I'm not sure if it's a midi or an accoustic problem, but when layering sounds on my xp there's sometimes a discernable slow down in the seq, it happens when using both the on- board seq or cakewalk8[p200 96meg]can anyone suggest a cure?

If you are pushing the XP (or any midi device) to it's limits you can encounter timing problems, this also includes sequencers when you approach the memory limits. If that is the case, the only solution I am aware of is to back off some layers and/or thin down some events.

or offset your events by 1, 2, 3 ticks or so on your different tracks so that not everything is being triggered at once.

It may also be that you are using too many notes at the same time. Synths may slow down, when you use more than the available polyphony, even if the sequencer has not used all its capacity.

Stig