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?

[albee1952]

I'm sure opinions will vary, so here's mine. No mixer. Pro Tools is quite capable of mixing everything ITB(In The Box) so why add more analog stuff(especially inexpensive stuff) into your signal flow? Now if you want analog summing(another story) then I would be looking at something high-end, but $500 does not buy high-end summing. Now, having said that, maybe what you are REALLY wanting is a control surface? Avid Artist Mix and Artist Control are 2 great controller options(that CAN be used together as well). Maybe if you describe what you want to achieve, we can offer better advice

If you want a controller, Avid Artist
If you want "better" sound, spend the money on some great plugins

[6505smith]

Im looking to record drums and also mix my bands own sound when playing live. Not at all for guitars or vocals haha.

[nst7]

In that case you will be better off just spending the money on an interface that has more inputs for what you need. I would suggest the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. You can still use the Eleven Rack into the Spidf input, so you still have 8 xlr's available.

This will be much better quality because you can record each thing to it's own track. If you need more inputs, get a second unit and hook it up by Adat.