I love the BiG SiX, and I love that it has EQs on all channels, compressor on the four mono channels, plus the Bus compressor. It goes a looong way to be able to tweak each track to the whole before even committing to recording.
That said here is a couple of things worth mentioning:
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The EQs, in my experience, is excellent tracking EQs, and boosting highs and lows can really bring out air, definition, and crucial low end to make things gel better, or stand out more. The peak/shelf options actually add versatility to the EQs as advertised. Having EQs on all stereo channels is also the most addictive thing when tracking, and it’s super hard going back to the SiX
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The mid EQ bands are so broad they are nearly useless. The mids just sound like they are boosting/cutting overall volume, and it’s almost impossible to sculpt sound with them. This is my experience, and I don’t want to argue. If someone have use of the mids, please chip in.
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I therefore don’t see the BiG SiX as a mixer to get close to a final mix, but rather getting your recording in a shape where it is easier to apply tweaks with software channel strips, etc. before sending it out for summing again. The USB sound card integration has some quirks, but it is bananas easy to work with.
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Compressor is good, and jamming with it on means you often start tracking once you’ve used EQ and compression to shape the sound into something that sounds good already, and just needs tweaks (and perhaps a song structure, lol)
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You still need to master after summing to two track.