I have been using the MBox 2 and created some hits for my record company (name not displayed for copyright purposes). It is versatile and comes with a variety of essential tools to get you started including BFD-Lite, Reason Adaped and Ableton Live as well as XPand! which has a good range of sounds.

ProTools is what is used by the pros, and it is an outstanding editing software with clearly defined Mix, and Edit panels which allow a hands-on feel in a digital world.

However it does have a number of setbacks. Firstly, it is appalling at the number of adjustments you have to make to use the software. Disable all effects in your display panel. Adjust the computer for best performance, reduce the graphics quality from 32-bit to 16-bit. You have to disable stand-by and hibernate facilities and it uses lots of the processing power. All anti-virus software must be disabled, and then the buffers must be adjusted...5 months later...mine finally works!!!

But it does WORK! Now, for me, if you are a top engineer in my record company, these problems shouldn't happen - but now that it is usable, I use the MBox 2 on vacation, and it provides a great portable recording studio. I would recommend to use a better mic preamp than the 48V one it provides, however, if you are doing professional recordings with it. Also, BFD can be known to cause some problems, but it works great for me and even though it only comes with a limited number of sounds, free sample CDs work just as great!

With the new MBox 2 coming into the market as we speak, they will have (hopefully) upgraded their product, and added firewire, which provides a much more stable connection than USB 2.0. This may be the reason why some of the bass sound quality is lost - not too much of a problem though as a little EQ can quickly fix this.

All in all, I recommend the MBox 2 to any aspiring producer, as remember, at first - it's the music that matters not the sound quality - make music, make magic, make money - buy better equipment, take it to the next level!