Audiowave, if you do have some other mixers in that price range that you know of - please send me a PM. I'd like see what else is out there that I just don't know about.
No, not off the top of my head that are meant specially for studio recording that would be what most would consider in a a reasonable price range. I do know of 3-4 companies in the Definition development stage of hybrid digital Mixer and control surface but I can really talk about specifics. 2 of those companions over the past few months are now very reluctant to really take the development past the Definition stage as their Marketing data is not showing a solid return on the investment that would be required to do the development or can afford to assign the necessary dedicated resources the time required compared to other higher priority products on their roadmap that they want and need to develop.
Digital mixers are all the rage selling for the Live FOH and House of Worship market as they offer smaller footprint, less weight, all in one features for DSP effects, flexible I/O and mixing and fancy lLED's and LCD displays compared to their aging analog consoles but these are things not wanted or needed in the more commercial pro audio professional market. Plain and simple, there is no longer the requirement to have to have a dedicated hardware mixer to connect microphones, speakers or any other gear like you had to have in the past.
It is very unlikely that there will be many, if any, newly designed mid priced digital mixers such as the DM-4800 in the non Live Sound market any more as that market has for the most part dried up. The multi-channel audio interface market and Control Surface market have taken over that market share. Many to most that even have a DM-3200 or DM-4800 seem to only be using them more as an ITB Control Surface than they are for their true mixer functions because there is whole in the market for 16+ motorized fader Control Surfaces.
Beyond the next generation of audio interfaces, much of the future of Pro audio product development is in the Control Surface and Touchscreen product markets where there is more profit potential and the product concept to market development cycle is much quicker and can be better matched or customized to the pace of change then the complicated multi-year development cycle of what hardware digital mixers require.
I myself coming from old school background still prefer a Console with flying faders and also have been been hybrid since I left 24-Track tape. 32-Ch ADAT and then 48-Ch E-MU Darwin (ADAT hard drive way before Alesis HD24) in the rear view mirror. But since getting heavy into UAD over the past few years, that has tempted me into just ITB for some lower budget & quick turn projects as well as projects that I knew would have several back and forth versions pretty much forcing ITB recall and that has worked out very well. Much better than first expected. And incorporating a touch-screen has made it pretty sweet and desirable. I sttill prefer real hardware faders overall, but I now have both to choose from. The instant fully recall capability along with he touchscreen is powerfully seductive and time saving and has very good workflow. Once the DAW makers fully support touchscreen, it will have great workflow.
So while I still have gobs of great high end outboard wired up ready to go to choose from and prefer the sound and reaching over and using it over using plugs, I no longer HAVE to use or rely on using outboard at all as I used too to still get great sounding results.
Of course I say that now .. once I'm all setup in the new place I know I'll be itching to change things up a bit no doubt. I've been very ensconced in the UAD2 plugins ... they just sound soooo good (and eat up so much of my budget!)
