Mbox 2 pro and playback

[Ernieballer]

This might be such a dumb question that nobody has ever asked it or never been addressed on a manufacturers website.

I'm thinking of getting an Mbox 2 pro and I have a IBM Thinkpad T43 1.86ghz Pentium M and a gig of ram. I dont know what sound card is in my laptop but it is probably not all that good.

What I wan't to do:
I would love to record my guitarist and I at home and also be able to record my bass tracks without having to use up studio time. Our drummer works in a studio so we get to use it for free but we keep getting kicked out by paying bands.

My question:
Can I send the mixed signal, click tracks, or whatever, back into the M Box 2 pro via the firewire? I dont have much connectivity left on this laptop and the pcmcia card slot is going to be used for a firewire card so I can't get an external sound card. I would like to use the monitor outs to run a pair of powered studio monitors.

Given it will do this, will the latency be too much to listen and record back onto the tracks using firewire (through pcmcia cardbus)?

How about the m-audio stuff that uses M-powered protools? I heard the LE version that comes with the mbox is very limited.

Can the mbox2pro go midi in, add sounds to the keyboard via laptop, and back out to an amp in real time for live applications?

I see the mb2p has two firewire connections, can it record directly to a external hardrive without going through a computer?

Any suggestion of other interfaces and recording solutions that can utilize protools in some form would be greatly appreciated also.

Thanks

Michael

[hyperlitem]

IM confused by some of your questions. Your trying to like sync 2 sound cards but when you have an mbox the mbox is your soundcard. All the things u mentioned are done directly on the mbox. You can hook up your speakers and subs directly to it. The difference between pro tools HD and LE are very minor. I work on a computer with HD and i have LE at my house. THe differences are in the converters mostly, and number or tracks. LE only lets you playback 32 tracks, which is pretty hard to run out of for most stuff. If your going to be doing alot of orchestras, then maybe the HD route is for you. Just the core card for HD runs you at lest $15,000. THat doesnt include inputs or any sort of tactile interface. THe mbox is ultimately software driven, therefore it cannot be used without a computer. Actually the Firewire cable is what powers it. The mbox sounds pretty ideal for what you are wanting to do it sounds like. Its great for guitar overdubs or live recordings.