Dan Costello's yen for what amounts to a playable (on the computer keys) drumkit [see vol 20, issue 21] suggests the following wild & crazy thought: Does a computerized percussion composer really need to work within the constraint of having to choose among a limited number of specific predefined drumkits, as if playing live with real instruments? And why not allow patterns to be typed in with all ten fingers, rather than just clicked into the grid with the mouse pointer? Of course the existing drumkits in DB do make good musical sense, and I'm all for limitations as a spur to creativity. But how dangerous would it be if DB were to open up an alternative method, by allowing users to assemble their own custom kit (or kits) easily for each new piece, choosing the particular set of drums and velocities required from a mega-library that includes all currently accessible sounds, and assigning each of those chosen sounds to specific computer keys in whatever logical way makes sense to the user? I suppose the next big question would likely be: How to enable said users to PLAY actual music on their custom keyboard drumset, either stepwise or in real time, and have the resulting pattern recorded, not just as an audio file or a MIDI file, but in a format that could then be saved, edited, and eventually translated visually into Doggiebox notation on the DB grid? Does anybody else think it might someday be worth our Master Magician's while to go in such a dizzying direction? -Sterling Beckwith