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Mbox User Guide

1. 11 Installation Overview s ivs na da aa a a a a RR x rh 11 Installing Pro Tools LE and Connecting Your Interface 11 Launching Pro Tools LE saci uus RI RR Sale Rl RR daa eo ele ACAD QE aaa a de 14 Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc 14 Uninstalling Pro Tools 44 23 cu edu Sa one en due n Ln RR DR wa ELA ale DR an aide 15 Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 17 Starting Up or Shutting Down Your System 17 Configuring Pro Tools LE 18 Configuring the Pro Tools Hardware Settings 23 Optimizing a Mac System for Pro Tools 25 Optimizing a Windows System for Pro Tools 27 Contents iii Chapter 5 Mbox Hardware Overview 31 Mbox Front Panel Features 31 Mbox Back Panel Features 34 Chapter 6 Making Hardware Connections 37 Connecting Headphones 37 Connecting a Sound System 37 Connecting Audio Inputs 38 Connecting
2. For more information see Appendix E Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance Avoid Recording to the System Drive Recording to your system drive is not recom mended Recording and playback on a system drive may result in lower track counts and fewer plug ins Conventions Used in This Guide All of our guides use the following conventions to indicate menu choices and key commands Convention Action File Save Choose Save from the File menu Control N Hold down the Control key and press the N key Control click Hold down the Control key and click the mouse button Right click Click with the right mouse button The names of Commands Options and Settings that appear on screen are in a different font The following symbols are used to highlight important information v User Tips are helpful hints for getting the most from your system A Important Notices include information that could affect your data or the performance of your system un Shortcuts show you useful keyboard or mouse shortcuts Cross References point to related sections in this guide and other Pro Tools guides Chapter 1 Welcome to Mbox 3 About www avid com The Avid website www avid com is your best online source for information to help you get the most out of your Pro Tools system The fol lowing are just a few of the services and features available Product Registration Register your purcha
3. Input 2 Input 1 Line Outputs Mic Line Inputs S PDIF Mbox connections for line level stereo input source Using the Driver Control Panel The Mbox Driver Control Panel lets you config ure settings for your audio interface for use with Pro Tools or other audio applications that sup port the CoreAudio Drivers Mac or ASIO Audio Drivers Windows standard Several features of Mbox can be accessed directly from the Mbox front panel such as input gain phantom power and output levels But there are many additional parameters that cannot be ac cessed from the front panel These additional features are available to you using the included Driver Control Panel application To open the Driver Control Panel On Mac launch System Preferences Apple menu System Preferences then double click Avid Mbox You can also open the Driver Con trol Panel from the Applications menu Or On Windows choose Start gt Control Panel gt Mbox Presets menu Layout menu Additional Functions Mbox Driver Control Panel Horizontal view shown Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel 43 To open the Driver Control Panel from Pro Tools 1 Choose Setup Hardware in the Edit window 2 Click launch control panel Mbox Driver Control Panel launched in a Pro Tools session Presets The Preset view lets you load and save Mbox Set tings files which contain all settings of the Mbox Dr
4. face Do not install unless you will be using a MIDI I O Launching Pro Tools LE When launching Pro Tools LE the first time you are prompted to enter an authorization code to validate your software The code begins with the letters DIGI To authorize Pro Tools LE software 1 Make sure Mbox is connected to your com puter 2 Click the Pro Tools LE icon in the Dock or double click the application icon in the Pro Tools folder inside the Digidesign folder 3 Enter the authorization code in the dialog making sure to type it exactly as printed and observing any spaces and capitalization then click Validate Your authorization code is lo cated on the inside front cover of this guide 4 Use the Quick Start dialog to do one of the following Create a new session from template Create a new blank session Open any other session on your system Quick Start dialog For more information on the Quick Start dialog and session templates see the Pro Tools Reference Guide Help Pro Tools Reference Guide Chapter 2 Installing Pro Tools on Mac 7 Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc The Pro Tools LE Installer disc provides addi tional software for your system including audio drivers for playing other audio applications through your Pro Tools hardware and a Pro Tools demo session v Check your Pro Tools Installer disc for addi tional software and installers Third Party
5. enter your Administrator pass word and click OK to authenticate the installa tion 9 Follow the remaining on screen instructions 10 When installation is complete click Restart 6 Mbox User Guide 11 After the computer has started connect the small end of the included USB cable to the USB port on Mbox and connect the other end to any available USB port on your computer If the USB LED on the front panel of the Mbox does not illuminate try unplugging the USB cable from the Mbox USB port and plugging it back in If the USB LED still does not illuminate shut down the computer disconnect Mbox and start the computer Once the computer has fully restarted reconnect Mbox Mbox may not function properly if con nected to a USB hub If you need to use a hub for other USB peripherals connect the hub to a separate USB port Mbox must be connected to a dedicated port on the com puter in order to function properly Installation Options Pro Tools LE Options To install a subset of Pro Tools software and plug ins and associated content click the re veal triangle for the Pro Tools LE 8 0 4 option in the installer and deselect any of the following options that you do not want installed If an item is checked it will be installed Application Files Required for Pro Tools Installs the Pro Tools application and supporting library files needed to run Pro Tools This option must be selected to install Pro Tools D
6. for optimal RTAS processing and disk streaming For best performance use the following recom mended Windows Power Management settings To configure Windows Power Management Settings Windows 7 Windows Vista 1 Choose Start Control Panel 2 Click Hardware and Sound Power Options 3 In the Power Options control panel click High Performance 4 Click Change plan settings 5 Click Change advanced power settings to change additional settings 6 Click Hard disk gt Turn off hard disk after Never You can make optional changes such as disabling sleep and disabling shutting down the monitor 7 Click OK or click Save changes to save the changes 8 Close the window 28 Mbox User Guide To configure Windows Power Management Settings Windows XP 1 Choose Start Control Panel 2 Double click Power Options 3 Click the Power Schemes tab 4 From the Power Schemes pop up menu select Always On 5 Verify that the following settings are set to Never Turn off hard disks System standby System hibernates 6 Click OK Disabling User Account Control Windows 7 Windows Vista Some third party applications that interface with Pro Tools may require UAC to be disabled for proper operation To disable User Account Control UAC 1 Choose Start Control Panel 2 Click User Accounts and Family Safety 3 In the User Accounts and Family Safety control panel click User Accounts 4 Click Change
7. then release A new track is added in Record En able mode 9 Press and immediately release the Multi but ton The track begins recording This is just one example of how easy it is to use the Multi button if you want to quickly throw down tracks and record But you can personalize the Multi button settings to fit any audio work flow that works for you 56 Mbox User Guide Press and Release Options When you click on the Press and Release list a pop up menu provides access to the following options Soft Button Function Press and Release None Y Add Last Track Add Selected Track Cursor to Next Marker Cursor to Previous Marker Start Stop Playback Start Stop Record Loop Playback Toggle Undo Save Session Tap Tempo None No function is selected in this mode Add Last Track Adds the last track type that you created in the session Say you have created two Audio tracks in a session It will add another mono Audio track Add Selected Track Adds whatever tracks that you have selected in a session Say you have se lected two Audio tracks in a session It will add another two Audio tracks Cursor to Next Marker Each time the button is pressed and released the transport will locate to the next marker location Cursor to Previous Marker Each time the button is pressed and released the transport will locate to the previous marker location Start Stop Playback Each time the button is pressed and released i
8. vi Mbox User Guide Welcome to Mbox Welcome to the Mbox audio and MIDI production system from Avid Mbox and Pro Tools LE provide your USB 2 0 equipped computer with two channels of analog audio input and output two channels of digital audio input and output MIDI In and Out ports analog monitor outs and a head phone output with front panel level control Mbox provides professional quality mic pre amps and 24 bit 96 kHz analog to digital and digital to analog converters Mbox Features Mbox provides the following Two channels of analog audio input with high quality microphone preamps and swit chable 48V phantom power Analog input jacks include two XLR TRS combo jacks and two 1 4 TS jacks with switchable Mic Line and DI levels Soft limit feature on each input e 20 dB pad available separately on each an alog input channel Two channels of S PDIF digital input and out put e S PDIF inputs are available independently in addition to analog inputs 1 2 S PDIF outputs mirror analog outs 1 2 and can also work independent of the analog outputs Up to a total of four channels of input using analog and digital inputs simultaneously One MIDI In and one MIDI Out port provid ing 16 MIDI input channels and 16 MIDI out put channels Two 1 4 inch TRS analog monitor outputs 24 bit A D and D A converters supporting sample rates up to 96 kHz Low Latency Monitoring LLM with adjust able balance betwee
9. viously been partitioned and formatted In the Disk Management window right click the hard drive you will use for audio and choose Format In the Format window name the volume Choose a file system For optimum perfor mance audio drives should be formatted as NTFS Select Perform a quick format Make sure Enable file and folder compression is not selected Set the Allocation unit size to Default Click OK 4 If the volume is Unallocated do the follow ing In the Disk Management window Right click the hard drive you will use for audio and choose New Partition In the New Partition Wizard window click Next When prompted select the partition type Avid recommends using Primary partitions instead of Extended partitions Follow the on screen instructions to select a partition size and other partition settings When prompted choose a file system For optimum performance audio drives should be formatted as NTFS Select Perform a quick format Make sure Enable file and folder compression is not selected Set the Allocation unit size to Default Click OK Partitioning Drives Partitioning creates a logical volume or volumes on a physical drive almost as if you were creat ing virtual hard drives Partitions can then be formatted with the appropriate file system NTFS for Windows HFS for Mac Mac OS allows drives larger than 4096 MB to be seen as whol
10. A This product contains chemicals including lead known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm Wash hands after handling Perchlorate Notice This product may contain a lithium coin battery The State of California requires the following disclosure statement Perchlorate Material special handling may apply See www dtsc ca gov hazardouswaste perchlorate Recycling Notice ay Le Appendix H Compliance Information 79 EMC Electromagnetic Compliance Avid declares that this product complies with the following standards regulating emissions and immunity FCC Part 15 Class B EN 55022 Class B EN 55204 Class B AS NZS 3548 Class B CISPR 22 Class B FCC Compliance for United States Radio and Television Interference This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the imits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY We Avid 2001 Junipero Serra Boulevard Daly City CA 94014 3886 USA 650 731 6300 declare under our sole responsibility that the product Mbox complies with Part 15 of FCC Rules Operation is subject to the following two conditions 1 this device may not cause harmful interference and 2 this device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation Communication Statement NOTE This equipment has been tested and found to comp
11. Applications and Plug Ins Your Pro Tools package also includes free appli cations and plug ins from Avid and selected Avid Third Party developers content subject to change Once you ve completed your Pro Tools installation you can install these separately Installers are located on your Pro Tools LE In staller disc in the Additional Files 3rd Party Content folder 8 Mbox User Guide Avid CoreAudio Driver The Avid CoreAudio Driver is a multi client multichannel sound driver that lets Core Au dio compatible applications record and play back through Pro Tools hardware The Avid CoreAudio Driver is installed by de fault when you install Pro Tools For information on configuring the Avid CoreAudioDriver see the CoreAudio Drivers Guide Standalone CoreAudio Driver The Avid CoreAudio Driver can be installed as a standalone driver on Mac systems that do not have Pro Tools software installed For information on installing and configuring the standalone version of the Avid CoreAudio Driver see the CoreAudio Drivers Guide If you uninstall Pro Tools the Avid CoreAudio Driver is automatically uninstalled at that time Pro Tools Demo Session The Pro Tools LE Installer disc includes a demo session that you can use to verify that your sys tem is working The demo session for Pro Tool LE is named Fil tered Dream A Before installing the demo session to your audio drive make sure the drive is config
12. Higher CPU Usage Limit settings allocate more processing power to Pro Tools and are useful for playing back large sessions or using more RTAS plug ins The maximum available CPU Usage Limit de pends on the number of processors in your com puter and on the number of processors you spec ify for RTAS processing This value can range from 8596 for single processor computers and 9996 for multiprocessor computers which dedi cate one entire processor to Pro Tools On multiprocessor computers the maximum CPU Usage Limit is reduced when you use all your processors as selected in the Processing pop up menu For example on dual processors the limit is 9096 On four processor computers the limit is 9596 Increasing the CPU Usage Limit may slow down screen responses on slower computers To change the CPU Usage Limit 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2 From the CPU Usage Limit pop up menu select the percentage of CPU processing you want to allocate to Pro Tools 3 Click OK 20 Mbox User Guide Host Engine Error Suppression The Host Engine option determines RTAS error reporting during playback and recording This is especially useful when working with instrument plug ins You should only enable error suppression if you are experiencing frequent RTAS errors that are interrupting your creative workflow When er ror suppression is enabled you can experience a degradation of audio quality However this may be accep
13. LE Options To install a subset of Pro Tools software and plug ins and associated content click the re veal triangle for the Pro Tools LE 8 0 4 option in the installer and deselect any of the following options that you do not want installed If an item is checked it will be installed Application Files Required for Pro Tools Installs the Pro Tools application and supporting library files needed to run Pro Tools This option must be selected to install Pro Tools DigiRack Plug Ins Installs free plug ins including DigiRack plug ins free Bomb Factory plug ins Eleven Free TL Utilities and Digidesign D Fi and Maxim plug ins For more information see the Audio Plug Ins Guide Pro Tools Creative Collection Options Select any of the Pro Tools Creative Collection options you want installed For more informa tion see the Audio Plug Ins Guide Effect Plug Ins Installs 6 free virtual instrument plug ins from Avid s AIR group Virtual Instruments Installs 20 free effects plug ins from Avid s AIR group Virtual Instrument Content Installs sample con tent for AIR virtual instruments A Virtual Instrument Content is very large and may take up to 20 minutes to install During this time the progress bar may not appear to move but your software is still in stalling Do not terminate your installation Additional Options The Pro Tools installer provides the following additional options to install along with Pro Tools so
