suggestions on mixers

[6505smith]

hey guys.
very very new to this, just picked up my eleven rack with pro tools 11 and was wondering what would be the best route in the mixer world. my budget is in the $500 area but im always willing to drop more for overall better quality. Ive heard Mackie and yamaha make good mixers but thats as much as ive heard. Im so new I dont even know what the difference is between analog or digital mixers. The only one ive ever seen in action was a digi product and I liked that everytime you opened up your project the mixer automactically adjusted all the levels to what you had it saved at..thats a plus in my eyes. Any help out there?