Mbox 2 USB or Mbox 2 Pro Firewire
 

I recently bought a Dell D820 (2.33Ghz Core 2 duo, 2 GB ram, external 7200 hard drive) and would like to buy an Mbox so I can use PTLE live on gigs to play Ivory and other soft synths. I wont be doing much live recording, so the amount of ins and outs are not important.
My main concern is performance...particularly latency, while using large sampled pianos like Ivory.
My question is, would the Mbox 2 Pro Firewire give better performance (latency, pops clicks etc) than the Mbox 2 USB?
If not I wont spend the extra $$$'s on the firewire model..

(I'd be using a SIIG 1394 card bus if I went firewire)

Any input appreciated

Re: Mbox 2 USB or Mbox 2 Pro Firewire
 

Further to my previous post, I have just read that the MBox 2 is USB 1.1 (not 2.0) Now I am even more concerned about latency using Ivory.
Anyone have any comments on using an M Audio Firewire 410, with M-Powered. Would this be a better option? Is M-Powered basically the same as LE for playing soft synths?
Help please....I'm confused here..

Re: Mbox 2 USB or Mbox 2 Pro Firewire
 

If you want to use it for live performance and play softsynths you will be better of with another program than PT.
PT can be a pain in the *ss when it comes to using it live, certainly with softsynths!
When i do a liveset i usually use Ableton on one laptop conected to another laptop running PT, only for compression and limiting because i love the massey limiter so much and it is not released as vst at the moment.
I think you will be better of with something like "V-stack". It lets you assign different softsynths to different midi channels.
Somebody correct me if i am wrong here... but with PT you can only play one synth at a time (live). You have to click on the instrument channel to activate its midi or chose the instrument you want to play in the midi preferences dialog. This way you are only able to play one instrument at a time.

There is not much difference between M-powered and LE, search the site and you will find the differences.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers,
Backplay

Re: Mbox 2 USB or Mbox 2 Pro Firewire
 

Well you have me thinking now
I would prefer to use PT if possible, as I just love the electric piano Velvet and several of the sounds in Xpand.
I use an RD700SX as a midi controller, and my plan was to assign different midi channels on the RD so I can call up different instrument tracks in PT.(assigning each instrument track a different midi channel) For example channel 3 Xpand vibes, channel 4 Velvet Mk1 Rhodes, Channel 5 GVI etc etc.. I don't want to have to use a mouse to click on a track when at a gig, ....rather assign the various midi channels on the RD700 to a performance, and change soft synths within PT from the RD performance buttons. (I only need to play one instrument at a time.)

....so can this be done in pro Tools? If I use V-stack I wont have access to Velvet or Xpand

Re: Mbox 2 USB or Mbox 2 Pro Firewire
 

Have you checked the manual yet?

In the midi preferences dialog you can only select "first assigned midi track" or chose a plugin of your choise with the corresponding midi channel, me think

PT isn't user friendly when it comes to using controllers. One of my controllers, the uc-33, is programed like a cs-10 control surfaces. And it works, but it's not all that great...
I still prefer Ableton for that sort of stuff. Because you can also automate your fx if you want to mess with delays or so when your playing.

And when it comes down to stability, i still don't trust PT for 100% in a live situation, although i use it myself It's not made for live use either.

Maybe someone else can chip in and share there experience. Coz i might be all wrong ofcourse


Cheers,
Backplay

Re: Mbox 2 USB or Mbox 2 Pro Firewire
 

Yep, Ive read several Pro Tools manuals....can see nothing on the subject of using a midi controller to be able to change soft synths midi channels within Pro Tools....am just about to give up on it :-(
Might post the same question in the Virtual Instrument forum first

thanks for your help on this....I tend to agree PT is a pain in the *ss to use live in this way

regards
Mal