Pro Tools question
 

Ok, I really did look for a Pro Tools thread already, but couldn't find one.

I know practically nothing about this program, but I'm trying to help my husband out since he's having some problems with it, and I though, what better place to come than trusty MB. Anyway, I will try to be as detailed as possible, since I don't know what information will be needed to help.

A few weeks ago, we bought a Protools Mbox 2 mini, which came with ProTools LE. Loaded it on the computer and everything seemed to be working fine.

Then my husband decided to by the ProTools M Audio Key Studio keyboard. Loaded the USB drivers from the disc that came with it, and the computer was still saying we needed to download the "Key Studio" driver, which apparently was not on the disc. And so everytime we would restart the computer, it would see new hardware and ask to find the driver, but of course it wasn't finding it on the disc. So I went to the ProTools website and downloaded a driver. The new hardware/driver needed message stopped appearing, but now we can't get the keyboard to interact with the Pro Tools program. :\ The keyboard came with another software disc, but my husband didn't want to load it onto the computer for fear of messing up the existing version, if that makes sense.

So, my question is: Has anyone run into a similar problem? Any ideas on what we might be doing wrong, or how we can get it to work? We've been on the website and read the manuals, so either the information isn't there or we're just not understanding it (the latter is quite possible). If you need more information to be able to try and help, I'd be glad to give you what I can.

Thanks in advance!!

I had both the Pro Tools M-box and the M-Audio keystation 49. I loaded all the drivers directly from the disc, no interwebz involved, and everything worked fine. The fact that I have a Mac may play into that though.

Well, it looks like we may just end up uninstalling and reinstalling, though I was hoping to avoid that. Then we'll go from there and hopefully it'll work out whatever the issue was. Here's hoping...

When you re-install, make sure to leave the keyboard unplugged from the computer before installing the software and drivers, then plug the keyboard in after the installation is complete.
I'm not sure if that's the issue, but I do notice that it's a step that's pointed out in a lot of manuals for hardware installations that require separate software driver installations.

Also...
I'm not sure about Pro-Tools, but I know that when I make hardware changes with Sonar, I have to re-scan for compatible devices in the music program itself in order for them to register and associate correctly, so after your re-installation of the hardware and drivers, see if there's a way to do that in Pro-Tools.

If that doesn't sort you out, let us know.
:)

Thanks! I was kinda hoping you'd be the one to see this thread. I'll definitely try everything you've suggested and see how it goes. Will let ya know...thanks again!

How is the m-box mini? I was thinking of investing in one, as I get a 40% discount of everything protools.

I can't honestly tell you, as I'm not the one who uses it. But it seems to be working pretty well for my husband and what he's trying to accomplish with it.

Well...it turns out that even though my husband has Protools, and the keyboard was a Protools brand keyboard, the simple answer was that it just wasn't compatible with the software he had. There are tons of keyboards that are...that just isn't one of them. And he and I were just that slow not to realize it.

We felt kinda silly of course, but we gave it back to Best Buy and got our money back, so it's all good.

Thanks for you help anyhow!

Yeah that's the problem with Protools, it's all too protected. I'd say a Nuendo is better, specially for a songwriter.

you can buy packages that come with condenser mics/compatible hardware/other plugins

my mbox mini works fine, and even though i bought protools 7 they let me upgrade to 8 for free. i did learn how to use a little of it in uni though, so maybe that's why i'm having a good time with it.