14. Patch Name Support Pro Tools supports XML Extensible Markup Language for storing and importing patch names for your external MIDI devices Pro Tools installs MIDI patch name files midnam for the factory default patch names of many common MIDI devices These files reside in directories sorted by manufacturer in C Program Files Common Files Digidesign MIDI Patch Names Digidesign Appendix D Configuring MIDI Studio Setup Windows Only 65 To import MIDI patch names into Pro Tools 1 Verify the MIDI Device name in the MIDI Stu dio Setup window see MIDI Studio Setup on page 63 2 Verify the Instrument or MIDI track output is correctly assigned to the MIDI device 3 Click the Instrument or MIDI track Patch Se lect button Patch Select button Patch Select button Edit window Mix window Patch Select button 4 In the Patch Select dialog click Change Pakh ComroMer Comeoller22 T to mom on CELL ns 16 1 1 m WuusuurHEuy BR A amp Ag5A5A z 22272228 Pree Ft 35 222225225 385222225225 2 A n Direramerd Patch Every 3 Ser Cancel Low J Patch name file None Cheer Change button Patch Select dialog 5 In the Open dialog navigate to C Program Files Common Files Digidesign MIDI Patch Names Digidesign lt name of manufacturer and select the MIDI Patch Name file midnam for the MIDI device 6 Click Open 66 Mbox User Guide The Pa
15. Sends u Setup pop up menu In the Setup window the options are grouped in the following categories Hardware Settings The parameters in this section of the Control Panel govern the operation of the interface when it is connected to a computer using a UBS cable i e Hosted Mode This section of the Control Panel provides pa rameters you can set on your interface when it is connected to a computer using a UBS cable Disable Host Control This setting lets you rest control of the Driver Control Panel from Pro Tools When you launch Pro Tools it takes control of the Driver Control Panel s first stereo mixer If you want to obtain full manual control of the Driver Control Panel choose this option vr If you want to use the Low Latency Monitor ing option of Pro Tools this option must not be checked Clock Source This setting determines the clock source to which Mbox is synchronized Internal If you are using Mbox by itself i e with out other digital devices or an external clock select the Internal option for the interface to work properly S PDIF If have connected a S PDIF device to your Mbox and would like to use that device as the master clock source select the S PDIF op tion This will make Mbox clock to the external device s clock Sample Rate This drop down menu sets the sample rate of Mbox Note that when using the interface with an ASIO or CoreAudio application the sample rate can also be d
16. The Pro Tools Installer disc includes addi tional software for your system For more in formation see Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc on page 8 Installing Pro Tools LE and Connecting Your Interface Before connecting your Pro Tools LE interface to the computer you need to install Pro Tools LE software Do not start this procedure with your Mbox connected to your computer To install Pro Tools LE on Mac OS X 1 Make sure you are logged in as an Administra tor for the account where you want to install Pro Tools v When the installation is complete you will need to restart your computer For details on Administrator privileges in Mac OS X see your Apple OS X documen tation 2 Insert the Pro Tools LE Installer disc in your DVD drive Chapter 2 Installing Pro Tools on Mac 5 3 On the Installer disc locate and double click Install Pro Tools LE mpkg Install Pro Tools LE mpkg icon 4 Follow the on screen instructions to proceed with installation 5 Click Continue each time you are prompted 6 At the Installation Type page do one of the following To install all Pro Tools application files and free plug in suites and associated content leave the default Installation options se lected and click Continue Select or deselect a custom configuration of Installation options see Installation Options on page 6 and click Continue 7 Click Install 8 If prompted
17. a Microphone 39 Connecting Instruments to the Mbox 40 MIDI C nn ctlons si 5 2 es ci tata tox pm eS Glas ie RC UR ne dre es e Dac ie bE ad 42 Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel 43 Pres ts RR 44 Layouts i i ou dvo Ie e ed ee ee pte a cedes oe ee ER EE 44 Additional Functions 46 Stereo Mixes 4 1 ere A toes Sa ee anne ame ee nt ee A 50 Using the Stereo Mix Section 51 Appendix B Using the Multi Button 55 Using the Multi Button 55 Press and Release Options 56 Press and Hold Options 57 Hold Duration Options 58 Appendix C Configuring AMS Mac OS X Only 59 Audio MIDI Setups ix us a Bad eee he der See ce av ae Ug Ca ER Le A da se 59 MIDI Patch Name Support 62 Appendix D Configuring MIDI Studio Setup Windows Only 63 MIDI Studlo Setup iei a 2 ta an SIRE CI he Sd ate Re alan ea 63 MIDI Patch Name Support
18. become active and will pass audio to Mbox Setting the Clock Source to S PDIF is the only way to utilize S PDIF input Doing so lets you re cord or monitor up to four discrete input chan nels 2 analog and two S PDIF Chapter 6 Making Hardware Connections 41 MIDI Connections The two MIDI ports on Mbox let you take ad vantage of all the MIDI features of Pro Tools LE including recording and editing MIDI tracks If you need additional MIDI ports you can add a compatible MIDI interface USB MIDI interfaces work effectively with Pro Tools systems on Win dows or Mac Serial MIDI interfaces are sup ported on Windows systems only A Only USB MIDI interfaces are compatible with Pro Tools systems for Mac OS X Mo dem to serial port adapters and serial MIDI devices are not supported To connect your MIDI device to Mbox 1 Connect a standard 5 pin MIDI cable from the MIDI Out port of your device to the MIDI In port on the back of Mbox 2 Connect another MIDI cable from the MIDI In port of your device to the MIDI Out port on the back of Mbox MIDI In MIDI Out MIDI connections to Mbox 42 Mbox User Guide Monitoring MIDI Instruments with Mbox If you have a MIDI instrument that has analog outputs you can connect it to Mbox to monitor its output To connect your MIDI instrument for monitoring in Pro Tools Connect the MIDI instrument s audio outputs to the Line TRS inputs on your Mbox
19. drives or to CD burners The best way to back up an entire session is to use the Save Copy In command This command lets you save the session file and all of its associ ated files to a new location Xy You can also use the Auto Save Backup fea ture in the Operation Preferences page to have Pro Tools automatically save backups of the session file while you work Backing Up Your System Configuration After configuring your system and Pro Tools you should save an image of your system drive using a backup utility such as Norton Ghost Windows or Bombich Carbon Copy Cloner Mac By doing this you can quickly restore your system configuration and settings if you encounter any problems Common Issues Pro Tools Won t Launch Problem When you double click the Pro Tools applica tion or a Pro Tools session file Pro Tools doesn t launch or displays an error message Possible Solutions Check to be sure your computer has the re quired amount of RAM to launch Pro Tools Visit www avid com compatibility Try a complete restart Turn off your audio in terfaces computer peripherals and your com puter and then turn them on again in the proper sequence Appendix F Troubleshooting 73 If you tried to launch Pro Tools by double clicking a Pro Tools session file do the follow ing Close any error message Double click the Pro Tools application n Pro Tools choose File Open Session to open the sess
20. etc The Channel Labels also display the signal level in dB while a fader is being adjusted 52 Mbox User Guide Link The Link buttons connect stereo pairs of knobs or faders and also links the corresponding FX Send knobs so that adjusting either channel left right adjusts the other side identically Links buttons y Pan controls are unaffected by linking two channels Effects The Effects section is where you set up send and return configurations and select the ef fects that you apply to the Hardware Inputs and or Software Returns Hardware Input FX Sends FX Sends are shared by all Stereo Mixes unless Post Fader Stereo Mix 1 is chosen in the Setup pop up menu Software Return FX Sends FX Sends are shared by all Stereo Mixes unless Post Fader Stereo Mix 1 is chosen in the Setup pop up menu FX Returns These knobs control how much of the Effect au dio output will be mixed in with the monitor signal Master L R outputs Unlike sends FX Returns are individually adjustable for each stereo mix The Clip LED will show clipping if the input to the FX is clipping and if the output is clipping the rest of the meter is just output Effect The Effect drop down menu is used to select the effect to be applied to the Hardware Inputs and or Software Returns There are five available reverb types Three room reverbs and two hall reverbs delay and echo These effects can be cus
21. is correct The Tuner interface will be displayed in the Software Control panel if the Software Control Panel is open Mono Button The Mono Button sums the control room out puts to a mono signal delivering that identical signal to both speakers via the Driver Control Panel or the Mbox When engaged the Mono LED lights Checking Phase Relationships The Mono switch can also be used for a quick check of the phase relationship between Source 1 and Source 2 inputs Monitor Level The Monitor Level knob adjusts the output level of the Monitor Output ports Chapter 5 Mbox Hardware Overview 33 Mbox Back Panel Features Figure 2 identifies each port on the back panel of the Mbox MIDI 1 0 USB port S PDIF digital 1 0 Mic Line Monitor inputs outputs L MIDI Figure 2 Mbox back panel The Mbox back panel provides the following USB Port This standard USB connector is used to connect a USB 2 0 port on your computer to the Mbox One standard USB cable is included with your system It is also used to power the unit in stand alone mode MIDI 1 0 The MIDI In and MIDI Out ports are standard 5 pin MIDI ports each providing 16 channels of MIDI input and output 34 Mbox User Guide S PDIF Digital 1 0 The S PDIF in and out ports are unbalanced two conductor phono RCA connectors that utilize a full 24 bit two channel digital data stream The Sony Phili
22. of Avid Technology Inc Xpand is Registered in the U S Patent and Trademark Office All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Product features specifications system requirements and availability are subject to change without notice Guide Part Number 9329 65002 00 REV B 06 10 Documentation Feedback At Avid we are always looking for ways to improve our documentation If you have comments corrections or suggestions regarding our documentation email us at techpubs avid com Chapter 1 Welcome to Mbox 1 Mbox Features ars En atest eU A page A eur EE 1 Pro Tools LE Capabilities 2 System Requirements and Compatibility 2 Conventions Used in This Guide 3 About www avid com 6 hh r a A 4 Chapter 2 Installing Pro Tools on Mac 5 Installation Overview 2 2 eee a ee a a ea Se RR 5 Installing Pro Tools LE and Connecting Your Interface 5 Launching Pro Tools LE 4 2 23 222 2 223 Saleh wa e AGE a mae ied Cale ean AR da Se 7 Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc 8 Uniristalling Pro Tools 2 du sens 2e tasa A ea In a Res 9 Chapter 3 Installing Pro Tools on Windows
23. or similar sources Instrument Instrument Front panel analog input connectors Mic Line Mic Line Line Outputs Mic Line Inputs Rear panel analog input connectors For information about connecting specific au dio sources see Connecting a Microphone on page 39 and Connecting Instruments to the Mbox on page 40 Connecting a Microphone Mic Cables and Connectors Use a microphone with an XLR connector to connect the microphone to the Mbox The Mbox can only supply power through a mi crophone cable with an XLR connector If you are not sure about the phantom power require ments for your microphone refer to your micro phone s documentation or contact the manu facturer XLR connector Phantom Power Some microphones require power to operate This power called phantom power is supplied ei ther by a battery in the microphone or through an audio interface such as Mbox that can sup ply power through the microphone cable Most condenser microphones such as an M Audio Solaris require phantom power to op erate Dynamic microphones such as a Shure SM57 do not require phantom power to oper ate but are not harmed by it A Although phantom power can be used safely with most microphones it is possible to damage some ribbon microphones with it Always turn off phantom power and wait at least ten seconds before connecting a rib bon microphone Using a Mic with an X
24. the MIDI inter face by clicking the arrow for the appropriate output port of the device and dragging a con nection or cable to the input arrow of the cor responding port of the MIDI interface Making MIDI input and output connections 6 Click the arrow for the appropriate input port of the device and drag a cable to the output ar row of the corresponding port of the MIDI inter face 10 To remove a connection select the cable and press Delete To delete all connections click Clear Cables 7 Repeat steps 3 6 for each MIDI device in your MIDI setup To configure an external MIDI device 1 Select the external device icon and click Show Info or double click the new device icon via new external device G External Device Icon 60 Mbox User Guide 2 Select a manufacturer and model for the new device from the corresponding pop up menus If the Manufacturer and Model pop up menus do not provide a name for your particular de vice you can type a name AO new external device Properties Device Name JP 8000 Manufacturer Roland 1 Owen kon Brauner More Information Y Revert Appy Naming a new MIDI device v For Manufacturer and Model names AMS refers to one or more files with the suffix middev in the directory Root Library Audio MIDI Devices Pro Tools installs a file that contains information for many commercially available MIDI devices named Digidesign Device List middev I
25. to receive the following Technical support information Software update and upgrade notices Hardware warranty information Gather Important Information Avid wants to help you resolve problems as quickly and efficiently as possible If you collect the following information before you contact Avid Support it will make the diagnosis of your problem easier System Information Computer Make model processor speed Amount of system RAM Operating system version of Windows or Mac OS Any Drivers Disk Utilities or other system related applications you may have installed Pro Tools Hardware Type of cards interfaces or peripherals Hard Drives Make Model Drive size GB Drive speed RPM Drive type SCSI FireWire IDE ATA Utility used to format the drive Number and size of partitions on the drive Pro Tools Software Pro Tools software version Plug In versions Other Pro Tools software options or com ponents Additional plug ins from Avid Develop ment Partners Other Hardware Refer to the manufacturer s documentation for operational details The most common hardware additions include e 1394 FireWire cards for Windows systems manufacturer model Video Capture cards manufacturer model To verify that your hardware is qualified for use with your Pro Tools system visit www avid com compatibility Other Software If you are using other audio or v
26. track counts and more plug in processing 2 Mbox User Guide System Requirements and Compatibility Mbox can be used with a qualified Windows or Mac computer running Pro Tools LE software A DVD drive is required to use the Pro Tools In staller disc Avid can only assure compatibility and provide support for hardware and software it has tested and approved For complete system requirements and a list of qualified computers operating systems hard drives and third party devices visit www avid com compatibility MIDI Requirements Mbox includes one MIDI In port and one MIDI Out port providing 16 channels of MIDI input and 16 channels of MIDI output If you require additional MIDI ports add a MIDI interface to your system USB MIDI interfaces work effectively with Pro Tools systems on Windows or Mac Serial MIDI interfaces are supported on Windows sys tems only Only USB MIDI interfaces are compatible with Pro Tools systems for Mac OS X Modem to serial port adapters and serial MIDI devices are not supported For a list of supported MIDI interfaces and controllers visit www avid com Hard Drive Requirements For optimal audio recording and playback all Pro Tools systems require one or more qualified drives If you are using an ATA IDE or FireWire hard drive initialize your drive with the Disk Utility application included with Apple System soft ware Mac or the Windows Disk Management Windows
27. you created was 1 Mono Audio Track in Samples It will add another 1 Mono Audio Track in Samples Add Selected Track Adds whatever tracks that you have selected in a session Say you have se lected two Audio tracks in a session It will add another two Audio tracks Cursor to Next Marker Each time the button is held and released the transport will locate to the next marker location Cursor to Previous Marker Each time the button is held and released the transport will locate to the previous marker location Start Stop Playback Each time the button is held and released it starts stops playing back the session Start Stop Record Each time the button is held and released it starts stops recording Loop Playback Toggle Each time the button is held and released the Loop Playback mode is toggled between enabled and disabled Undo Each time the button is held and released it undoes that last operation you performed in Pro Tools Same as the Undo command from the Pro Tools menu Save Session Each time the Multi button is held and released it saves the session Appendix B Using the Multi Button 57 Hold Duration Options When you click on the Hold Duration list a drop down menu provides access to the follow ing options Soft Button Function Press and Release Add Last Track M Press and Hold Start Stop Record M Hold Duration 250 msec s v 500 msec 750 msec th control panel 1sec Hold Duratio
