Why would you need MIDI on this console if you weren't intending to use it with a computer? If you are, then purchase a $10 USB MIDI dongle and your DAW will have full MIDI capabilities. This new console is basically a watered down DM Series with Portastudio recording functionality. For $999 that's pretty darn cool. With today's power, stability and affordability of computers and the user friendliness of DAW software, I don't understand why anyone would want to limit themselves with an archaic all-in-one recording device.
I completely get what you mean. You make good points and I agree with you. However, there are reasons why I refuse to go that route.
Frankly, the main reason is because I'm an old fart that doesn't trust DAW software on a PC, lol. I've used real Pultecs, LA-2s, a closet of U-67s, and a beautiful API console with the side car monitor desk. I cannot mix with a mouse and keyboard - I need knobs and faders. Layers irritate me too.
I produced a few sessions with a Thai band in Taipei, and the studio used Cubebase. I have never felt so disconnected in my life. There was no console whatsoever. It was one of the most frustrating.... No it was THE most frustrating studio experience I've ever had. Every single little thing I needed the engineer to do took significantly longer to do, because he used a mouse, and the moves were so imprecise it was actual pitiful. Normally, I engineer my own sessions, and not being able to just reach for the knob I wanted to turn was ridiculous. Language issues aside (neither the band or the engineer spoke English), it took hours to cut tracks that I could have done in Boston on the API and the Studer in minutes. Would have sounded better too.
That being said, if I would buy a control surface for a DAW, it would just irritate me. I'd rather have an API vision console. If I was going to do that, I'd Dante/MADI to a multitrack digital machine. I have a Soundcraft Ghost at my disposal, gathering dust because I don't want to use it with a DAW. I also don't want to spend the effort interfacing the Ghost with a digital recorder, because that gets me no advantages, really, over tracking with the DP-32. I cannot beat the ease of use and sheer speed of laying tracks on the DP-32.
I can get tracks on the DP-32 that rival anything I did back in the US when I was producing. But, I have no intention of
mixing anything on the DP-32. I'm going to get my tunes mixed in a real mixing room on a proper desk with actual effects and not digital recreations of them.
So, I'm only cutting tracks and not mixing, or mastering. The DP-32 is very fast, clean and reliable, even more than those 2" tape machines. It's perfect for what I'm doing.
Thanks.