I decided to get some equipment to record my bass at home.
A friend that sings and plays the guitar told me that i should either go with an mbox (mini or mbox2 or even the older mbox1) to use it with protools or get any other interface and use nuendo with it (or any other software). Given that having the industry "standard" is cool for being compatible with studios, i can see there is a price difference and i am not really sure the mboxes are better as products as say the line6 x2 or the m-audio fast track. Of course, they might be, but i dont know anything about them.

Do you have any experience with the above? What would you buy? I dont want to give more than 100-200 euros new or used and i could certainly live with paying less for the same quality, but this is why i am asking this. Of course there is the sticky, but it goes back many years and these kind of products change all the time.

suggestions? :)

not sure with prices in Europe but here's my opinion.

Protool is definitely a great program but it requires some hardware like Mbox to use it and also, you can't run it with windows-based computer. (although there're people who use Mac os on PC I think) In addition, Protool for home recording is usually limited version while most of the studio uses HD which has way more plug-in. it's great with live-recording but midi part is still not there yet compared to other programs like Logic.

Nuendo is also great program and I think you can run it with windows which cost bit less than average cost of Mac.

I guess as long as you en-corporate the gear you already have, it should be alright at least financially.

I have logic in my old powerbook G4 laptop with motu interface and if it's paid job, I might add pre-amp to boost (at least) the signal.

protools runs on windows just fine, at least depending on their own website.. :)

I personally use a presonus Firestudio project and cubase. This is probably a little above your price range it ran me $500 USD (not sure of the conversion rate). I have a few other random presonus products and have been very pleased with the reliability and their tech supports knowledge, only called them once but they fixed my issue rather quickly. About 20 min. including holding for about 5.
Nuendo is the higer end version of cubase. I had a bit of a learning curve with cubase as all I had used previously was adobe audition and Acid Pro. But took the time to read through manuals and help docs and figured it out.

not sure with prices in Europe but here's my opinion.

Protool is definitely a great program but it requires some hardware like Mbox to use it and also, you can't run it with windows-based computer. (although there're people who use Mac os on PC I think) In addition, Protool for home recording is usually limited version while most of the studio uses HD which has way more plug-in. it's great with live-recording but midi part is still not there yet compared to other programs like Logic.

Nuendo is also great program and I think you can run it with windows which cost bit less than average cost of Mac.

I guess as long as you en-corporate the gear you already have, it should be alright at least financially.

I have logic in my old powerbook G4 laptop with motu interface and if it's paid job, I might add pre-amp to boost (at least) the signal.


Let me add to/correct the statements above. ProTools, both the HD and LE versions, runs on both Mac and PC and has for at least 10 years.

ProTools LE (the home version to use with Mbox, 003, etc) is limited to 48 tracks. Most plugins are available as both TDM (HD) or RTAS (LE) and if using RTAS, the limitation is your computer power. Most new computers (Mac or PC) have tons of power and can easily run all the plugins you want. Another difference, the RTAS plugins are often cheaper than their TDM equivalent. The studios (using HD) only have more plugins because they bought them.

I have not used other programs so I can't comment on them. There is some advantage to using and learning the "industry standard" program; however, there is a premium ($$) there.

Later
Rob

Presonus Audiobox or Firebox. Comes with Cubase LE. $150.
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/PreSonus-AudioBox-USB?sku=243007

This is what I use, and even with an older PC (1.5 Ghz, 1 GB RAM) I don't experience any latency.

I decided to get some equipment to record my bass at home.
A friend that sings and plays the guitar told me that i should either go with an mbox (mini or mbox2 or even the older mbox1) to use it with protools or get any other interface and use nuendo with it (or any other software). Given that having the industry "standard" is cool for being compatible with studios, i can see there is a price difference and i am not really sure the mboxes are better as products as say the line6 x2 or the m-audio fast track. Of course, they might be, but i dont know anything about them.

Do you have any experience with the above? What would you buy? I dont want to give more than 100-200 euros new or used and i could certainly live with paying less for the same quality, but this is why i am asking this. Of course there is the sticky, but it goes back many years and these kind of products change all the time.

suggestions? :)

You're not going to get a legal copy of Nuendo, much less the hardware to run it, for less than 100-200 euros.

Any new M-Audio product will run, or possibly ship with, M-powered Pro Tools, which will help you learn enough about DAWs to make a better informed decision.

Were I in your shoes, I'd buy any Presonus recording interface, use the included software, and start reading up on how other programs work.

I could recommend anything from Cakewalk Home Studio (which is a great program for project studios, and cheap, but PC based) to Audacity (which is free, PC based) to Garage Band full version (cheap, unreliable, Mac based) to Logic Express, to PT HD 8, a Pyramix system that requires you to renovate your house, whatever. Until you know recording basics, how you like to work, and the fundamental similarities or differences of different programs and platforms, you're not going to be able to make an informed decision. Until you dive in and do it, you won't know what you want. It's like trying to pick the perfect bass for you before you've ever played a note.

So buy what you can afford, learn to use it, upgrade if you want when you can. Don't sweat it. When you learn more, you'll know better what you want. More and more software and hardware are getting to the point that the question isn't, "which is better," it's "how do I like to work?" and only you can answer that.

Also, don't worry about studio compatibility in this price range; any program can import your .wav file, and if you're working with an HD-equipped studio, you're not likely to want to record with an mbox when their stuff is available.

a big +1 for the above, and I'll reinforce what I think are the most important points!

do not worry about compatibility! if you are flying around recording projects at different studio's its very nice to use a common format, but at home recording its not a worry. if you ever want to take a project to a nice studio to finish off, or want to start a project (for drums for example) at a studio then take it home then it will take all of 20 minutes to make the files compatible on any workstation.

nuendo is very pricey, way out of your price range, you will get everything you need from its little brother cubase.

quality wise all the cheaper interfaces are roughly the same, ins and outs wise ditto. there is a little variation but not enough to stress hugely about, choose a program you like the look of an interface you can afford.

pro tools' midi is pretty good these days, if you want to add midi to your projects later pro tools will do just fine, and just to re-affirm the points made above pro tools is NOT mac only!