You stole my post! I have gone full cycle - love real tracks when they work and fit but... midi thru a good external is sometimes a better fit. There are limiations and advantages for both.

Real Track Plusses:
1 Easy to use
2. Many sound great
3. Real drums work at almost any tempo
4. Authentic style playing is at times sensational
5. Adds a truly profesional touch

Real Track Minuses:
1. You lose a large degree of control
2. Sustaining instruments like piano sound choppy due to the pedal effect cutoff when chord changes
3. They sound best at recommended tempos - too often the tempos are not what I want. I sometimes sacrifice my ideal tempo choice and use real tracks because I love Neil's upright bass sound
4.The real drums are great but heavy cymbal crashes played too frequently can ruin a song. No easy way to edit out
5. Many real tracks like organ were recorded with heavy distortion - for me these are not useable

Midi Plusses:
1. Total control for every note played
2.With a good external synth can sound great if the midi input is excellent. Sound quality is dependent on quality of synth
3. Tempos are not a factor
4. With drums each instrument can be controlled and easily edited - kill overdone cymbal crashes!

Midi Minuses:
1. More time consuming especialty with high quality external synths
2. Existing styles generally not as good in terms of playing as many real tracks
3. Many styles don't sound real (but they could)

My solution/hope:
1. PG music develops a hybrid sytem consisting of real tracks plus REAL MIDI sets of styles. This could be done for example on piano by recording audio thru an excellent digital grand and simultaneusly recording the midi. The resulting midi style track could be in some ways better than the digitally recorded real piano track becuase sustain pedal problems etc could be manipulated. The audio could real track would be just as good as ever if a fine digital piano is used.