Maybe I'm crazy (and I don't know where to put this, but...)

I agree it would be nice to be able to play without loading a VI and playing MIDI through it. And no, hardware synths are anything but dead (just check out the latest issue of Keyboard). I would love to have an 88-key stage keyboard like a Yamaha CP4, but they list over $3k, so I "make do".

I must admit that not being tethered to a computer can be rather liberating. I have walked off with a guitar in hand to be free of the "computer distraction" more times than I can count. Unfortunately I only have MIDI controllers these days, so I am very much tethered using one (and my patience threshold for MIDI issues is fairly low these days).

The Motif sounds less dated than the Triton and Trinity series of sounds from the same era. I still have all of those keyboards and rack mount sound modules... I haven't turned them on in years, but I know someday I'm probably going to use them again. 

My 12-year-old Yamaha MO8 gets used regularly here. If you've heard any of my tunes you'll know I'm a fan of the saxophone as a lead instrument. That's not some fancy Kontakt library you hear in there, it's one of three factory MO8/Motif patches that I routinely turn to for sax. 
 
Here's why I prefer the hardware ROMpler over sample libraries: the complete lack of latency allows for more expressive playing. The believability of a sampled instrument is 90% expression and 10% sample quality.

Does anyone know what the latency is between hardware midi devices? I tried to google this and it's page after page of computer interface midi latency. All the info is about DAW latency and no matter how I word the question I get the same pages. 
But I do remember there is a tiny bit like .5 ms and it grows if you use midi thru. 
So I'm wondering if a set up like mine where the controllers midi goes thru the audio interface input / output ports then goes to the Korg is as low in latency as directly plugging the controller into the Korg? I certainly can't tell the differance but I'm not a keyboard player.. 
It seems to trigger the Korg the same as it triggers any given soft synth. So this also seems to depend on how you've set Sonar. I only have a obvious issue if I have the LP 64 multi band going. 
 
 

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.

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
 

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)

Karyn

... using all 11 fingers ...

LOL... I can never manage this feat!

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.

I forgot to mention that I also got off a friend recently a Korg Delta - wow what a great synth - never really heard of the Delta until I was offered it - have had great fun getting into it and incorporating it into the set up
Nigel
 

Cactus Music
I bought a Roland A 880 midi patch bay back then and everything was routed through that.   

Mine is still going strong! Love it.

I said above that you have to buy second hand if you want a midi patching / splitter  solution - well blow me down with the proverbial feather, but I was browsing Sweetwater just now for something and found this.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDIthru8
 
Brand new and about US$169 - wow
Nigel
 

Bajan Blue
I said above that you have to buy second hand if you want a midi patching / splitter  solution - well blow me down with the proverbial feather, but I was browsing Sweetwater just now for something and found this.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDIthru8
 
Brand new and about US$169 - wow
Nigel
 

If you only need to drive 4 devices, there's a 1->4 splitter for just 50 bucks.
 
It's become a niche market nowadays, but a small company called MIDI Solutions still makes 5-pin DIN MIDI devices, most of which are powered right off the MIDI port itself (no batteries or wall-warts!). I use their 2-to-1 MIDI Merger so I can drive my VoiceLive Touch from two keyboards onstage.