MBOX Studio outboard routing

[rnostrant]

So I have recently got a piece of outboard fx to use with my MBOX Studio. Unfortunately, as I have quickly learned, that actually patching it in software is a nightmare due to how MBOX interprets the output channels. Usually in Pro Tools I would just select the I/O insert and select the channel pair that would match what I routed. Now, I need to use MBOX Control to route it and then route it differently in Pro Tools to hear it.

Could someone please give me a setup for routing it in both MBOX Control and Pro Tools so I can record the mix with the outboard processing? Thanks.

[Darryl Ramm]

Hi Welcome to DUC.

Yep the MBOX Studio is a unfortunate I/O mess. I suspect Avid folks were spending more time trying to make sure this did not compete with the Carbon that they broke the product. I mean there must be a reason, it can't just be stupidity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I assume you want to do a hardware insert in Pro Tools... all that matters then is Pro Tools sees matching I/O port numbers for the output and input of a hardware insert. The names of I/O ports assigned in Setup>IO>{input, output, bus} mean nothing, it's the port numbers that matter. And you can then route sat the outputs in the MBOX mixer to whatever physical output you want.

Get this working first with a null external device, i.e. a straight through cable.

If you are just going out and in line level analog I/O then the default behavior of ADC should correct things, make sure ADC is enabled. And test by putting a click signal on an audio track, applying the H/W insert on that track and then recording the output to another analog track and there should be 0 sample offset. Zoom in and check carefully.

If you are monitoring though outboard gear you might want to set up routing though it in the Mbox mixer instead.

[rnostrant]

Thanks for the help. I found a workaround by using Loopback to have the audio sent out from the internal 7-8 into ADAT 7-8 as physical inputs which then can be properly sent to an aux track or be recorded in an audio track. I also had to disable plug-in latency since the routing was being processed in software.

[Darryl Ramm]

OK

Not I'm not sure what you are actually doing, but if you are using a outboard hardware effects boxes then normally you would operate them just inline in say a mic input or operate them as hardware inserts in Pro Tools. If you are not familiar with Pro Tools hardware inserts maybe look at tutorial videos on You Tube etc. New users occasionally end up doing stuff that is unnecessarily complex, or won't be received well by collaborators/experienced DAW users when they could just be using hardware inserts. Using Loopback is not something you would normally do just to get to a hardware insert.