Ok,
Since I am fairly new to softsynths and softsamplers I wonder IF todays PC systems are fast enough to avoid the unacceptable latency I experienced a couple of years ago. Which then quickly decided me to give up on that route. (mm..must be longer ago if I recall now)
Anyway it's apparently not my soundcard from those days as it was reporting 5ms latency (delta1010 19"rack version)which should be sufficient as Frank pointed in another thread.

I do have a long time experience with midi so setting up is not the problem.

This is how I basicly work:
1. Compose the drumtrack in midi
2. Play and record all the midi tracks in real time on one of my keyboards

Now the midi file is ready(in Sonar) and I start doing the audio parts.
Usually in this stage I record all miditracks to audio multitracks in CEP.

So the midifile could look like f.i.:

Track 1 Midi channel 1 Kurzweil patch
Track 2 Midi channel 2 Kurzweil patch
Track 3 Midi channel 3 Kurzweil patch
Track 4 Midi channel 4 Acces Virus patch
Track 5 Midi channel 5 Acces Virus patch
Track 6 Midi channel 6 Nordlead patch
Track 10 Midi channel 10 Roland R8 or elektron machinedrum

As all the recordings (exception the R8/elektron) are done in realtime, all sysx info is already in
the miditrack including damper/volume/sustain
etc...

From there on I play the midi file (midi-out) to the instruments involved which are recorded thru my delta rack into CEP as individual tracks.

From here I record new audio tracks (if needed) like guitar parts/singer(s)/baseguitar etc....while the earlier recorded midi to audio tracks are playing.

No latency problems at all on my far outdated PC Pentium III - 500 (1024mb ram)

Roughly I can go to approx 24 mono audio tracks without a problem, which is mostly more then enough.

To replace the hardware with softsynths/softsamplers I tried using Giga when it came out (no idea when that was exactly but at least some years ago) I loaded a giga sample and replaced one midi-out track with the giga sample.
This was no go due to the latency.
I also tried to play the giga sample in real time, same problem.

I understand that my old fashionned system cannot handle these large plug ins, so upgrade is needed. (This is also one of the reasons I am using CEP for audio recording as its very light software and does not need the lates state of the art PC)

So the question is this:
Are todays systems fast enough to handle at least 4 plug ins at the same time...?
If not can the mediastation do this...?

What would you think is the minimum processor speed and ram memory you will need?
What are your own experiences with plug ins?

Look forward to all comments and suggestions.

Fred