Recording and mixing

its a mixing DESK and a tape DECK, ok? although you generally don't refer to a small format, in-line portable mixer as a desk, its installation consoles that we typically call desks.

maybe just get an old portastudio and somequality cassettes? passable all in 1 solution. You might want some outboard for dynamics control and ambience too. Most reel to reels that are affordable and in perfect working order will be 8 tracks. They also require periodic maintenance you will need to elarn to do. Reels get expensive, hardly anyone makes tape anymore... although cassettes are getting thin on the ground too come to think of it. Whether going cassette or open reel you will likely be looking at Tascam on a budget, they school fostex in both categories. Yamaha made some good cassette machines though and Akai made some fine open reel decks over the years and they both tend to fly a little under the radar. In budget mixers that have 'studio' sound quality you can't go wrong with soundcraft. I like the older soundcraft stuff, but the more recent ghost and spirit stuff is quite good versus equivalent mackie stuff. The Amek TAC stuff is also very good and pretty fully featured, but a bit pricier. A mixer alone may not cover you if you itnend to do a hardware-only setup. You may (probably WILL)need a rack of compressors and the odd expander/gate. In decent VCA stuff on a budget there's the alesis 3630 and 32 (go 32 unless the older 30 is substantially chepaer, the 30 needs modification to sound good and this odification disables the gate) and the FMR RNC. A good budget chanel strip for soemthing hyper critical like vocals would be the presonus eureka. For a limiting amplifier ona budget look at the FMR RNLA. In reverb and delay processors you'll want a few. A budget TC rack unit will give you delays and their nice plates. The Lexicon Alex is an excellent budget unit that has their classic hall and room sounds. Yamaha's SPX90 still soudns good, although they've been getting pricey due to the Kevin Shields connection. I mean, what's your budget? If you don't know what expansion is and just need noise gates then pick up the 8 channel presonus gate. Whata re you trying to accomplish here? You can have a room full of great nice gear and if you don't know how it works you probably won't be able tog et a mix! in fact I make a tidy little side-income because guys with stuff that's often well recorded enough to mix itself have this amazing ability to make their gear and/or plugins make their recordings sound worse then they did raw!

I'm in the same boat as you.

you guys need to be clearer abotu what you're trying to do if you want a really good answer... analog or digital? how many tracks? all-in-one or separate recorder and mixer? What's the goal?