Preamps or mixer?

[Frost]

Ive been doing 2 main types of remote gigs recently. Either bring a recorder (mackie sdr) and take everything off the boards direct outs, and take a few tracks of room mics from my api or john hardy preamps, or some bigger gigs have just given me a split and I provide preamps. When I just bring a lot of preamps, Im flying blind and I cant monitor until I get home and throw it into protools. Sometimes I have been bringing a board (mix wiz to get enough preamps and do quick checks of tracks.

Im thinking of buying some 8 channel buckets (either the ati 8x2, or the studio projects versions with mixer so I can monitor my tracks) or just buying a board, which might serve double duty doing some live gigs as well. I dont have a budget, but this should either be cheap or something that will serve me well in a lot of audio situations. Digital boards are ok with me too, but I dont see any with direct outputs or 24 adat or similar sends.

What should I look into?

Soundcraft gb2? ABP? Ive even looked at a manley 16/2 and a ramsa 24 channel. I didnt see as much use for the manley outside live recording.


Thanks
Frost

[Remoteness]

Frost,

This has been discussed a number of times on this board.

Try the popular tag search engine.

"preamplifier" & "board console desk" tags have a few threads discussing exactly what you want to know.