In short
This is a long story, so I'm gonna make it short
depending on you music DAW or ANALOG,
DAW--digital would be better
LIVE/BAND/ -- analog would be better suited
UPS & DOWNS
Digital -- you can save eq's, flying faders for adjustments, recall
I/O of adat or spdif, is a plus for burning CD or transfer of tracks
smaller than analog, usually 8 digital 8 analog on a digital board
built in eq's and effects
downside - if you have never messed with a digital mixer it can
seem pretty damn confusing, you must adjust eq's settings to get that warm analog, which can be tedious
Analog - plain out straight and simple, you get a 8 channel mixer
you have 8 input and 8 ouputs, sometimes 3 eq HI/LO/MID/
best used with live instrumentation for that warm genuine sound,
easy to use, nothing hard about it.
downside - no eccentric eq's, hiss quality to recording medium -unless you have a denoiser, cant save mix, must buy tons of effects to pass through the inserts to touch up sound, many wires (just think 16, 24, 32 channel mixer) into the mixer then out of the mixer whewww! but that's it good luck