My adventures into computer generated music:

 i am currently using NI Reaktor, Propellerheads Reason, CoolEditPro, Stylus RMX, AAS Tassman , a bunch of freeware/shareware such as Triple Cheese and String Theory, and various plug-ins. i'm particularly pleased with physical modeling software synthesizers. Tassman, and the modeling suite, from Applied Acoustic Systems, certain PM Reaktor stuff, and String Theory all sound fantastic to me. 

i am not all that fond of 16bit/44.1k digital audio quality but i think the situation is much improved with 24bit recording. i can hear the difference between 16bit/44.1Khz and 24/96 (on a really good playback system. that stated , i often do things at 24/44.1k. and, unfortunately mp3 for internet perusal. mp3 is the scourge of music, imo.

i'm using PCs with windoze XP as they are cheap. i mostly buy them used, then slap a new hard drive or two in them.  My main desktop pc (the Dragon) is a cheapo Gateway with an AMD6000 (a 3Ghz processor) and a Native Instruments Kore V1 audio interface. My newest laptop, portable noise-maker is dragonfly, an HP with a core duo processor, 2 hard drives, and a strong constitution.

 In the interest of actually creating some music i try not to spend too much time doodling with new softwares. If i was just learning to play the violin i would rarely fiddle around with say, the clarinet, or harpsichord. i consider each piece of software as a complex instrument that will take years to master. 

Since i originally wrote that last sentence i have purchased Native Instruments Komplete, ableton live, the full AAS modeling suite, and Camel Audio Alchemy. so now i am experimenting with Absynth and Kontact and Battery and FM8...etc...so much for mastering just one or two softsynths.(up to here was written in early 2000s)

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  Wow, it's now 2023, a decade and a half have passed. Just after that 2007 update i found an opportunity where i had a four bedroom house to occupy and i built a large electro acoustic jam room which had two homebuilt modulars, piles of old synths, a Korg Kronos, Moog Voyager,two laptops, one desktop, a Mosfet power amp, large loudspeakers, and piles of weird noisemaking stuff. I'm now back to mostly all virtual synthesis as my hardware is sitting in a storage unit temporarily. I'm using three laptops, one old Win 7 (which now functions only as an instrumant, a Win 10 Razer gaming laptop (junk, but it has the graphix), and a cheapo i3 which does internet, music, and other computerly duties. I have a Win 10 i5 desktop waiting for upgrades. As for virtuals i'm still using everythng named above plus a few more (Kaivo, Omnisphere, Zebra...) It seems that i did go back to "using what i have" instead of buying the new, shiny, shiny. I haven't bought a synth in years. That said i will likely be acquiring some new stuff (Bazille, Plasmonic and some other PM synths).

Just recently i have started Reaktoring again. It seems that generative audio is all the rage, when i started doing it there was no term for it. i always called it "Autopilot." I've have started building virtual synths (in Reaktor and VCV Rack) for this purpose.

cloud of sounds