The time has come to replace my frankly shite midi interface (consisting of just a cable) with something better cos there is a time delay after hitting a note and also problems with note velocities. They are both completely off the mark when I try to play a vst on my keyboard or record into FL. Drives me crazy cos I have to adjust each individual note I play afterwards which takes a long bloody time and is hindering my creativity...

I'm hoping to get something that will eradicate this delay. and maybe get something which incorporates a mixer for home recording as well... Does anyone have any experience with such products and would recommend anything???

Many thanks

And you know for a fact that it's your MIDI interface that is causing the latency?
I'm not saying you should not go off and buy a new toy ... do so by all means, it's just that your one cable interface in it's self should not cause latency, the latency would be built up when the signal is travelling through your system.
You have it connected to a PC?  Running XP or 7 ?
Do you only work with FL as your Editing Software?
What sound card do you have ?
Are you set up to use the best ASIO drivers?
You could of course be set up on a MAC book or what ever they are called so none of the above is relevant! 

What is your set-up
PC (ram, speed etc), interface, DAW, keyboard, anything else you use.
The audio interface is the most important part of the chain in terms of quality, but your PC must be fast enough and have sufficient ram. The ASIO driver makes a lot difference re latency. ASIO4all is a free ASIO driver and is pretty good.

If you can wait a bit,  some of the really good usb and firewire interfaces are going to drop in price.. USB 3 is out and cooking. A lot of USB 2 is going to go on sale,, and  some killer stuff like the RME fireface 800 will drop in price.  imho I'd go with  something like the RME firewire over the USB .. It's a full on pro unit with great quality.

 all the older stuff once USB 3 really takes off,, will drop in price.... or save up and by a USB 3 audio interface,, and a computer that runs USB3.. me I'm going to keep what I got , for quite a long time.. It doesn't get hooked up to the internet,, I know it well, and it works fine for what I do.   

 USB is usually fairly fast.. If a window unit check to make sure the driver for your interface is up to date and compatible with the os your using, and that the ASIO  drivers are at optimum..  That is usually where your delay time comes into play,, or your buffers are set way to high.

Hey thanks guys. I've always assumed the cable was the weak link since I bought it for ₤3 from Hong Kong on ebay. My laptop is well enough specd... 4gb of ram, core2duo processor (bit old now but still decent) running vista, which is notoriously rubbish but OS shouldn't be the problem. always run FL for midi stuff and the sound card sometimes alternates between onboard and the small behringer UCA202 depending on whether i'm recording live stuff... but alternating doesn't make a difference. The keyboard is a KorgZ1, old but decent in it's day so sending midi shouldn't be a problem for it. FL doesn't recognise it so it's just set up as a generic controller. I have ASIO4ALL v2 installed... with a buffer size of 512 samples. I've just kept this at defualt the whole time, so I'll try bringing this down like you've suggested and let you know what happens.

It's a good idea to wait for the sale stuff. the RME fireface 800 looks sweet but I fear is still gonna be out of my price range and exceeding my needs. besides my laptop doesn't have a firewire port so it's just usb2 for me atm

I think ASIO4all works best when your on XP.
Win 7 is set up differently .... the System Sounds panel IS your ASIO
Vista .... is just shit
If you really want to resolve any problems take a step back to XP or a step forward to Win7
Trying to resolve anything in Vista is like flogging a dead horse !

And how come FL does not recognise your Korg ! These programs are made to work with MIDI controllers, FL is actually set up very well, read up about recording and receiving automation signals from external controllers .... but then of course your on Vista!

Picking up a Win7Pro, installing it and setting it up wont take you that long. If you have so much space you could put it on a different partition .... and yes I can, as can many, explain to you step by step how to do it.

I recently purchased a second hand IBM Lenovo T400 laptop (bargain £150 from teir1, a quality company that refurbish PC's to an excellent standard), 3gb ram and 2.4 ghz ram dual processor running on Vista. An expert told me Vista is OK so long as you download all the updates. I'm very pleased with mine, no problems running Cubase 5, which I believe uses more CPU than FL.
I put a a focusrite saffire pro 24 through it (firewire - it's faster than USB)), which works very well. I did a lot of research before I bought the focusrite, it is superb. They do a USB version for about £150.00 (they also do cheaper versions with less inputs and outputs).  RME is superb kit, but they do colour the original sound source so I've read in reviews, which for me would irritate me, hence focusrite preamps are not only very clean as can be heard in my recent recordings, but record the sound extremely true to the original source. The Asio driver that comes with it, is the best I've used, plus you can set it up with no latency. The one thing you need to do on your laptop is to make sure it is set up on maximum performance on the power rating, this will dramatically improve the latency. I'd also google your laptop to see if anyone else has had issues with music production. There could be other setting that could be effecting your latency, hopefully with some research you will find an answer.
Before you spend any money make sure your laptop is set up best for music production.

Motu midi time piece,, get one used on ebay.

can't go wrong with one of these, 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MOTU-MIDI-Time-Piece-MTP-AV-Interface-USB-version-Timepiece-/190701523084?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c66b2508c

I don't do that much midi ,  so I use the motu fastlane usb midi port... 2 ins +2 outs is all I need.. If I jump up it'll be to the Midi time piece... i'll wait for usb 3... as I am in the works on building a new PC tower.

Yeah Motu are superb value for money too, that was my second choice, they are very well made, quality componants. I've seen loads on eBay.

Thanks for all your suggestions and help guys.

Kings, I think my korg is just too old (97) for FL to have in the database. I would appreciate help moving to 7. that would be great. could you pm me details?

The focusrites look nice with good reviews, and they've got the audio inputs for recording as well. They look promising. I'm also looking at similar things from roland/cakewalk. the reviews on the tascams don't seem too great and there's not mush else around that does both audio and midi in that price range.

The motos look cracking, and 2nd hand probs in my price range... but they're more than I need in terms of midi capability cos my setup is very small and basic (studio in a spare bedroom) with no rack for mounting it, and only one midi keyboard. The moto fastlane with just 2in 2out would suit me better and it seems pretty cheap so then i'd just need to go for a seperate audio interface.

I have altered the sample rate on ASIO4all and the latency seems better. the note velocites are still all over the place tho.

Thanks again

i use a motu fastlane,, AB in and AB out,, two midi ins and outs,, not very expensive, works great and no latency.  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=motu+fastlane