I was hoping if some of you guys could recommend a few decent mixers that would work well with a 16 track recorder?
I was thinking of of either the Tascam M320, or a Tascam 520. But, it seems like the 520 has 8 busses, and the M320 only has 4 busses. I wonder if the additional 4 busses make much of a difference, especially since I usually recorder direct anyway.
I have an MSR-16 (16 track, 1/2"), and the mixer I use is a Tascam M-2516. That mixer has automatic an muting capability, which can be pretty helpful sometimes, and 8 busses. I almost always use the direct outs though.
In hindsight, I wish I had more channels to give me more flexibility during mixdown. If I had the opportunity (and the space), I'd have gone for the Tascam M-2524, which has 8 busses and 24 channels.
I use a couple of TASCAM M312B cascaded together to form a 24 x 24 x 4 x 2 mixer with my TASCAM MS-16, one inch deck which is one model older then the ATR60-16 but quite similar in many respects.
The 300 series does offer direct outs so if you did need more then the 4 busses, there's still more then enough flexibility in the design of that series to work effectively with a 16 track deck.
Keep in mind though that decks like the ATR60-16 are balanced, +4db only decks where the MS-16 and MSR16 decks can run with unbalanced, -10db connections. The MS-16 can run either way, balanced or unbalanced.
The 300 series mixers do offer balanced, +4db outs on the stereo and recording busses but the direct outs are unbalanced so, keep all that in mind when choosing as that will effect your wiring needs and options.
