I ve been a proponent of minimalist use of DAWs as part of a hybrid recording setup for a while now. To me, a big part of doing that successfully is having a computer that s dedicated to the recording setup. There s no need in that case to have the latest and greatest computer or DAW software, no constant updating and patching, etc. Something older that runs solidly is perfectly suitable.In my own experience, the last setup I worked with regularly (2-3 years ago) involved doing exactly this. The computer was a Power Mac G5 with 6GB of RAM running OSX 10.4. DAW was PTHD 7.4. It had 24 channels of I/O. 24 tracks in the DAW were each routed to one of the 24 DA outputs which in turn were patched into the tape returns on a Soundcraft Ghost. Drums were on board channel strips with direct outs patched into AD inputs, and everything else was on external pres patched into AD as well. All the DAW was used for was the transport, for easy punching in and out (just highlight the desired section and the software takes care of the rest) and as a virtual patchbay to route AD inputs to tracks in the DAW. Everything else was handled externally. It was a super efficient workflow and always ran without a hitch, despite everything associated with the DAW being at least a decade old.Honestly, the biggest drawback to a setup like this as I see it is that nobody makes records on big analog consoles and outboard anymore, so finding interfaces with higher channel counts (16+) of I/O means either using legacy equipment or buying expensive œpro caliber gear. Unless somebody knows of something in the prosumer market with a bunch of I/O and none of the unnecessary bells and whistles (hi-Z inputs, headphone amps, mic preamps, etc).

If i'm not mistaken, my friends in the great, but often overlooked, band The M's recorded (maybe every record they did) a bunch of stuff on an AKAI DPS 24 digital recorder, and their records sound great. We also recorded the Skunkape tapes on that machine, and I like that too. You can probably get one for nothing these days. I've thought about it.as far as being DAW (Digital) Free. Yeah... thats a thing people do. it involves a trade off of problems. A tape machine is expensive and takes maintenance. A good computer is expensive and takes maintenance, and can be used exactly like a tape machine if you like that work flow. I see a lot of people getting frustrated with computer recording because they want multi thousand dollar results with their OTC $500 Dell laptop just because they bought a $2000 UAD input device. A proper recording CPU (Mac or PC... really doesn't matter... NO REALLY) costs a bit of scratch... pay less, that's fine... its great... you can still get a lot done, but you are going to have issues. You're always going to have issues, Analogue, or Digital. If you want a problemless process, you picked the wrong thing to spend time on.

Not sure those are made for doing any kind of overdubbing at all. Just live capture of multiple tracks in one go.

Even though I have no idea how to do it, I am under the impression/have been told that my RME UFX Fireface will function as a do-it-all device so long as I have a thumb drive hooked to it for the memory. I have never bothered with TotalMix (RME's DAW(?)). And any time I have tried, it's been confusing and cumbersome. But yeah, in theory, you control everything on the front of the box and then run everything else in and record to the USB stick. I should see if I can give it a whirl sometime, but I'm also thinking, eventually the tracks would have to be dumped out and mixed. If not in TotalMix then PT or Logic or whatever.Have been trying to find more info on standalone, all-in-one deals. Apparently the Tascam has some cons in terms of bouncing tracks, not a lot of AUX send/headphone capabilities and apparently, even though they say so, it really isn't built to do mix downs, just tracking. But I'll bet you could do a mix down if you didn't want to get crazy picky. But who knows?