vache

IDM artist Venetian Snares uses Renoise. Here's a demo track he uploaded back in 2006: ▶ this video He also uses it to control a gigantic modular synth setup

Not really "budget". I imagine that hardware was relatively expensive. Venetian Snares Renoise > ▶ this video

People have been doing this kind of thing with trackers for some time. Here's Vache by Venetian Snares, from 2006: link And here's a webcam video of the sequencer data scrolling past: ▶ this video The techniques are much older. Here's a screengrab of the OctaMed tracker running on an amiga, playing back the original drum tracks from Aphrodite's jungle classic Beats Booyaa from 1994: link And here's the whole of Beats Booya to hear it in context: link Real producers chop their beats in hex ;) EDIT: also, most music software includes something called an arpeggiator, into which you play chords, which it breaks up into little sequences of notes according to different parameters. Set the interval down to 20ms or so and you've got your black midi :) That's also how you get those distinctive chord-like sounds out of monophonic soundchips in oldschool video games.