How to route multiple instruments, loopers, etc.

[Len Seligman <seligman@mitre.org>]

Dear Loop Dudes (and Dudesses),

I've been puzzling over how to route multiple instruments and loopers and
would appreciate any and all ideas. (As you can tell, I'm naive about the
capabilities of modern mixers and other High Gear issues.)

I'm a guitarist/vocalist/loopist playing with a violinist/vocalist/loopist.
We want to be able to loop our instruments as well as vocals and would also
like to be able to give a soundperson some control over our different 
levels.

Here's what I'm currently thinking of doing:

First, we run the guitar and violin through any effects and preamps we
want, so that we like the basic tone. Then, split the signal of the guitar,
violin and both vocals so that one "half" of each goes direct to the main
mixer. Then take the "other half" of the guitar and my vocal mike, route it
to a little mixer, then to my Echoplex (which would be set all the way to
wet) and then have my loopage got to another channel of the main mixer.
Similarly, Cheryl's violin and vocal would go direct to the main board, but
also have them go to a little mixer which can be 'plexed (all the way on
wet) and then run to the band board. At the band board, then, there would
be 6 channels that a soundperson could control: live guitar, violin, and 2
vocals, plus my loopage and Cheryl's loopage. We have a Quadraverb that
could be used in the effects loop of the main board.

Is this a good way to do things? An alternative would be to not "split" the
signals and then just have two inputs to the main mixer: all my stuff (both
live and looped) and all Cheryl's stuff (both live and looped). But while
this latter option has the virtue of simplicity, it doesn't give a
soundperson much control, and it doesn't give much opportunity for using
stereo in the mains. Also, with any of these approaches, we don't have a
lot of flexibility in having different reverb levels of the different sound
sources--e.g., for approach #1, there's a single reverb setting for all my
loopage, regardless of sound source.

Oh yeah, one more complication is that I may use some other sound sources,
like a mandolin   with some kind of pickup.

Any recommendations on what to do would be greatly appreciated. Also, if we
did "split" the signals from our instruments and vocals, what's the best
way to do that? Is there a relatively inexpensive "splitter" box? Or do our
individual mixers need to be sophisticated ones with all kinds of routing
options? How do we not go completely broke with all this?

Thanks a lot!

-Len

Looper's Anonymous of Silver Spring, Maryland (USA)