28. 1 Make sure all your equipment including your computer is off 2 Lower the volume of all output devices in your system especially the main outputs to your speakers 3 Turn on any external hard drives Wait ap proximately ten seconds for them to spin up to speed 4 Turn on any control surfaces such as Com mand 8 5 Turn on any MIDI interfaces MIDI devices or synchronization peripherals 6 With the volume of all output devices low ered turn on your Pro Tools audio interfaces Wait at least fifteen seconds for the audio inter face to initialize and the status LEDs to stop flashing 7 Turn on your computer 8 Launch Pro Tools or any third party audio or MIDI applications 9 Bring the output levels up to a comfortable lis tening level Shut down your Pro Tools system in this order 1 Quit Pro Tools and any other running applica tions VY To quit Pro Tools choose Pro Tools Quit Mac or File Exit Windows 2 Turn off or lower the volume of all output de vices in your system 3 Turn off your computer 4 Turn off any MIDI interfaces MIDI devices or synchronization peripherals 5 Turn off any control surfaces 6 Turn off any external hard drives Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 17 Configuring Pro Tools LE Pro Tools System Settings In the Playback Engine dialog Pro Tools LE lets you adjust the performance of your system by changing system settings that affect its c
29. 65 iv Mbox User Guide Appendix E Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance 67 Avoid Recording to the System Drive 67 Supported Drive Formats and Drive Types 67 Formatting an Audio Drive 68 Partitionlng Drives crure a AREA ae da 69 Defragmenting an Audio Drive 70 Using Mac Drives on Windows Systems 71 Hard Disk Storage Space 72 Appendix F Troubleshooting 73 Backing Up Your Work 23222528 2 284 022 2 ehe 73 COMMON ISSUES coo zus a A A i e EV a d deuda e Rs tre 73 Performance Factors ill pr RR A a A A 74 Before You Call Avid Support 75 Appendix G Resources 77 About the Pro Tools Guides 77 Appendix H Compliance Information 79 Environmental Compliance 79 EMC Electromagnetic Compliance 80 Safety Compliance e 232 eee wea A c ven Rack en Da TR pue Pls ede 80 Index 2 2 2 0 8 E RE ra EE V AC ee ELE 83 Contents v
30. AV i gt Mbox User Guide Version 8 0 4 Legal Notices This guide is copyrighted 2010 by Avid Technology Inc hereafter Avid with all rights reserved Under copyright laws this guide may not be duplicated in whole or in part without the written consent of Avid 003 96 1 0 96i 1 0 192 Digital 1 0 192 1 0 888 24 1 0 882 20 1 0 1622 1 0 24 Bit ADAT Bridge 1 0 AudioSuite Avid Avid DNA Avid Mojo Avid Unity Avid Unity ISIS Avid Xpress AVoption Axiom Beat Detective Bomb Factory Bruno C 24 Command 8 Control 24 D Command D Control D Fi D fx D Show D Verb DAE Digi 002 DigiBase DigiDelivery Digidesign Digidesign Audio Engine Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction Digidesign TDM Bus DigiDrive DigiRack DigiTest DigiTranslator DINR D Show DV Toolkit EditPack Eleven HD Core HD Process Hybrid Impact Interplay LoFi M Audio MachineControl Maxim Mbox MediaComposer MIDI 1 0 MIX MultiShell Nitris OMF OMF Interchange PRE ProControl Pro Tools M Powered Pro Tools Pro Tools HD Pro Tools LE QuickPunch Recti Fi Reel Tape Reso Reverb One ReVibe RTAS Sibelius Smack SoundReplacer Sound Designer Il Strike Structure SYNC HD SYNC 1 0 Synchronic TL Aggro TL AutoPan TL Drum Rehab TL Everyphase TL Fauxlder TL In Tune TL MasterMeter TL Metro TL Space TL Utilities Transfuser Trillium Lane Labs Vari Fi Velvet X Form and XMON are trademarks or registered trademarks
31. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab 3 Do one of the following Deselect the Mac OS X options that conflict with Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts Assign different non conflicting keyboard shortcuts to the corresponding Mac OS X options Reassign Spaces Keyboard Shortcuts If you want to use Spaces you should reassign the Spaces keyboard shortcuts to avoid conflicts with important Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts You can reassign Spaces keyboard shortcuts to use a combination of modifier keys Com mand Option Control Shift in addition to the default Spaces keyboard shortcut assign ments to avoid these conflicts To reassign Spaces keyboard shortcuts to use modifier key combinations that do not conflict with Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Expos amp Spaces 2 Click the Spaces tab 3 Ensure that Enable Spaces is selected 4 Press and hold Command Option Con trol Shift and select Control Option Shift Com mand F8 from the To activate Spaces pop up menu 5 Press and hold Command Option Con trol Shift and select Control Option Shift Com mand Arrow Keys from the To switch between spaces pop up menu 26 Mbox User Guide 6 Press and hold Command Option Con trol Shift and select Control Option Shift Com mand Number Keys from the To switch directly to a space pop up menu Disabling Spotlight Indexing The Mac OS X Spotlight featu
32. D Configuring MIDI Studio Setup Windows Only 63 Interface Controls Create Adds a new instrument to the Instru ment Name list Delete Deletes the instrument or instruments se lected in the Instrument Name list Import Imports an existing MIDI Studio Setup file Export Exports the current MIDI Studio Setup file Show Duplicate Emulated Ports When this op tion is selected and you are using a MIDI inter face that supports timestamping such as MIDI I O in addition to the MIDI ports on Mbox the MIDI Studio setup window shows both the Di rectMusic time stamped output ports and non stamped duplicate emulated output ports A Some MIDI Interfaces will not properly load or unload their drivers unless you quit and re launch Pro Tools Check the documenta tion that came with your MIDI interface for more information Instrument List The Instrument list contains all the currently defined instruments Selecting an instrument in the list displays that instrument s properties in the Properties section of the window 64 Mbox User Guide Properties Section The Properties section lets you edit information for new instruments or instrument currently se lected in the Instrument list Properties InstrumentName Roland XP 80 1 Manufacturer Model Input Port Mbox Control M Output Port Mbox External Z M sd dd od dez Send Channels A 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Receive Channels MIDI Studio Setup P
33. From the Host Processing pop up menu select the number of available processors you want to allocate The number of processors available var ies depending on your computer Select 1 Processor to limit processing to one CPU in the system Choose 2 Processors to enable load balanc ing across two available processors On systems running four or more proces sors choose the number of processors for processing 3 Click OK System Usage Window and Processing The System Usage window Windows System Usage displays the combined amount of pro cessing occurring on all enabled processors with a single indicator regardless of how many pro cessors are available in the system If the System Usage Window shows that you are at the limit of available resources increase the number of pro cessors and adjust the CPU Usage Limit setting Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 19 CPU Usage Limit The CPU Usage Limit setting controls the per centage of CPU resources allocated to Pro Tools host processing tasks Used in combination with the Host Processors setting the CPU Usage Limit setting lets you control the way Pro Tools tasks are carried out by the system Lower CPU Usage Limit settings limit the effect of Pro Tools processing on other CPU inten sive tasks such as screen redraws and are use ful when you are experiencing slow system response or when running other applications at the same time as Pro Tools
34. Installer disc locate and open the Additional Files Pro Tools Demo Ses sions Installer folder 3 Double click LE Demo Session Setup exe 4 Follow the on screen instructions 5 When prompted select your audio drive as the install location and click Next to begin the install 6 When installation is complete click Finish y The demo session can be opened by double Y clicking the Filtered Dream ptf file located in the Filtered Dream Demo Session folder Uninstalling Pro Tools Use the Uninstall Pro Tools application to unin stall Pro Tools software from your computer To uninstall Pro Tools from your computer 1 Start Windows logging in with Administrator privileges For details on Administrator privi leges refer to your Windows documentation 2 Go to C Program Files Digidesign V Pro Tools VPro Tools Utilities and double click Uninstall Pro Tools exe 3 Click Next 4 Click Uninstall to proceed with the uninstalla tion Chapter 3 Installing Pro Tools on Windows 15 16 Mbox User Guide chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System After you have connected your system and in stalled Pro Tools software you are ready to start up and configure your Pro Tools system Starting Up or Shutting Down Your System To ensure that the components of your Pro Tools system communicate properly with each other you need to start them in a particu lar order Start up your Pro Tools system in this order
35. LR Connector To use a microphone that has an XLR connector 1 Plug your microphone cable into one of the Mic Line inputs on the back of Mbox Input 2 Mic input Input 1 Mic input XLR connector plugged into Input 1 2 Set the Source to Rear in position by press ing the Source selector on the front of Mbox Stt Imt Source selector Input 1 Source selector 3 If your microphone requires phantom power make sure the microphone is connected then press the Phantom Power switch labeled 48V on the front of the Mbox This switch sends 48V to both mic inputs The 48V LED on the front of the Mbox will light when phantom power is be ing supplied Phantom Power Switch Phantom Power switch Chapter 6 Making Hardware Connections 39 4 On the front of the Mbox carefully turn the Gain control to the right to increase the input level of your microphone signal Gain Gain knob for Input 1 5 If the incoming signal is too loud pull the Gain knob out to engage the 20 dB pad Connecting Instruments to the Mbox Mbox provides two input types DI and Line that correspond to the different signal strengths output by different types of instruments DI Input Instruments such as electric guitar or electric bass that usually have a lower level of output than line level instruments use the DI Direct Inject input Line Input Line level devices inclu
36. Read Me files are installed in the Documentation folder when you install Pro Tools Helpful Online Resources Once you get going here are some helpful on line resources For questions about installation visit Avid s online Knowledge Base Go to http www avid com onlinesupport Get useful information help and tips from the worldwide community of Pro Tools users at the online User Conference Go to http duc avid com e If you can t find your answer on the User Con ference or the Knowledge Base contact Avid email support Go to http www avid com support 78 Mbox User Guide appendix h Compliance Information Environmental Compliance Disposal of Waste Equipment by Users in the European Union This symbol on the product or its packaging indicates that this product must not be disposed of with other waste Instead it is your responsibility to dispose of your waste equipment by handing it over to a designated collection point for the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment The separate collection and recycling of your waste equipment at the time of disposal will help conserve natural resources and ensure that it is recycled in a manner that protects human health and the environment For more information about where you can drop off your waste equipment for recycling please contact your local city recycling office or the dealer from whom you purchased the product Proposition 65 Warning
37. Tools Reference Guide Help Pro Tools Reference Guide for more infor mation on renaming I O paths Configuring MIDI Setup If you plan to use any MIDI devices with Pro Tools do one of the following On Mac configure your MIDI setup with Au dio MIDI Setup See Appendix C Configuring AMS Mac OS X Only for details O1 On Windows configure your MIDI setup with MIDI Studio Setup See Appendix D Configur ing MIDI Studio Setup Windows Only for de tails Backing Up your System Configuration After configuring your system and Pro Tools you should save an image of your system drive using a backup utility such as Bombich Carbon Copy Cloner or Time Machine Mac or Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost Windows By do ing this you can quickly restore your system configuration and settings if you encounter any problems Optimizing a Mac System for Pro Tools To ensure optimum performance with Pro Tools configure your computer before using Pro Tools hardware and software Before configuring your computer make sure you are logged in as an Administrator for the ac count where you want to install Pro Tools For details on Administrator privileges in Mac OS X see your Apple OS X documentation Do not use the Mac OS X automatic Software Update feature as it may upgrade your system to a version of Mac OS that has not yet been qualified for Pro Tools For details on qualified versions of Mac OS v
38. USB cable to the USB port on Mbox Connect the other end of the USB cable to any available USB port on your computer A Mbox may not function properly if con nected to a USB hub Ifyou need to use a hub for other USB peripherals connect the hub to a separate USB port Mbox must be con nected to a dedicated port on the computer in order to function properly 9 Click OK A In Windows 7a nd Windows Vista a series of Windows Security dialogs may appear Click Install on each one until they go away 12 Mbox User Guide In Windows XP a series of Software Instal lation dialogs about the driver not passing Windows Logo testing may appear Click Continue Anyway on each one until they go away If any other dialogs appear such as the Found New Hardware dialog leave them open and do not click on them These dialogs will close on their own 10 Wait for the installer to finish installing all software components drivers and PACE System files before proceeding to the next step 11 When installation is complete click Finish and restart your computer If the USB LED on the front panel of the Mbox does not illuminate after restarting the computer try unplugging the USB cable from the Mbox USB port and plugging it back in If the USB LED still does not illu minate shut down the computer discon nect Mbox and start the computer Once the computer has fully restarted reconnect Mbox Installation Options Pro Tools
39. User Account Control settings Windows 7 or Turn User Account Control on or off Windows Vista 5 Move the User Account Control slider to Never Notify Windows 7 or deselect the Use User Ac count Control UAC to help protect your computer option Windows Vista 6 Click OK 7 Restart your computer Recommended Optimizations Pro Tools can also be affected by other software and hardware drivers installed on your com puter For best possible performance it is recom mended but not required that you do the fol lowing Avoid running any unneeded programs at the same time as Pro Tools Turn off any software utilities that run in the background such as Windows Messen ger calendars and disk maintenance pro grams Turn off any non essential USB devices while running Pro Tools e If your video display card supports it en able Bus Mastering in the manufacturer s Control Panel See the manufacturer s in structions for details Optional Optimizations The following system optimizations may help Pro Tools perform better on some systems It is recommended that you only try these optimiza tions if necessary as they may disable or ad versely affect the functionality of other pro grams on your system Disabling Network Cards If applicable disable any networking cards other than a FireWire card that you might use to connect an external drive to your system To disable a network card Windows 7 Window
40. a Optimize for Uiream mg content on audio drves requires more system memory eas Playback Engine dialog for Pro Tools LE with Structure Free plug in installed Mbox 2 shown 4 Click OK Host Processors The Host Processors setting lets you manage multi processor support for RTAS Real Time AudioSuite plug in processing Used in combination with the CPU Usage Limit setting the Host Processors setting lets you con trol the way RTAS and other host based process ing tasks are carried out by the system For example For sessions with large numbers of RTAS plug ins you can allocate 2 or more processors to RTAS processing and set a high CPU Usage Limit For sessions with few RTAS plug ins you can allocate fewer Host Processors to RTAS and set a low CPU Usage Limit settings to leave more host processing resources available for automation accuracy screen response and video Depending on the importance of video and overall screen response and on the density of automation being employed try different combinations of Host Processors and CPU Us age Limit settings to achieve the best results For example to improve screen response in a medium sized session using a moderate num ber of RTAS plug ins try reducing the number of RTAS plug ins but keep the CPU Usage Limit set to the maximum up to 9996 on a single processor system To set the number of RTAS Processors 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2
