New ProTools Suggestions

[Les Paul]

Hello everyone,

I want a ProTools system and I'm basically starting from scratch. I have a MacBook Pro 15 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) and an Apogee Duet that I'm currently using with Garageband. I want to switch to ProTools and my budget is approximately 2k. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Perry

[albee1952]

The real question is; what do you want to record? If you ever envision recording a drum set or a band, then rule out the Mboxes and look at the 003 interfaces. Even a used 002rack can be a good starting point. If you can get one cheap enough and then send it to Black Lion Audio for their upgrades, then you will match or beat the quality of the newer 003. Of course, if 2-4 inputs is all you will ever need, then look at the Mbox 2 Pro. Its firewire interface(assuming you have a firewire port) allows for faster streaming of audio and you can avoid dealing with the MIX knob on the USB versions of Mbox. You will likely need firewire anyway because Pro Tools requires a separate hard drive for recording(and USB drives are NOT supported). I have heard that there is a kit to install a hard drive in place of the MacBook's optical drive, so that might solve the second drive requirement(plenty of USB optical drives available to replace the one you remove).

[filosofem]

003 (Control Surface).

[caruso7r]

This is new and I thought I would mention. Check out Mackie's site if you wanna do tracking with 16 inputs. The mackie Onyx 1640i will now work with Pro Tools M-Powered and it gives you 16 preamps and eqs going into Pro Tools. Then you press a button and then you get those post fader after PT back out. Not a bad deal for 1699.00 or so. The EQ's are supposed to sound really nice. The only down side is you don't have a control surface only an interface so no automation. EDIT: If you get a 003 rack though, you wouldn't have a control surface anyways so again for the money, you can get the mackie and add a control surface down the road.

[audiowave]

I'm currently writing some music. Tracking now. I can type a note or an idea in the comments area by the insert and sends column. But now I want to type in lyrics or scratch lyrics onto a "track" that would be dedicated to writing the words (lyrics) whilst laying down tracks to a new song as its being born (so to speak) and would be excellent to have happen in the edit window. What would it take to make that happen. It would sure get my vote!

Looking like this:
Track with music............................................. ..........
Word track: type written words (Lyrics) in sync with music (written as in the comment area only this would go across horizontally above or below a music track
My work around for now is to simply record the lyrics onto an audio track with a table style cue mic but seeing the words and being able to type them in while creating the song would be super nice. Thoughts?

[basslik]

Originally Posted by filosofem

003 (Control Surface).

I still have that puppy rolling. Digi 003 tweakhead rack and the console.


Running the latest PT & MacOS using Opencore.


$2,000 I would do as suggested on a used Digi 002 or 003 if you stay on the Macbook Pro.


Also if you switch to a new Pro Tools version, the Macbook will still have to run an older version.


I would also consider a Mac mini M1or 2 with at least 16ram and a used Fireface.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by audiowave

I'm currently writing some music. Tracking now. I can type a note or an idea in the comments area by the insert and sends column. But now I want to type in lyrics or scratch lyrics onto a "track" that would be dedicated to writing the words (lyrics) whilst laying down tracks to a new song as its being born (so to speak) and would be excellent to have happen in the edit window. What would it take to make that happen. It would sure get my vote!

Looking like this:
Track with music............................................. ..........
Word track: type written words (Lyrics) in sync with music (written as in the comment area only this would go across horizontally above or below a music track
My work around for now is to simply record the lyrics onto an audio track with a table style cue mic but seeing the words and being able to type them in while creating the song would be super nice. Thoughts?

Your post has nothing to do with the original subject and would be much better done as a new post. Your suggestion is something I have been asking for now for several years. Not sure we will ever see it work, and that could be due to the ever-changing horizontal zoom, which would make any text file only readable at a very narrow range of zoom. Most musicians I know are more likely to put lyrics on an iPad placed for easy viewing.

[basslik]

What one might be able to do is create a hyperlink to a cloud file that directly takes you to the lyrics?