[fervor]

Yes, I’d say that interface makes enough of a difference such that musicians enjoy the challenges they present. And from my experience, this influences the outcome of the work, which presents interesting possibilities.

For example, consider the following scenarios:

1. Musician is sitting at a desk, drawing midi notes on a screen, much the way he might enter data on a spreadsheet.

2. Musician is standing over two independent hardware synth/sequencers, twiddling knobs, usually in sync with the tempo. That standing position might even incline him to dance. The body is now playing a significant role.

[progre]

Paint by numbers vs a blank paper. I can't use a DAW, I end up with the musical equvilent of dickbutt every time.

[IYasha]

Came back specially to say I agree with both of you and many others - there's a huge difference between playing music and programming music. I prefer another way, when possible: record sheet live (midi, or it, xm, etc) and then edit things a bit. Mainly because I'm an idealist and a programmer. It's very important to me to have music in "vector (vs. raster)" - notes instead of stream format. So, requirement to have hardware instrument is always bugging me.