41. acks more easily when viewing from the front of the unit Chapter 5 Mbox Hardware Overview 35 36 Mbox User Guide chapter 6 Making Hardware Connections To hear audio recorded into a Pro Tools session you will need to connect headphones or an ex ternal sound system such as powered monitors or a home stereo to Mbox Sound from Mbox cannot be played through your computer s speakers or your computer s sound output Connecting Headphones On the front panel of the Mbox is a 1 4 inch jack to connect headphones and a headphone level control to adjust headphone volume Headphone level 1 4 inch Headphone jack Headphone jack on front of Mbox To connect headphones Connect headphones with a 1 4 inch stereo connector or adapter to the Headphone jack Connecting a Sound System The Line Outputs on the back of the Mbox sup port 1 4 inch plugs These connections can be balanced TRS Tip Ring Sleeve style connec tors or unbalanced connectors To listen to your Pro Tools session these outputs can be con nected to any amplification system powered speakers a home stereo system or an audio mixer When connecting to a stereo system connect the left channel often the white plug to Line Out Left and right channel often the red plug to Line Out Right v Home stereo systems often use RCA connec tors You can use an adaptor or a special ca ble to convert from the TRS or TS connect
42. agment an audio drive Windows XP 1 Right click My Computer and choose Manage 2 Under Storage choose Disk Defragmenter 3 In the Disk Defragmenter window choose the drive you want to defragment 4 Click the Defragment button and follow the on screen instructions 5 When defragmenting is complete close the Computer Management window Using Mac Drives on Windows Systems Pro Tools for Windows lets you record and play back sessions directly from a Mac formatted HFS drive connected to a Windows system This functionality requires that all Mac session and audio files be stored on Mac formatted drives During Pro Tools installation make sure to se lect the Mac HFS Disk Support option This op tion lets your Pro Tools system read write re cord and play back using Mac formatted HFS disks For information on sharing sessions be tween Mac and Windows systems see the Pro Tools Reference Guide Help gt Pro Tools Reference Guide Formatting and Maintaining HFS Drives To format and partition any drives as HFS con nect the drives to a Mac computer and use the Apple OS X Disk Utility to format the drives as Mac OS Extended Journaled Appendix E Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance 71 Hard Disk Storage Space Mono audio tracks recorded with 16 bit resolution at 44 1 kHz CD quality require approximately 5 MB of hard disk space per minute The same tracks recorded with 24 bit resolution requir
43. apacity for processing playback and recording In most cases the default settings for your sys tem provide optimum performance but you may want to adjust them to accommodate large or processing intensive Pro Tools sessions Hardware Buffer Size The Hardware Buffer Size H W Buffer Size con trols the size of the buffer used to handle host processing tasks such as Real Time AudioSuiteTM RTAS plug ins Lower Hardware Buffer Size settings are useful for improving latency issues in certain record ing situations or for improving certain system performance problems On Pro Tools LE sys tems lower settings reduce all input to out put monitoring latency on any record armed tracks or Auxiliary Input tracks with live in puts Higher Hardware Buffer Size settings are use ful for sessions that are using more RTAS plug ins for playback These settings allow for more audio processing They can also be useful to reduce errors on some machines that require a higher buffer size A In addition to causing slower screen re sponse and monitoring latency higher Hardware Buffer Size settings can increase the latency caused by RTAS plug ins and affect the accuracy of plug in automation mute data and MIDI track timing 18 Mbox User Guide To change the Hardware Buffer Size 1 Launch Pro Tools 2 Choose Setup gt Playback Engine 3 From the H W Buffer Size pop up menu select the audio buffer size in samples e Una
44. ciency data should be written to your hard drive in a contiguous fashion minimizing the seek requirements to play back the data Unfor tunately your computer can t always store the sound files in this way and must write to disk wherever it can find space 70 Mbox User Guide In multitrack recording audio tracks are written in discrete files spaced evenly across the disk While fragmentation of individual files may be zero the tracks may be far enough apart that playback will still be very seek intensive Also the remaining free space on the disk will be dis contiguous increasing the likelihood of file fragmentation on subsequent record passes Increased fragmentation increases the chance of disk errors which can interfere with playback of audio and result in performance errors w On Windows to avoid fragmentation format drives with higher cluster sizes such as 32K Optimizing Defragmenting Drives To prevent fragmentation you can optimize your drive which rearranges your files into a contiguous format Most optimizing software lets you run a check on a drive to find out the percentage of fragmentation If your drive shows moderate to heavy fragmentation you should consider optimizing it If you use your system for intensive editing or if you frequently delete audio or fade files from your hard drive you may need to optimize your drives on a weekly basis or even every few days since it doesn t take long f
45. count where you want to install Pro Tools For details on Administrator privileges see your Windows documentation Required Optimizations To ensure optimum performance with Pro Tools configure the following settings be fore using Pro Tools hardware and software A When you are finished changing Windows system settings restart your computer Enabling DMA Enabling your computer s DMA Direct Memory Access frees up CPU bandwidth so your com puter can do other Pro Tools tasks In most cases the DMA option will already be set correctly as Windows detects and activates DMA mode by default To enable DMA for any IDE hard drives Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP 1 Choose Start 2 Right click Computer Windows 7 Windows Vista or My Computer Windows XP and choose Manage 3 In theleft pane of Computer Management un der System Tools click on Device Manager 4 In the right pane click the triangle Windows 7 or the plus 4 sign Windows Vista Windows XP next to IDE ATA ATAPI Controllers 5 Double click on an IDE Channel 6 Click the Advanced Settings tab 7 Under Device Properties check the box Enable DMA Windows 7 Windows Vista or under each listed Device set the Transfer Mode to DMA if available Windows XP 8 Click OK 9 Repeat for each IDE Channel Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 27 Configuring Windows Power Management Settings Pro Tools requires maximum CPU performance
46. ding elec tronic audio sources such as mixers samplers keyboards and synthesizers use the Line input 40 Mbox User Guide Connecting Electric Guitar or Bass To use a guitar with Mbox 1 On the front of the Mbox plug your guitar ca ble into one of the Instrument inputs Input 1 instrument input Connecting a guitar to the 1 4 inch connector 2 On the front of the Mbox set the source to Front by setting the input channel Source selec tor to the Out position orange band is visible Input 1 Gain level control Source selector Source selector and Gain control for Input 1 3 On the front of the Mbox carefully turn the Gain control to the right to increase the input level of your guitar Connecting Keyboards and Mixers To use a keyboard or mixer with Mbox 1 Plug your keyboard mixer or other audio source into either the Input 1 or Input 2 Line TRS inputs on your Mbox If your source is ste reo such as a stereo keyboard or the stereo out put from a mixer connect the left channel often the white plug to Input 1 and right channel often the red plug to Input 2 Input 2 Input 1 right channel left channel Line Outputs Mic Line Inputs S PDIF Mbox connections for line level stereo input source 2 Set the Source to Rear in position by press ing the Source selector on the front of Mbox Input 1 Gain level control In
47. e MIDI Patch Name Support on page 65 Model The Model pop up menu provides a list of MIDI devices filtered by the manufacturer name This list is derived from the XML based MIDI device files provided with your Pro Tools installation For more information see MIDI Patch Name Support on page 65 Input Port The Input Port pop up menu displays a list of available MIDI interface input ports Inputs will include Mbox and any additional MIDI inter faces enabled on your system The MIDI inter face port that is set and displayed here is the port through which MIDI data is sent from the external MIDI device specified in the Instru ment Name field into your MIDI interface If you set the input port to None the defined instrument will not appear as a choice in a MIDI Input selector Output Port The Output Port pop up menu displays a list of available MIDI interface output ports The port set and displayed here is the port through which MIDI data is sent from your MIDI interface to the MIDI device specified in the Instrument Name field If you set the output port to None the de fined instrument will not appear as a choice in a MIDI Output selector Send Channels The Send Channels grid sets the send channels for the MIDI device specified in the Instrument Name field Receive Channels The Receive Channels grid sets the receive chan nels for the MIDI device specified in the Instru ment Name field MIDI
48. e about 7 5 MB per minute Stereo audio tracks recorded with 16 bit resolution at 44 1 kHz CD quality require approximately 10 MB of hard disk space per minute The same tracks recorded with 24 bit resolution require about 15 MB per minute Table 6 lists the required disk space for certain track numbers and track lengths to help you estimate your hard disk usage Table 6 Required hard drive space for audio tracks 44 1 kHz and 48 kHz sessions shown Number of Tracks and Length 16 bit at 16 bit at 24 bit at 24 bit at 44 1 kHz 48 kHz 44 1 kHz 48 kHz 1 mono track 1 minute 5 MB 5 5 MB 7 5 MB 8 2 MB 1 stereo track or two mono 50 MB 55 MB 75 MB 83 MB tracks 5 minutes 1 stereo track or two mono 600 MB 662 MB 900 MB 991 MB tracks 60 minutes 24 mono tracks 5 minutes 600 MB 662 MB 900 MB 991 MB 24 mono tracks 60 minutes 7GB 7 8 GB 10 5 GB 11 6 GB 32 mono tracks 5 minutes 800 MB 883 MB 1 2GB 1 3 GB 32 mono tracks 60 minutes 9 4 GB 10 4 GB 14 GB 15 4 GB 72 Mbox User Guide appendix f Troubleshooting Backing Up Your Work Itis highly recommended that you back up your work on a regular basis and especially before making changes to your system configuration Backing Up Your Session Data Back up your session and audio data frequently There are a variety of media that are suited to back up projects of various sizes from auto mated tape backup systems to high capacity op tical
49. e volumes Drives must be initialized with a disk utility that recog nizes the 2 terabyte limit Single Pro Tools audio files cannot exceed 3 4 GB in size A Windows XP allows drives formatted with the NTFS file system to be seen as whole volumes Single Pro Tools audio files can not exceed 3 4 GB in size Appendix E Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance 69 Seek Times on Partitioned Drives Seek times are actually faster on partitioned drives assuming that reads and writes are per formed on a single partition since the heads only have to seek within the partition boundar ies rather than the whole capacity of the drive Smaller partitions perform faster than larger par titions but this comes at the expense of contig uous storage space When you partition a drive you will need to find the compromise that best suits your performance and storage require ments Avoid distributing audio files within a ses sion over different partitions on the same drive since this will adversely affect drive performance Defragmenting an Audio Drive Mac Systems When working with larger files such as video you can limit fragmentation by backing up your important files to another disk erasing the files from the original hard disk then copying the files back instead of doing a defragmentation Window Systems Periodically defragment audio drives to maintain system performance For maximum recording and playback effi
50. er the front panel In strument Inputs TS or rear panel Mic Line In puts XLR TRS combo for each channel When the button is set to the Out position the front panel Instrument Inputs will be active When the button is set to the In position the rear panel Mic Line Inputs will be active Multi Button The Multi Button can be assigned to execute sev eral functions in Pro Tools including Add Track Start Stop Record Tap Tempo Toggle Marker Locations and Save Session 48V Switch and LED Phantom power is activated by the switch la beled 48V on the front panel of Mbox The LED when lit indicates that 48V phantom power is active on the XLR Mic inputs These inputs pro vide phantom power for microphones that re quire it to operate 32 Mbox User Guide About Phantom Power Dynamic microphones such as a Shure SM57 do not require phantom power to operate but are not harmed by it Most condenser micro phones like an M Audio Solaris do require phantom power to operate A Although phantom power can be used safely with most microphones it is possible to damage some ribbon microphones with it Always turn off phantom power and wait at least ten seconds before connecting or dis connecting a ribbon microphone A When using phantom power the Mbox maximum current per microphone is 4 mA If you are not sure about the phantom power re quirements for your microphone consult your microphone s documentation or contact t
51. es Generic Images and they will appear as choices in the AMS device window 5 Click OK The device names you enter appear as MIDI in put and output choices in Pro Tools Appendix C Configuring AMS Mac OS X Only 61 MIDI Patch Name Support Pro Tools supports XML Extensible Markup Language for storing and importing patch names for you external MIDI devices Pro Tools installs MIDI patch name files midnam for the factory default patch names of many common MIDI devices These files reside in directories sorted by manufacturer in Macintosh HD Library Audio MIDI Patch Names Digidesign To import MIDI patch names into Pro Tools 1 Verify the MIDI Device name in the Audio MIDI Setup window see Audio MIDI Setup on page 59 2 Verify the Instrument or MIDI track output is correctly assigned to the MIDI device 3 Click the Instrument or MIDI track Patch Se lect button Patch Select button Patch Select button Edit window Mix window Patch Select button 62 Mbox User Guide 4 In the Patch Select dialog click Change Change button Patch Select dialog 5 In the Open dialog navigate to Library Au dio MIDI Patch Names Digidesign lt name of manufacturer gt and select the MIDI Patch Name file midnam for the MIDI device 6 Click Open The Patch Select dialog is populated with patch names and the Patch Name Bank pop up menu appears in the upper left hand corner of the win dow Once pa
52. etermined by your audio appli cation This parameter may not be editable from within the Mbox Control Panel if your audio ap plication is running In this case any changes to thesample rate must be made through the audio application itself If the application does not provide a way to set the sample rate quit the ap plication then change the sample rate through the Mbox Control Panel A In Windows Vista when using the Mbox WDM MME i e non ASIO drivers the sample rate of the interface and your audio software is always determined by this drop down menu Your selection in this menu is the only item that will appear in your audio application For example if you select 44 1KHz in this menu your audio application s control panel will only display 44 1KHz and you will not be able to se lect any other rates from within the applica tion When the sample rate is locked to an external digital clock source the Mbox s LED is solid blue When the sample rate is set and there is no digital clock source detected or cannot lock to it for some reason the LED will blink A message appears at the bottom of the Hardware Settings section stating that External clock not de tected Audio Streaming is Disabled Buffer Size Windows only This menu sets the size of the input and output buffers on Mbox Buffers are used to help keep audio hardware and software running smoothly by processing audio in groups of samples rather
