Totally, I'm sorry for not doing that before. I am re-reading the manual of the M3500 now as well. I appreciate the help and input.
To add more context so this thread may be helpful for others down the line, the project studio is a single room (multi purpose recording and mixing) 15x19 with a 9 foot a frame ceiling. The console is placed in the ideal mix position and proper acoustic absorption/diffusion has all been set. I’m waiting on a GRS PSU for the M3500 so I haven’t actually fired her up yet. The main repro device is a Tascam MSR 16S.
I write songs on guitar, and I’ll use a DAW for the freedom of arranging, but after a song is set to where I’m ready to really record, I switch to tape. My thinking (although I haven’t used all this gear in this scenario yet) is along these lines:
-Edrums (with real cymbals) to a scratch track from the DAW on my Tascam 388
-Bounce 6 tracks of drums to an Otari MX 5050 4 track and add bass and a scratch vocal there. I could use the M3500 at this point, but it’s not really necessary
-Take these 4 channels and put them to tape via the M3500/MSR16, leaving me with 12 open tracks to build
-I plan to use the Roland RV-70 for guitar reverbs and the Lexicon PCM 90 for drums at this point, so I’d like a “Bus or Group or Send” (I don’t know what you call it) for each. Both are stereo ins/outs
-The Korg SD-3000 is a stereo delay with input/output attn so it can connect to the console. I’d like to have this available to try for both drums and guitars
-The Fulltone Tape echo is really a guitar pedal, but people use them like space echos, and that is how I plan to. It is a single channel input. I have a Little Labs Redeye Reamp/Splitter/DI so I can put that in front of it for line level signals if people think it’s necessary (HERE IS AN AREA WHERE I CAN USE DIRECT ADVICE IF OTHER OWNERS READ)
-The LA-4A and Disstressor are well known single channel compressors. I’d like to have the freedom to have these available for any of the 16-channels
-Finally, as I said before, I think the 7720 (which is a stereo SSL bus compressor clone) and Warm Audio EQPA’s should live on the stereo out because they are basically my mastering chain
Let me know if I’m missing anything