there was an article in electronic musician a couple months ago talking about this. they tested analog summing out of a computer in 3 budget ranges:
they used a behringer mixer, a mackie onyx i believe, and a dangerous 2. surprinsgly all 3 sounded awesome, with MINOR differences in sound width and upper mids or something. so using a dangerous 2 would work, and probably improve your sound. whether its worth the big price tag is debateable.

overlookfran wrote:there was an article in electronic musician a couple months ago talking about this. they tested analog summing out of a computer in 3 budget ranges:
they used a behringer mixer, a mackie onyx i believe, and a dangerous 2. surprinsgly all 3 sounded awesome, with MINOR differences in sound width and upper mids or something. so using a dangerous 2 would work, and probably improve your sound. whether its worth the big price tag is debateable.

Thats actually quite interesting I would have thought mixing through anything but a really decent mixer would suck ass.

There is still a school of thought that the additional AD/DA conversions incurred would bugger the sound up more than just mixing within software.

agreed. i only like to do 2 conversions at most, if at all.

I'm looking to get a Ghost but am unsure of how to best route it. I'd like to keep AD/DA conversions as low as possible but at the moment I'm looking at at least 3. Going from the desk into the PC, coming back out to mix, then going back in while being processed with some outboard gear.

I too am wondering if it's better just to get some nice pre's then get an okay board to mix it like that or if the EQ's on the Ghost are really worth the £2900 price tag.

the API mixer/summing solutions are REALLY great, and much cheaper than buying a big console that sounds very similar. i worked on one about a month ago for mixing a rock record and it sounded phenominal.

http://apiaudio.com/dsm.html

One thing you can do with a console that I couldn't do without. Recording two (or more) mics on to one track.

Running the outputs of your digital system lets you use the eq on your desk, it also lets you insert hardware outboard devices without having to sort out delays caused by the DA/AD conversion. The actual user interface (a console) is better suited for how my brain works. I'm much more comfortable working on a desk. I'd dare say anyone would agree with this.

I would bet that the eq on your ghost (even the mackie...) sounds better than the eq of your best plugin. Try it.