PT Aggregate I/O, Playback engine / Hardware set-up question

[LSNY]

With PT7, I used an mbox 2 pro: Either alone, or with an Apogee Mini-Me (via spdif). The Mini-Me's pre and clock surely made a difference.

Now, I'm experimenting with 9, and I've confused myself.

I can:

1. Still do exactly what I did in the past, as described above. (mbox alone, or with Mini-Me via spdif).

2. Or, I can take the mbox out of the chain, and record through the Mini-Me via USB. (My Mini-Me has no Firewire card.) In that case, I listen back either through:

---The Mini-Me headphone out, or...

---Computer's Built-In output.

Using the Mini-Me in this way (USB, as opposed to spdif), I'm not using the Apogee clock.

Questions:

What clock am I using when I hook up the Mini-Me via USB? PT9's internal clock? (The mbox 2 pro is not connected).

Wouldn't it always be better to use the Apogee clock?

Will there be an advantage to installing the Firewire option in the Mini-Me?

If I wish to use the Apogee clock, is there a device other than the mbox 2 pro (something smaller) that will allow me to get into PT9 through the "spdif out": on the Mini-Me? That way I can use the mbox pre(s) and clock.

In general, am I missing something here? Is there a better way to do all this?

Thanks in advance---I know that's a long post with a lot of questions !!!


Running PT9, Macbook Pro 2.4, 4 gigs RAM.

[daeron80]

Clocks are hardware items - by definition, PT can have no clock of its own. When you use the Mini Me via USB, you're almost certainly using its internal clock. I suppose there's an outside chance it's clocking to your computer's sound card somehow. But I'm not sure that's even possible. If you like the Mini Me sound and it gives you low enough latency, might as well just go with it.

[Obsidian Dragon]

I don't have a mini me but I guess the question should be, is there a ASIO or Core Audio driver to have it work as an interface via USB. If so, it should work as you wanted (without the Mbox 2 pro). Otherwise you still need to go through the Mbox 2 Pro via SPDIF.