Jan,
I think that you'll find that most people will put each instrument on it's own track. While the volume and balance of each track can be set via midi, I normally will center them in a stereo image, and then do my volumes and panning in the audio track. That way, if I don't like something, I can change it there, instead of being limited to already having it in one audio track. Plus, you can add reverb, compression, as well as other audio effects to an individual instrument via the plugs in for the audio tracks. So, if I wanted to push the drums 'back' I would add a little reverb to just the drum track. I might want to put some compression, a limiter, or maybe another effect on a guitar track. I can also copy and paste an audio track from one instrument, and detune it slightly, or move it a couple of milliseconds to give an interesting effect to that sound. You can't do that easily in MIDI when you've already recorded the audio along with other stuff.

It is slower, usually, to record each midi track as a separate audio track. Of course, if you're using a DXi or VSTi synth as your sound source, you should be able to 'render' each file to audio faster than you can record the actual audio. Of course, if you're using a hardware synth, or have been using Sound Fonts on your Creative Card, you can't 'render,' you can only record. So, yeah, if I have a 3 minute song with ten midi tracks, it's going to take me 45 minutes or more just to do the recording. However, I think it's worth it.

Gary

I'm blessed watching God do what He does best. I've had a few rough years, and I'm still not back to where I want to be, but I'm on the way and things are looking far better now than what they were!