I'm interested in investing in a yamaha 01v96vcm mixer and would appreciate if anyone could share their personal experiences with this model or one of it's predecessors. It seems like a really versatile piece of equipment, but I'm unsure if its able to function as I have it so in mind.

What I'm looking for is a replacement for a 4 channel mixer and an audio interface. It would be sweet if I could use the 01v96 as a soundcard in Maschine and route each of the 8 groups to a different channel of the mixer. If not, I can just keep the Firepod and use that to run audio from Maschine into the TRS inputs of the mixer. Does anyone know if the Maschine can output to each (or at least 8) of the 01v96 channels without any cables besides the usb?

I have used a Yamaha 01V96V plenty in the past. LOVED IT. Its routing is endless and you will dig it once you get around Yamaha's menus, which have always been labeled a little funny, even on the big brother FOH boards. The unit I had only had ADAT output so I routed it to a Digi 002 for recording, and mixed primarily from that unit. I was working for QSC Audio at the time and we had just released the HPR Powered speakers and we used this on demos, shootouts, trade shows, as well as a FOH board for smaller shows, and it always worked flawlessly. The I/O config and snapshot options are amazing, so if you have a formula for working on Maschine you can make snapshots of EQ and FX settings, as well as inputs output, and busses. This was night and day better than the 02R, which I thought sounded different, but I could be crazy. The compression is awesome, it can be very transparent, or very snappy and in front if you want. Anyway, good luck - let me know if you pick it up!