MIDI standards:
One start bit, eight data bits, and one stop bit result in a maximum transmission rate of 3125 bytes per second
The status byte determines the length of most messages, which are usually one, two, or three bytes in length
 
so at 3 bytes per message you'd get about 1042 messages per second, which puts each message at less than 1msec per message worst case, with about 320usec best case (that's 320micro seconds, or 0.32millisecs).
 
Using MIDI thru will make the times add up, but you can overcome that using a MIDI clock driver.

bitflipper
 
The believability of a sampled instrument is 90% expression and 10% sample quality.

The same can be said for guitars too.
 
I'm sure Carlos Santana on a Silvertone guitar and amp can whip my cajones even if I was playing a PRS thru a Mesa Boogie.

Thanks Reese, That jogged my memory. It's all about how much data you try and cram down the pipe. That's why we often had dropouts and stuck notes when playing big sequences live. 
And we soon found out that you should avoid using midi thru to daisy chain. I bought a Roland A 880 midi patch bay back then and everything was routed through that. I still have my Yamaha midi merge box for input.  

I never had any significant midi latency back in the day, with a whole rack of hardware synths and effects, all daisy-chained with midi cables.
 
I always keep at least 1 actual real keyboard with its own on-board sounds, so that if gigging and the computer goes belly up, I can still produce sounds from that keyboard until the end of a set, and can deal with whatever happened to the computer in between sets.  Our band always had a list of tunes we could thrown into any set, if there was a computer failure, where my local sounds would suffice.
 
Bob Bone
 

I used my Roland Fantom X6 on every session for years but last year it went into mothballs when I bought SampleTank3 which gives me most of the non-drums sounds I need.  For drums and percussion I use Addictive Drums2 or EZDrummer.

Beagle
MIDI standards:
One start bit, eight data bits, and one stop bit result in a maximum transmission rate of 3125 bytes per second
The status byte determines the length of most messages, which are usually one, two, or three bytes in length
 
so at 3 bytes per message you'd get about 1042 messages per second, which puts each message at less than 1msec per message worst case, with about 320usec best case (that's 320micro seconds, or 0.32millisecs).
 
Using MIDI thru will make the times add up, but you can overcome that using a MIDI clock driver.

In real terms, this means the first note you play will sound almost instantly, and even if you're playing the fastest keyboard solo possible each (single) note will sound almost instantly.
But try to send several notes at once (a big chord using all 11 fingers) and the last note could be delayed by up to 5ms  (approx. 0.5ms per note for a standard 'note on' message)

In absolute agreement..
 
My S70XS (motif based stage piano sans sequencer), Fantom G & Virus are out 100% of the time, and i dont see them going anywhere at all...
 

Susan G
Hi-
 
I keep going back to my Motif 6 (Classic) for just being able to get some really nice sounds going in a hurry. I keep thinking I'll replace them with softsynths somewhere down the line, but it's just so nice not having to worry about--anything, really. They just sound good. I have what amounts to an expensive and far better than your typical TTS-1 or GM module at my disposal, plus lots of other sounds.
 
Hardware synths seem to be kind of passé these days, or maybe not. What do you think? I don't think I'd give up my Motif for many hundreds of dollars' worth of synths.
 
-Susan

Karyn

... using all 11 fingers ...

LOL... I can never manage this feat!

mettelus

Karyn

... using all 11 fingers ...

LOL... I can never manage this feat!

The 6 fingered man can.  He killed my father.  He must prepare to die.

I currently have a Yamaha DX11 (guess what, Yamaha just resurrected a 4 operator FM Synth, it's officially vintage now) I use as a controller with a Yamaha EX5R, the direct predecessor of the motif. What I loved (and still do) is the fact that it has 4 synth engines, 1 of which is the VL model. It models the physical properties of instruments (like a sax body, reeds, etc.) With a breath controller and my GR10 guitar to midi box, I can make some unbelievable trumpet, sax and flute sounds. the breath is the key.  evertyhing patched through a midisport 8x8/s. 
Also on call is a Proteus 1, which is not so great for realistic instruments, but has some killer sound effects. HARDWARE IS NOT DEAD BY A LONG SHOT.