External Soundcard For Use Wuth Ableton Live

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badgermanify

New member
Hi, I'm looking to get an external soundcard/audio interface for around £150.
Someone has recommended the Mbox 2 (from ebay) but I'm not sure whether to go with this as I hear Mbox2 works best with Pro Tools and I currently use Ableton Live 7.
I have a midi keyboard and am getting a controller which will be going through the interface.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Badgermanify
 
The software doesn't really dictate the interface choice - it's more about what you're planning to hook up in it. The Mboxes were indeed designed to be used with PT - especially as versions prior to 9 *needed* a Digidesign/Avid interface to run the software (thus doubling as an elaborate copy protection dongle), but they also work with other programs. Why would the controller run through the interface, btw?
 
Thanks for replying. I haven't bought a controller yet but thought I might need to plug it into the interface.
So do you think the Mbox2 would be a good choice as I'll only be plugging a midi keyboard into it?

Cheers
 
Well, I guess they're ok as far as decent-enough interfaces go - not exactly better or worse than other similarly-priced interfaces, though. Pretty much everything is kinda ok within the price range of yours, so I guess it comes down to selecting the exact feature set that suits your needs - the audio quality is more or less the same with each (which means it's pretty good and certainly good enough for amateur productions). And of course, it makes sense to look through some forums to see if there are some model-specific problems associated with whatever you end up choosing. I changed from a Motu Ultralite (a bit older model, though), which was a bit problematic, to a no-frills Echo Audiofire 4, which is rock-solid and does everything I need right now.

The market is very saturated right now, but as said, most of the stuff works as advertised as long as your system isn't totally f*cked up and the interface's drivers work fine (which is usually the kind of stuff that can be found through forum-reading and googling around).

As for MIDI controllers, most of them just work via USB these days (so having regular MIDI connections on the interface isn't as essential as it used to be, unless you're planning to use some external gear that requires this).
 
I use the M-Audio Firewire Solo at one of my studios. I've had it for 6 years, and it has never let me down :) Btw, I mix on Ableton as well.
 
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