Roland/Boss recorder/mixer BR seris Yamaha AW 1600

[docjohn]

Friend of mine wants to get a mixer/recorder for his ministry.Sounds like he wants to use it mostly as a mixer for the instruments,but to record some also.The 2 he's looking at are BR1200+BR1600 and have a built in CD play/record;one of which has a built in drum machine.

The Yamaha seems similar,and Zoom has one also.

Basically;any ideas-he does want the ability to record on the fly w/o having to have a laptop-computer.I saw an Alesis mixer and stand alone burner/duplicator for about $500 (2 pcs)  vs the all in ones.

ideas?

[themidiroom]

It all depends on how many channels are needed and if he is looking to do a basic recording or if he needs separate tracks on everything. 
The BR1600 has 8 mic channels and records 8 tracks at a time. The Yamaha has the same number of inputs but seems to be more robust with editing capabilities.
I'm more inclined to go with separate components but that is also more expensive.