Best 12 ch Analog or Analog/USB Mixer???

The Soundcraft.
Soundcraft mic preamps sound great, especially on transient material like drums and percussion.
I like the individual TRS inserts on every channel.
You can use the TRS inserts as individual mic pre outputs to feed your audio interface line inputs.
The "tip" is (usually) the output.
 
Why do you even need a mixer?
Why not just get an audio interface with enough inputs and do it all "in the box"?

Presonus VSL1818 plus a Behringer ADA8000 will give you 16 mic/line inputs.
Start with the Presonus with 8 channels then get ADA8000 later when you need more than 8
Get a used VSL1818 for under 300 and a ADA800 for under 150 on ebay.
 
It depends on your recording situation/requirement.
Do you need to record 12 channels simultaneously or do you just like the convenience of keeping everything plugged into a mixer and ready to go? With the setup above all 16 channels would be recorded to individual tracks in Sonar.
 

One advantage to using a mixer instead of an interface is that you can turn on the mixer and keys at any time and practice, jam, work on a song, etc  without needing to turn on the computer.
 
 
 

Why not look at the Behringer Air XR12?.. at $250 its a total bargain...
 
there is also a 16ch, and then a jump to the 18ch, but the 18ch can also be an audio interface...but outside your budget

Gosta has faders.
 
Going totally digital @reedicuuulus $$$ only to fish around thru hidden menus just to adjust levels and settings seems counter intuitive and counter productive. You're paying tons more for the ability to loose control over what you're doing. I like to see what I'm doing instantly. Probably the reason so many use a DAW controller.

I've spent a fair bit of time shopping for mixers. Both small and large, I have 3 different needs. Solo act, Live band and the studio.   I make  lists of features and specs and compare all the leading brands. I would never waist my time with any company that is an unknown in Pro Audio. Alto makes cool powered speakers (I own them), but the mixers are going to be the bottom of the line.
I also will visit a music store and do some hands on armed with a mike and a set of headphones to try the effects out. This is why I chose the Yamaha. You can adjust the effect parameters so they are 1/2 arse usable.
 
First the band I joined last year was in dire need of an upgrade as the 15 year old Mackie 12 channel had many issues going on. I ended up with a Yamaha MG16 XU and after living with it for 8 months I am still very happy with my choice. It was just the best bang for the buck overall and a huge plus was the editable effects and the compressors on most channels.  I did not want a digital mixer simply because the rest of the band would be helpless if I was not there. We use in ears so the patching and sends had to be just so. Those compressors are very important if your in ears don't have protection...They are not that useful in a studio being set and forget, but they do even things out in a live mix.
 
For my solo act I have both a small Yamaha MG82cx and a Mackie Mix 8. You can read about that here on my web page 
http://www.cactusmusic.ca/johns_rig.htm
Those were bough based on small footprint needs. It was cheaper to add the Mix 8 to my kit than to suffer a larger mixer when I needed more channels. This is an option you might want to consider. Use a dead simple sub mixer to handle synths and drum machines and a table top to serve as the patch bay and monitors.
 
 
I also have an old Yamaha 01V that is now gathering dust as I find between having the 2 small mixers in the studio I have all I need to keep a few instruments and my old synth rack plugged in.
I'm a huge believer in using real mixers in the studio, like you I need fast access to faders and buttons.
 
The Mix 8 is used as a sub mixer for inputting via left main out to #4 of my interface.
The interfaces #3 input has the Joe Meek Pre amp for vocals patched in.
My Bass is Patched in to the interfaces front input # 2 from a Small Bass amp DI out (so the amp is the monitor).
Input #1 on the interface is a spare and comes in handy for many things.
The Yamaha MG82 is for monitoring only, it has the 3/4 output from my interface, a second send from the Joe Meek pre amp as well as the feed from the Mix 8. I use it for my headphone mixing this way.  Anyhow lots of options when you have a few mixers and a multi channel interface. Bottom line is, I rarely have to re patch things, my inputs are uncluttered and optimized, I have 100% control over my headphone mix.

YAMAHA MG16XU.
It is rack-mountable with the clamps come with this model.
Apart from built in effects there are other signal routing possibilities which made me interested buying this product.

I thought I'd add a few notes that may be of interest to others shopping for a mixer. Just a few observations along the way. You mentioned USB.
 
The USB audio interface option that you'll often see with mixers is to be taken with caution.
Many brands don't offer proper drivers so these mixers will work fine for recording a stereo board mix into Audacity but may not work well or at all with Sonar. So worth noting is that Yamaha's come with Steinberg audio drivers. In other words, very decent drivers.
I was even able to double up with my Tascam us1641 in WDM mode.
I was able to have Sonar recording multi track from the Tascam, and switch to music playback on breaks from Media player via the Yamaha's USB without any issues.  So another plus bonus for Yamaha over the rest, good drivers.
 
The built in effects are also optional in most mixers. Once again approach with caution. I found that most brands have static pre-sets with no way to fine tune. Some Mackie and Yamaha boards have a parameter control which will gives you the advantage of say, changing the delay or reverb time.  This makes a huge difference to the usefulness of the effects in a live situation.
 
