Would it be completely silly to...

[SHIRK]

...move out of the box and get a small format mixing desk?

I've been engineering since the early 90's. Started out noodling on my home SAWplus PC setup with a small Mackie board. After moving to NYC, I gathered most of my skills doing jingle work on a NED Direct-To-Disk/Synclavier setup feeding 16 out to a Mackie 8bus. (Ugh!!) When the studio I was working at finally forked over for a PT's Mix3, I went "In" the box and never turned back. Now I'm running my own room in Chicago producing artists as well as doing some composition and sound design for commercial projects. My system is solid:

PT HD3 on a Mac g5 Dual 2.5Ghz
192 i/o (16in / 8out) - Apogee Rosetta 800 - Big Ben - Mackie Control Universal

Great River MP2NV - Pendulum MDP1 - DBX 786 - Neotek Series 1E (2 channels) - True Precision 8 - Joe Meek VC1Q

Distressor - FATSO - DBX 160SL

ADAM S3A's

I've got enough gear to get great sounds, and I get em. I just feel like it takes so much longer to get things happening at mix time when I'm working in the box. I absolutely love incorporating my outboard gear at mix time. Something about turning knobs (especially for EQ) just gets it happening faster. I'd love to have the ability to try some analog summing as well. (not trying to start an ITB out of the Box debate)

Lately, I've been pondering the idea of getting into some kind of small format mixer like a 16-24 Trk Neotek or MCI or something like that.

I realize:
- I'll have to deal with frequent maintenance.
- Recall will become a MUCH bigger deal.
- People with no experience in the studio will go "cool...nice board".

What are some other drawbacks that I'm not thinking of? Anybody made this move and been happy with it...or wish they hadn't?

I'm not looking to open my room to the public like a commercial facility...so attracting other engineers/producers isn't really a big deal.
Sometimes I just have to slap myself and say, "Stop being such a gearslut...be happy with what you got and make music!!!"


Think it would be worth making the adjustment in workflow, recallability and studio space?

[Kiwiburger]

For tweaking eq's, there are numerous USB knob or slider devices. You could even gut one and mount it into a rack box with really large, cool looking knobs.

The grass is always greener, blah blah, woof woof ... but in this case, I really don't think that it is.