I will start by saying that I am not big on mixers, they were a necessity at one point and are now little more than an anachronism. I still use them, but mostly it is for taking line level signals from a large number of synthesizers and being able to buss them to a D/A converter, or for midi playback purposes. If my studio was bringing in more money I would have every line level signal I own with its own D/A converter like some of my more successful friends. Most of the people I work with do not use a mixer at all, signals go straight to a pro tools IO and some thing like a D8 or mackie Control or Pro Control gives real time access to signal levels etc in software. For better input control and mic pre’s, in my humble studio I use dedicated recording channels of my own or what I can borrow rent etc. I think DAW’s offer far greater control of mixing than can be achieved with an analog mixer. Get a decent computer DAW with some good deal software. I think Cakewalk has the most for the money, decent signal tools and some soft synths. No I am not plugging Sonar I use SX but I think it is a bargain compared to buying a Mac and running Logic or doing the Steinberg thing. SX gives you nothing in the way of usable processing software, so you have to pony up more cash for plug ins. Finally spend real money on speakers, no more than 2 ways unless you are having a room built by an audio engineer with diffusion and absorption taken into account. Low freq standing waves will mess with any good mix you try for. Watch out for people with thousands of dollars in equipment playing through $300 speakers. Why NS10M’s the lurkers ask, readying up another flame load. For the same reason we used to have a single auratone in the middle of the console (mono crap reproduction) we wanted to be able to imitate the shite stereo most people had at home during the 70’s. Triton……… have you ever tried to cut something with a Swiss army knife. Not bad but never enough, the problem with one trick ponies. Yes most people have one because clients find it familiar, I never found familiar exciting. Give me a moog modular, or something made by waldorf any day. Wow I ran on a bit.