Also beware of the false advertising of channel count. It is sort of annoying that they will call a mixer 8 channels when it only has 6 faders.  Count the channel strips!! And some even expect you to use a stereo channel as a effects return.
Another annoyance is they will sport a "monitor" or "Control room" control which is post main output clone. It's disappointing to have your floor monitors level die when you turn down the mains.
 
And on the subject of new fangled gizmo digital mixers, What happens to all these iPad dependent mixers when your iPad dies 5 years from now and they become hard to find as time and technology moves onward? And some don't charge your device when docked? I find my iPad or phone batteries die pretty fast if I ask it to do to much and the screen is on. The life expectancy of an iPad is about 2 years ,, so your $299 digital mixer needs a $500 iPad..I think I'll stick to digital mixers that are 100% stand alone. If they have the iPad option that is then cool, but not cool if dependent.
 
 
 

tlw

The Yamaha.....
As a recording desk, personally I wouldn't use it for that if an alternative were available. The pres don't sound as good to me as my old Mackie VLZ series console. And neither of the mixers can match the pres in my UFX which are invisible for all intents and purposes....

Interesting.  My feeling is the exact opposite.  I think the D-Pres in my Steinberg (Yamaha) interfaces are an improvement over the Mackie VLZ stuff, and even the pres on my RME FF400. 
 
I would compare the D-Pres to the newer Mackie Onyx pres - with the latter being slightly more round/warm.

It just seems odd to me that Yamaha can put 24/192 USB in their mixers which are probably used more live than studio, while Allen Heath only puts 16/48 USB in their gear.

The reason might be is that Yamaha and Steinberg take audio drivers seriously and spend money developing them. Allen & Heath is a hardware company, not software, so they just use generic off the shelf drivers. They build great mixers that are not not audio interfaces. 
With the exception of the true multi track mixer/interfaces, the intent of the USB port on a mixer is for playback of tunes on a break and for a quick and easy board mix recording. So really 16/44.1 is good enough for 98% of the folks who will use this feature.  
 
The USB port is an option, it costs money to add it in, it cost even more money to write good audio drivers for it, The manufactures are forced to comply because now a days people expect that feature. 
It's certainly handy for live bands, but because of the pour drivers those mixers are sub par for use in a studio.
 
 

Point taken, I have used a Yamaha 01v since 1996 or so so I'm certainly aware of the huge advantages of digital over analog. And there are many digital mixer that still have 100% control without an outboard tablet device. 
I just picked up an iPhone 4 for $50 just to use with a obsolete Akai Synthstation 25 
http://www.akaipro.com/product/synthstation25
 
The synth will be only partially useful the day the worlds supply of iPhone 4's is depleted. So my point is my Yamaha 01V still works, It will continue to work for I expect anoth 5 or 10 years. But all this new gear that is dependent on the currant line of hand held devices will become obsolete in possible a short time frame.
 
I myself am actually thinking about A Behringer X Air xr12  for my solo act just to get the programmable effects.
But I like my gear to last more than 5 years so I'm reluctant.
 
anybody notice that Mackie just released a small digital mixer that is also device dependent.   
http://mackie.com/products/prodx-series
 
For the money its sadly missing a lot of ins and outs. 

elegentdrum
 The bottom line is, the quality is better with analog.

Change that to "High End Analog" and you'll be closer to the truth. There is pour quality analog gear that is easily outdone by mediocre digital. 
 
Mostly what digital offers over analog is a lot of on board processing. 
This topic is about using a mixer for studio recording which has entirely different needs than live sound. We don't really need the processing power of a digital mixer in a studio because we already have all that in our DAW.
Analog is certainly doing well in studios these day's.  
 For live sound you are further ahead with a digital board because those processors are more or less essential to pro sound.
 There's no limit in what you can stuff inside a little digital box. The equivalent processors in analog would be unwieldy to move around. Pro Live Audio is almost all digital desks now for this reason. Scene recall is has also become essential for live.   But those desks are not the consumer models  we talk about around here. We are talking $$$.
 
 

How about the Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK? Lots of features for $450.
 
There are a lot of great choices that I think in the end you'll like whichever one you land on.  I'm impressed with the Soundcraft, Allen & Heath and Yamaha preamps I've worked with - although the preamps in those mixers may or may not differ from their next tier up products.  I do have a lot of first hand experience with all of those brands. Very impressed with anything that has Yamaha's D-Pres housed inside.
 
 
EDIT>>  Should have read the last post before sending this one. All the best with your choice. Keep us in the loop for info on this mixer.

Thanks for the update on what you bought. I'm still gun-shy of Behringer as the 3 things I bought all are broken now. Our Behringer mixer died at a gig a week ago, Main outputs are gone. Aux still works, 
So, 
Just ordered a Soundcraft Signature 10. It had exactly what we needed and no more. 
Small footprint, 6 XLR, 2 Aux, effects with control, Compressors on vocals, Hi Z on guitars. and USB for the laptop backing tracks. 
Only one thing missing is no RCA output to make board mix recordings. I'm hoping I can figure out how to use the USB for playback AND recording at the same time.