A lot of questions:
How portable does it need to be?
Will you be using it mostly in 1 venue?
Mic placement options?
computer interface or true multitrack recorder unit?
Ha ha, you're totally right. I should have clarified portability.
How portable does it need to be?The more portable, the better. I would be carrying it from the car to the venue. The venues will change, so our gear won't be left in a single place. I currently use a huge duffel gym bag to carry all our gear, mic stands, etc. Something that's about the size of a 13"-15" laptop would be the ideal maximum size.
Mic placement options? In terms of? I'd be running omnis and cards into our Sony PCM-10's. The multitrack recorders main purpose is to pull each instrument separately directly from the soundboard. The sound technicians in our city are kinda shit (literally, they have no sound qualifications - they're just the guy who doesn't want bar duty), so sometimes I need a way to boost a certain instrument (usually vocals) to make it more clear - this is how I want to use the multitrack.
computer interface or true multitrack recorder unit?True multitrack in all likely hood, but if it's cheaper for a computer interface, I could always use my laptop with ease.
I'll sacrifice price to size in many regards, and I prefer tactile response over digital. However, my laptop is a tablet PC, so it's fairly tactile anyway.
I'm trying to gauge how financially feasible this would be.