ceejayIn this concept, think of any control surface such as an R72 surface in your case, laptop or ipad as basically just a controller for the mix rack. You may find that a laptop or ipad will be just fine for your monitors or even running FOH in certain situations. The mix rack has separate ethernet ports for laptops, routers, etc. The ACE port is where you would connect the R72 surface using cat 5.
Regarding solo instruments or PAFL, You will clearly have that capability on the R72 surface.
You will not have that ability when running a laptop or ipad as a surface, but there are alternative methods to that via an IEM transmitter/receiver.
Luces, your looking at a fine system that you will very happy with and enjoy, and certainly be a proud owner. The learning curve is very short, and the logical layout is everything to be desired in a digital system. If your musicians are on IEM’s, the tonal quality will be a significant improvement over the mixwizard. That is one less piece of gear in your system and no multicore needed. Good luck with your search, and welcome to the family if you choose those components.
CRJ
Oswego, IL
T112 Surface
iDR48 Mix Rack
Sony F Series laptop
Win 7 500GB HD 8G RAM
iPad 2 and Dante soon
