Mbox Install trouble
 

Hi,

I am a long time PT user, starting with 4.somthing. I still have an install of 6.4 on an XP machine.

About a year ago I switched from a Windows laptop to a PB G4 for my main computer. Thus, I'm familiar with OSX but am no expert by a long shot. I need some help with my first install of PT on OSX.

I got a Mbox from a buddy and purchased PT 7.0. I want to do some remote sessions and this setup is ideal. I love my Mac.

I did some trials with my Mac disks on Tiger with PT 6.4 before I discovered that it is incompatible.

I trashed the digidesign folders, purchased 7.0 and completed a fresh install. Everything installed fine, no errors. I loaded a demo song and fooled around with it for a bit. Then I loaded a driver for my Midisport 2X2 interface. No problems there either, PT did its thing and all seemed fine to me. (I need to learn about AMS yet.)

I tried to lay in some audio tracks and discovered that the line inputs seemed dead. Mics are dead too. I double checked my PT record settings; nothing amis there.

System preferences showed a driver for an Mbox2. It's not configureable since the OS can't find an Mbox2. Thinking that I had some old driver from a mis-install when I tried 6.4, I searched for any instance of a digidesign driver. Application support contained some entries as did the Startup folder. I trashed them all. That got rid of the Mbox2 driver.

I reinstalled the ap. Again no inputs and again a Mbox2 driver appears in system preferences. I'm assuming I should see some driver for the older Mbox. None appears.

My thought is the hardware may be bunk. But that Mbox2 driver nags to me that it's a bad install. I need some OSX expert advice.

I'm running a PowerBook G4, 1.5 gigs of Ram, 1.67Ghz proc, 100gig HD, external firewire drives for audio (LaCie 80gig and a Seagate 200gig in an external box).

Thanks for suggestions

mjv

Re: Mbox Install trouble
 

The Mbox2 control panel is not a mistake, it installs no matter what hardware you have. Strange? Yes, but not a mistake.

Are you choosing the right input type using the 'source' button on the front of the Mbox? Have you turned on Phantom power if required by your mic? Make sure you haven't accidentally plugged anything into the Insert jacks by mistake, this is a splice into the signal chain and if not connected properly (i.e. a TRS cable to a compressor) it will keep any signal from reaching the converters. If you crank the gain on a channel's input (with something connected and the right source selected), you should see the 'peak' light activate when you're sending signal (clipping), if that's not the case, then you might have bunk hardware. You might want to try it on your XP machine or a friend's computer to make sure before you take it in for repair, I haven't heard of both input channels going bad before, but I guess anything can happen.

Re: Mbox Install trouble
 

Thanks Slim...

Yeah, I couldn't get any peak lights at all on either input via line or mic. Now that I know the Mbox2 preferences prog isn't unusual I'm more convinced that the box is bad. I'm taking my PB to another buddy's studio to check out the install with his Mbox later this week.

I'm still using a Digi001 on the XP box. I'm not ready to uninstall that just yet and I don't think I can mix hardware on the same boot volume on XP. Otherwise I'd check it out on that system.

Thanks for the reply. BTW nice web site.

mjv