VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

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Pro Tools no longer requires hardware. You can now run ProTools 9 with non Digi/Avid interfaces from companies like Apogee.

Today I installed ProTools 9 intending to use my CEntrance Mic Port Pro as the audio interface. It didn't go as smoothly as I hoped it would, but once I finally got ProTools to recognize it, it ran all day like a champ. Looking forward to traveling without a confounded MBox.

If there's any interest, I'll post the workaround I figured out that got ProTools to finally talk to the Mic Port Pro, 'cause I couldn't find ANY information about this combination after searching the DUC, CEntrance forums, Gearslutz, etc...
_________________
Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com

[DougVox]

Jeff,

I'd love to hear the workaround you came up with...the lighter my travel rig, the better!

Thanks for offering!
_________________
Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com

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here's how I got ProTools 9 to recognize
my Mic Port Pro on my Mac Book Pro:


Fire up ProTools9 using your Mac's internal I/O.

After it's up and running, plug in the Mic Port Pro.

Under "Hardware" click "Launch Setup A"
"Audio Midi Setup" should be running, click "Show Audio Window".
You should see a Pro Tool Aggregate Window. Click to enable both Built In Input and Output, and both CEntrance Mic Port Pros

Here's where I'm not sure what will happen.
Back in ProTools, look under "setup" click "I/O" and create a new path on your input, hopefully you'll see "3" as an option, that should be your Mic Port. Once you do this you should be able to enable the MicPort as a ProTools input.

If you can't enable input 3 - then quit ProTools, unplug the mic port, and relaunch. Try again: fire up ProTools, then plug in the MicPort. A dialog should come up saying something to the effect of: "Your Inputs Have Changed, Save and Relaunch?" Hit yes. Mine does this twice. Upon relaunch, input 3 should be active.

Back to the Audio Midi Setup: Make sure you enable the Mic Port as your clock source.

Once you've done all this, ProTools should play nice all day with your MicPortPro. BUT once you quit ProTools, you'll have to do all that confounded jiggering all over again. Every time.

One thing that's really nice about the new ProTools Aggregate thing is you can run several interfaces at once. Mix and match. No idea how it all flows clock-wise, but I can record on my Mic Port and play it back on my MacBook speakers.

Still setting up my road rig.. using "Nectar" from Izotope to process the feed from the Mic Port, hoping to replicate all the outboard gear I'd usually carry. So far I like it a lot.

Hope this helps !
_________________
Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com

[ricevoice]

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Izotope has a fully functional demo of Nectar, no harm to give it a try. Its a $199 promo price for another week or so.

I liked it right away, gives you every tool you'd need as a VO: gate, eq, compressor, de-ess, limiter, saturator, and more. It's clean, intuitive, powerful, and while this tool gives you the rope it's hard to hang yourself. My favorite was using the EQ. While you talk, you can see your EQ curve, see where you might have problems and tweak.
_________________
Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com

[ricevoice]

Very cool, I'll check it out.... thanks Jeff!
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Chris Rice - Noisemaker
www.ricevoice.com

[verbcrunch]

One more comment on the Mic Port Pro as a ProTools interface: it was really glitchy. Had to quit and relaunch ProTools several times. Use it if you must, but most other interfaces will likely behave much better (ie Apogee Uno)

Hope this all helps..
_________________
Jeff Berlin
Humble Voice Guy
http://www.jeffberlin.com