Sounds like things are really moving in the "plug in" world. My old setup is still puttin' along in yesterday's fashion, but to be honest - I never heard a sequence played back with XG sounds that I liked as much as GS. This VL thingee may make all the difference, but my pc was unable to listen to your demo because of codec problems. It said it was missing files....or something like that.
Thanx for the updates, though - you sound like you know alot about the inside of the pc, which I DO NOT.