If the idea is to go DAWless, why need anything to control a daw?
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well, as the title of the thread suggests, some people are looking to go more DAWless rather than totally DAWless (an English teacher may have some criticism here, but I thin we all get the meaning).
I can see a few reasons. In my case, I may want to overdub on a jam I just did, or record several takes and edit between them to get a finished track, or use the DAW just as an FX rack so I donāt have to buy a ton of FX boxes and then have to get an even bigger mixer.
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A mackie 1627VLZ4 has tons of routing possibilities. I love it for that.
Allen and Heath are a bit more durable and sound better to me, less routing options unless you get a giant one.
The Midas would be incredible but starting to get over budget.
Some DJ mixers are really nice, but pricy too.
The soundcraft to feel too cheap.
The single usb out on current mixers within your budget donāt work well or sound great.
Havenāt tried the Tascam, heard semi good things.
If you just need the DAW to record stereo outs, thereās plenty of simple quality sound cards. The old Audio 8 DJs sound good, so does the iRigDUO PRO or even a zoom recorder.
Again I like the Mackie because of the price and flexibility. You can plug EVERYTHING in and route it to anywhere else.
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Yeah all true. I think Iām settling for the Tascam 12, itās got MIDI/front end analogue. Will just have to route AR to L/R channels, or maybe subgroup individual AR outs USB to Mac, mix AR with APC. Synths all direct to Tascam will be loads better either way.
Just for tweaking and post mixing really. Iām not one of those die hard analogue freaks, I love plenty plug ins, just want that bit more variety, a break from Live and the APC, the gear Iāve got sounds better holding itās signal bypassing the 8i8, from what Iāve looked at, Tascam 12 seems best in that price range, unless you can point me towards a better one?
Yeah Iāve been looking at that Mackie, might decide on that alongside APC for DAW yet, all the controls are right there on the Mackie, tough brick too.
I like that you can figure out your way of working with it, and generally keep everything plugged in. No need for constantly reworking stuff. Be teen the Sub Outs, Cue outs, and 4 sends, thereās a lot of room to route things all over.
Ideally Iād get the same size Allen and Heath if it had Sub Outs. The A&H RWS sound goooood.
I just chose flexibility over RWS I liked better.
The Midas seemed ideal. Maybe one day I swap out for one of those.
I keep eyeballing the DB4 or the A&H Xone 464.
Oh yeah I keeps forgetting, the mix wizard has sub outs. Thatās probably the best of them actually. Same flexibility as the mackie, just built better, sound a little better.
I forget why I passed on the mix wizard, maybe price? IDK
Iām still amazed no one has released a proper mixer for synth enthusiasts, thatās not like traditional mixers for ābandsā
Roland sort of did, but that thing seems ugh, so modern Roland 
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I made the mistake of checking out Floating Points rig earlier today, saw his Sonosax SXST and thought yeah that looks decent, I found a used one on reverb, 8 channels, 8 fakkin grand used?!:
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Never heard of that. Looks cool af.
I kinda got less audiophile over time. I realized most of my favorite music/tracks are actually quite messy mix wise, with the exception if Aphex Syro.
I like all my signals going in to be pretty clean and beefy, but then muck them up with EQ, a Strymon Deco, and RNC
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Iām not sure what the availability is like where you are, but keep a look out for an Allen and Heath Mixwizard 20:8:2, theyāre like the ideal compact mixer for synth setups.
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!!
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Beautifully hand made by all accounts, meh - Iām not a boutique, just want fat strong gear to throw around hehe, all the best continuing to muck up the clean beef! Iāve just ordered a Raster v2 to chop things up a bit, yeah the Deco is a beast
Thanks, I was looking yāknow, layout is perfect, tbh all the decent mixwizards were out of my price range (canāt bring myself to pay more than Ā£500 for a mixer), I spotted this but the channels were a bit short, most were fat Ā£1500+ ones from US, plus customs, toooo much.
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