I love this stuff. Can't get enough. The creative endeavor is my greatest love.
Guitar. Drums. Some keyboard. Trumpet. Recorder. Pots and pans. Anything I can find that I can turn into an instrument, etc.
Acid Music Studio. Sound Forge. Fruity Loops. And that really expensive, cool one. Forget the name... Used to be Cakewalk, though.
I play guitar, have a keyboard. I've been musically inclined all my life. You'd be surprised what kind of "hardware" I use to create music!
Everything from Renaissance to yesterday's release.
Are you kidding? I have way too many choices!
Everything. Everything influences me. Even the things I don't like filter through, somehow.
Crap. Just kidding. To each his/her own, right? I like to experiment, so some of my stuff is just plain weird. But I can also adhere to more "classical" forms if the spirit so moves me.
Write software and raise children.