haha no ROMplers I am afraid (nexus, omnisphere) but indeed I do use Rbass and Ozone.

I insert into each FX channel (for example built in EQ on every channel, mono plugins for bass channels, reverb for pads / synths and so on). Then I have stuff on the master channel as well and the CPU does improve when I disable Ozone. I then also use some bus for things like filter sweeping and stuff.

So I am guessing here but in terms of DAW an insert is where your dropping the FX on the signals FX channel directly instead of sending the signal out to say a bus and returning it?

I mean I get using busses if your grouping lots of channels to apply a particular FX to all the audio but im not exactly sure what is classified as an aux send in a software DAW like ableton?

Its good to see that maybe hardware is not the total issue rather workflow that could be improved and plugins that aren't all that and a bag of chips and should be dropped! Also good that soundcard I already have should be ok to use. I have never found ASIO drivers from Tascam themselves which I hear might improve things.

Anyway think I will still invest in a new machine and maybe ease off the extreme setup I was thinking about and spend perhaps on the software end of things instead and get smarter with the workflow.

AS I suspected.

Before you go out and buy anything, there's a number of things you can do which will at least partially (if not totally) negate the need for a new computer:

Firstly, get the proper drivers for you tascam card. This will make a massive difference as ASIO4all is just a bandaid.

Here you go:

http://tascam.com/product/us-122l/downloads/

Secondly, your plugins and your way of working is what is killing your CPU and hampering overall performance.

1, Take everything off the master. You don't need anything on the master, unless it's a meter/spectrum analyzer or a plugin to allow to check mono. Someone who does not know about proper mixing techniques should not have a thing on the master.

2, rather than use a million different instances of reverbs, delays etc, just find a few that you like (one long reverb, on short reverb, one other, then a couple of different delays). Create and Aux track and insert those reverbs in to them, make the reverb or FX 100% wet and set the fader to unity.

Then any track that you want to add reverb to, just go to that track and dial in that send to taste.

Right now, your CPU is being crushed by using probably something like 40-50 fx for just 15 tracks. This way, you can run 40-50 track because you're only using 5-6 fx for them.

After you've done these steps, you'll see that you quite probably don't need a new computer.

Oh and Rbass does nothing apart apart from introduce harmonics to trick you in to thinking the bass is fatter, but it's not add your just adding mud to your mix, especailly when you don't know what you;re doing.