Connecting G5 To Es Rack And Mbox, First time advice for G5 user Options

[huskyboy333]

Hi, this is my first post and I needed some help with my DAW that I'm almost finished with. I just got my G5 today and I just want to know exactly how I hook that up to my midi keyboard system that I already have. I have an 88keyboard controller going into the Yamaha ES rack, and my KRKv6II monitors going out of the ES Rack. Now that I have my MBox and G5, where do I put the monitors? Out of the MBox? and how do I get my keyboard midi into the MBox since there aren't any midi on the Mbox?

Also, I'm slowly learning about everything you need to make a good studio set up. But I was wondering if there was anything basic that I might have forgotten about(I'm thinking about things like rack mountable items that make life more simle, or rules of thumb when buying things like mics. certain things that you see when you look at your own studio and say, gee, I wish somebody had told me about THAT a lot earlier, it would have made a HECK of a difference.

Thanks

[banevt]

The way it looks from what I've read about the ES Rack you can either connect the USB port from the ES Rack to your computer and route the midi to Pro Tools from there unless you have a USB port on your midi controller in which case you can connect your midi controller to the computer. I don't know what kind of controller you have so you may or may not need to download drivers to use it this way. If your midi controller doesn't have a USB port you would just leave it connected to your ES Rack and connect the USB port from the Motif to your computer. I assume you are using Pro Tools so all you would need to do is create a midi track make sure the input and output are routed to the Motif and then record enable the midi track to get your midi going. I would probably connect the Motif to the Mbox digitally using the spdif connections out of the Motif and in to the Mbox. In Pro Tools you just need to open the IO setup menu and click the input tab and select digital or spdif input to record the audio from the Motif. That would leave your analog inputs open on the Mbox to connect another instrument like a guitar or bass and/or a microphone. You can use the analog audio inputs of the Mbox to connect your Motif audio to but then you will have to switch every time you want to record a different instrument. Granted you will have to go to the IO setup and change the input back to analog every time you want to record something besides the Motif if you connect it digitally. I just recommend using the digital inputs because the digital signal will be more pure and you can just leave your Motif hooked up all the time. On the Mbox you will get latency if you listen to the audio track you are recording to while you are recording. The way around this is to mute the audio track you are recording to in Pro Tools and use the input/playback knob on the Mbox to get a blend of the signal coming into the Mbox and anything already in your session like other instruments or a click. When you are done recording unmute the track you just recorded there you go. When you are not recording just turn the knob all the way to playback. This is Digi's "zero latency monitoring" which is really a pain in the ass but you can stlll record this way if you are not annoyed by it. Your speakers would of course be connected to the Mbox main outputs. I don't think the KRK's have a volume knob of any sort on them and the one on the Mbox only affects the heaphone volume and not the main output. To do this you should always make a stereo master fader in Pro Tools and bring the volume of the fader way down then hit play and adjust the volume to your liking. You can also get something like the mackie big knob to put in between the Mbox and speakers to control volume and connect external outputs like a cd player or whatever. The master fader thing will work and is a free solution. If you want to play CD's through your speakers without quiting Pro Tools to play it through iTunes with the core audio driver you just put the CD in your computer and use the import audio menu in Pro Tools and instead of importing any audio select the track number on the CD and just hit the play button on the bottom left hand of the import audio window. You will have to select the track you want it to play every time cause it won't play the CD continuously but it's a free solution to getting something like the mackie big knob. Sorry if this is a lot of info to absorb and I hope it helps you some at least. Good luck with your studio setup and have fun.

Valente

This post has been edited by banevt: Tue 6 Sep 2005, 00:17

[huskyboy333]

Thanks! My midi controller is the 88es MAudio keyboard USB. What do you think about this other way that my friend suggested. I also have an MAudio Quattro and Maudio Buddy.


"You can hook up your KRK's to either the Quattro or the MBox. I don't know if you can use both the Quattro and the MBox together.  If you're going to be using Pro Tools, you'll need to use the MBox as your primary audio interface.  I know that some M-Audio hardware works with Pro Tools, but you'll have to do some research or just try it out to see if the Quattro will work.  You're Audio Buddy needs to plug into either the Quattro or MBox.

Try this first ... Plug your MBox into one USB port on your computer, and connect your Quattro to the other available USB port.  Connect your Audio Buddy to the inputs of your Quattro.  Connect your keyboard to the MIDI connection on the Quattro MIDI-In port.  Connect your Motif to the MIDI-Out on the Quattro.  Always remember to connect a MIDI-Out to a MIDI-In. Don't connect to the same port type (e.g. MIDI-Out to MIDI-Out).  Connect a pair of balanced, line-level cables from the Motif's audio-outs and into two of the Quattro's audio-in's.  Connect your KRK's to the MBox.  Start up Pro Tools, and follow the directions in the Getting Started guide.  There should be a section in the manual on connecting additional audio hardware (e.g. the Quattro) so that Pro Tools recognizes it.  Read the section on setting up MIDI.  Be aware that you may have to install drivers for the Quattro and maybe the Motif."

[banevt]

This setup seems to involve more pieces of gear than neccessary. How many USB ports are on your G5? Pro Tools won't recognize the Quattro. There is Pro Tools M Powered that will work with some M Audio interfaces but I don't think it will work with the Mbox and probably not both of them together. All you have to do is connect your USB keyboard to one port on your G5 (you'll probably have to download drivers from M audio for your keyboard or use the CD that came with the keyboard but you'll probably have Tiger so I bet you'll have to download the driver from M audio). Connect your Mbox to another USB port on the G5. You will be able to get midi to Pro Tools through your USB port. I believe you should have at least another USB port on your G5 you can connect that to your computer and send midi to it from the USB port through Pro Tools. I would still go digital for the audio from the Motif as in the previous post unless you aren't comfortable with changing the IO setup then you can go analog. When you create a midi track in Pro Tools it defaults to all so you can leave the input alone. When you select an output from your midi track the Motif should come up as a selection for the midi output. I don't know for sure but you may need to download drivers from Motif.