53. f the Manufacturer or Model names for any of your external MIDI devices is not available in the AMS Manufacturer and Model pop up menus you can add them by editing the middev file in any text editor such as TextEdit 3 Click the More Information arrow to expand the dialog then enable the appropriate MIDI channels 1 16 for the Transmits and Receives options These determine which channels the device will use to send and receive MIDI ie _JP 8000 Properties Device Name JP 8000 Manufacturer Roland i Model JP 8000 Open Icon Browser Less Information 4 CWopemies Por Transmits Channels 7 max 16 O MIDI Beat Clock C MIDI Time Code Receives Channels 7 max 16 MIDI Beat Clock O MIDI Time Code Features O General MIDI L MIDI Machine Control System Exclusive ID Revert Apply Enabling MIDI channels 4 Click the device image The window expands to show images for various MIDI devices such as keyboards modules interfaces and mixers Select an icon for your device 8 0 0 JP 8000 Properties Device Name JP 8000 Manufacturer Roland B Model JP 8000 v Close Icon Browser Less Information 4 Select an icon for this device Icon Set Generic e Revert Apply Selecting a device icon w To use your own custom icons you can place TIFF image files in Library Audio MIDI Devic
54. ftware and plug ins Mac HFS Disk Support Option This option lets your Pro Tools system read write record and play back using Mac formatted HFS disks HFS disks are commonly referred to as Mac OS Ex tended disks For information on using the Mac HFS Disk Support option see the HFS Disk Support Option Guide Avid Video Engine This option lets you integrate Avid video peripherals such as the Avid Mojo with your Pro Tools system Do not install un less you will be using one of these products Command 8 Controller and Driver This option in stalls the personality file and device driver for the Avid Command 8 Control Surface Do not install unless you will be using Command 8 Installing QuickTime QuickTime is required for Pro Tools if you plan to include movie files or import MP3 or MP4 AAC files in your sessions QuickTime for Win dows is available as a free download from the Apple website www apple com For information on which version of QuickTime is compatible with your version of Pro Tools visit www avid com compatibility Chapter 3 Installing Pro Tools on Windows 13 To install QuickTime 1 Visit www apple com and go to the Quick Time page 2 Download the QuickTime installer applica tion to your computer 3 Double click the QuickTime installer applica tion and follow the on screen installation in structions 4 Restart your computer Launching Pro Tools LE When launching P
55. he manufacturer Headphone Volume The Headphone Volume knob adjusts the out put level of the Headphone port which outputs the signal that is routed to Outputs 1 2 in Pro Tools LE and mirrors the Line Outputs Front Panel Headphone Output Use the Headphone Output to connect stereo headphones with a 1 4 inch stereo connector USB LED The USB LED indicates that the Mbox is receiv ing power from its USB connection Once the USB light is on audio can pass in or out of the system The USB LED is a power LED which will also in dicate when the unit is powered in stand alone mode In this mode you can connect a USB cable but that cable will be connected to a wall outlet instead of a computer similar to an iPod or iPhone Dim Button and LED The Dim Button reduces by 30 dB the output volume from both the Line Outputs and the Headphone Output When engaged the Dim LED lights Guitar Tuner Function When the Dim Button and the Mono Button are pushed at the same time the Guitar Tuner func tion is activated The Dim and Mono LEDs will flash between off and on to indicate tuner mode is active When a string is played on a guitar plugged into an Instrument Input the Input 1 Signal Clip LED will be illuminated red if tuning is too low off when tuning is too high and green when tuning is correct The Input 2 Sig nal Clip LED will be illuminated red if tuning is too high off when tuning is too low and green when tuning
56. ideo applica tions refer to the manufacturer s documenta tion for operational details Make note of any other software that was run ning when a problem occurred Diagnostic Information Note any DAE errors or other error codes you en counter Additonally note the ability to repro duce the problem under different conditions for example with another session or after changing settings such as the Hardware Buffer Size Appendix F Troubleshooting 75 76 Mbox User Guide appendix g Resources Whether you are new to Pro Tools or just start ing out with your new system we encourage you to read and utilize the many guides that Pro Tools provides There are also useful online resources available giving you everything from Pro Tools tips to Pro Tools answers About the Pro Tools Guides In addition to any printed guides included with your system PDF versions of the printed guides and many additional Pro Tools guides and Read Mes are installed automatically during Pro Tools installation see Documentation Installed Au tomatically with Pro Tools on page 78 The PDFs are located in the Digidesign Documenta tion folder on your local drive Printed copies of the Pro Tools Reference Guide and other guides in the Pro Tools guide set can be purchased separately from the Avid Store http shop avid com User Guide This User Guide for your system gives you de tailed instructions for setting up and configur
57. igiRack Plug Ins Installs free plug ins including DigiRack plug ins free Bomb Factory plug ins Eleven Free TL Utilities and Digidesign D Fi and Maxim plug ins For more information see the Audio Plug Ins Guide Pro Tools Creative Collection Options Select any of the Pro Tools Creative Collection options you want installed For more informa tion see the Audio Plug Ins Guide Effect Plug Ins Installs 6 free virtual instrument plug ins from Avid s AIR group Virtual Instruments Installs 20 free effects plug ins from Avid s AIR group Virtual Instrument Content Installs sample con tent for AIR virtual instruments A Virtual Instrument Content is very large and may take up to 20 minutes to install During this time the progress bar may not appear to move but your software is still in stalling Do not terminate your installation Additional Options The Pro Tools installer provides the following additional options to install along with Pro Tools software and plug ins Avid CoreAudio Drivers This option installs a multichannel sound driver that allows CoreAu dio compatible applications to record and play back through Avid audio interfaces Avid Video Engine This option lets you integrate Avid video peripherals such as the Avid Mojo with your Pro Tools system Do not install un less you will be using one of these products MIDI 1 0 Driver The MIDI I O Driver is re quired if you are using the Avid MIDI I O inter
58. ing an analog signal di rectly into Pro Tools you will usually use the Pro Tools Internal clock source S PDIF Use this setting if you are recording through the Mbox S PDIF input from an exter nal digital device This setting will synchronize Pro Tools to that digital device To select the Clock Source 1 Choose Setup Hardware 2 Choose the clock source from the Clock Source pop up menu 3 Click OK A Your digital input device must be connected and powered on for Pro Tools to synchro nize to it If your input device is not powered on leave the Clock Source set to Internal Configuring 1 0 Setup Using the I O Setup dialog you can label Pro Tools LE input output insert and bus signal paths The I O Setup dialog provides a graphical representation of the inputs outputs and signal routing of the Mbox Pro Tools LE has default I O Setup settings that will get you started Use the I O Setup dialog only if you want to rename the default I O paths 24 Mbox User Guide To rename 1 0 paths in 1 0 Setup 1 Choose Setup gt 1 0 Input Output Insert Bus Show Last Saved Setup A Analog S PDIF 12534 R E Output 1 2 Stereo L 1 0 Setup dialog for Mbox 2 Click the Input Output Insert or Bus tab to dis play the corresponding connections 3 To change the name of a path or subpath dou ble click directly on the Path Name type a new name for the path and press Enter 4 Click OK See the Pro
59. ing software and hardware for optimum perfor mance Printed Intro to Pro Tools Guide The printed Intro to Pro Tools has tutorials on us ing Pro Tools such as recording in a Pro Tools session importing audio from a CD and creat ing an audio CD from a Pro Tools session Guides Accessible in Pro Tools The main Pro Tools guides are accessible from the Pro Tools Help menu Choose Help then se lect a guide These include Pro Tools Shortcuts provides a complete list of keyboard and Right click shortcuts for Pro Tools Audio Plug Ins Guide describes the audio plug ins included with Pro Tools for both real time and file based audio processing as well as many other paid plug in option offered from Avid Pro Tools Menus Guide covers all the Pro Tools on screen menus Pro Tools Reference Guide explains Pro Tools software in extensive detail Appendix G Resources 77 Documentation Installed Automatically with Pro Tools When you install Pro Tools you get useful PDF versions of many Pro Tools guides and Read Mes This documentation can be found in the following locations Mac Applications Digidesign Documentation Windows C Program Files Digidesign Documentation n To view or print PDF guides you can use Adobe Reader recommended or Apple Pre view Mac only Read Me Files These contain late breaking information and known issues pertaining to Pro Tools software and hardware configurations
60. io for the current session When this option is selected Pro Tools automatically optimizes the size of the Plug In Streaming Buffer to facilitate disk access from both Pro Tools and Structure The Plug In Streaming Buffer Size pop up menu is unavail able when this option is selected To set Pro Tools to optimize the Plug In Streaming Buffer Size 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2 Select the Optimize for Streaming Content op tion 3 Click OK Configuring the Pro Tools Hardware Settings In the Hardware Setup dialog Pro Tools lets you set the default sample rate and clock source for your system as well as a range of controls spe cific to each type of audio interface Default Sample Rate The Sample Rate setting appears as the default sample rate when you create a new session This setting is available in the Hardware Setup dialog only when no session is open vy You can change the sample rate when creat inga new Pro Tools session by selecting a different sample rate in the New Session dialog Refer to the Pro Tools Reference Guide for details To change the default Sample Rate 1 Choose Setup Hardware DIET x ecce Hardware Setup dialog 2 Select the sample rate from the Sample Rate pop up menu 3 Click OK Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 23 Clock Source The Pro Tools Hardware Setup dialog lets you se lect the Clock Source for the system Internal If you are record
61. ion Reinstall the Pro Tools application using the Pro Tools Installer disc Audio Interface Is Not Recognized Problem When you launch Pro Tools it does not recog nize an audio interface or a connected audio in terface is not available Possible Solutions Turn off your computer and check to be sure your cables are properly and securely connected to your computer and to your audio interface Verify that your Hardware Setup dialog set tings are correct 74 Mbox User Guide Performance Factors There are several conditions that may adversely affect the performance of Pro Tools These in clude Network Connections Close any network con nections unless you are using them for network interchange of audio data Background Applications Any software utilities that run in the background or generate disk ac tivity such as virus protection disk optimiza tion or file savers should be turned off or re moved Screen Savers Screen saver software should be completely disabled on your computer before running Pro Tools Power Saver Features Some automatic power saver features such as those that spin down the system hard drive can affect Pro Tools perfor mance These features should be turned off Before You Call Avid Support Register Your System Register your purchase by following the instruc tions on the Registration Information Card in cluded with your system By registering you be come eligible
62. isit www avid com compatibility Turning Off Software Update To turn off the Software Update feature 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Software Update 2 Click the Scheduled Check tab 3 Deselect Check for Updates Turning Off Energy Saver To turn off the Energy Saver feature 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Energy Saver 2 Do the following Set the computer sleep setting to Never Set the display sleep setting to Never Deselect Put the hard disk s to sleep when possible Disable or Reassign Mac Keyboard Shortcuts Used by Pro Tools To have the full complement of Pro Tools key board shortcuts you need to disable or reassign any conflicting Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts in the Apple System Preferences including the fol lowing e Show Help menu Under Keyboard Navigation Move focus to the window drawer Under Dock Expos and Dashboard Automatically hide and show the Dock e All windows e Application windows e Desktop e Dashboard e Spaces Under Spotlight e Show Spotlight search field e Show Spotlight window For a complete list of Pro Tools keyboard shortcuts see the Keyboard Shortcuts Guide Help Keyboard Shortcuts Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 25 To disable or reassign Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Keyboard 2
63. iver Control Panel This is useful if you d like to save various configurations so that you do not have to manually reconfigure your system each time you work on a different type of project Load Button The Load Button opens a file browser that lets you load a previously saved Settings file Save as The Save as button opens a file browser that lets you save the current settings of the Driver Con trol Panel to a Settings file 44 Mbox User Guide Layouts The Layout drop down menu lets you choose what information you would like the Driver Control Panel to show and how you would like that information to be displayed There are four layouts to select from Horizontal The Horizontal layout is the default layout It shows all knobs faders meters and buttons in a layout similar to that of a mixing console The Horizontal layout is used for all the screen cap tures in this chapter Horizontal Meters Only The Meters Only layout emphasizes pre fader hardware input and software return metering but does not provide access to the stereo mixers PRESETS LOAD SAVE AS LAYOUT Horda es GNT tuner amp oftveare Returns 2 3 1 Hardware inputs Mbox Driver Control Panel Horizontal Meters only shown Vertical Vertical Meters Only Mbox Driver Control Panel Mbox Driver Control Panel Vertical shown Vertical Meters only shown The Vertical layout provides access to all con The Meters Only layout emphasi
64. k OK to close the System Properties win dow 8 Restart the computer for the changes to take effect 30 Mbox User Guide Disabling System Startup Items The fewer items in use by your computer the more resources are available for Pro Tools Some startup applications may be consuming unnec essary CPU resources and can be turned off If you disable any of the following startup items do so carefully Portable media serial number required for some applications that utilize a copy pro tection key The Plug and Play service Event log Cryptographic services To Disable System Startup Items Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP 1 From the Start menu type msconfig in Start Search Windows 7 Windows Vista or in Run Windows XP and click OK to open the System Configuration Utility 2 Under the General tab choose Selective Startup 3 Deselect Load Startup Items and click OK 4 Click Restart to restart the computer 5 After restarting the computer displays a Sys tem Configuration message Check to see if Pro Tools performance has increased before you deselect the Don t show this message again op tion If performance has not changed run msconfig and return your computer Startup Selection back to Normal Startup load all device drives and services Alternatively try disabling Startup items and non essential processes indi vidually Mbox Hardware Overview Mbox Front Panel Features Figu
65. lication s user guide to learn how to change this setting Soft Button Settings The Mbox has four Soft buttons Multi 48v Mono and Dim Hold Duration This pop up menu gives you four choices of Press and Hold duration for all soft buttons on the front of the Mbox Choose between 250 msec 500 msec 750 msec and 1 sec Use Dim LEDs for Button off State Checking this option gives you a dim LED for all the soft buttons that are off so you can still dis cern the LED in the dark 48 Mbox User Guide Driver Control Panel Options Hold Clipping Indicators until Clicked The top section of the meters or right section for horizontal meters of the Driver Control Panel feature a red clipping indicator When this option is selected the clipping indicators will re main lit until they are clicked Load Latency and Clock Settings from Settings Files When this option is selected the clock source and buffer settings are recalled when loading a setting file Post Fader Meters When this option is selected fader positions will affect the meters Post Fader Meters mean the meter indicate post fader levels Pre Fader Meters When this option is selected the meters display the level of a signal before it passes the fader This allows signal levels to be displayed regard less of the fader positions within the stereo mix in other words a fader can be all the way down and no sound will be heard from the mixer s outpu
