should continue to support the original M Box. And the new website absolutely sucks. You have to pay for any support at all??? That is absurd. There should be a human to at least tell me that I own a useless piece of [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] now when I call the (hard to find) support #.

If I can't use this box to play my old recordings, I am going to talk bad about Digidesign / Avid ... whoever the hell they are.. for the rest of time. What a [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] company. For real!

And I record to tape... so [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] em. However, if I have missed something somewhere and I can use the original MBox to hear my old stuff on my MacBook Pro with Leopard OS X 10.5.8 ... please be so kind as to let me know. Thanks!

[Ben Jenssen]

rhender, check that you have no other apps running, especially Digi Core Audio Manager, and make shure that the mbox is not selected for output in the sound prefs.

[rhender]

I have to say I am a new Mac User, so I am unfamiliar with a lot of the basics.

How can I check to see if the MBox is even connected? Or I guess if my computer is reading its connection through the USB. It is lit up and receiving power, but I don't know if the computer is actually connected to it...

sorry if that's a dumb question.

I checked my running applications (using cmd + option + esc.) and didn't see anything that should be interfering... no core audio... it won't even let me log into the pro tools program at all. The error message comes as I try to open the program.

Then I went to Sound in System Preferences and didn't see anything related to the MBox which makes me wonder if it is even connected to the computer.

[rhender]

And it doesn't come up under the Devices list, which is where I guess it should be showing up... which also makes me think that it probably won't be compatible with Leopard OS X.