OK heres the deal,

I get offerd a job in this guys studio he has recently built, it has been going for a year now, but he needed an engineer because he got rid of the last guys recently...ive been doing recording for years( on DAW's) and iam a good musician (and hes know this) but i havnt had to much experience in the real studio, so i asked if i could spend a day in there just getting to know all the gear so that when a customer turns up (work is sproradic he says) ill be all set to go, not 'teething' in the clients time ect...

So i go in there today all alone (the receptionist downstairs) and i am
a little confused to say the least, i recognize what everthing is, but to me it seems like nothing is co-ordinating with each other, what they have been doing up untill now is recording everything 1 track/instrument at a time in cubase - running through an SB Extigy of all things, but not only that, they have out board comp/limiter/EQ/fxs ect which are all routed (seemingly ramndom) through a 16 track mixer, im mean i can understand tracking with a comp, but surely you dont print FX when tracking?! and these fx cant be routed through the pc btw...

So i dont understand why they have any of the fx's at all, or even a mixer for that matter, maybe if they wanted to print straight to stereo with a live performance i could understand the mixer then....

So ive attached a jpeg, showing how things are routed, for me it would be easier if he sold all the 'crap' he doesnt need, and upgraded the P.C/ audio interface and maybe get a digital mixer to hook up to the P.C?

So if he wants to keep the stuff he has i and i have to deal with it then i need to know a few things,

*there is gonna be no need for hooking up any 'send's on the mixer is there?
*Should i still use the comp for tracking? and if so do i use the mixer or just from that straight to the P.C?
*TBO guys i thought id go in there and figure everything out on the how to connect stuff cuz i understand the priciples of inserts/sends and basic stuff on how connections are chained, but the way it is connected at the moment im completely lost, it so confusing!
*So can some people suggest the best way to hook up the equipment, and how i could access the fx through the mixer (i cant differenciate the different ins/outs associated with inserts or sends..

I know this is a huge mess, but any advice you could give would be very helpfull,

http://img345.imageshack.us/img345/3107/studio3sd.jpg

If you are the engineer, you set it up the way you want.

If it was up to me i would only use the p.c to record each track at a time and forget about the other stuff completely, either that or have all the instruments going trough the mixer, set the levels whilst they play and just record it straight to stereo..

IMO both options are discracefull for a working studio, its just not doing the artists any justice, you either get the 'live' feel and loose the isolation of tracks, or you ditch the live feel and do it a track at a time (in which case i wouldnt touch the hardware..

My prediciment is this:

Its gonna be hard to tell someone that i dont know really well to tell them most of the gear is useless within the current set-up, its allso gonna be hard for me to tell him to buy more stuff (i.e a multi-channel 8-16 audio interface) and/or sell some of the stuff he's got,

But even if we stay with the same gear, how do i set it up properly?
to make the best use of what there is,

do i print with effects and have the signals run through all the hardware ( 1track at a time) in to the p.c? thats the only way i can see the fx being used with the p.c he has there..

Basically what i need to know is how to connect the various chains with the mixer, i though it would be easy to figure out if the studio was already setup to some degree, but as its a mess i dont have anything to go by.....im just not techincally able to setup a desk/fx from scratch, btw i intend on doing my own reading to help me with the routing chains, could anyone recommend a free guide or article that will explain this stuff on the web? I'll google for sure but if there is something particulary user friendly id appreciate a link or two...

Thanks again for the response,

Adey