For a long time i have been fiddling with keyboards, not in the western classical sense, but i used to try 'carnatic music' on the keyboard. I used to get highly frustrated because i couldnt express a majority of my musical ideas on the keyboard. Indian classical music thrives on "continuity", and with a discrete set of keys in the keyboard it is quite impossible to achieve continuity . Yup i have used the "pitch bender", well it is not possible to go more than one or two pitches using the pitch bender (they say with the latest MIDI keyboards the pitch bender is configurable). Well to me, the pitch bender inherently is not designed to go beyond 2-3 pitches and you need exceptional skills to control it even if it offered a high pitch range. Seriously I cant imagine playing the multifarious gamakams of Raaga Todi/Jog using that !!
So basically to me "Current 'purely' electronic instruments are not suitable for producing Indian Music at 'real time' " I emphasize real time 'cos i know a bunch of music editing softwares that can do anything with recorded music.
