I am a drummer but I use drums machines extensively. I also use electronic pads. You can sync them together as well as pull out drums voices from my synths and use them all at once. You can also take non-drum voices and put them in the pads and play, say, a string section like a drum. Not only do drummers not see anything wrong with drum machines, most of them make use of them. The better a drummer you are, the better programs you can make up. Phil Collins's drum programs are incredible. I use the Alesis SR-16 which is kind of outmoded now but it still works. Millions of drum sounds and programs in that thing.

GfS: I use a Roland U-20 and a Roland D-10. The U-20 is actually a sample player rather than a true synth although you can do mind-warping things with the sounds. Its keys are weighted like piano keys and its string sections are incredibly lush. Other synths have thin string sections. Both my synths are outmoded now but I still use them. I'd like to get a Buchla Music Box but they are upwards of $10,000 so I guess I'll hold off on that for a while. I use Cakewalk and Sonar software but often resort to my trusty old Alesis MMT-8 sequencer if I'm just trying to get a demo down. If I like the line I played, I can always take it right off the sequencer and drop it into the Cakewalk.

Even though I do a lot of avant-gard, ambient and noise pieces, I still consider myself primarily an acoustic musician.

As for A=432 as opposed to A=440, I'm all for it. I'd love to go back to A=432.

People like Ron, who hide their inability to understand electronics with a veneer of snark, are the ones in the end who will lose relevance. If you have a choice between a musician who plays only acoustic and seems hostile to electronics and a musician who understands and plays both acoustic and electronic, which would you rather pick as a bandmate?

And, Ron, I can keep on answering as much as you wish. No inconvenience for me. Sure, I can live with you sneering down at everybody who doesn't agree with you, it doesn't affect my standing with anyone and I don't tell people that they should just live and let live and forget about arguing and then ask them, "Oh, by the way, what about drums machines? Can't comment on those, eh?" That's clearly perpetuating the argument and not living and letting live. But, as I said, I'm happy to answer any and all questions you may have.