both
the pendulum keeps swinging depending on the project the mood I'm in.

more and more I mix in the box

My setup.

I record from the mics, mic pre's directly into RAdar 24 for Raw recording. ( I use 24 bit, 44) I do all my edits in Radar if needed.

Then I export the files to my computer as bwav format. Import them into Sonar at 24 bit 44.

I do mix inside the box right now, ands again I leave it at 24 bit 44 down to two tracks.

back out to the Radar 24 with the final 2 tracks to burn them as Redbook cd's. The Radar has premiere converters. So I let it do the conversion from 24 to 16 bit. I make sure not to let Sonar do any conversion other than necessary.

Next step for me is an External summing bus...

As it was discussed in GREAT length on the Acoustic Music forum, I don't want to drag out the arguments/conversations. However, there is quite a bit of debate regarding the digital summing bus in DAWs and most who have run the "objective" tests have determined that the summing bus in all DAWs is identical. However, all of the other voodoo that surrounds the mix is not. This can account for the difference in sound from DAW to DAW.

That being said, the summing bus in most any DAW that I'm familiar with is quite accurate. However, you certainly do get different flavors when you come out in analog. Not to mention various levels of conversion.

Personally, I do 99% of my summing in the box. I don't have anything against a great analog summing device, I just don't want to drop the cash on a truly great one. (Most standard mixers just aren't "great" summing buses.)

J.

if it was digital i sum digital, if it was analoge i sum analoge. and i usualy mix down external midi device with an anolouge mixxer