Whato all - I'm sure there are many others pondering this, I had a Focusrite 6i6 but found that I needed more inputs, so I ended up with a really cheap Behringer UMC 1820 plus the corresponding ADA 8200 8 input extension for my drum kit, I really can't praise them enough (I had to get over the fact that they used to produce some absolute rubbish stuff years ago)
The latency is pretty much the same as the Focusrite, and the quality is the same if not better, but it has so many useful features that the Focurite 18i20 doesn't have. mono button, a choice of phantom power on some inputs, BRILLIANT monitoring splits, 2 headphone outs, SPDIF or ADAT extension plus more...
Anyway...there are 2 situations that I suffer with latency issues,
1. Recording Gtr
2. Playing drums into MIDI VST.
I always used to record Gtr though an offset mic into my amp + stomps, and it suited me just fine, got the sound I wanted and no latency.
Recently I have started using IKM Amplitude, (along with MAGIX Vandal, Waves GTR3 and bx_rackplayer) and find them useful, but when I have a load of tracks >40, then the CPU takes a hit, the RAM is working hard, maybe the SSD is finding it a bit tough...
So..what are the options?
More RAM, on a laptop... that can be restricitve since the limit is often lower than a desktop, and expensive too.
Faster CPU - tricky on a laptop, also often good money after bad.
Overclocking - Never liked doing this, like sticking a V8 in an Allegro, things go wrong a lot.
New PC - If you can afford it, but there is not guarantee it'll solve your issue.
Second hand superfast recent PC - Always an option.
I use a DAW called MAGIX Samplitude Pro X3, it's quite tricky to use but it does have a very good audio engine (the same used in their broadcast quality Sequoia DAW), that allows some nice monitoring options, what I don't know is if these options are available on other DAWs, but I really don't need/want to change DAWs.
I turn the monitoring of the VST for the track I'm recording off, which in turn disables the sound of the plugin for that track so I don't get to hear the 50's fender champ, just the gtr completely latency free. But I can still hear myseld play, and all the tracks that are not muted.
I always record vocals like this and apply any processing much later on.
Playing live drums into a MIDI VST pose more of an issue, as the sound of the drums is generated by the VST itself (BFD3 and a couple from MAGIX)...you hear nowt if you turn off the monitoring, so I tend to record the drums early in the song's life with the buffer size right down as low as possible, works very well on the Behringer, totally fine. But I do like to record the drums using the internal sounds from the Yamaha electronic kit, but they need to be routed to individual outs - hence the ADA8200 extension to the UMC1820.
So there is a way round it, so for me the answer lies in working around the limitations that I have, not sure if I'm doing it the 'right way' but it works for me, just thought to share it.
I would be interested to hear about other DAW's monitoring facilities, and if Reaper on a Cray fixes latency issues
As always hope this helps
Rich