Hi all!

I am about to start a home recording studio and need a mixer and an audio interface in order to get started. I have thought about different combinations and since I am on a budget I have to try get the price tag low but spend in quality gear.

I thought about buying the Mackie Onyx 1640 mixer with optional firewire card and get 16 channels at 96KHz/24-bit, but since you cannot record in surround sound in an easy way with it and because of its strange direct output connectors I chose to leave that alternative.

Then I got a nice suggestion of buying the digital mixer Tascam DM24 that now has fallen in price and use the 24 ins/outs optional audio interface with it to get 14 channels at 96KHz/24-bit. But when I started thinking about this alternative I was not sure about the quality I'll get, mostly because of the PC drivers and latency.

That left me focusing on a good audio interface with low latency, like the RME Fireface 800 and buying a quiet mixer to use with it. I have thought about the Behringer MX9000 analog mixer because of its capabilities feature wise(24 inputs, 8 buses duplicated, 24 direct outs) however I'm not sure about its sound quality. I have bad experiences with Behringer and I heard a guy that told me to go Mackie if I go for something like the RME Fireface 800.

So I'm now thinking about the Mackie 1604-VLZ Pro analog 16 channel mixer and RME Fireface 800 sound card. The Mackie has 4 sub outs and 8 direct outs and microphone amplifiers on every channel, so I should by able to record quite in a flexible way by using the 4 sub outs in combination with the direct outs and be able to record crisp clean and quiet. Recording in surround sound is possible, but I can only use 6 channels on the RME when I do it, because they take up 4 sub outs and 2 direct outs so I have 6 direct outs left for the 5.1 speakers. To be able to record all 8 channels I need to use the main outs as well and that is extra work. This is why I am not quite sure about the Mackie yet.

Do you think I am going in the right direction? Please help me decide.

[This message has been edited by YamahaAndy (edited 03-07-2005).]

[This message has been edited by YamahaAndy (edited 03-07-2005).]