dreamhaus

8-bus Mixer Suggestions

I have a MOTU 828 system into a Mac G4 using Digital Performer.

Most of the recording i've been doing has been 1 or 2 tracks at once, right into the MOTU and then mixing in DP. Things work great.

I've had a need recently to mic a drum kit, which is taking about 7 tracks:

1. snare
2. kick
3. high hat
4. L tom
5. R tom
6. Overhead
7. Floor tom

The problem I'm running into is that I'd like to sub-mix the kit BEFORE it gets to the MOTU so that I have some control on the gain and EQ before it gets to the MOTU's bus -- I'm finding my levels and my "punch" coming into the MOTU are not really there and that I need a pre-amp on my mic's before they hit the MOTU.

I've been looking at some 8-bus mixers, but my heads spinning.

I'm really sort of lost on this...

Do I really need an 8 bus mixer to go into each bus line of the MOTU
to truly get each track isolated, or can i use a 4 bus mixer and "cheat"?

Hell, Am I over thinking this and making things more complicated, or do I really need a single bus FROM each of the mixer output buses to the MOTU to accomplish this? I do need to achieve true track-to-track isolation so I can apply effects on each drum track. Since his is drum project, its important that I'm not mixing two drum sounds together -- any comments are welcome.

Some mixers i've looked at:

Mackie 24x8
Tascam M2600

Does anyone have any suggestions on Mixer's (around $500 - $700) or do they suggest an alternative to what I'm trying to do?

Gary