66. locates for disk buffers In addition to levels the DAE Playback Buffer Size shows values in milliseconds which indicate the amount of audio buffered when the system reads from disk The optimum DAE Playback Buffer Size for most disk operations is 1500 msec Level 2 Default DAE Playback Buffer Size settings lower than 1500 msec Level 2 Default may improve playback and recording initiation speed as well as preview in context in DigiBase brows ers However a lower setting may make it dif ficult to play or record tracks reliably with sessions containing a large number of tracks or a high density of edits or with systems that have slower or heavily fragmented hard drives DAE Playback Buffer Size settings higher than 1500 msec Level 2 Default allow higher track count higher density of edits in a session or the use of slower hard drives However a higher setting may increase the time lag when starting playback or recording starting pre view in context from DigiBase browsers or cause a longer audible time lag while editing during playback iol Using a larger DAE Playback Buffer Size leaves less system memory for other tasks The default setting of 1500 msec Level 2 is recommended unless you are encountering 9073 Disk too slow or fragmented errors To change the DAE Playback Buffer Size 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2 From the DAE Playback Buffer pop up menu se lect a buffer size Memory
67. ltaneously by mod ifying parameters on either one of the linked channels However linking two channels will not have any effect on their Pan controls which are always made on a per channel basis 50 Mbox User Guide The stereo mix features multi segment meters to show input channel levels directly above each channel and main mixer output levels at the top right of the mixer The peak hold indica tion time as well as pre post fader metering op eration can be set from the Settings Tab of the Control Panel The clip indicators can be reset by clicking on the meter itself Keep in mind that setting or adjusting the stereo mix will not affect the signal that is recorded into Pro Tools For example you ll still be able to record a channel while its corresponding ste reo mix channel is muted You won t hear the part through the stereo mix as it is being re corded but it will still record into Pro Tools and play back properly Using the Stereo Mix Section The stereo mix section is located in the main view of the Driver Control Panel and is divided into four main sections Hardware Inputs Software Returns Effects Master rn Inputs ann Returns FLOW ABOUT Hardware Inputs Softw s Ma Balance Signal Meter Width Pan Solo Master Mute Channel Fader 2 Channel Label ed Link E o om how HARDWARE INPUT FX SENDS SOFTWARE RETURN FX SENDS FX Ret
68. lti Button Function pane You can also launch the Driver Control Panel from here Lo For more information on the Driver Control Panel see Appendix Using the Driver Control Panel The Multi Button Function includes the follow ing options Press and Release Displays the options avail able for Press and Release mode Press and Hold Displays the options available for Press and Hold mode Duration Gives four time duration options for Press and Hold button Launch Control Panel Launches Driver Control Panel Appendix B Using the Multi Button 55 To use the Multi Button Function pane and configure its parameters example 1 Launch Pro Tools 2 Choose Track New and create 1 Mono audio track CY You need to have at least one track avail able in a session to use the Add Last Track and Add Selected Track functions 3 Choose Setup Hardware 4 From the Press and Release list select Start Stop Record the default 5 From the Press and Hold list select Add Se lected Tracks the default Soft Button Function Press and Release Start Stop Playback y Press and Hold Add Selected Track M Hold Duration 500 msec i launch control panel Multi Button Function pane Shown in Hardware Setup dialog 6 From the Hold Duration list select 500 msec the default 7 Go to the Edit Window and select the track you just created 8 Press and hold the Multi button for 500 msec
69. ly with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try and correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or locate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help Any modifications to the unit unless expressly approved by Avid could void the user s authority to operate the equipment 80 Mbox User Guide Australian Compliance Avid Canadian Compliance This Class B digital apparatus complies with Canadian ICES 003 Cet appareil num rique de la classe A est conforme la norme NMB 003 du Canada CE Compliance EMC and Safety CE Avid is authorized to apply the CE Conformi
70. ming playback from disk with the Structure plug in This setting only affects playback if disk stream ing is activated in Structure s plug in controls see the AIR Virtual Instruments Guide for more information The optimum Plug In Streaming Buffer Size for most sessions is 250 ms Level 2 Plug In Streaming Buffer Size settings lower than 250 ms Level 2 reduce the amount of system memory used for sample playback and frees up memory for other system tasks How ever audio quality of sample playback may decrease e Plug In Streaming Buffer Size settings higher than 250 ms Level 2 improve the audio qual ity of sample playback but they also decrease the amount of memory available for other sys tem tasks such as RTAS processing X Using a larger Plug In Streaming Buffer Size leaves less system memory for other tasks The default setting of 250 ms Level 2 is recommended unless you are experiencing problems with the audio quality of sample playback To change the Plug In Streaming Buffer Size 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2 From the Plug In Streaming Buffer Size pop up menu select a buffer size 3 Click OK Optimizing the Plug In Streaming Buffer Size Structure Plug In Only This option appears in the Playback Engine dia log only if one of the Structure sampler instru ment plug in is installed on your system This option is useful when you are playing samples from the same drive that contains aud
71. mputer must have Internet access for these pages to load Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel 49 Stereo Mixes This 8 input 4 output mixer allows you to cre ate two different stereo mixes from 8 input sources consisting of any of the hardware inputs i e analog and digital inputs and software re turns software outputs This allows you to set up near zero latency cue mixes in which the per formers hear a customized mix while record ing It is important to note that any changes made to the stereo mix will only affect what is audible from the mixer s outputs the stereo mix does not affect the signals that are sent to Pro Tools for recording For example if you are recording a vocalist and he she tells you to turn up the vo cal track so they can hear themselves better you can increase the vocalist s microphone channel in the stereo mix This will make the vocal part louder in the vocalist s headphones but it will still be recorded into Pro Tools at the volume de termined by the front panel Gain Adjustment Knob The stereo is set up like a standard mixing con sole There are 8 input channels each with its own volume fader pan and aux send knobs solo and mute buttons as well as a master out put section with its own faders and mute but ton A pair of channels can be linked together by clicking the link icon between the two channels Linking channels allows you to adjust mute solo and fader settings simu
72. n There are four choices of Hold Du ration 250 msec 500 msec 750 msec and 1 sec which is the amount of time you choose to hold the Multi button down in Press and Hold mode The default is 500 msec 58 Mbox User Guide appendix c Configuring AMS Mac OS X Only Audio MIDI Setup Pro Tools recognizes the ports on your MIDI in terface as generic ports With Mac OS X you use Apple s Audio MIDI Setup AMS utility to iden tify external MIDI devices connected to your MIDI interface and configure your MIDI studio for use with Pro Tools To configure your MIDI studio in AMS 1 Do one of the following Launch Audio MIDI Setup located in Mac intosh HD Applications Utilities or n Pro Tools choose Setup MIDI MIDI Studio If the MIDI Studio window is not open click Window Show MIDI Window 2 Click MIDI Devices AMS scans your system for connected MIDI interfaces If your MIDI inter face is properly connected it appears in the win dow with each of its ports numbered ana MIDI Studio v Detauis r 4 Ds re a m ra CEN EE med caca sera NL mA E YA va Audio MIDI Setup MIDI Devices 3 For any MIDI devices connected to the MIDI interface click Add Device A new external device icon with the default MIDI keyboard image will appear 4 Drag the new device icon to a convenient lo cation within the window Appendix C Configuring AMS Mac OS X Only 59 5 Connect the MIDI device to
73. n input and playback Dim and Mono buttons 1 4 inch TRS stereo headphone output with adjustable level control On board reverb and delay effects useful for monitoring while tracking vocals Soft limit analog function On board Tuner Multi function assignable Soft button USB 2 0 High speed operation Mbox will not function properly if connected Y to a passive USB hub If you need to use a hub for other USB peripherals use a pow ered hub or a separate dedicated USB port for Mbox to function properly Chapter 1 Welcome to Mbox 1 Pro Tools LE Capabilities Pro Tools LE on Mac or Windows provides the following capabilities with Mbox Playback of up to 48 mono or stereo digital audio tracks or a combination of playing back and recording up to 48 mono or stereo digital audio tracks depending on the ca pabilities of your computer Upto 128 audio tracks with up to 48 active tracks 128 Auxiliary Input tracks 64 Mas ter Fader tracks 256 MIDI tracks and 32 In strument tracks per session 16 bit or 24 bit audio resolution at sample rates up to 96 KHz Non destructive random access editing and mix automation Audio processing with up to 10 inserts per track RTAS plug ins or hardware inserts Up to 10 sends per track Up to 32 internal mix busses A Pro Tools LE uses your computer s CPU to mix and process audio tracks host process ing Computers with faster clock speeds yield higher
74. or even a large hard drive to become fragmented Backing Up Data Before Optimizing Since your files will be rewritten by the optimi zation process always make a backup copy of the data on your hard drive before you optimize it You should also use a hard drive utility to find and repair any problems before optimizing data or re initializing your drives If there is any dam age to your hard drive s directories prior to opti mizing serious data loss may result Defragmenting Windows Audio Drives To defragment an audio drive Windows 7 and Windows Vista 1 Click Start 2 Type disk defragmenter in the search field at the bottom Disk Defragmenter should appear at the top of the search results 3 Click the Disk Defragmenter 4 Click the Defragment disk button Windows 7 or the Defragment now button Windows Vista Follow the on screen instructions 5 When defragmenting is complete close the Disk Defragmenter window In Windows 7 you can Ctrl Click on the drive names to select multiple drives to de fragment and once more than one drive is selected the button changes to Defrag ment disks A The Defragment Now Vista only com mand defragments all your hard drives This can take a lot of time especially on systems with multiple drives Advanced users can use the command line tool Defrag exe to defragment individual drives See your Windows Vista documen tation for more information To defr
75. ors used by Mbox to the RCA connectors on your home stereo Line Out Left S PDIF e o Line Out Right Stereo output from the Mbox back panel Chapter 6 Making Hardware Connections 37 Connecting Audio Inputs This section describes the analog inputs avail able on Mbox For information about connect ing specific audio sources see Connecting a Microphone on page 39 and Connecting In struments to the Mbox on page 40 Overview of Analog Inputs Mbox inputs sources support microphones guitars keyboards and other types of instru ments Mbox has two audio input sections la beled Input 1 and Input 2 For stereo inputs use Input 1 for the left input and Input 2 for the right input Input 1 Input 2 Inputs on front panel of Mbox Input 2 and Input 1 e o Inputs on rear panel of Mbox The two input sections are located so that the hardware input jacks line up directly behind their corresponding input controls on the front panel This makes it easier to locate channel in put connections from the front 38 Mbox User Guide Each Input section has three analog input jacks the Mic and Line are on a single combo jack Mic For XLR microphone cables Line TRS For 1 4 inch Tip Ring Sleeve cables from keyboards mixers and other line sources DI For 1 4 inch Tip Sleeve cables from guitar bass
76. our system drive is not recom Windows systems can also support Mac mended Recording and playback on a system drives formatted with HFS system also drive may result in lower track counts or fewer commonly referred to as Mac OS Extended plug ins Refer to the Pro Tools Reference Guide for more information Help Pro Tools Refer ence Guide Hard drive performance depends on factors in cluding system configuration number of tracks session sample rate density of edits and the use of crossfades and other processes such as Beat Detective in a session For complete hard drive requirements visit our website www avid com Appendix E Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance 67 FireWire Hard Drives Avid recommends qualified FireWire drives and on Windows systems a qualified FireWire host adapter For complete information on track count and the supported number and configuration of FireWire drives visit our website www avid com ATA SATA Hard Drives A qualified internal ATA SATA drive may be used as a dedicated audio drive For complete information on track count with internal drives refer to our website www avid com SCSI Hard Drives Avid recommends qualified SCSI hard drives and a qualified SCSI host bus adapter HBA card or on Windows systems a qualified built in SCSI HBA connector on the motherboard For complete information on track count and the supported number and configuration of SCSI drive
77. processors 19 Pro Tools demo session Windows 9 15 removing Windows 9 15 84 Mbox 3 User Guide Pro Tools LE capabilities 2 configuration Windows 18 installing Mac 5 installing Windows 11 Processor Scheduling performance Windows 30 Q QuickTime installing Windows 13 R recording digital inputs 41 removing Pro Tools Windows 9 15 RTAS Processors setting 19 S S PDIF 34 Safe Uninstall Mac 9 Sample Rate 23 Screen savers 74 SCSI requirements 68 Software Update Mac turning off 25 sources analog 35 DI 35 digital 34 line 35 microphone 35 selecting 32 Spotlight indexing Mac disabling 26 Startup items Windows disabling 30 Stereo Width control 41 42 system optional optimizations Windows 29 recommended optimizations Windows 29 required optimizations Windows 27 shutting down 17 starting up 17 system optimization Mac 25 Windows 29 system settings Cache Size 22 Clock Source 24 CPU Usage Limit 20 Hardware Buffer Size 18 1 0 Setup 24 Plug In Streaming Buffer 23 Plug In Streaming Buffer Size 22 Sample Rate 23 T technical support 4 TRS 38 U uninstalling Pro Tools Mac 9 Windows 15 USB connection indicator 33 User Account Control UAC disabling 28 W website 78 Index 85 86 Mbox 3 User Guide
78. ps Digital Interface Format S PDIF is used in many professional and con sumer CD recorders and DAT recorders To avoid RF interference use 75 ohm coaxial cable for S PDIF transfers and Keep the cable length to a maximum of 10 meters In use the S PDIF input channels are available in addition to the two channels of analog audio input This lets Mbox be used as a 4 in 4 out dig ital audio interface for Pro Tools LE Line Outputs These outputs support balanced TRS or unbal anced TS 1 4 inch connections To monitor your mix these outputs can be connected to a mixing board directly to a monitoring system such as a stereo power amp or another stereo destination Mic Line Inputs Each analog source input channel provides combination XLR TRS on the rear panel These balanced unbalanced analog audio inputs sup port the following input levels Mic microphone for XLR inputs Line TRS for line level signals on TRS or TS inputs On the front panel the input signal is adjusted by the Gain control for each channel and the source rear panel Mic Line or front panel In strument is chosen using the Source selectors Mic Line Input 2 is at the far left when looking at the back panel and Mic Line Input 1 is to its right The back panel inputs for Mic Line Input 1 and Mic Line Input 2 are located such that they are directly in line with their associated in put controls on the front panel This lets you lo cate input j
79. put 2 Gain level control Source selector Source selector Source selector and Gain control for Inputs 1 and 2 3 Set your instrument s volume to its optimal level For example the optimal level for most keyboards is between 80 and 100 of maxi mum volume 4 On the front of the Mbox carefully turn the Gain control to the right to increase the input level of your keyboard Digital Input and Output Mbox provides digital inputs and outputs for S PDIF format digital audio The two channels of S PDIF digital input can be used in combina tion with the two analog inputs for a total of four simultaneous input channels Connecting Digital Devices To connect a S PDIF device to Mbox 1 Use two 75 ohm coaxial cables with male RCA connectors on both ends purchased separately 2 Connect the device s S PDIF output to Mbox s S PDIF input port and the device s S PDIF input to Mbox s S PDIF output port v To configure Mbox to record from a digital source choose Setups gt Hardware Setup in Pro Tools then select S PDIF in the Clock Source Using S PDIF Input To configure Pro Tools to record from a S PDIF device 1 Choose Setups Hardware Setup 2 Select S PDIF from the Clock Source pop up menu 3 Click OK 4 On the recording track select the appropriate stereo or mono S PDIF source from the track In put selector Once enabled in the Hardware Setup dialog the S PDIF inputs
