M MINI BOX 2 USB KAAPELIN KERA

M MINI BOX 2 USB KAAPELIN KERA

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Digidesign M Box 2 Mini

USB Audio Interface [Mac OS X/Windows]

• Audio Interfaces

By Mike Thornton

Published February 2007

Digidesign have shrunk the M Box to give us the most compact and affordable Pro Tools interface ever.

Pro Tools in your pocket? Well, not quite, but the latest addition to Digidesign's M Box range is by far the smallest yet. If portability, or indeed affordability, is important to you in a Pro Tools system, the M Box 2 Mini could well be perfect for you. In essence a smaller, cut-down version of the standard M Box 2, the Mini has much in common with the larger model. Let's take a look at what has gone and see what has survived Digidesign's shrinking process.

First Impressions

With the smaller unit comes a smaller shipping box, and there isn't room for the usual printed Quickstart guide; instead, there are just two pieces of A4 paper that have been folded into four to fit in the box (this gives you an idea of just how small the M Box 2 Mini is). The first has a few notes on registration, installation and so on, and the second is headed 'Quick Start', but is just labelled 'page one' and refers to pages from what I can only assume is the Quick Start PDF guide on the installation disc, although this isn't made clear.

When I took the M Box 2 Mini out of the box I noticed that it rattled, which is never a good sign. On closer examination I discovered that this was because the printed circuit board at the front of the unit is not anchored to the case, so the knobs and headphone socket are able to move within their holes. This is a bit of a weak point in the design, and it concerns me that at some point in the future it could become a source of unreliability.

Digidesign haven't cut down the software bundle included with the M Box 2 Mini, so you get the full Pro Tools LE software package together with Reason Adapted, Live Lite Digidesign Edition, BFD Lite, Sampletank 2 SE, Amplitude LE, T-Racks EQ, Melodyne Uno Essential, seven Bomb Factory plug-ins and the 39 Digirack plug-ins, as well as the Method One Pro Tools training DVD (you can read my review of this DVD in the Pro Tools column in the October 2006 edition of SOS).

However, with the unit being much smaller (measuring 12.7 x 4.4 x 15.2cm WxHxD) there are inevitably features that haven't survived the cuts to make the M Box 2 into the M Box 2 Mini. These include fixed line-level outputs, and digital and MIDI I/O. There's also only one mic preamp, and there are no input level or overload indicators on the interface.