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Originally Posted by slidefader  Maybe I should backup a bit. Perhaps Post production wouldn't be the correct term for what I am doing. More like mixing down 24 tracks of live recorded material. Same differance?
We want to set up a separate mixdown facility and are looking around for a decent 32 ch analog mixdown board.
As far as analog goes, would a 32 channel mackie 8 bus be ok or a used Soundcraft Ghost? Then,we could just buy whatever outboard that we would need. I can get a b-stock mackie 32 channel 8-bus for around $2600US w/meterbidge and full warrenty.
The recordings would only be used for the band to hear their performances and to work on any mistakes. |
I owned several of the Mackie analog 8-bus mixers and they are crap. They sound OK but the reliability is terrible and repair service or support from Mackie is ZERO. The St Louis Mackie repair center (which shall remain nameless) made one of my failing Mackie 8-bus consoles worse than when I delivered it to them.
Mackie 8-buss mixers are a pain to be shipping out of town for service, I was never sure someone could actually fix them so finally we ditched them and replaced them with 4-bus Yamaha MG3214fx which have been trouble free. I think one of these mixers would work for you based on your description. It has 24 full input channels, 4 stereo input channels and two SPX signal processors built in. There's also some other aux returns so there's lots of places for returning efx. The built in SPX efx sound good and they're always there and ready to use with no patching.
The Yamaha mic pres are ok, the mixers are low noise and relatively light weight. I got them for under $1000 each brand new. I had road cases made for them and they've been trouble free in a year and a half of schlepping them around with bands. I pair the Yamaha up with Alesis HD24XR recorders all the time for mixing live recordings of bands.
I would much rather have a decent analog mixer than any of the first generation digital mixers like the D8b or Ramsa. I have a wiring harness and patchbays that I made so that my 24-track can use the mic preamps of the MG32 for a complete portable 24 track recording setup. I have bands that are mixing their CDs with the tracks we've cut using this so it works for some folks besides me. Personally I like my Grace and API preamps better but that's a lot more money.
Best of luck to you with your recording endeavor.