Please please help... Catalina + 2022.5 + MBox Pro?

[jd1234]

Hoping someone can help me. I see Catalina works with Pro Tools Ultimate (2022.5), but do both of these work with MBox Pro?

I recently upgraded my IMac from High Sierra to Catalina 10.15.7 and then upgraded Pro Tools from 10 to Pro Tools Ultimate (2022.5). It was suggested by a so called "audio engineer" that this would solve my issues with Pro Tools 10. Thats another story but I am quite concerned that MBox Pro is not compatible with Catalina or Pro Tools 2022.5. Can anyone verify? This chart is what scares me cause I don't see either on here...

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...d/Mbox-Drivers

Any help would be appreciated. I'm at one of those points where I have been trouble shooting for days and going a bit bizerk.

[albee1952]

Things to consider:
1-Mbox Pro was EOL(End Of Life) several years ago.
2-Apple never gives a hoot about backward compatibility
If it were me, I would stop wasting time and get a new interface. On a really tight budget? Look at Focusrite. Got a little more to spend? Look at MOTU. Got deeper pockets? RME and Metric Halo would be tops on the list

[Darryl Ramm]

And what exact issues were you having with Pro Tools 10? There are lots of nice improvements from Pro Tools 10 standard to 2022 Studio but it would be terrible if all this upgrading does not actually solve your problems. Make sure your system meets minimum specs and you are doing the systems optimizations, and ideally you did a full clean install of macOS not an in situ upgrade.

[albee1952]

Indeed, moving from PT10 to any newer version brings a host of issues. Number 1 being that the old PT10 install will leave a metric ^@&*-ton of useless files on the system. To make that move, a completely fresh install of OS and PT(and everything else) is really the only way to go(and a totally fresh install and tweak on a compatible computer is a good way to clear out old problems).

Darryl raised good points that need to be considered. If you have backups, I would restore back to what worked(High Sierra and PT 10) and work on solving any issues with that software. The big problem with OSX is that Apple doesn't care that it almost always screws up existing stuff with every new update

[Ben Jenssen]

And please give us the basic info on your setup. Your system profile says Windows XP and PT8LE. So people here might help you better.

[smurfyou]

No the MBox Pro is not and never will be compatible with Catalina or above. Avid stopped development and never offered 64 bit drivers.

It stinks because it's what you have but I promise any cheap current USB interface will be better.

[jd1234]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

No the MBox Pro is not and never will be compatible with Catalina or above. Avid stopped development and never offered 64 bit drivers.

It stinks because it's what you have but I promise any cheap current USB interface will be better.

Thanks for the response. I'm really out of touch with equipment these days, its been at least a few years since i was up on it. Can you recommend any specific interfaces ? What about Avid Pro Tools HD interfaces? I don't need the most advanced top of the line stuff but i would prefer something halfway decent.

Also I am assuming the interfaces have SPDIF connections at this point right? I was bypassing the Mbox pro converters & channels and using my own preamp --> converter chain but connecting it to MBox Pro via SPDIF.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by jd1234

Thanks for the response. I'm really out of touch with equipment these days, its been at least a few years since i was up on it. Can you recommend any specific interfaces ? What about Avid Pro Tools HD interfaces? I don't need the most advanced top of the line stuff but i would prefer something halfway decent.

Going Digilink aka (HD interfaces) likely makes no sense. Including because it requires either a current HDX Card(s) or used HD Native or Thunderbolt interface if you can find them, and a $$$ Pro Tools Ultimate license and an ongoing commitment to pay for that software/updates/support. All for absolutely no better audio quality than can be found in many much lower cost interfaces. Running a professional studio and need more than 64 IO, need HDX no latency monitoring though plugins, knock yourself out...

Also I am assuming the interfaces have SPDIF connections at this point right? I was bypassing the Mbox pro converters & channels and using my own preamp --> converter chain but connecting it to MBox Pro via SPDIF.

No, many interfaces do not have S/PDIF, if you want that it helps narrow down choices. Outboard preamps can make a lot of sense, and ideally you are doing this for the "character" of a nice preamp (otherwise many higher quality interfaces have quite good performance clean preamps if that is what you are after).

The sorts of things to consider when selecting an interface...

