MBox Pro or Eleven Rack

[jdp8883]

First post from a home studio noob. I am a guitar player first and foremost, but I have spent the better part of the last year cutting my teeth in logic with a buddy and am ready to dive into Pro Tools (I chose PT over Logic largely because I do not own a Mac). My 30 day trial is nearly complete and it has been very enjoyable so I am very close to pulling the trigger on PT

WIth that said I am still fairly ignorant of recording hardware. At first I was sure of purchasing the Pro Tools + MBox Pro combo. However, I am also considering the Eleven Rack Combo as a guitarist. My question is Would the 11R be a poor choice as a primary interface? I also want a MIDI interface and the ability to utilize two mics at the same time for my acoustic. And to my knowledge the 11R only has one XLR input.

Are there any other limiting factors that I should be aware of? Which would you recommend?

I did a quick search and found a single response to a similar question. A few more voices of expertise would be appreciated!

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by jdp8883

First post from a home studio noob. I am a guitar player first and foremost, but I have spent the better part of the last year cutting my teeth in logic with a buddy and am ready to dive into Pro Tools (I chose PT over Logic largely because I do not own a Mac). My 30 day trial is nearly complete and it has been very enjoyable so I am very close to pulling the trigger on PT

WIth that said I am still fairly ignorant of recording hardware. At first I was sure of purchasing the Pro Tools + MBox Pro combo. However, I am also considering the Eleven Rack Combo as a guitarist. My question is Would the 11R be a poor choice as a primary interface? I also want a MIDI interface and the ability to utilize two mics at the same time for my acoustic. And to my knowledge the 11R only has one XLR input.

Are there any other limiting factors that I should be aware of? Which would you recommend?

I did a quick search and found a single response to a similar question. A few more voices of expertise would be appreciated!

You have told us nothing about what you really want to do - just record solo acoustic guitar? a band? what instruments how many simultaneous inputs? how many monitor/artist cue mix etc.? Any VI (cirtual instument) tracks - e.g. keyboard synths or drum software played through Pro Tools?

What is your PC? Make, model and specs.

The Eleven Rack gets you one mic pre-amp, but also has digital and line level inputs. But it comes with restrictions of only being able to run one input at a time though the on board DSP processing (which you may or may not want to do anyhow).

If you play electric guitar do you have the amps and cabs you want now and the ability to play them at a good sounding volume and record into a mic? Late at night? The eleven Rack solves that and many more problem for you for just about any style of amp (at least for most folks). If you are mostly going to record electric guitar I think the Eleven Rack (or the more expensive and more tweekable Fractal Axe FX II) are very compelling. If that sounds like you, then get the Eleven Rack now and learn how to record with it, you may end up wanting to add a more capable interface but, by the time you look around for that you'll know a enough to make an informed decision.

The Eleven Rack can be used as an outboard processor hanging off more-capable (in terms of IO connectivity) interfaces, either via analog or digital (e.g. S/PDIF) connections, allowing you to run the guitar signals though the Eleven Rack for processing and into the other interface for recording. In addition to the Mic input on the front panel the Eleven rack has two additional analog line inputs which if you add a pre-amp can be used to also record acoustic guitar.

The best way to see what the Eleven Rack can do is to download and read the Eleven Rack manual, its a very impressive toy. Ask questions if stuff there is not clear.

However if you just want to record acoustic guitar and/or vocals and dont' record electric guitar then the Eleven Rack may not be the right thing for you and buying a different interface will get you more on-board mic, preamps and expansions options like ADAT input for adding more mic inputs in future.

How high-end you are looking for and what your budget are important questions. Its easy to just spend several thousands of dollars on mics and preamps alone especially if you want to chase high-end acoustic guitar and/or vocal recording. Especially if you don't own mics now you need to think what they will cost you. And if you want to record drums, that alone might get you into 6 or 8 additional mics and needed inputs.

Both of these interfaces have MIDI support.

If you do go with an Eleven Rack + Pro Tools bundle that gets you a nice price package with pro Tools 10 which you can then buy just about any third party interface, or an unbundled Mbox Pro. I would certainly not just assume the only interfaces are from Avid. There are a wide choice of non-Avid interfaces out there. There are other discussions on DUC right now about interface recommendations, you might want to have a search for and read those.

Darryl

[jdp8883]

Darryl, thanks for such a detailed response. I spend upwards of 75% of my time on my acoustic guitar so setting up my studio room for that is key.

No desire to record a band, live drum kit, etc...at least not anytime in the near future.

I would like to explore MIDI virtual instrument plugins.

My main concern was not being able to double up on mics when recording my acoustic but as you said this can be solved through external preamp.

However, why not just utilize the Eleven plugin and skip the Eleven Rack? I do know, as far as my understanding that the plugin does not come with effects and it would be more taxing on your system since the processing would be taking place there.

[amolin]

Then go for the mbox pro, it also have way better pre's and converters than the eleven rack have.

With the mbox you can use 2 mics for your acoustic, and you can use two mics if recording electric from an amp, and use the eleven plug-in if you record electric gtr using the DI-input in the mbox.

If you get the eleven rack you'r only gonna have a sing mic input, sounds like that's not enough for you.

Just notice that the eleven plugin that's included with pro tools is quite cripled in features, so you might have to buy the full (or LE) version.

[jdp8883]

Thank you guys. I have a much better idea now to make a better decision

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by jdp8883

Darryl, thanks for such a detailed response. I spend upwards of 75% of my time on my acoustic guitar so setting up my studio room for that is key.

No desire to record a band, live drum kit, etc...at least not anytime in the near future.

I would like to explore MIDI virtual instrument plugins.

My main concern was not being able to double up on mics when recording my acoustic but as you said this can be solved through external preamp.

However, why not just utilize the Eleven plugin and skip the Eleven Rack? I do know, as far as my understanding that the plugin does not come with effects and it would be more taxing on your system since the processing would be taking place there.

The eleven rack has lower latency, more amp sims, more IO options (eg driving guitar amps/cabs), more effects, an easy to use fx loop, etc. and you can play live the same as you record. Eleven is really good, but for a bit more you can get an Eleven Rack. Eleven really cones into its own in larger studios, being able to reamp multiple tracks 'in the box' etc. Pro Tools does include some basic studio effects you can use in conjunction with Eleven (flanger and reverb for example).

It sounds like you should start with an Mbox Pro or similar, but you do start recording more electric guitar then the Eleven Rack may be something to look at. I think it's more practical than using guitar amp plugins for processing. But Pro Tools does come with the very basic Eleven Free and Sansamp plugins so just give them a try.

Virtual instruments can be very demanding on the computer. CPU, memory and disk (sometimes needing a third separate hard drive for VI samples-in addition to the seperate hard drives you need for the system and audio/session files). And you especially must do all the standard Avid recconended optimizations to your computer for Pro Tools.

Darryl