In my bedroom studio I didn't have a mixer, everything just went through a DMP3, Rane EQ, and compressor (very light), then into a 1010LT.
Now that I'm in a new studio, I've got everything coming in off the snake going into the MX9000 and taking at 8 sub outs to the iO|26, with a compressor and reverb unit on inserts. The owner doesn't really know anything about... anything... so he won't put out the cash for any external pres, more compressors, good EQs, or anything, so I basically have to use a lot of what's in the console and a few nice plugins.