• Your budget.
• Vendor reputation for quality and support, both ongoing driver support customer support. (super important to me)
• How many line inputs and outputs?
• How many headphone outputs and are they independent or shared with other outputs?
• How many on board preamps?
• How many instrument/DI inputs (or use outboard DI boxes into a preamp).
• How many s/pdif or aes/ebu or ADAT and/or other digital inputs and/or outputs?
• And are those digital IO independently accessible, e.g. some interfaces support S/PDIF *or* ADAT on a TOSLINK connector
• S/PDIF on coax or optical (or you can use a converter)
• What hardware monitoring/onboard mixer/effects capabilities to help with tracking? (Things like RME TotalMix or UAD Console, but nearly all interfaces offer some capabilities there)
• What monitor control features? (e.g. from a volume knob and mute button up to switching between multiple monitors and subwoofers to multichannel support and calibration and room correction DSP support).
• The computer connection Firewire (hopefully not), USB 2, 3, Thunderbolt 3, DigiLink (uh no), Dante (avoid unless you know you need Dante), etc., etc.*
• What expansion capabilities you might need in future, whether that's daisy chaining interfaces on Thunderbolt, expanding via ADAT or MADI or DANTE or...
• Do you need Wordclock or other digital in/out for clock synchronization?
• MIDI interface support (you can always just add a seperate MIDI box)
• Latency (largely driver quality allowing smaller IO buffer sizes, but also hardware design of the conversion)
• Does the interface need to be portable (and bus powered?)? transportable? desktop? rack mount?

If you narrow down a list of some of the above then folks can help you pick an interface.

There are many good interface products out there from many vendors, spanning a large price and feature/capability range. You can look at what sellers like Vintage King or Sweetwater have online, look for products from (in no particular order) mainstream manufacturers like Focusrite, Presonus, RME, Motu, UAD, ...all of thee folks make "nice" boxes, how nice they are for your needs I don't know. But looking around will show you want is out there/feature ranges.

I've got a bias for RME interfaces, in large part because of their quality and support, but also because I want multiple S/PDIF and AES/EBU I/O... I hang that off MADI using RME digital conversion boxes into a Fireface UFX+ interface.

[jd1234]

Thanks for the thorough the response. Certainly very helpful but also overwhelming. Since you seem pretty knowledgeable with all this, maybe you can answer a couple of these basic questions for me. Or anyone else who sees this, I would appreciate it...

1.)With a lot of these interfaces like Apollo and RME it says they have a ton of inputs but i am not seeing them on the interface. For example the Twin Apollo says 10 inputs but when i look on the device i only see 2 mic inputs and 1 direct line input (3 total). Where are the other 7? What am i missing?

2.)It looks like there is a difference between a regular SPDIF and a SPDIF TOSLINK right? The SPIDF TOSLINK has an optical connector which is different type of connection than regular SPDIF. So a unit like the Apollo Twin only has 1 digital ouput which is a SDIF TOSLINK, however arent' most of the Preamps and Preamp & Converter in one units using regular SPIDF? For example I use a NEVE1073 with a Rosetta 200 Converter and that Rosetta Converter only has a regular SPDIF output, not a SPIDF Toslink (Optical). Likwise I have a API A2D preamp and converter in one unit that also has a SPDIF output but not the SPDIF Toslink. So it is safe to say I can't use either of these chains with the Twin Apollo right? At least not using the SDIF connector anyway? Using anything other than digital seems completely pointless to me so I am not sure what the draw would be if this is true.

In a nutshell it surprises me that something as popular as the Apollo Twin Interface only has 1 digital input, and that 1 digital input is not even a regular SPDIF but a SPDIF Toslink. I am guessing this is why you say you use RME right? Because it has more options for digital outputs?

[Bookerv12]

Hi,
More and more products come with Toslink SPdif.
Some of them switch between SPDif and Adat 8 channel audio.
If you have a piece of gear with SPdif out on an RCA jack, you can get an RCA to Toslink converter.
(SPdif on Toslink is a stereo connection just like the RCA jack)

I don't have the Apollo, but I'm pretty sure it has a Toslink 8 channel input. (The Adat standard)
That accounts for the 8 extra inputs.
The two inputs are switchable between Mic and Line.

I'm in a totally different world for I/O and A/D-D/A, but got to use a new Presonus interface at a friend's the other day.
It had an impressive set of features, too many ins and outs, and sounded great.

There are lots of options out there for any price point.