Gear Up for Big-league Pro Tools Production!
Here's why the Mbox 2 Pro is the professional's favorite Mbox — and the perfect start to steering your Pro Tools skills to the top level. Not only does it offer a way to record into the world-famous Pro Tools LE recording software (and it comes with it too), the Mbox 2 Pro is the only Mbox to offer the connections you need to hook into big-time studio gear. We'll cover that more in a minute. But for now, keep this in mind: with the Mbox 2 Pro, you have a desktop-sized interface for home recording, with a portable size for mobile recording projects... and it keeps you armed with the connectivity you need to upgrade your gear as you grow your Pro Tools skills. It's a major value when it add it all up. So let's take a look at the inputs and outputs on the Mbox 2 Pro and show you exactly what we mean.
Related Videos: Mbox 2 Pro
The Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro offers the highest channel count of any Mbox. And while it does offer those pro-level connections for you down the road, it also has the right combination of simple inputs and outputs to accommodate anyone getting started with recording. There are two channels with microphone inputs, so you can record with two mics at once — capture two guitar cabinets at the same time, record your band in piece by piece... many recordists find that two mic preamps is enough to get even the most complex singer/songwriter tracks ready for radio release. Beyond that, stereo line inputs are onboard for piping in a keyboard, a drum machine, or the input from another piece of your favorite gear. You have a set of outputs for hooking up your favorite studio monitors, of course, and the Mbox 2 Pro even offers four line outputs that you can use to feed a headphone amplifier, for example.
But here's where the Mbox 2 Pro really starts to steer clear of its little siblings. Right on the front panel, the Mbox 2 Pro offers two convenient headphone jacks, so you're already ready to record you and a friend — or keep your ears on the mix when you're behind the computer while you offer a headphone feed to the person you're recording... no extra headphone amp required. It's really convenient and keeps your studio (and live rig) free from cable clutter. What's next? The S/PDIF digital connectivity and the word clock I/O. This may sound like gibberish if you're new to recording, but stay with us. Having the S/PDIF input gives you two more channels to bring into Pro Tools (the Mbox 2 Pro offers a total of six input channels and eight output channels). If you have a piece of gear with a S/PDIF output — a digitally equipped tube microphone preamp, for example — you can connect it to this S/PDIF port and save your other two microphone preamps for your other sources. Last up, the Mbox 2 Pro's word clock I/O helps you get all your digital gear synchronized when you connect it to a master clock — a big-league essential.
All of this connectivity is absolutely essential to your possibilities in the studio, but we can't overlook one major fact. The heart of the Mbox 2 Pro is the powerful Digidesign Pro Tools LE 8 software that comes included — the same software used in countless professional recording studios and post houses across the world. The tracks that you create in Pro Tools LE 8 can be instantly opened and used in those same pro studios — take your sessions to a Pro Tools|HD-equipped studio and have them mixed by a pro, or enjoy having your entire body of work be fully compatible and usable whenever it's time to make the move into a larger system — with Pro Tools LE 8, you become a part of the largest community of digital audio workstation users in the world.
This version of the industry standard gives you unprecedented Pro Tools LE recording, mixing, and editing power, offering an impressive 48 simultaneous mono or stereo audio tracks — expandable up to 128 tracks with full 7.1 surround sound mixing! You'll also enjoy robust MIDI sequencing and editing abilities, built-in music notation tools with the Score Editor, Elastic Time and Elastic Pitch control, easy track-comping tools, convenient automation and controller lanes, and a time-saving update-checking feature for Pro Tools and all of your plug-ins. Plus, Pro Tools LE 8 includes a comprehensive collection of professional sound-processing plug-ins and 20 new effects — on top of a host of incredible virtual instruments. There are a Mini Grand piano, the Boom drum machine, the DB-33 tonewheel organ, and Vacuum and Xpand!2 synths, and more — as well as more than 9GB of high-quality loops and a ton of plug-ins and tools to fix, enhance, and polish your mixes. In short, you'll have all the tools you need to create radio-ready tracks — right from the moment you open the box!
Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro Features at a Glance:- Award-winning Pro Tools LE recording, editing, and mixing software
- Professional sound quality
- Powered by FireWire or included power supply
- Supports up to 24-bit/96 kHz resolution
- 4 analog inputs (2 XLR/1/4" TRS combo jacks & 2 1/4" TRS jacks)
- 6 analog outputs (1/4" jacks)
- 2 instrument DI inputs on the front panel
- 2 channels of S/PDIF digital I/O (RCA)
- Built-in phono preamp input (RCA) for direct turntable connection
- 1 MIDI input and output (16 channels in/16 channels out)
- MIDI Time Stamping (MTS) support for superior timing and accuracy
- BNC word clock I/O
- Low-latency monitoring
- Dedicated studio monitor outputs with volume control
- 2 stereo headphone outputs with independent volume controls
- 48V phantom power for condenser microphones
- Boom drum machine and sequencer
- DB-33 tonewheel organ emulator with rotating speaker simulation
- Mini Grand acoustic grand piano
- Vacuum monophonic vacuum tube synthesizer
- Xpand!2 multitimbral synth and sample workstation
- Structure Free sample player (RTAS)
- FXpansion BFD Lite acoustic drum module
- 8GB of loops from Big Fish Audio
- M-Audio Torq LE DJ Software
- BF76 Compressor
- BF Essential Clip Remover
- BF Essential Correlation Meter
- BF Essential Meter Bridge
- BF Essential Noise Meter
- 1-Band EQ III
- 4-Band EQ III
- 7-Band EQ III
- AIR Chorus
- AIR Distortion
- AIR Dynamic Delay
- AIR Enhancer
- AIR Ensemble
- AIR Filter Gate
- AIR Flanger
- AIR Frequency Shifter
- AIR FuzzWah
- AIR KillEQ
- AIR Lo-Fi
- AIR MultiChorus
- AIR Multi-Delay
- AIR Nonlinear Reverb
- AIR Phaser
- AIR Reverb
- AIR Spring Reverb
- AIR StereoWidth
- AIR Talkbox
- AIR Vintage Filter
- Celemony Melodyne Essential
- Chorus
- Click
- Compressor/Limiter
- D-Verb
- DC Offset Removal
- De-Esser
- Delay
- DigiReWire
- Dither
- Duplicate
- Eleven Free
- Expander/Gate
- Extra Long Delay II
- Flanger
- Gain
- Invert
- Lo-Fi
- Long Delay II
- Maxim
- Medium Delay II
- Multi-Tap Delay
- Normalize
- Ping-Pong Delay
- Pitch
- Pitch Shift
- POWr Dither
- Recti-Fi
- Reverse
- SansAmp
- Sci-Fi
- Signal Generator
- Short Delay II
- Slap Delay II
- Time Compression Expansion
- Time Shift
- TL AutoPan
- TL InTune
- TL MasterMeter
- TL Metro
- Trim
- Vari-Fi
