Chuck, must insist on monitors man. Headphones just don't cut the mustard when it comes to mixing. They're cool for late night jammin! Everything on your list looks good though. You can add vst pluggins as you go, there are a couple of places where you can get some cool free ones like UGO's string theory and Christian Knufinkes SIR impulse-response processor. You can use any arbitrary WAV file as an impulse. Stop by http://www.noisevault.com for free impulses for SIR. Check out http://www.patcharena.com as well. This is another cool site, especially if you have a surround setup. http://acousmodules.free.fr/acousmodules_en.htm