Chaining Mbox 3 Pro with Focusrite Scarlett 18i6

[jasonzac]

We have been provided a breakout cable with the new Mbox Pro 3G for digital I/O. Could someone please suggest how to chain this with my Focusrite interface to get the additional 2 Mic Pre-amps for recording drums.

I'm running Pro Tools 10 with the latest drivers for both interfaces for Lion.

An I/O Setup guide would also be great for this!

Thanks,
Jason

[jasonzac]

Anyone got an answer to this.

[serio]

The Scarlett interface will have to be your primary interface for this to work, as unlike the Saffire interfaces, it doesn't have a stand alone mode. So make sure that only the Scarlett's FireWire cable is plugged in to your computer. The Mbox Pro is cool because when you turn it on without a FireWire connection, it automatically runs in standalone mode. It has 3 standalone modes which you can switch via the speaker switch. It usually defaults to ADDA mode, which is what you want. This is indicated by the speaker light being green. It would also work in preamp mode but you can read the user guide to see the differences. To hook it up, coonect a cable from the Mbox SPDIF out to the Scarlett's SPDIF in. To use the DA of your MBox, connect the SPDIF IN to the SPDIF OUT of the Scarlett. The Mbox by default is set to 44.1 sample rate and to internal clock. Read the user guide to see how to change this. For now , you can set your Scarlett to sync to the SPDIF clock which I don't know how to do because I haven't used one, but it should be an option in its hardware setup page. Now in a track in Pro Tools, select SPDIF left and right, as the track input to access the Mbox pres. The DI's and rear channel 1&2 inputs will also work.

[serio]

I overlooked another possibility, as I assumed the digital conversion in the Mbox Pro would be preferred. By running the Mbox Pro in preamp mode, you could use all 4 of the Mbox Pro preamps by going directly line out instead of SPDIF. You'd have to use the Scarlett's conversion which may be fine, but you'd get to use 4 preamps instead of 2. The Mbox Pro really gives you lots of options.