MBox Micro Sample Max Sample Rate Only 48 kHz?

[Joe Sciacca]

Dear Digidesign,

I was disappointed to find out that MBox Micro Supports a sample rate of only 48 kHz, as all my Digi 002 rack Sessions are at 96kHz...

What am I supposed to do in order to play and edit these at home with MBMicro? Will I have to bound everything down and reimport everything into a 48 kHz Session?!?

"Say it isn't so..."

Regards,
Joe

P.S.: Another cool thingy would be to have the possibility to use the MBMicro as iLok... that'd be true mobile.

[Slim Shady]

Do a "Save Copy In" with your session on the 002 and choose 48k for the new sample rate.

[Joe Sciacca]

Originally Posted by Slim Shady

Do a "Save Copy In" with your session on the 002 and choose 48k for the new sample rate.

Thanks! Good idea... and it also works the other way round. Great!

However I think Digi should automate this. - Immagine receiving a bunch of >48kHz sessions that need a tweak the very next day. - And you'll have to bother the guy on the other side of the planet to send you 48kHz versions... (Central European Time)

:-D

Thanks,
Joe

[Slim Shady]

Actually, that's the sort of thing you should be talking about before taking on a project. If your rig can't handle the sample rate they want you to work at, then you shouldn't be doing the job. They're not going to want to convert to 48k if they're working in 96k just for your benefit, they're going to hire somebody that can do what they want.

Not to mention, going from 48k BACK to 96k is pointless. You've already lost whatever info was there by halving the sample rate, you don't gain any quality back by up-converting again, you should just leave it in 48k. In my experience, 44.1/48k are still the default sample rates for anything "pro" (TV, Film and Albums), 88.2 and 96k (and up) are mostly marking hype, and for the most part just lead to problems with having to do a bunch of file conversions, similar to what you've discovered.

[Joe Sciacca]

So true...! Never take a job you can't handle...

However... I was messing with the package and I found one of those red info flyers where it actually explains how one should handle the export/import 96->48 and vice versa situation. Bad thing is that (as you mentioned correctly) that will actually alter my 96k audio files...

Why in the world would I want to work on a 96k session in 48k with when by doing so I get all my files converted to 48k?

Could someone clear up the intended (pro?) workflow with micro?



Greets,
Joe


P.S.: Here's my workflow.

At Home:
1. Create Demos in Logic. Here I just work on the beats and bass. Guitars are Line6 poor demo quality. Raw Vocals. Everyhing's quick and dirty. Plug and play. Just to capture the raw song idea.
2. Bounce tracks

In The Project Studio:
3. Create 96k Session in PTLE for preproduction and import bounces from logic.
4. Track real Guitar Amp (Ya know loud valves... stuff you don't do at home...)
5. Track real Vocals (My neighbors love it... )

Now usually I would be doing the following two steps in the studio with digi 002. Now I wanna do this at home with micro.
6. Edit
7. Mix

I completely agree with the nonsense of converting my 96k tracks to 48k and then back to 96k... so what should one do to keep the files in 96k but still be able to work on them...

Digidesign... can you help?

[sunburst79]

The 48K limitation is due to the fact that the interface is USB more than any other factor. From what I understand you can transmit 96K across USB but not in both directions at once meaning no simultaneous Input and Output. There were some other reasons like the fact that the interface was USB 1.0 to ensure broad compatibility and that the MBox line could be bus powered. There was a LONG thread about this a year or two ago with some responses from Digi themselves.

Not trying to sound mean or anything but its a good idea to read the manufacturers info very carefully on any DAW related product or software. I suspect everybody's been tripped up once or twice.

[Joe Sciacca]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

...
Not trying to sound mean or anything but its a good idea to read the manufacturers info very carefully on any DAW related product or software. I suspect everybody's been tripped up once or twice.

Seems like I've been tripped ... however... I love my Digi002 rack... even more now.

Thanks!

[AMZavareei]

Should be easy to keep it in 96k, and edit in 48k. Just save a copy of the session in 48k, use that with your micro for editing, then when you need to import your changes into the 96k session, open it up and just import session data from the 48k session, and make sure not to import timeline. Still ab it of a hassle,but at least the source will stay 96k.