Presonus firestudio project and such

[ToAd]

So I have the presonus firestudio for a couple of weeks now. It does 
what it is supposed to do so I'm happy.
Two remarks though:
The main mix output is not so hot. I need to amplify the output a lot. 
Apparently this is "normal" if you compare it with the delta1010 I used 
before. Anyway, I compared the output of my firestudio to another one 
and they are the same.
Secondly, getting it to do Midi sync properly turned out to be 
impossible. I had a tight setup in linux using a midisport4x4 and never 
got close when using the firestudio on win7. I have to admit that the 
cirklon is quite picky on midi clk's.

A question, I know what latency is, but I wonder how to handle it best 
in Live. What can you do to reduce latency? Not that I'm too worried 
about it, I want to make music, not do science.
I tried an easy drum loop and quantized it and it all sounded, well not 
right... I had the impression it did some kind of time stretch. Very 
annoying, and I guess not what I'm looking for.
I like the fact that in ardour you can just 'cut' the latency. Something 
similar should be possible in Live.

Well, this weekend I have another recording session  (I'm recording a 
punk record with my 16 year old nephew... splitting headache)  and hope 
everything will work out OK.

Cheers,
ToAd