[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?

Some of this was cut/pasted from another forum on another website that only one person replied to. And I believe that because none of my text included Neve, API or Trident, noone thought it was worth thier time to respond.

Here is the gist of what I want to do:

The band I work for has aquired a Mackie MDR 24/96 to record live shows. I modified the direct outs of each channel of a 32 channel Allen & Heath 3300 for pre fader/pre EQ and I am getting good audio onto the Mackie's hard drive. I run 24 channels from the stage and no FX are printed to the MDR. Our problem is mixing down. Taking the A&H and FOH rack out of the truck everytime we want to mix down is a PITA, and makes sound check the next gig that much longer. We want to set up a separate mixdown facility and are looking around for a decent 32 ch analog mixdown board. We would need 24 line inputs for the Mackie MDR and 8 channels for FX returns. Obviuosly we would not need great mic pre amps unless we want to overdub but we could always get a good outboard preamp for that. I was thinking a 24 mono channel digital with TRS line level ins with built in dynamics and FX would fit the bill nicely but cant seem find one with more than 16 mono and 4 stereo(think Yamaha O2R).

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. Meaning I could give the keyboard player a mixminus keyboards so she could work on her parts.

Thank You,
Slidefader