Thanks B2 for checking out my site. No, I really never considered a digital recorder, the reason is that the computer based recorders are so easy to upgrade and are a lot more powerful depending on what kind of software and hardware you are using. You can upgrade the software, get bigger hard drive, add more RAM, add a faster burner. I guess it is a matter of preference and budget too.

I normally record dry audio tracks into cakewalk (no effecs), then I apply effects during mixdown, either with in cakewalk, or from my mixer, what ever sounds good.

The reason behind using an outboard mixer is that it is really easy with all the knobs and faders etc... again it is a matter of preference, you should be able to achieve the same results directly within the PC as well. Same thing with the mixdowns, you really don't need an out board deck to do mixdowns, computer is just as good. I like to do a few different versions of my mixes on re-writable cds before I decide to keep the one that I really like and then send that one to PC for further processing.