Digidesign MBox 2 USB, Computer Hardware Options

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Comments about:

Digidesign MBox 2 USB

[rickenbacker]

Any company that releases a USB 1.1 audio interface in this day and age must have been living in (a) a cave or (b) a commercial vacuum for the past couple of years. Pro Tools, schmo tools - the spec of this product, released into a very competitive marketplace in 2005, is beyond a joke. In fact, it's almost an insult to anyone who ends up seduced by Digi's glossy adverts and winds up buying one, only to find they can't use it with any other software and they're stuck with a product that was hardly cutting edge three years ago.

A lot of people like to record everything at home. They won't be transferring to a bigger setup in a big shiny studio, ever. They're only going to buy one interface and they'd like it to be a good one. So, IMHO, Digi are selling these people very short from the get go. Of course, if it's only intended for Butch Vig to knock up a few rough demos on the plane whilst on tour, it's a fine product.

But for a home or project studio, it's sorely lacking in too many areas. For less money, you can have a FireBox, a Saffire, an FA-66, an M-Audio box etc etc and use whatever software YOU want to use. And still be able to record rough demos on the plane whilst on tour.

Also, increasing the internal sample rate of a sequencer doesn't improve the live acoustic audio you've already recorded - it just makes the files bigger. You don't capture more detail retrospectively. You need an interface that captures and converts at a higher sample rate in the first place. The Mbox 2 is not that interface.