Have you ever tried creating electronic music with Fruityloops software on PC or Garage Band on MAC?
If you did then you know how easy it is to compose a tune with samples of real instruments and other sounds.
I’m not a musician but I was able to create some nice music and soundtracks for my DVDs. A few weeks ago my co-worker has mentioned MONOME project, it is an input/output* device for a computer which allows you control your music loops by hand in real time as it plays.
It really simplifies how you control the music, create and change beats on the fly. Some DJs would give an arm and a leg to own one of these. Really, with sophisticated control like this they could mix with just one hand and no legs!
Monome hardware and software are Open Source and there are other applications for this device written by creative hackers, for example it can be used as an interactive game input and display.
It would be difficult to explain how this works, see for yourself: