I picked up a Soundtracs MRX 32 thats almost 19 years old 6 months ago for $1750 plus shipping($700 through Craters and Freighters). Definetly a worthwhile board but its coming to the end of its life span so im already looking for a new mixer unfortnely. I could send it in for refurbish but i dont want to spend the cash on it. What i have been looking at is a used Soundcraft Ghost which from what I hear is an amazing board and great for a good rock sound. An original Ghost(non streamlined LE version meaning it has the mute automation and such) can been found going for around 3 grand to 5 grand. I found one going for 3300 if you want a link but the only downside is it has a few missing nuts and blots on the rear pannel(doesn't effect the performance but may effect shipping) and it has one noisy channel that may cause problems.
But what I've recently discoverd and over the past few days have been researching as much as possible is the new Trident ATB mixer. It was designed my Malcolm Toft and is being released by Toft Audio Designs. It comes in the 16, 24 and 32 channel designs and from everyone I've talked to is a fantastic mixer. It has the EQ circuit based on the Trident 80B series and the Pre Amps and summing buss of the MTA 980 series. The only downside about this is the price range. The 32 channel will be $6000 upon release and I talked to Alan Hyatt (I believe he was a co-designer in the deal and has been taking care of the shippment of the pilot program models) yesterday who said that the board is hopefully going to launch around April. Though they are currently in a pilot program where they released 100 units to those who applied and they are just finishing getting them shipped out. Those who have gotten them and used them find them fantastic.
You can find a bit of info about the Trident at the Toft website:
http://www.toftaudiodesigns.com/atb.html
You can find the brochure for the Ghost at the Soundcraft website:
http://www.soundcraft.com/product_sheet.asp?product_id=27
(just a not the original Ghost is no longer in production, the LE streamlined version is but the original has a handful more features and whatnot)
Also if you are interested in something like an older Soundtracs Board I highly recomend trying to find one of the MR or
MRX series they are beautiful, if only mine where in a bit better condition but fortunetly I didn't spend too much on it... Hope some of this helped and wasn't jsut the same crap you've heard before.
Good luck man,
Kyle
