[albee1952]

Dism raises a good point, and its certainly all doable. The real questions are; is it worth it(your decision) and does it make your projects sound better? Getting 18 inputs is easy. Add an 8 channel lightpipe preamp and a 2 channel SPDiF preamp and you're all set(and this can be done for about $600, depending on how "expensive" your tastes are). Adding outputs is almost as easy(16 outs with a single DA lightpipe unit like Behringer ADA8000 or Presonus Firestudio), but there is potential trouble in paradise there; First off(and this may be MY lack of genius) I have not been able to make outputs 1&2 NOT follow the main outputs(meaning I could never get them to work as a separate feed with a separate mix). Also, going thru the lightpipe DA(I used a Presonus Firestudio) I found that the audio was not sample-accurate with audio from the 003 analog outputs. Now admittedly, the time offset was not measured, and was SMALL, but it MAY bother some(depending on how you route audio). For me, it complicated my headphone mixes(phase issues) so I dropped that idea. So, in closing, getting the full 18 inputs its easy(and doesn't require a mixer). Having 16-18 outputs.....only you can decide how important that is(I prefer to stay in the box until I can afford exceptional outboard summing).