Lambaste me if you will, but way back in October 2006 I bought one of those M-Box 2 Protools LE 7 "production packages." Needless to say, this was purchased for home experiments and nothing too serious. At the moment, the thing's a glorified paperweight; I had major compatability issues with my computer, a newish Pavilion Slimline model. Turns out that Protools is tempermental when it comes to the kind of chipset you're using, and it hated mine.

As many of you are probably aware, Digidesign support is practically nonexistent. Moreover, their "recommended computers" page has not been updated in some time. Now, I'm about to buy something that's compatible with this hardware and software, but don't know where to start. Any "success" stories (meaning: getting it to simply work, and being able to use 20-30 tracks) on here? I'd love to go Mac but just don't have the scratch. I understand there are some newer laptops and PCs that are compatible with this software and hardware, however, so any recommendations would be much, much appreciated. Again, I'm not looking to do anything too serious---I'm a dabbler, at best---but getting this thing off the ground after several months would be a worthwhile summer project.

Thanks in advance!

Who needs 20-30 tracks for home recordings?

Sorry, can't help you, but it sounds to me like you're running into the exact problem that makes ProTools stupid.

Hi Steve,
That's a good question. Well, I do some "production" work as well---some for local radio, some for podcast readings, some for a small theatre group, etc. It isn't all musical, per se. On the other hand, all of it is very low-budget, so a professional studio would be excessive, besides being out of the question.

Yes, your response is exactly what I anticipated. I understand that people hate Protools around here, but again, I'm a dabbler---nothing more. Going into the studio for these things would be preposterous; spending more money than what it takes to create a crude home set up would be preposterous as well. I'm just looking for a recent, affordable computer that will run this junk, like I said. Thanks.

i have been running an imac G5 for 3 years with LE, pretty much everyday. they can be had for less than a grand...more powerful and cheaper than i paid for mine! macmall.com get applecare, the software is okay, the hardware isn't. be prepared to reset your PT preferences about every few weeks, they migrate. also an external hardive, firewire 400, is a must...at least! that is the only advice i have if that is the creek you are up. lastly use the audio suite to write the plug in setting, there is not a good latency compesation i know of otherwise. you have to work it to make it work!

if you have no problems working with other audio hosts, sell your mbox and buy something by rme. Motu stuff is also great, but they have soem compatibility problems with non texas instruments firewire chipsets.
RME is really great.
btw, PT LE gives you up to 16 stereo channel, unless you upgrade to the producer something bundle(maybe that's what you have), and then you get more channels.
Pro tools is very limiting, from all aspects. be careful with their stuff.

Are you running Windows XP Media Centre? I've heard of compatibility issues (i.e.: audio interfaces not working) when using this operating system.

IceManCometh wrote:Lambaste me if you will, but way back in October 2006 I bought one of those M-Box 2 Protools LE 7 "production packages." Needless to say, this was purchased for home experiments and nothing too serious. At the moment, the thing's a glorified paperweight; I had major compatability issues with my computer, a newish Pavilion Slimline model. Turns out that Protools is tempermental when it comes to the kind of chipset you're using, and it hated mine.

As many of you are probably aware, Digidesign support is practically nonexistent. Moreover, their "recommended computers" page has not been updated in some time. Now, I'm about to buy something that's compatible with this hardware and software, but don't know where to start. Any "success" stories (meaning: getting it to simply work, and being able to use 20-30 tracks) on here? I'd love to go Mac but just don't have the scratch. I understand there are some newer laptops and PCs that are compatible with this software and hardware, however, so any recommendations would be much, much appreciated. Again, I'm not looking to do anything too serious---I'm a dabbler, at best---but getting this thing off the ground after several months would be a worthwhile summer project.

Thanks in advance!

while i hate to admit i'm a protooler 'round these parts, i've been using an 002R with PTLE for about three years with almost no problems to speak of... i did my homework and built my system specifically with gear that i knew would work effectively. i read countless posts on the forums at digidesign's website before making my purchase. definitely use XP Pro if you're not going MAC and don't cut corners on components. My computer is out of date now compared to current speeds but it still runs PTLE 7 fine. Buy good memory (at least a gig of low latency stuff). I went with intel 875P board and a P4 2.8C Northwood processor... they obviously don't make this stuff anymore, but maybe you could find it cheap and used somewhere. the cool thing about that board is that it didn't have any built-in nonsense to cause problems (video, audio). I don't get any of the errors or problems people bitch about on their forums and i can easily record 16 tracks simultaneously for as long as i need to and it never crashes...

bottom line, if you want to use PT, read those forums until your eyes are bloodshot and then do it again. plently of people with working systems post their setup on there...

Thanks for the words of advice, all---much appreciated. I'm running Windows XP, but---this is the extent of my computer savvy---I don't know whether it's pro or media version; I'm willing to gamble the latter. Another matter I'll look into.

As for the g5 suggestion, I'd love to get one, but that's still a little outside my price range at the moment. I will keep this possibility in mind, though.

Thanks a lot, BigMetal, for your very specific suggestions. I was hoping I'd get an answer exactly like this---very helpful. In fact, I'm going to print this stuff out. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll come back with some good news. In the meantime, if there are any other suggestions, they'd be much appreciated too.

Nico Adie wrote:Are you running Windows XP Media Centre? I've heard of compatibility issues (i.e.: audio interfaces not working) when using this operating system.

i'm running media center and have no problems with a line 6 toneport interface. I use asio drivers, everything runs pretty smooth.

IceManCometh wrote:Hi Steve,
That's a good question. Well, I do some "production" work as well---some for local radio, some for podcast readings, some for a small theatre group, etc. It isn't all musical, per se. On the other hand, all of it is very low-budget, so a professional studio would be excessive, besides being out of the question.

Yes, your response is exactly what I anticipated. I understand that people hate Protools around here, but again, I'm a dabbler---nothing more. Going into the studio for these things would be preposterous; spending more money than what it takes to create a crude home set up would be preposterous as well. I'm just looking for a recent, affordable computer that will run this junk, like I said. Thanks.

Hey, best of luck figuring it out.

Sorry for the snotty post. I was being a dick for no reason. Just the 20-30 tracks thing always makes me do a double take for some reason. I hate using more than 10.