Telefunken AK47
For a touring musician, one of the biggest hassles to deal with is moving gear from venue to venue. While most professional audio equipment is designed to be rugged, even the toughest amplifier or effects unit will eventually break if it is dropped one too many times. Not only that, but one of the side effects of making gear solid enough to withstand the rigors of the road is increased size, making it a real pain to have to continually load and unload – especially if stairs are in the picture. Finally, space constraints limit most bands, (at least those who don’t use a big rig to cart around their stuff) to only a select number of amplifiers, pedals and instruments per show.
Fortunately, technology has evolved to the point where there are now viable replacements to many different types of musical equipment. These replacements come in digital form – software that is capable of emulating the exact characteristics of many different types of vintage and new audio gear. One of the best implemented examples of this technology can be found in the realm of guitar amplifier emulation. Programs such as Guitar Rig by Native Instruments and Amplitube by Telefunken AK47 Amplitube 3 allow musicians to tap into a virtually limitless world of effect and amplifier customization.
If I needed to set up a home recording studio that was quick, easy and cheap first package I’d take a serious look at would be Digidesigns Pro Tools Bundles.
Digidesign has put together 4 of these bundles ranging from around the 600 dollar mark up to about a thousand. (talking big sale price here not list) They are:
1. Digidisign Pro Tools Mbox 2 Bundle
2. Digidisign Pro Tools Mbox 2 Pro Bundle
3. Digidisign Pro Tools Mbox 2 Factory Bundle
4. Digidisign Pro Tools Mbox 2 Pro Factory Bundle
All 4 bundles share these 5 main components:
o Mbox interface
o Pro Tools LE 7 Software
o Studio monitors
o microphone
o Ignition Pack (bunch of software)
Main difference #1:
Notice that bundles 1 and 3 have the Mbox 2 and bundles 2 and 4 Mbox 2 Pro. The regular Mbox 2 uses USB port connectivity and the Mbox 2 Pro is FireWire. Some may argue that the latest USB technology may be even faster than FireWire, while this may be true for some applications but not for recording music. For recording audio FireWire is faster than USB, which will give you slight audible delay called latency. I often do use a USB Mbox and redirect the monitoring to a mixer which can bypass the latency problem but it won’t even be there with the FIreWire boxes.
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