Both the a-151 and Samara II look very interesting, and I can see their useful applications. I just read through the Samara manual, and hadn't appreciate quite how much it could do.

I've pulled the trigger on one of the last few wmd performance mixers I could find in stock, so we shall see how it goes!
I was mainly planning to use the vcas in it for volume control rather than shaping, my initial thoughts were to use either the Catalyst or Metron & Voltera to fade in and out channels potentially.