The only reason i still use the Mackie 1604 is for monitoring. I use 4 inputs for the tyros and Motif, One input for my Joe Meek pre, two inputs from my wife's notebook setup outputs from the UA25EX The channels are assigned to a pair of Stereo bus outputs, then sent to the Firebox (and/or her UA25EX to the notebook).
Two reasons I still use the mixer,
1. To monitor vocals with efx through a Yamaha Rev 4 without printing them.
2. To have a normalled set up so as not have to constantly patch synths, and pre amps in and out.
I can do this with a much smaller mixer, but we had the Mackie 1604 24/4 and a 1402VLZ and decided to keep the 16 because of the 4 available sub busses.
My wife has a notebook set up and a separate UA25ex interface patched into the Mackie for monitoring and Sub busses 1/2 feed her interface. So we both can use the same set up wihon our respective platforms without constantly repatching
I would consider a 4 input box IF it had reverb w/ monitoring only built in such as the AudioBox 22VSL .