80. re 1 identifies controls indicators and input and output ports on the front panel on the Mbox Input 1 Input 2 Sig Clip Sig Cli LED Gain Soft Limit LED 20dB 20dB i Gain Soft Limit Multi LED Headphone Volume i USB Dim Monitor Level EE SttImt O e 01 ET 02 Pull 2008 Front a Rear t Source selector Instrumen Figure 1 Mbox front panel The Mbox front panel provides the following Signal Clip LEDs These LEDs illuminate green in the presence of audio signal and illuminate red if the signal reaching Mbox has clipped Gain Controls 20dB Pad These knobs adjust the input gain levels of the Mic Line inputs Turn the knob clockwise to in crease gain and counter clockwise to decrease gain Instrument Source selector 48V Headphone Mono Output If your input signal is too hot even with the Gain knob at a low setting pull the Gain knob out to engage a pad that attenuates the signal by 20dB Instrument Inputs These 1 4 inch TS inputs are for connecting an electric guitar bass or other instrument level signal The level for these inputs is controlled by the Gain Controls Chapter 5 Mbox Hardware Overview 31 Soft Limit Buttons These buttons activate the Soft Limit function applying a smooth overdriven tape type limit ing to strong input signals Front Rear Source Selectors These buttons select eith
81. re automatically indexes files and folders on local hard drives in the background In most cases this is not a con cern for normal Pro Tools operation However if Spotlight starts indexing drives while record ing in a Pro Tools session with high track counts for an extended period of time it can adversely affect Pro Tools system performance You may want to disable Spotlight indexing for all local drives before using Pro Tools for big recording projects Disabling Spotlight indexing also disables the Find function in Mac OS X To disable Spotlight indexing 1 Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu and click Spotlight 2 In the Spotlight window click the Privacy tab 3 To prevent indexing of a drive drag its icon from the desktop into the list Enabling Journaling for Audio Drives To yield higher performance from audio drives enable journaling To enable journaling 1 Launch the Disk Utility application located in Macintosh HD Applications Utilities 2 Select the volume in the left column of the Disk Utility window 3 Select Enable Journaling in the toolbar Optimizing a Windows System for Pro Tools To ensure optimum performance with Pro Tools LE configure your computer before using Pro Tools hardware and software For Mac System Optimization see Opti mizing a Mac System for Pro Tools on page 25 Before configuring your computer make sure you are logged in as an Administrator for the ac
82. requirements for each setting are shown at the bottom of the Playback Engine dialog 3 Click OK If Pro Tools needs more system memory for the DAE Playback Buffer it will prompt you to re start your computer Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 21 Cache Size The Cache Size setting determines the amount of memory DAE allocates to pre buffer audio for playback and looping when using Elastic Audio Minimum Reduces the amount of system mem ory used for disk operations and frees up mem ory for other system tasks However perfor mance when using Elastic Audio features may decrease Normal Is the optimum Cache Size for most ses sions Large Improves performance when using Elastic Audio features but it also decreases the amount of memory available for other system tasks such as RTAS processing w Using a larger Cache Size leaves less system memory for other tasks The default setting of Normal is recommended unless you are encountering 9500 Cache too small errors To change the Cache Size 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2 From the Cache Size pop up menu select a disk cache size 3 Click OK 22 Mbox User Guide Plug In Streaming Buffer Size Structure Plug In Only This setting appears in the Playback Engine dia log only if Structure Structure LE or Structure Free is installed on your system The Plug In Streaming Buffer Size determines the amount of memory DAE allocates for strea
83. ro Tools LE the first time you are prompted to enter an authorization code to validate your software The code begins with the letters DIGI To authorize Pro Tools LE software 1 Make sure Mbox is connected to your com puter 2 Double click the Pro Tools LE shortcut on your desktop or the application icon in the Pro Tools folder inside the Digidesign folder 3 Enter the authorization code in the dialog making sure to type it exactly as printed and observing any spaces and capitalization then click Validate Your authorization code is lo cated on the back of your Pro Tools DVD wallet 4 Use the Quick Start dialog to do one of the following Create a new session from template Create a new blank session Open any other session on your system 14 Mbox User Guide Quick Start D Create Some from Template O create fark Sasse gt sesson Parameters E show Quack Start datog mer Pro Tooke starts Conce OK Quick Start dialog For more information on the Quick Start dialog and session templates see the Pro Tools Reference Guide Help gt Pro Tools Reference Guide Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc The Pro Tools LE Installer disc provides addi tional software for your system including audio drivers for playing other audio applications through your Pro Tools hardware and a Pro Tools demo session ed Check your Pro Tools Installer disc for additional soft
84. roperties section When a previously defined instrument is se lected in the Instrument list the Properties sec tion changes to reflect the properties of the se lected instrument To define an instrument with MIDI Studio Setup 1 Choose Setup gt MIDI gt MIDI Studio 2 Click Create 3 In the Instrument Name field type the name of your instrument and press Enter y If you do not enter an instrument name the Instrument Name field will automatically inherit information from the Manufacturer and Model pop up menu 4 Set a manufacturer and model for the new de vice from the corresponding pop up menus If the Manufacturer and Model pop up menus do not provide a name for your particular device select None 5 From the Input pop up menu select the input port on your MIDI interface that is connected to the MIDI Out of your instrument 6 From the Output pop up menu select the out put port on your MIDI interface that is con nected to the MIDI In of your instrument 7 Enable the appropriate MIDI channels 1 16 for the Send Channels and Receive Channels op tions These determine which channels send and receive MIDI Instrument Name The Instrument Name field shows the user de finable instrument name for the currently se lected instrument Manufacturer The Manufacturer pop up menu provides a list of MIDI equipment manufacturers This list is derived from the XML based MIDI device files For more information se
85. s Vista 1 Choose Start Computer 2 Click System Properties 3 In the left hand pane under Control Panel Home click on Device Manager 4 In the Device Manager window double click Network adapters 5 Right click on the network adapter and select Disable 6 Repeat as necessary for additional network adapters 7 Close the Device Manager window To disable a network card Windows XP 1 Right click My Computer and choose Manage 2 Under System Tools select Device Manager 3 In the right hand pane click to reveal Net work adapters 4 In the Device Manager window double click Network adapters 5 Right click on the network adapter and select Disable 6 Repeat as necessary for additional network adapters 7 Close the Computer Management window Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 29 Adjusting Processor Scheduling To adjust Processor Scheduling performance Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP 1 Right click Computer Windows 7 Windows Vista or My Computer Windows XP and choose Properties 2 Click the Advanced system settings link in the left pane Windows 7 Windows Vista or the Advanced tab Windows XD 3 Under the Performance section click the Set tings button 4 In the Performance Options window click the Advanced tab 5 Under the Processor Scheduling section select the Background Services option 6 Click OK to close the Performance Options window 7 Clic
86. s visit our website www avid com Formatting an Audio Drive Formatting Mac Audio Drives For optimum performance audio drives should be formatted as Mac OS Extended Journaled To format an audio drive 1 Launch the Disk Utility application located in Macintosh HD Applications Utilities 68 Mbox User Guide 2 Click the Erase tab Disk Utility Mac OS X 3 Select the drive you want to initialize in the column on the left side of the window 4 Choose the Mac OS Extended Journaled for mat Do not choose the Case Sensitive format option Pro Tools will not operate properly with case sensitive formatted drives 5 Type a name for the new volume 6 If you plan to connect the drive to a Mac OS 9 computer select Install Mac OS 9 Drivers Mac OS 9 options only appear in 10 5 or below 7 Click Erase The drive appears on the Desktop with the new volume name Formatting Windows Audio Drives For optimal performance audio drives should be formatted as NTFS Pro Tools only supports Basic drive types Do not convert the drive to a Dynamic type To format an audio drive Windows 7 Windows Vista and Windows XP 1 Right click Computer Windows 7 Windows Vista or My Computer Windows XP and choose Manage 2 Under Storage choose Disk Management Disk Management window Windows XP 3 If the volume is Healthy do the following y Healthy volumes are volumes that have pre
87. se online Support and Downloads Contact Avid Customer Success technical support download software updates and the latest online manuals browse the Compatibility documents for system re quirements search the online Knowledge Base or join the worldwide Pro Tools community on the User Conference Training and Education Study on your own using courses available online or find out how you can learn in a classroom setting at a certified Pro Tools training center Products and Developers Learn about Avid products download demo software or learn about our Development Partners and their plug ins applications and hardware News and Events Get the latest news from Avid or sign up for a Pro Tools demo 4 Mbox User Guide Installing Pro Tools on Mac This chapter contains information for Mac sys tems only If you are installing Pro Tools on a Windows computer see Chapter 3 Installing Pro Tools on Windows Before installing this version of Pro Tools refer to the Read Me information included on the Pro Tools Installer disc Installation Overview Installation of the Mbox on a Mac includes the following steps 1 Installing Pro Tools LE and Connecting Your Interface on page 5 2 Launching Pro Tools LE on page 7 3 Configuring your system for improved perfor mance see Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 4 Making audio connections to the Mbox see Chapter 6 Making Hardware Connections w
88. t Europ nne mark on this compliant equipment thereby declaring conformity to EMC Directive 89 336 EEC and Low Voltage Directive 73 23 EEC Safety Compliance Warning RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK DO NOT OPEN Important Safety Instructions 1 Read these instructions 2 Keep these instructions 3 Heed all warnings 4 Follow all instructions 5 Do not use this equipment near water 6 Clean only with dry cloth 7 Do not block any ventilation openings Install in accordance with the manufacturer s instructions 8 Do not install near any heat sources such as radiators heat registers stoves or other equipment including amplifiers that produce heat 9 Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized or grounding type plug A polarized plug has two blades with one wider than the other A grounding type plug has two blades and a third grounding prong The wide blade or the third prong are provided for your safety If the provided plug does not fit into your outlet consult an electrician for replacement of the obsolete outlet 10 Protect power cords from being walked on or pinched particularly at plugs convenience receptacles and the point where they exit from the equipment 11 Only use attachments accessories specified by the manufacturer 12 For products that are not rack mountable Use only with a cart stand tripod bracket or table specified by the manufacturer or sold with the equipment When a car
89. t but you can still see if there is any activ ity on that input FX Sends Mode Pre Fader FX Sends When Pre Fader FX Sends is selected the full au dio signal will be sent to the FX Sends regardless of the position of the Channel Faders of stereo mix 1 2 Post Fader Mix 1 2 FX Sends When Post Fader Mix 1 2 is selected the audio signal level being sent to the FX Sends will be af fected by the position of the Channel Faders of Stereo Mix 1 Flow Clicking the Flow pop up menu opens a display showing the signal flow from the inputs to the outputs of Mbox This is a useful reference for understanding the path of an audio signal flow ing through Mbox About The About pop up menu allows you to view the firmware version of the Mbox hardware and the package version of the Mbox driver installer Manual Updates Support FAQ Register ose Firmware and driver information Web links Viewing Firmware and Installer Information Directly above the status indicators you can view the firmware version of the Mbox Mini hardware and the package version of the Mbox driver installer Accessing the Web Links Along the bottom right of the Driver Control Panel you can easily access helpful online re sources on our Avid website www avid com by clicking on the following pop up menus Manual Updates e Support FAOs Register Y Clicking on any of the Web links will open your web browser Your co
90. t is used use caution when moving the cart equipment combination to avoid injury from tip over 13 Unplug this equipment during lightning storms or when unused for long periods of time 14 Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel Servicing is required when the equipment has been damaged in any way Such as power supply cord or plug is damaged liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the equipment the equipment has been exposed to rain or moisture does not operate normally or has been dropped 15 For products that are a Mains powered device The equipment shall not be exposed to dripping or splashing and no objects filled with liquids such as vases shall be placed on the equipment Warning To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock do not expose this equipment to rain or moisture 16 For products containing a lithium battery CAUTION Danger of explosion if battery is incorrectly replaced Replace only with the same or equivalent type 17 The equipment shall be used at a maximum ambient temperature of 40 C Appendix H Compliance Information 81 82 Mbox User Guide A audio digital connections 41 Audio MIDI Setup AMS Macintosh 59 authorizing Pro Tools LE Mac 7 Windows 14 c Cache Size 22 Clean Uninstall Mac 9 Clock Source 24 Internal setting 24 S PDIF digital setting 24 CPU Usage Limit 19 20 D DAE Playback Buffer Size 21 DMA option Windows enabling 27 drive format
91. t starts stops playing back the session Start Stop Record Each time the button is pressed and released it starts stops recording Loop Playback Toggle Each time the button is pressed and released the Loop Playback mode is toggled between enabled and disabled Undo Each time the button is pressed and re leased it undoes that last operation you per formed in Pro Tools Same as the Undo com mand from the Pro Tools menu Save Session Each time the Multi button is pressed and released it saves the session Tap Tempo The Multi button can be tapped to adjust the session tempo Tapping tempo will cause Pro Tools to come out of Conductor mode and match its tempo to the tapped tempo If Pro Tools is already in Manual Tempo mode the session will automatically adjust its tempo to match the value created by the Tap Tempo func tion Press and Hold Options When you click on the Press and Hold list a pop up menu provides access to the following options Soft Button Function Press and Release Start Stop Playback Press and Hold None Add Last Track v Add Selected Track Cursor to Next Marker Cursor to Previous Marker Start Stop Playback Start Stop Record Loop Playback Toggle Undo Save Session None No function is selected in this mode Add Last Track Adds whatever the last track type was that you created in the session Say you have five types of tracks in your session but the most recent track
