Hi,

Hope I'm in the right thread, newbie here. I'm finally putting some time and money into my home studio after putting it off.

The goal is to have a setup where I can patch into my outboard gear from my PC or Mac, but also have the ability to jam/play without needing a screen (unless I'm wanting to record into my DAW). I plan on recording guitar and vocals with mates and also plan on purchasing more synths, samplers and outboard gear in the future. I'd also like to take some of the gear out for a live performance. Atm I have an apollo twin usb as my main interface for my PC, 1 mic (which I plan on replacing), 3 synths, a digitakt, and an outboard rack reverb unit (which I've never used) and rack compressor (on the way to me atm).

As the apollo is windows only, I have to get another interface that can connect to my mac laptop if need be. I'm not really keen on grabbing another apollo due to the price, but i'd like something as close to my apollo in quality for a decent price. The audient id44 caught my eye as a potential candidate due to what you get for the price, but I'm also wondering...is it a bit overkill?? I'd like to run it in ADAT with my apollo on my PC as I still wanna use my UAD plugins in DSP mode, but would a better route be getting a cheaper interface and a mixer for all my gear?? This leads me to my second question.

If I am to get a mixer, what mixer would best suit this setup? As mentioned previously, I plan on expanding my collection so i'd need a mixer with enough inputs. I'm leaning towards an analog mixer that could potentially colour the sound, so something second hand could work well. I've been looking at the mackie CR1604's and VLZ 1604's for their distortion capabilities but they're all located in the U.S and I'm in Australia so the shipping cost is pretty pricey compared to asking price of the unit. They're also super bulky which isn't an issue, but I do plan on taking the mixer to gigs to use. Don't need anything too flash onboard apart from EQ, maybe the ability to record without a computer connected??? I mainly want it for my hardware, sound colouring, and an some possibly analog summing

Sorry if this post was all over the place. I welcome any and all suggestions/advice. I don't want to spend money on gear I don't need.

Hey, thanks for the response!

I'm in agreeance about the UAD software, I just love their plugins. I would never have chosen the windows only version of the apollo, but it was given to me by a mate and I ain't gonna say no to a free apollo XD.

I had some Presonus when I first started years ago and it broke on me. I'm a little hesitant with Presonus since, but the 1824c seems to have everything I need...just might be a bit out of my price range atm.

I can't find any info on whether you can bypass the iDmixer software coming into your DAW, I'll probably have to do a bit more research on that.

Regarding the mixer, how do you find the CR1604 as your main outboard mixer? Have you had any issues with it?
I know they're old mixers and I know I'm probably gonna have to clean it/do a bit of light servicing myself, but I can see myself driving the board from time to time for sound design purposes. Just worried the circuits are gonna burn out too easily due to their age and I don't wanna pay an arm and a leg in shipping costs on eBay every time I need a new one

I'll probably have to get a seperate mixer I use for my live setups and something like the cr 1604 for my studio.