I often talk about how I am "old school", and I think I had better elaborate what I mean before I ask what will be newbie level questions to many of you.

I got out of music in 1993. I stayed away from it for 16 years. And when I say stayed away, I mean exactly that. I listened to only my old CDs, never went to see a band, I have not watched MTV or VH-1 in 20 years because it isn't music anymore... That being said, I was also away from the evolution of equipment and recording. The last recording I did in those years was on 2 inch tape!

So now I wander back into music and face this new to me thing called "digital". With this new thing called "digital" comes a lot of new terminology. Many of you do this full time, heavy part time, or every spare minute time. I am just a hobby guy. When I get a thought for a song, I go up and scratchpad it. However, that doesn't move me forward in the learning process, just in the creation process, and I still produce pretty much like I used to, trading the 2 inch tape for Adobe Audition.

So, my questions.....

I see the term "control surface" a lot. I don't know what that really means outside of assuming it is some kind of device to control channel levels. That's what I do with my Mackie analog mixer. Is that similar in concept to what a control surface does in digital? Scott sent me a link to a beautiful and affordable piece of Tascam equipment that I may buy (except that it's only 8 channels - can I use 2 of them?) as a learning tool.

Scott also used the term in an email "mixing inside the box". I can only again assume, but I think he meant "mixing on the computer inside the software". And by extension I also assume that once this control surface I can make channel level changes and RB will record those changes if automation is enabled. What I don't see that Tascam unit is audio outputs. How does the sound get routed to my speakers if they don't go through my mixer? (Remember, that is the way I know. Out of the interface, into a mixer, and to my speakers.)

Without any feedback I picture that I need 2 interfaces. That's the only way I can see getting audio to my speakers given that the Tascam control surface doesn't have audio outs. The Tascam would connect via USB as inputs and the outputs would still go through the other interface, be it the MOTUs (which would become moot) or the M-Audio.

Is that the signal/control path I would use?