My Mackie is junk. It is a 32 channel 8 bus analog, but nothing works on it anymore and to fix it, I have to spend $2500. I'm looking to just replace it. I just got back from a show my brother played, and I talked to the sound guy there. He was using a SoundTracs 24 channel board. He said for live rock bands, get a Behringer because rock bands will break stuff. I think he has a point. For recording, he said Allen & Heath. I'm looking to do live sound and record. I really never needed 32 channels, but I like to know I have them incase the need for them arises. I do mostly rock, metal, and punk. Should I just get a 16 channel Behringer? For recording, I use the Aardvark Q10. It has 8 inputs, so the last couple of times I needed it, I didn't need a mixer. What's a good studio board, and should I worry about 40/32/24 channels?