Newbie Seeking Pro Tools 8le Help!!!!!

[Jackson13]

Hey,

I got my mbox 3 + pro tools 2days ago and i'm running into some various problems i'm really not good with computers so i need to ask some questions and see what i'm doin wrong.

1. my biggest issue is getting a good mic signal, i have a blue condenser and i've turned on the phantom power but in pro tools 8le i cant seem to get a usable clean signal. it seems there is a huge leap in signal on the input 1 gain??

2. Im new to setting up the i/o so i'll need some basic walkthrough on what to set as well as how to get my inputs and outputs sorted..should i record using a stereo or mono track and what is and eleven rack??? (i'm not joking)

3 I'm getting alot of latency from the headphone jack and no voice in my playback probably due to 1 or all of the above problems

system specs...

MacBook
OSX 10.6.8
Mbox 3 mini
blue condenser mic

[jl182]

im not a hundred percent sure about the first problem, but what i do for the i/o set up, just to make sure its all connected properly to the interface is go to setup>i/o>and click inputs then bottom left click default and it usually sets it to the default of the interface. and do the same for outputs. the latency problem is most likely because you need to adjust your h/w buffer size, the lower the buffer size the more cpu it's going to use. when tracking its better to have a lower buffer size for less latency and for when you're mixing its better to have a higher buffer size so you have more cpu for plugins and stuff. an eleven rack is an interface but its made more specifically for recording guitar, it has a bunch of built-in settings to get different guitar sounds and you can do a lot of other stuff with it, but its mainly geared toward recording guitars. hope it helps!