Hey Cayenne. Started using Linux in 2000, really great stuff. And the fact that there are no silly license issues to fall into, makes it even better!
Linux Journal usually has some good stuff:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7205
Newsforge also has an excellent article on this:
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?.../10/20/1418231
As far as low latency in the kernel, I think Robert Love incorporated all that at some point in the high 2.4 series, but any 2.6 kernel should def have it.
I do find that I am tinkering less on the computer and more on the guitar!
By all means, let us all know how it turns out! My last distro I loaded was Suse 10.1, very nice, although all the MP3 stuff was stripped out due to patent issues. Ugh.