>Electronic artists are limited by the rules programmed into their software, and very few people realize how severely limiting those rules are - they make 99% of the decisions for you.
That isn't remotely true. Yes, you can choose to quantize to a 4/4 grid, but that isn't mandatory. You can choose to operate in equal temperament, but it's relatively straightforward to work microtonally in most DAWs, particularly Reaper. Hugely popular instruments like Xfer Serum, ZynAddSubFX and UVI Falcon have full support for microtuning.
IMHO, it's far easier to make properly weird music in software than with traditional instruments. You have a vastly greater range of timbral choices, you have total control over intonation and you can program complex polyrhythms that would be far beyond the abilities of most professional musicians. If you really want to go balls-out on the weird, just learn Pure Data - there's literally nothing that it can't do.
That isn't remotely true. Yes, you can choose to quantize to a 4/4 grid, but that isn't mandatory. You can choose to operate in equal temperament, but it's relatively straightforward to work microtonally in most DAWs, particularly Reaper. Hugely popular instruments like Xfer Serum, ZynAddSubFX and UVI Falcon have full support for microtuning.
IMHO, it's far easier to make properly weird music in software than with traditional instruments. You have a vastly greater range of timbral choices, you have total control over intonation and you can program complex polyrhythms that would be far beyond the abilities of most professional musicians. If you really want to go balls-out on the weird, just learn Pure Data - there's literally nothing that it can't do.