I have a Digidesign Mbox. I also have Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. According to what I am reading online, Digidesign does not like to support their own products, and as such, there is currently no Win7 64-bit support.
Sad day.
I was reading over on Digidesign’s forum and a user Nick Tovirg provided some useful details.
During the day I’m a staff engineer in a recording studio, and I also do some work (friends..personal) at home when my ears aren’t too tired..
and I can tell you one thing, the digi/avid drivers, Asio, CoreAudio or even proprietary (DAE) have always been a real mess.
Just do a search on here or Gearslutz, you’ll see all the topics (“DAE errors”..”why can’t I get a lower latency with LE” “Mbox/Cubase lots of pops and clicks”) there are thousand of threads about it.
First off, they give you the choice between 512 and 1024 samples for buffers, it’s like ….a joke. (for the original mbox anyway)
Most modern interfaces can go down to 64 or even 32..
Second they always caused all sort of drop out and CPU peaks.
Which is why I (and all the mbox users who where “in the know”) replaced these digi drivers with alternative low-latency USB drivers (developped by Propagamma) back in 2006, and never looked back.(for other apps than pro tools)
I think now they are developped by a company called ploytec. same drivers though.
Extremely stable, low on CPU and down to 64 samples, which means low latency.
The DIGI/AVID drivers have never been working “reliably” for me.
These ones are. Iv’e been working with Reaper, the old Mbox, under OS 10.6. since Snow Leopard has been launched, without a problem.
…might not be “supported” or “endorsed by”, but they allow professional consistent reliable work.
And the icing on the cake : they are constantly updated with new OS, so no problems with W7 or SL.
You can find the drivers mentioned on USB-Audio’s website.
Alright, so for now, I’m just trying to get audio through my Mbox1 into Adobe Soundbooth. I’ve succeeded using the USB-Audio ASIO driver/software.
Update 04/29/2013:
Christopher in the comments requested the driver file. I’m not sure which it is, but here are some that may do the trick:
Link1: http://speedy.sh/3Dx7u/Digidesign-Audio-Drivers-70.zip
Link2: http://speedy.sh/DvzhQ/Digidesign-Audio-Drivers-70-28953-mbox-windows-XP-driver.zip
Link3: http://speedy.sh/vnuWy/Mbox-Drivers-v1019-69347-For-Pro-Tools-9-and-Pro-Tools-LE-8.0.4.zip
Link 1 and 2 may be the exact same thing, i’m not sure.
Thank you. I noticed there are no comments, but seriously, this showed up on a google search and I really appreciate it.
I just got an old used Mbox, and I was wrestling with the archaic protools LE to no avail. Now I can run it with Reaper, which is what I was using in the first place! Thanks!
comment by David — June 6, 2012 @ 2:14 pm
Glad you found it useful, that was one if the main reasons for my making this post.
comment by Stephen — June 6, 2012 @ 3:23 pm
Outstanding post – answered my long sought after question of what to do with my old M-box… thank you for taking the time.
comment by Jeffrey — November 17, 2012 @ 1:07 pm
You’re welcome!
comment by Stephen — November 17, 2012 @ 4:50 pm
I’ve been searching all morning for a way to get my MBox original to work on win7. Finally a solution! Can’t get the PT LE that came with it to work, but at least my PC recognizes the MBox now! gonna try out this reaper program. thanks a million!!!
comment by Jeff — January 28, 2013 @ 9:39 am
is there a way to get around the beeping every 30 seconds without a license key?
comment by Jeff — January 30, 2013 @ 9:34 am
Hey there Jeff,
I never ran into a beeping. I don’t have any suggestions for you. but if you find a solution let me know and i’ll add it to this post and credit you.
comment by Stephen — February 8, 2013 @ 10:14 am
So does this driver work with the Digi001? It says the mbox on the site , but I’m wondering if its the same driver
comment by George — February 12, 2013 @ 12:51 am
Que puedo hacer para quitar el bep cada 30 seg
comment by Omar — March 14, 2013 @ 6:26 am
hi stephen,
if you could upload the drivers you were able to get working, that would be greatly appreciated. i’ve had no luck myself getting the mbox working on windows 7.
all the best,
christopher
comment by christopher — April 28, 2013 @ 3:06 pm
George: I am not sure if it works with Digi001. I only ever tried getting things working with the mbox (aka mbox1)
Omar: I’m not sure what you are saying, but i assume it is the beep every 30 seconds…and i’m not sure what to do about that.
Christopher: I’ve found some links for the drivers and included it in my main post. It has been so long since i’ve dealt with this (i dont use my mbox anymore) i’m not 100% sure which driver it is. But check out the ones i’ve uploaded and hopefully one of them does the trick.
comment by Stephen — April 29, 2013 @ 5:13 pm
Thanks to this thread and a few others, I am finally using my old mbox1 with Reaper on a Win7 laptop. The driver can be found at usb-audio.com and the trial version beeps. Once the driver fee is paid the beeping stops.
Still using mbox2/PTLE 8.0. with XP for mixing, etc. but this will probably be the end of the ProTools upgrade cycle for me.
comment by Gene — May 5, 2013 @ 8:00 am
Hey Gene, I’m glad you found this page/info useful. And thank you for contributing additional insight and information on it.
comment by Stephen — May 5, 2013 @ 7:29 pm