Installation of Protools 8 LE on Macbook Pro OS Lion

[AmyH]

I'm really hoping someone can help me as I'm spending days and days trying to make the system I have work.

I've been using PT LE v 8 on quite an old Toshiba, with M Box 2 Mini for a few years now. I decided to bite the bullet and get a Macbook Pro (Lion) as I'm upgrading my laptop, plus I had hoped that it would work really well with PT. However, on installation (tried several times), I was having real problems - it seemed to have installed, but PT wasn't actually fully starting - it would quit before it got going. The genius guys at the Apple store had a look and - although it's obv not Apple software - thought they'd cracked it. Brought it home and seemed to be working, but about 10/15 mins into each session, I start to get the worst feedback, which gets louder very quickly and then develops into a very loud beeping sound that makes your ears bleed. Oddly though, if you record a track with this feedback and then bounce it, when you play it after PT has shut down, it plays perfectly, without the feedback/bleeps. However, its impossible to record with all this feedback/bleeping going on, so I now have a set up that is unworkable.

I have run the updater for 8.0.5, but I understand that officially PT LE 8 is not supported by Lion. However, many of the posts in this forum suggest that they are, in fact, compatible and it's not necessary to shell out £200 for a new version of PT. I can't afford to get the latest version of PT - I paid a fair whack a few years ago and hoped to be able to still use it. And actually, even if I did that, I'd be concerned that my MBox 2 Mini would no longer be compatible. I would be eternally gratefu if someone could tell me whether:
- PT LE 8 is compatible with Lion, even if officially it is no longer 'supported' by Avid
- If it is, what might be the problem with the feedback/interference/bleeping I am getting after recording for 10/15 mins
- if it is not compatible, whether my MBox 2 Mini will be compatible with PT 10
- again, if it is not compatible and I give up on a Mac (frankly, i want to throw it out of the window at the moment!), what PC I should be looking for to support what I have (PT 8 and M Box 2 Mini).

Not a massively technical person, so would welcome detailed/layman feedback.

Thank you very much indeed.

A

[nst7]

I know there has been some people using PT8 with Lion, hopefully you can find those threads here.

I can tell you that your Mbox 2 Mini IS compatible with PT10, should you decide to go that route.

Also, the upgrade to PT10 from PT LE (including 8) is over £300, not 200 as you mentioned. At least according to Dolphin Music, where I looked it up (I'm in the US, so I just looked them up because I'm familiar with them).


However, the Mbox 2 Mini will not be supported in PT11 and beyond. You might look at getting the new Mbox 3 Mini bundled with the free PT10 upgrade, which is not much more than the upgrade by itself. Then you'll be set for PT11 and beyond.

On that note, if you can hold out until October, that's when Avid might be introducing PT11, so if that's the case, you could upgrade to that for the same price.


I know you don't want to spend money, I'm just throwing ideas out there.

One other thing to try: download the newest drivers for the Mbox and see if that helps, vs. the older ones that were installed with PT8.

[jasbart]

I'm running PT 8.0.5 on a MacBook Pro/OS Lion with no problems.

However, and this is true for most of the folks out there, the best way to do it is to have your MacBook Pro running pro tools on Snow Leopard first, then upgrade to Lion. Installing pro tools on top of lion has had poor results.

Also be prepared for your Midi files to end up in the unused folder (or obsolete, whatever).

Jim

[ddw4e]

I have PT 8.0.5 on Mac Mini 09 with Lion (upgraded from Snow Leopard) and have no problems. I believe that most use the midi from the MBox (some reported some problems there) and i don't use it because I use the USB interface from my Yamaha MO8. I am wondering if I would be successful in Mountain Lion, but I won't take that chance unless I upgrade. I just use it to send to my engineer as I do my work in either Logic or Studio One.