Is it music or noise?
It's music of course. Don't confuse playing an instrument with composing. What is the difference between a composer telling an orchestra exactly what to play (and how to play it) or him telling a computer the same thing? Look into something called musique concrète or avant garde composers like Cage and Stockhausen and how they stretched what noises could be construed as music. The electronics are just a tool that the composer uses, just like any other musical tool - whether it be a rock band, an orchestra, a solo voice, a synthesizer, Tom Waits with a megaphone or two tin cans and a bit of string.
Some of the most amazing music has been written on instruments which are at their very foundation a lot less expressive than the modern sample bank or synthesizer. Consider a harpsichord, a Hammond B3 organ (which is an additive synthesizer, BTW) or even a pipe organ - none of which are even touch sensitive. The Beatles used the the studio itself as one big electronic instrument and compositional tool - does that make their work any less valid as compositions? What about Pink Floyd using a sequencer and synth for
On The Run?
Granted the electronic technologies of sequencing, sampling, synthesis and loops make it easier for the non-musician to make music and, as a result, there is a lot of dreck out there, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater - there are others who are creative and are composing good music.
I consider MIDI samples to be about as musical as old fashioned cellphone ringtones, since they sound the same regardless who plays them.
I used to think the same until I heard Tony Drake playing a sax part with all the expressiveness of a real saxophonist. Ever heard Jan Hammer?
