I have purchased BAIB megapak and looking or an interface...I was thinking of purchasing the presonus audiobox usb...
http://www.presonus.com/products/detail.aspx?productid=53 any comments are appreciated...thanks
I'm currently using a PreSonus Firestudio Mobile on a PC. If you're on a PC, you'll need to have a compatible Firewire Card to go along with your PreSonus device. You'll get great audio, but you have to futz with it a bit to get it to work properly with Band in a Box. When Band in a Box and the PreSonus Universal Controller are loaded, they can get into an argument over which settings your Audiobox should have.
FWIW, It's definitely worth upgrading to Firewire instead of USB. You get a multitude of analog ins, 3 pair of DAW ins, a S/PDIF stereo in and 3 pair of audio outs on a Firestudio Mobile. Your Audiobox will provide even more. It's also possible to daisy chain PreSonus devices together through Firewire so you can easily grow your possibilities do live recordings with a multitude of direct to digital audio.
When you're ready to transfer your Band in a Box tracks into a DAW, the included Studio One Artist Two is phenomenal.
Whoops. Just looked up the specs on the Audiobox. It's USB. Your setup will be alot more straight forward, but you don't get nearly the power that you'll get if you can switch to Firewire for a few bucks more.
USB is running neck and neck with FireWire interface these days. Especially the newer USB3, if available, but even the good old USB2 has been able to do the job for sound interfaces, even with multiple inputs (M-Audio USB is one known to work and play well with pgmusic products for the most part).
Also, not all FireWire implementation is equal, if the machine doesn't have the right FireWire chipset in it, the chosen FireWire sound device may not even operate at all. This has been a problem, well documented on forums all over the web, people who did not get, for example the TI Texas Instrument chipset then find out the hard way that they can't use the sound device they purchased. USB, on the other hand, is fairly universal in that regard. Speeds are no longer an issue either. Even with USB2.
There was a time when I'd recommend FireWire as being a better alternative to USB for this purpose, but time and technology have marched right on past that now. So I wouldn't sweat that issue anymore.
--Mac
Hey Mac,
Nice to see you on the boards. I definitely agree with Mac's post. USB3 is a definite suggestion, or alternatively matching the blessed Firewire chipset on your PC to your interface. It pays to read the documentation for your new audio interface *before* you buy anything! I wound up buying a $25 card to plug into my PCMCIA slot to make PreSonus FireStudio Mobile behave (i.e. no clicks, pops or glitches). Luckily, it only cost me $25 bucks to fix a problem I was having between BiaB and the FireStudio. It could have been alot worse and involved returning merchandise and continued debugging. Your debug time is worth something. You have to figure out the kind of recording you're going to do in the future and plan accordingly. If it's just you and Band in a Box, you'll be okay with a USB2 interface. If you're trying to do more (i.e. recording more than 2 inputs, etc.) you'll need to explore more capable USB2 interfaces and/or Firewire.