92. table in order to avoid interrupting playback and recording when working with in strument plug ins Be sure to disable error sup pression when you need to ensure the highest possible audio quality such as for a final mix To enable error suppression 1 Choose Setup Playback Engine 2 Select Host Engine Ignore Errors During Play back Record 3 On Mac you can also select Minimize Additional 1 0 Latency 4 Click OK Error Suppression Options Ignore Errors During Playback Record When the lgnore Errors During Playback Record option is en abled Pro Tools continues to play and record even if the host processing requirements exceed the selected CPU Usage Limit This can result in pops and clicks in the audio but does not stop the transport Minimize Additional 1 0 Latency Mac Only When enabled any additional latency due to suppressing errors during playback and record is minimized to 128 samples Suppressing RTAS er rors requires at least 128 samples of additional buffering on some systems If this option is dis abled the buffer is half the H W Buffer Size or at least 128 samples whichever is greater If you are on an older slower computer you may want to disable this option to avoid adverse perfor mance This option is only available on Mac if the Ignore Errors During Playback Record option is enabled DAE Playback Buffer Size The DAE Playback Buffer Size setting determines the amount of memory DAE al
93. tch Select dialog is populated with patch names and the Patch Name Bank pop up menu appears in the upper left hand corner of the win dow Mode Gara Programs 00 2 I M ee nn Bay brass devo vae Controllero 0 Controner32 CET ary Fres Clincrement Patch Every 3 Sec Cancel Patch name fe E mu Proteus 1 midnam Change Cer j Patch Select dialog with patch names Once patch names have been imported into Pro Tools they are available for that MIDI de vice in all sessions To clear patch names In the Patch Select dialog click Clear and then click Done w MIDI patch name files midnam can be edited in any text editor or you can use third party patch librarian and editor soft ware to create your own custom patch names appendix e Hard Drive Configuration and Maintenance It is recommended that you start with a newly formatted external or secondary internal audio Supported Drive Formats and drive You should also periodically defragment Drive Types your audio drive to ensure continued system performance Drive Formats A Always back up any important data on your Mac Mac systems should use drives formatted drive before formatting it as it will erase all with HFS or HFS file system only data on the drive HES drives are supported as Transfer drives only Avoid Recording to the Windows Windows XP systems should use drives System Drive formatted as NTFS only Recording to y
94. tch names have been imported into Pro Tools they are available for that MIDI de vice in all sessions To clear patch names In the Patch Select dialog click Clear and the click Done w MIDI patch name files midnam can be edited in any text editor or you can use third party patch librarian and editor soft ware to create your own custom patch names appendix d Configuring MIDI Studio Setup Windows Only MIDI Studio Setup Window MIDI Studio Setup The MIDI Studio Setup window is organized MIDI Studio Setup MSS lets you configure the into three sections Interface controls are at the MIDI controllers and sound modules that are top of the window All the currently defined in connected to your system and control the rout struments are displayed in the Instrument Name ing of MIDI data between your MIDI equipment list on the left side of the window A detailed and Pro Tools view of MIDI parameters is shown in the Proper ties section on the right MSS automatically finds MIDI interfaces and lets you specify a custom name for each of the MIDI ports within the MIDI Studio Setup docu renews Comm cem an en JC Er Jon vita ied os ment fn 1 MSS also supports XML based patch file names for storing and importing patch names for your external MIDI devices Entire MIDI Studio Setup configurations created within MSS can be imported and exported MIDI Studio Setup Properties section Appendix
95. than one sam ple at a time Due to variations between com puter hardware and software it is impossible to recommend a single optimum setting for all sys tems It may be necessary to experiment with various settings until you find the best buffer size for your system The goal of setting a buffer size is to reduce it as much as possible without hearing any clicks pops or other glitches If the buffer size is too small the computer will not be able to make all the required audio calculations on time and you will hear pops clicks and stuttering in your au dio streams On the other hand if the buffer size Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel 47 is set too high your computer will process audio without incident but your software will feel sluggish and unresponsive See Hardware Buf fer Size on page 18 To find your system s optimum buffer size set ting begin with a high setting and gradually re duce the size until you begin to hear clicks pops or other audible glitches in your audio Then raise the buffer size setting until these glitches disappear You may need to stop play ing audio any time you change this setting and certain applications will require you to re launch the program before the new buffer size settings become active A This menu only appears on Windows sys tems Most Mac OS X applications allow to change the buffer size from within the au dio application itself Please see your audio app
96. ting Mac 68 Windows 69 drive maintenance 67 drive requirements 3 E Energy Saver Mac turning off 25 F FireWire requirements 68 G gain headphones 32 input 31 H hard drives drive formats 67 FireWire requirements 68 formatting 68 69 formatting Mac 68 IDE ATA requirements 68 maintenance 67 70 optimizing 70 partitioning 69 requirements 3 SCSI requirements 68 space requirements 72 Hardware Buffer Size 18 headphones gain control 32 output 32 33 l 1 O Setup Windows 24 IDE ATA requirements 68 Ignore Errors During Playback Record option 20 indicators peak level 31 32 phantom power 32 USB connection 33 input and output connectors 34 inputs analog 35 digital 34 gain 31 monitoring 33 installing Pro Tools LE Mac 5 Windows 11 installing QuickTime Windows 13 Index 83 J journaling Mac enabling 27 L latency Hardware Buffer Size 18 M Mbox features 1 MIDI connections 42 requirements 2 setup Macintosh 59 setup Windows 63 MIDI Studio Setup MSS Windows 63 Minimize Additional 1 0 Latency option 21 mono switch 33 network cards Windows disabling 29 network connections 74 0 optimizing hard drives 70 outputs Monitor outputs 34 P partitioning hard drives 69 Patch Select dialog Macintosh 62 Windows 66 peak indicators 31 32 phantom power 39 indicator 32 when to use 32 39 Plug In Streaming Buffer 23 Plug In Streaming Buffer Size 22 plugins multi
97. tomized by using the following three con trols Duration This knob controls decay time for the reverbs or delay time for delay and echo Feedback This knob controls the number of re peats for the delay and echo effects It does not affect the reverbs Volume This knob controls the effects output level being sent to the FX Returns Master The Master section is for monitoring the main mixer output This output can be routed to any hardware output Each Stereo Mix includes mas ter section with several controls Stereo Mix Master fader Copy pull on Balance knob Width knob Mute button L Mute button R Swap button Channel Fader Master Fader Adjusts the overall level of the ste reo mix Balance Knob Adjusts the left right balance of the stereo mix double click the knob to return it to center Width Knob Adjusts the width of the stereo im age where fully counter clockwise is mono and fully clockwise is full stereo double click the knob to return it to center Mute Buttons Mutes the left and or right side of the stereo mix Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel 53 Swap ButtonSwaps the stereo image making the left channel play out the Right output and the right channel play out the Left output Link Button Links the FXReturns section and the mute buttons Master Meters Lets you have a visual representa tion of the audio signal being fed to the associ ated hard
98. tware Do not start this procedure with your Mbox connected to your computer To install Pro Tools LE 1 Start Windows logging in with Administrator privileges For details on Administrator privi leges refer to your Windows documentation When the installation is complete you will need to restart your computer 2 Insert the Pro Tools LE Installer disc in your DVD drive and do on of the following e If Windows AutoRun is enabled a mini browser appears Select Install Pro Tools LE to begin your installation e If Windows AutoRun is disabled locate and double click Setup exe on the Installer disc gt Setup exe Setup exe icon Chapter 3 Installing Pro Tools on Windows 11 In Windows 7 and Windows Vista if the User Account Control dialog appears click Allow 3 Follow the on screen instructions to proceed with installation and click Next when prompted 4 To install the complete compliment of Pro Tools software and plug ins leave Pro Tools selected 5 At the Select Features page do one of the fol lowing To install all Pro Tools application files and free plug in suites and associated content leave the default Installation options se lected and click Continue Select or deselect a custom configuration of Installation options see Installation Options on page 13 and click Continue 6 Click Next 7 Click Install 8 When prompted connect the small end of the included
99. ured as described in Formatting an Audio Drive on page 68 To install the demo session 1 Insert the Pro Tools LE Installer disc into your DVD drive 2 On the Pro Tools LE Installer disc locate and open the Additional Files Pro Tools Demo Ses sions Installer folder 3 Double click Install demo session pkg 4 Follow the on screen instructions 5 When prompted select your audio drive as the install location and click Next to begin the installation When installation is complete click Close The demo session can be opened by double clicking the Filtered Dream ptf file located in the Filtered Dream Demo Session folder Uninstalling Pro Tools If you need to uninstall Pro Tools software from your computer use the Uninstaller application To remove Pro Tools from your computer 1 Make sure you are logged in as an Administra tor for the account where Pro Tools is installed For details on Administrator privileges in Mac OS X see your Apple OS X documen tation 2 Go to Applications Digidesign Pro Tools Pro Tools Utilities and double click Uninstall Pro Tools 3 Click Continue to proceed with the uninstall 4 Choose the type of uninstall you want to per form Safe Uninstall Leaves certain plug ins and sys tem files needed for compatibility with some Avid products Use Safe Uninstall if you are us ing an Avid application or preparing to update to a CS customer support release Clean Uninstall Remo
100. urns 7 Duration Feedback volume Effects Hardware Inputs Software Returns The Hardware Inputs section is where the The Software Returns section is where the audio Mic Line and Instrument inputs are monitored coming back from Pro Tools or other audio ap as well as the S PDIF input of Mbox Hardware plication is monitored Software Returns 1 and Inputs 1 2 are the analog inputs and Hardware 2 will be the default stereo output from Inputs 3 4 are the S PDIF input L R Pro Tools Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel Pan The Pan knobs control the position of a chan nel s audio signal in the stereo image of the ste reo mix double click the knob to return pan to center Solo Each Solo button lets audio be monitored for the channel of which it is a part while simultane ously muting all other Hardware Input channels and Software Returns except for those that also have their Solo buttons activated Mute The Mute buttons are used to individually turn off audio monitoring for each channel in the stereo mix Channel Faders The Channel Faders control the monitoring vol ume level of each channel in the stereo mix Channel Labels By default the Channel Labels show the input name of each channel 1 8 except for the Mas ter fader pair which is labeled L R by default Clicking on a Channel Label gives you a cursor allowing you to type in your own custom chan nel name such as guitar vocals
101. ves all Pro Tools files in cluding system files Avid plug ins and MIDI patch names Use Clean Uninstall whenever you are preparing to upgrade or to troubleshoot from a clean system 5 Click Uninstall 6 Enter your Administrator password and click OK 7 Click Finish to close the Installer window Chapter 2 Installing Pro Tools on Mac 9 10 Mbox User Guide Installing Pro Tools on Windows This chapter contains information for Windows systems only If you are installing Pro Tools on a Mac computer see Chapter 2 Installing Pro Tools on Mac Before installing this version of Pro Tools refer to the Read Me information included on the Pro Tools LE Installer disc Installation Overview Installing the Mbox on a Windows computer in cludes the following steps 1 Installing Pro Tools LE and Connecting Your Interface on page 11 2 Launching Pro Tools LE on page 14 3 Configuring your system for improved perfor mance see Chapter 4 Configuring Your Pro Tools System 4 Making audio and MIDI connections to the Mbox see Chapter 6 Making Hardware Con nections for details v The Pro Tools Installer disc includes addi tional software for your system For more in formation see Additional Software on the Pro Tools Installer Disc on page 14 Installing Pro Tools LE and Connecting Your Interface Before connecting your Pro Tools LE interface to the computer you need to install Pro Tools LE sof
102. ware and installers Third Party Applications and Plug Ins Your Pro Tools package also includes free appli cations and plug ins from Avid and selected Avid Third Party developers content subject to change Once you ve completed your Pro Tools installation you can install these separately Installers are located on your Pro Tools LE In staller disc in the Additional Files 3rd Party Content folder Avid Audio Drivers The Avid Audio Drivers are multi client multi channel sound drivers that allow Pro Tools and third party audio programs that support the ASIO Driver or WaveDriver MME DirectX Multimedia Extension standards to record and play back through qualified Pro Tools audio in terfaces For information on configuring settings for your audio interface for use with Pro Tools or other audio applications see Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel For additional information on the Avid Audio Drivers see the Windows Audio Drivers Guide Pro Tools Demo Session The Pro Tools LE Installer disc includes a demo session that you can use to verify that your sys tem is working The demo session for Pro Tool LE is named Filtered Dream A Before installing the demo session to your audio drive make sure the drive is config ured as described in Formatting an Audio Drive on page 68 To install the demo session 1 Insert the Pro Tools LE Installer disc into your DVD drive 2 On the Pro Tools LE
103. ware output pair Stereo Mix Copy Lets you copy the settings of the current stereo mix to one of the other stereo mixes Status Indicators Along the bottom left of the Driver Control Panel are the following status indicators Hardware Connected This tells you the status of the hardware if a properly installed powered on Mbox is con nected to the computer Status indicators Streaming This indicates if audio from a Digital Audio Workstation or a media player such as Pro Tools or Windows Media Player is currently stream ing audio to the Mbox Host Control Enabled If an application such as Pro Tools has control over the Driver Control Panel then Host Con trol Enabled displays 54 Mbox User Guide appendix b Using the Multi Button The Multi button on the front panel of the Mbox can be assigned to easily execute several functions in Pro Tools including but not lim ited to Add Track Start Stop Record Tap Tempo Locating to Next Previous Marker Save Session Mbox Multi button shown You can use the Multi button to do these and other common tasks with a single button in stead of using on screen menu commands By pressing the Multi button two different ways Press and Release Press and Hold you can per form two functions with one button Using the Multi Button In the Hardware Setup dialog Pro Tools lets you set three Multi button parameters for your Mbox using the Mu
104. zes pre fader trols and meters in a vertical window The Verti hardware input and software return metering cal layout was designed for compact operation but does not provide access to the stereo mixers which is convenient if you want to run it along with Pro Tools uses far less screen real estate but provides full functionality Appendix A Using the Driver Control Panel 45 Additional Functions Mbox also features a variety of functions acces sible through pop up menus located at the up per right area of the Control Panel Tuner Setup Flow About Tuner The Tuner activates the tuner function of Mbox You can also access the tuner by pressing the front panel Mono and Dim buttons simultane ously A tuner display will appear in the center of the Driver Control Panel and the front panel input meters will function as tuning indicators as well When tuning from the front panel use the in put meters LED ladders They are red when out of tune and green when in tune 46 Mbox User Guide Setup Setup is where you define the hardware settings of the Mbox For example you can set buffer size sample rate and clock source Think of Setup as a quick way to customize Mbox behav ior Hardware Settings trol Internal External clock not detectec Soft Button Settings Hold Duration 500 ms Use Dim LEDs for Button Off State Driver Control Panel Options Hold Post Fader Meters Post Fader Mix 1 2 FX

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