Of course, my question is why do you need 5 Mboxes? If you are 
recording 2 inputs at a time, you would only need one Mbox. Also, I'm 
not sure how you would hook all the mboxes up (5) if you did need more 
than 2 inputs?

The good news about using ProTools MBox is that your radio producer 
will be able to open your sessions easily. This is a real plus. 
Converting formats can be a real pain.

Best,

Alyssa.

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull 
his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you 
understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send 
signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that 
there is no cat."
On 19-Mar-06, at 1:21 PM, andy Kolovos wrote:

> Folks,
>
> I apologize for a somewhat off topic post.  The Vermont Folklife 
> Center is
> poised to begin a Youth Documentary Radio project.  Our original intent
> was to use Pro Tools LE as our editing software (via Mbox2 hardware), 
> but
> funding concerns (ample resources for administrative and staff 
> expenses,
> little for actual gear) have made the purchase of 5 Mbox2 units (at 
> around
> $450 each) unlikely.  Our radio producer works with Pro Tools LE pretty
> much exclusively--with an exception being Audacity, which we've used in
> several of our training seminars.  I'm hoping--with the wide range of
> audio experience out there on this list--to receive some suggestions 
> for
> multitrack audio editing software up to the task of creating 5 to 10
> minute audio documentaries on the Mac platform that falls in the $75 to
> $300 price range.
>
> Audacity continues to be an option, but the stable version--and those 
> of
> you who have worked with it probably agree--is wonderful for some 
> stuff,
> but for complex editing tasks leaves much to be desired.  The current 
> beta
> release holds promise, but as far as I know isn't really up to snuff 
> yet.
>
> In my survey of this stuff, I've turned up the following contenders:
>
> Garage Band ($80), Bias Deck LE ($100), DSP-Quattro ($150) and Mackie
> Tracktion 2 ($150).
>
> Any insight into these programs for this application, and any thoughts 
> on
> other options will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> andy
>
> --
> Andy Kolovos
> Archivist/Folklorist
> Vermont Folklife Center
> www.vermontfolklifecenter.org
> akolovos @ vermontfolklifecenter.org
>