Chris,
I agree with your observation. Every time the "Wow, I can finally afford it!" deal come along it's a sure sign the product is at the end of it's marketing life. I understand your quandary. "I want a mixer that looks cool…." ,Ooooh factor, outboard processing all of that and more. But I have to say IMO it is a big waste of money. All stand alone digital equipment, at some point, will be worthless. Product life is often less than 5 years. I have a stack of perfectly good working ( more or less ) ADATS that hold the door open very well, thank you. A large format console isn't the answer either, unless you are a tech, they are way to expensive to maintain. What's a guy to do? DAW's are powerful enough now to use native and there are a lot of inexpensive control surfaces and small monitor mixers. If you must spend dough , do something like the Inwards Connections thing. Spend that 10k on front end. Pres, comps, good monitor system, stuff like that. Buy computers that you won't mind using for internet in 2 years. (PC'S). Buy decent converters but don't break the bank. These too, will be wheel blocks in a few short years. Use moderately priced software (PT LE , Cubase). Yeah, all of this doesn't sound as good as an SSL or a Neve with Soundscape or Pro Tools or 2" but neither does the Yamaha or the Mackie or most of the records I hear on the radio. There are some Digital Consoles that sound pretty good but they won't be worth anything in 5 years. If you can live with that, more power to you but I submit that you can do the same work in DAW and use the cash to buy the nice pres, eq's comps and monitoring amps. All that stuff will be usable for years and if you need to cash out you will get some return on your investment. ………..Fats

Thanks Fats,
Can you point me in the right direction as far as inexpensive control surfaces and small monitor mixers are concerned. And funny you should mention what you did, because a firend of mine is looking to get rid of his PIII 450 with a Yamaha DSP factury card in it. So I might just pick that up instead of the Mackie or Yamaha, and spend my money on something like pres and monitors. thanks again.

Chris,
Control surfaces are interdependent upon what recording software your using. I like the Mackie Control and I really like the Baby HUI. I'm hoping they make the Baby HUI Cubase compatible (I guess it's more a matter of Cubase being Mackie compatible). A Mackie 1604 or SR24 would be an excellent choice for a monitor mixer. The SR 24 has 6 real dedicated aux sends on each channel that may be used all at once. But really anything that works is ok. Your never going to mix or pass signal to disk through it so if it can give you the C/R and phone mix's you need that all it has to do.
API, Neve 1073 and 1081 (not 1272's) and the new 9098's are all great mic pres. API, Neve and Pultec EQ's are IMO the best, the API's and Neves being better for tracking and mixing and Pultecs for mixing and mastering. Of course there's lots of other great Eq's and mic pres but these are the best.
For limiters and compressors I prefer Legacy UREI El Op and FET's. LA2a, LA3, 1176 and LA4's. The Manley EL OP is also a nice comp. You also need some VCA based comps around like a dynamite or a DBX 160's. All that Fatso and Distressor stuff, I don't like. A lot of market hype and distortion. Get that and some nice mics and you'll be kickin' major butt! You will be able to track stuff that will stand up to any major studio. ..............Fats

Thanks again Fats, you are really helping me sort out this sea of information. Just as an FYI I will be using Logic Audio Platinum. Can you give me an idea of that type of controller that would work best here.

Thanks
Chris

The Mackie Controller looks sweet, as does the baby HUI, but the baby HUI does not have a jog wheel, which I use *all* the time on my TASCAM US-428. I doubt I could live without it. In addition, the baby HUI does not have the track name LEDs, which with Cubase SX, is a huge plus since SX doesn't number the tracks any more, and it is hard to figure out which fader is for which track...

Just my 2 cents...

Well I am assuming the Baby HUI is capable of some degree of scrolling and scrubbing by using the play / ffwd - rew and play / stop buttons. I can keep the track assignments documented on track sheets and with write tape on the SR24 monitor board. Plus I only have a small space to accommodate a controller so it 's the Baby HUI or the CM Automations one. I'm leaning towards the Mackie because aesthetically it will fit and match the appearance of the SR24. It would look really cool, sort of like a mini SSL albeit it sounds sh#tty. But that doesn't matter it's just for monitor routing. It all will depend on if Cubase adopts the Mackie controller protocol in their next update.

DH,
After reading your post a few more times (uh,...duh..) I decided to take a look at the Tascam online http://www.tascam.com/products/us428/index.php and you know, it looks pretty freakin' good! It's cheaper too and it works with my software. They're bundling it with a cheapo version of Cubasis but they're offering a 50% off upgrade to full blown Cubase. It adds an additional 24 bit analog stereo out for monitors and it's designed by Frontier so I know it's compatible with my Montana sound card!....Your right, this is a good one. Is there any lag or latency on the faders when you mix?
Thanks, Fats :c: