Ok, this time I hope my message comes through.

It depends on your workflow. How will you use the mixer?
Is it only for basic routing from your instruments to your audio interface (creating submixes if you haven't got enough inputs), or routing back to a recorder?

Or will you really use the mixer full fledged in the mixdown : mixing your tunes analog instead of in the sequencer app (like each track gets it's own mixer channel).

If it's the first method you don't need as much AD/DA i/o's as you have mixer channels... 8 i/o's will usually do. On the other hand, if you want to do your mix the analog way, yes you'll need the full load (and for good quality convertors, you'll pay big time).

Another method that's pretty much used is digital multitrack recorders though (good ones are from Mackie, Alesis or Tascam). You could transfer your tracks from your sequencer to the recorder (usually 24 tracks per recorder, there are units that have more, but again, big bux) digitally (usually through ADAT). And then your recorder is connected with it's analog outputs to the mixer, so you can mix (actually a 24 track approach is quite nice, you still leave 8 channels on your mixer for effect returning. You get more control returning an effect on a channel than on a dedicated return).

Of course for best versatility I always recommend a patchbay. If you're dealing with big studio's (which you obviously intend, judging by all your questions) a patchbay is necessary, otherwise you'll spend half of the time behind your gear recabling...

thanks for the info and whats a patchboy

i plan to have a 32 channel mixer 5 synths and a few rack effects

i guess i need each channel dedicated or in groups so im gonna get 16 channels for now

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Top 5:
1. R-Tem - Voiceless
2. New Order - Jetstream (Tom Neville Remix)
3. Pillow One - Ministry Of Love
4. Pulser - Point of Impact (Mike Koglin Remix)
5. Armin Van Buuren - Shivers (Christian Webber Mix)

Not a patchboy lol, a patchbay.

It's basically a central piece where all your cabling comes in and out. It's really essential in a big studio with lot's of gear. You connect all your gear to this patchbay, and then you can easily connect the inputs/outputs you need together with the help of patchcables. A regular patchbay has two rows of connectors, the upper row are used for the inputs of your gear, the lower for the outputs.

And some make it even simpler.

You can make a distinction between non-normalled, half-normalled and normalled.

Non-normalled : you need to make a connection to get the signal from one point to another.

Normalled : logical connections are made automatically (you don't need to patch anything for the signal to get to it's destination). Should you want to patch the output to another destination, then the normalled connection will break as soon as you insert a patchcable.

Half-normalled : same as normalled, except the connection doesn't get broken. In other words you can split signals.

Easy explanation with pics : http://www.digitalprosound.com/2001.../proj_stud3.htm

There exist different sorts of patchbays. Of course the balanced ones are best as you can also unbalanced stuff to it with the right cables.

Behringer makes a patchbay, neutrik makes one, etc... Here's a pic of a Neutrik one

I heard Apogee DAC yesterday at Guitar Center, DA16 I believe it was, the difference between it and the built in MAudio delta 1010 was astounding.

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Business is very food.

Yeah, Apogee is already a class higher.

But if you want to hear the best of the best, take a listen to Prism or Weiss AD/DA's. Especially the latter is astoundishing. Not much people have heard this one, but once they did, they'll never claim anymore that digital sound is harsh/cold/whatever the say digital sound is.

Then again, your wallet may not like those at all.

i will basically be purchasing
comp:2 GB Ram/ AMD 64-Fx-51/GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB/80 GB , Koutech FIREWIRE PCI Card , Samsung 21' 213T-Black Display x 2, Mackie HR824 Studio Monitors x2,RME HDSP 9652,Steinberg Midex 8,Universal Audio UAD-1 v.3 x 2,TCE PowerCore Firewire,Midas Venice 320,RME Audio ADI-8 PRO x 2

and 5 synths...and a preamp and a mic in the future how many in/outs patchbay would i need u think? 24, 48? 15?

___________________

Top 5:
1. R-Tem - Voiceless
2. New Order - Jetstream (Tom Neville Remix)
3. Pillow One - Ministry Of Love
4. Pulser - Point of Impact (Mike Koglin Remix)
5. Armin Van Buuren - Shivers (Christian Webber Mix)

Usually one per input/output (including auxes, inserts, effects, monitoring, ...). You could also include digital interconnections, but it's preferable to keep those dedicated.