I know it’s late but who knows, maybe someone else will be reading this.
MOTU AVB series have the most flexible matrix routing out of all interfaces I’ve tried, whether you use AVB or not.
I used a single Ultralite half rack interface as a main and monitor mixer for a 5 piece band (2 guitars, a keyboard, a bass, 2 vocals and drums), where everybody could adjust their mixes on their iPads. And you can route anything anywhere.
Here’s a 3 unit rack that includes:
- A power conditioner for all equipment we used
- Monitor mixer (and main mixer for rehearsals)
- Wireless for 4 out of 5 band members (albeit mono)
- Stage box - when hooking up for shows, all connections were from this rack.
- Of course it’s also a recording interface
- Connected to a computer for automation (the mixer is controllable with OSC)
All based on a small MOTU card, taking as much space as a single Behringer X32 would.
So all the band equipment (apart from pedalboards, keyboards and such, of course) looked like this (2 Axe-FXs did all processing for guitars, bass and vocals - if you use plugins, you don’t even need this).
Can’t recommend those interfaces enough for their mixing capabilities. Oh, and the mixing part in MOTU cards doesn’t require a computer connected, they are fully autonomous as long as there’s an Ethernet connection. 5-10 minutes from unpacking to fully connected, super easy sound checks - we could run recordings through the same outputs, of course, and the guy who was running FOH had presets for many popular main mixers.