Yes, latency is still a big issue regardless of how many tracks are involved. You need to search the (recent) archives of this list, and the FC5 docs, for set_rtlimits, PAM, and the kernel version number. You can get good low latency performance with a recent mainstream kernel, they say! Also, you'll have to do some reading to see what packages will be available to you, and what you'll have to compile yourself.