Vocal Tips/Mbox 2 Pro Help

[BicoastalAffair]

First off, hi everyone. I just got into the whole "home recording" style investing some money to building/furnishing my father and my own studio. Since we are just beginning we just invested (as far as equipment) into something more along the lines of beginners and went with an Mbox 2 Pro. I love it. I know a thing or two only because of going to the studio so many times with my band and the engineer walking me through everything since he knew we were investing into our own studio, but nonetheless I am still learning, watching tons of videos and reading this "Pro Tools 101" book which is very helpful by the way if anyone is also beginning.

Anywho, so we're running off of v. 7.4.2, the basic plug-ins the Mbox 2 Pro Factory comes with, and so forth and my first topic of discussion is with help on vocals. I know compression is a must, so I use the basic "Compression" plug-in and change the default over to "Vocal Comp". I add a little reverb with the "D-Verb" plug-in, a little 4-band EQ modding and hit it up with Melodyne Cre8 to fine tune the vocals. They are not really where I would like them to be. I know I'm most likely doing 5% of the things POSSIBLE to enhance/work with vocals hah but thats where I would like some input and suggestions/help/anything! I really dig this band "The Friday Night Boys", and their vocals on their tracks is basically what I would like to aim for. If anyone has a second to check some of their audio out, their link is "www.myspace.com/thefridaynightboys". Anywho, thats what I would like because it sounds very clean and nice and beefed up as far as the vocal end. Any help achieving something like that as far as what I can do/what I'm not doing that I should be doing, any plug-ins that I could purchace to get that sound, tricks, EQ settings, whatever. Anything would be helpful as well as appreciated.

Second, as far as drums, since there are only four inputs on the Mbox 2 Pro, I'm still going to the studio to have our drummer record. My engineer is also aware of the situation and has suggested a Presonus firestudio/firestudio tube/firepod. I know the basic idea of them, and I've been doing a lot of research on them but would like to know how something like this would integrate with my Mbox 2 Pro/Pro Tools. Is it fairly easy to pair the two together? Basically, I would like something that I can take out of the box, install, connect to my Mbox/Computer, and bring up Pro Tools to start recording drums. That's basically it though, Presonus Firestudio/Mbox 2 Pro w. Pro Tools....how do they work together?

Any help and/or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated since I'm still new to doing this all by myself.

Thank you all who reply,

-Rich

[spkguitar]

First, welcome to Pro Tools.

Now for the bad news:

Originally Posted by BicoastalAffair

My engineer is also aware of the situation and has suggested a Presonus firestudio/firestudio tube/firepod.

I don't know who your engineer is, but he/she seems to know nothing about the Pro Tools LE interfaces. You might want to give him/her a lot more information about your setup. (either that or stop listening to advice from that particular individual ).

Originally Posted by BicoastalAffair

I know the basic idea of them, and I've been doing a lot of research on them but would like to know how something like this would integrate with my Mbox 2 Pro/Pro Tools.

It wouldn't. The mBox 2 Pro is only expandable via the 2-channel S/PDIF connector. You cannot use the Presonus firestudio/firestudio tube/firepod with the MBox 2 Pro.

Originally Posted by BicoastalAffair

Is it fairly easy to pair the two together?

As I mentioned already, you can't. The only way you would be able to use the Presonus firestudio/firestudio tube/firepod with the current Digidesign hardware you have is if you recorded into some other software first, and then exported/moved the files into Pro Tools.

Originally Posted by BicoastalAffair

Basically, I would like something that I can take out of the box, install, connect to my Mbox/Computer, and bring up Pro Tools to start recording drums.

Your MBox 2 Pro is capable of 6 inputs total. Period. If you need/want more inputs to record drums in Pro Tools, then you should be looking at trading in your MBox for the 003R+ Factory that has 8 mic pres and is expandable to 18 I/O via lightpipe and S/PDIF devices (which you would have to purchase separately).

Originally Posted by BicoastalAffair

That's basically it though, Presonus Firestudio/Mbox 2 Pro w. Pro Tools....how do they work together?

They don't.




As for the vocals question, it's very hard to give you recommendations without knowing more about the gear that you are using currently, and what the vocals/vocalist is like.
What kind of microphone?
What is the space that you are recording the vocals in like?

Forget about plugins and EQ settings for the moment. What you need (in this order) is:

1. Good vocals. (the singer has to be good to start out with; if not, the rest just doesn't even matter).
2. A good microphone.
3. A good preamp. (the one in the MBox is decent, and may work well with a great microphone, but it is not exceptional)
4. A good room to record in that has been acoustically treated (if even temporarily).
5. LOTS of time to learn/experiment. (You are not going to find those magical "silver bullet settings" from a post on the internet; you really need to understand what you are doing, what the source material is, what is good/lacking about it, etc etc)

[BicoastalAffair]

Thanks for all the help guys.

spkguitar you definitely helped me out a lot..we were originally going to purchase the 003 but ended up getting the mbox 2 pro to start. i think once we upgrade, we're gonna go with the 003 table interface with mixers and what not.