Mbox Vs. The Rest Of The Usb World, guidance for powerbook recording set up Options

[tgwj]

I have a g4 powerbook 867 Mhz, 384 mb RAM, running 10.2.8. After some investigation, I've narrowed my choices down to two, for money, quality and reliability: getting an M-Audio Duo and Logic Audio Big Box or getting the Digidesign M-box. (roughly $500 for either) I'm wondering if there's any major differences between the two set-ups (hardware or software advantages, etc.) and also if anyone has any recommendations or warnings for me on my set up in general.

I'll be doing some recording with a mixer probably or just using the 2 inputs for mics, etc. I recognize the limitations of USB but I need good software more than inputs/outputs right now. Maybe I'll upgrade to FireWire sometime. Thanks for your advice!

[Presto]

PT Free (is it still around?) used to be the only hardware-independant version of PT.

You can use the mbox without PT if you want to use its D/A converter for output from the mac. In that case you have to adjust the volume on whatever software you're using.