Location Recording on Mac laptop with Protools

[richriehl]

I am interested in building a location recording system on a Mac Powerbook G4, using Protools MBox USB interface. This all works w/o AC power and goes straight to Protools sessions I can hand in on CDROM.

Is anybody doing this? The new DVToolkit adds timecode to Protools LE. Has anybody worked out getting tc out to a smart slate for this setup?

Please let me know what you found. Thanks

[Bondelev]

A CD won't hold much, about an hour of material. You'll probably need to burn a DVD for dailies.

I'm not sure how quiet the inputs are on the MBox. You might want to run some tests.

As for AC, your battery will last about two hours. You'll need AC. And you'll probably want to back up frequently, so you'll need a noisy firewire drive as well.

To generate time code you'll need a steady MIDI interface like a MOTU MTP/AV USB interface.

The MBox uses the internal clock on the Mac. For short takes it will probably be OK, but for ten minute takes you may see drift of a couple of frames.

Your biggest problem will be crashing. Your crew will not want to wait for you to reboot.

[feste]

Anyone using the MOTU 828mkII with a laptop? I would think this solution would work pretty well. The mic pres might be better than the M-Box, and SMPTE timecode is generated on-board, with jam-sync available to the slate/camera(s). Multitrack recording a plus. The bummer would still be AC power requirement. Battery belt perhaps?

http://www.motu.com/