How to choose components?

[Roel Das]

I'm still working on my midi CV project. But this question is more global...
How do I pick the right components for my project, and where do I start
looking for them?
For example, I'll need a 16 bit DAC, multichannel (I need 16 channels), with
serial input. Where do I start looking? Will it maybe be be better(/cheaper)
to use an ordinary DAC and mulptiplex it? How do you find out these things?

Thanks
Roel

For more information on what I need: the website is still at:
http://www.geocities.com/roelrules/