[sdiy] VCA mixer ?

[Merlin Zener]

Hi,

I had an idea, and I don't know how feasible it is, so I thought I'd ask
you guys to comment:
I was thinking of having a 16 input, 8 output mixer for my keyboard rig,
and having no knobs on it, just make it in a 1RU box with a MIDI in and
set up a panel in Cakewalk to control it.

Obviously the first consideration would be the 128 VCAs - there's costs
and noise/distortion issues to think about. Then 24 buffer opamp stages
for the inputs and outputs [balanced outs would be good]. And possibly
24 led level meters on the front for the ins/outs too. And then a little
bit of circuitry to take the MIDI in and spit out the 128 control
voltages for the VCAs. Btw for my purposes I'm not worried about tone
controls, I just need to send different signals to different places for
different songs.

What do you guys think?
What VCAs to look at?
Or is there a different way - maybe some kind of voltage controlled
resistive element, so I could have each input channel go through the
buffer stage, then to the control elements, then to a summing amp?
Any thoughts on the MIDI control side?

Has it already been done?
Are there some products I could look at?

TIA for any comments and advice :)

--
Merlin Zener
Piano, Synthesizer
Thailand.

registered Linux user number 328618