Midas M32

Lastly at the top of the console we will find a USB recorder slot which will allow us to record and playback uncompressed stereo wave files. It could ...

I'd pass at 800. Out of curiosity and literally 15 seconds of searching reverb I found a studio use only Midas m32 with free shipping for 800 bucks just to find a dollar for dollar comparison. Someone else mentioned one of the new smaller rack mount digital mixers controlled by a computer or tablet for the same amount of money and you should see if that could work for your needs.

I've never had any problem getting enough level out of them, with any preamp, either built into a mixing console (most recently DiGiCo SD8, Avid Profile and Midas M32) or any of the interfaces I have here at home (MOTU 828 mk 2, Mackie ProFX10v3, A&H Zed-I 10). Last time I used them at home was with the A&H to record my kid speaking voice-overs for a school project. Plenty of gain.

I recomend a mixer to help get students familar with one regardless if they go into live, studio or just a side hobby at home. When listing channel counts here, I only included physical XLR inputs on the unit, so a "40ch" board with only 32 XLR inputs is a practically speaking 32ch board to me. Assuming no budget restrictions I'd go for the MIDAS M32, a 32 channel mixer for $3999 US.

I was looking at the 32s as well as the Midas M32 and ended up going Midas after talking to some local engineers. There's more flexibility, more peripherals (stage boxes, monitor mixers, etc) and it can take a Dante upgrade when we get there. Idk if this still holds, but the M32 was 2k off at Sweetwater, making it only marginally more expensive than the Presonus option.

When I bought it any other equivalent 18in/18out interface was easily double the price...for the same price, you could get half the inputs but then most of those would only output a L-R chanel and not individual tracks... Now that I have it I am super happy I bought it. It's been super convenient for gig'ing with my band. The wifi feature is super convenient to set up monitors and dial in a live PA sound. An extra bonus is it's essentially the same mixer most of the venues/churches around here have, the Behringer x32 or Midas M32, so when we play those venues the sound dudes are already familiar with the interface.

Everything of theirs is completely reliant on Dante chips which has put them on a ridiculous backorder. They are also thousands of dollars more expensive than they should be given their features. Any church, short of giant 500+ cap rooms, can save a ton of money by going to a Behringer X32 or Midas M32, Allen & Heath QU, or Allen & Heath SQ system. Additionally, if you are still on an old school basic analog mixer, there are probably other things that could use an upgrade as well.

you basically get 16 channels with preamps, a mixer that lets you set up monitoring for everybody very fast and convenient, and a 32 channel audiointerface. note: if you want headphone mixes, you need an headphone amp as well (~100 bucks). something like a Behringer xr18 (of midas mr18) is in between these solutions. these are 16 channel mixers with included interface and enough outputs for headphone monitoring, but you have to controll them via a laptop or tablet.