Letter to Future Music magazine that won letter of the month award

Dear Andy,
this is with reference to justin purcell's letter in
fm140.i am confident that FUTURE MUSIC is here to stay
and no ammount of computerization of the music making
process is going to change that.as an example i want
to state my case-i have been a professional guitar
player/producer for the last 20 odd years and have
been an active participant in the new technologies and
evolving process of music gear as and when they
happened.though i took to midi gear very late about 3
years ago and have not looked back since.
when i was debating as to what kind of music producing
and recording set up to go for in my home studio,
after months of contemplating and thoroughly
researching the pros and cons of hardware vs software
setups i finally settled for a computer based
setup.starting off with the most common tools like
ACID,FRUITY LOOPS and CAKEWALK .i have spent the last
3 years hunched over my machine with a copy of the
latest FUTURE MUSIC for reference in times of distress
and solved million bugging problems only to realise
that i dont want to spend the rest of my life hunched
over my computer monitor trying to point a mouse at a
lame looking immitation of a classic beauty hardware
synth.i am moving strangely in the opposite direction
and in the last 1 year i have snapped up quite a
collection of hardware toys.
the point basically i am making is that with the
passing of time and with the knowledge of how
electronic musical instruments actually work i am
getting the urge to create music with the real
machines
and not just live in the bowels of my computer hard
disk.this knowledge btw is a result of endless hours
of devouring the pages of FM.
hardware has been strangely exhilarating to me with
the liberating feel of actually turning a knob and
slider and feeling the tones change in a more human
and subtle way.it has come to such a state that i am
constantly on the lookout for classic hardware synths
and most probably i will be getting a very good deal
on a korg m1.i already have a roland tb303,a yamaha
ys200,korg trinity,zoom sampletrack st224
sampler,roland gr 30 guitar synth.
future music has opened my ears and eyes to the world
of hardware musical instruments and i will be ever
grateful for that and as long as there are people who
value purity of tone i am sure hardware will be very
much alive and that means FUTURE MUSIC will be there
also to oversee all the developments and guide us in
this wonderful world of electronic music
production/composition.
long live FUTURE MUSIC.
cheers
tukiYoutube Channel

How Eric Johnson changed my life and made me who i am

Hi! i wanted to share this story about someone special with you all, well there is no story behind the composition of the tune SPACE GUITAR currently available at www.myspace.com/krosswindz but I would like to share how I discovered ERIC JOHNSON and his music and went on to get to know him through his work and eventually correspond with him.

In 1986 I was strolling down a dark dingy corridor in one of the oldest and erstwhile shopping malls of CALCUTTA (INDIA) called NEW MARKET when I noticed this magazine peeping out from a corner in a news store. The magazine had a very strange title-it read WHO IS ERIC JOHNSON AND WHY IS HE ON OUR COVER.I felt intrigued and I went up to the store and purchased what was my first guitar player magazine . I had already been playing for several years and was in that phase where practice was a personal war against the establishment and everything that was discipline oriented (school) and guitar magazines just added to the fuel to fight on.

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I remember going back home and poring over the magazine and then discovering that it came with a floppy record that you could play on your turntable. This was the defining moment of my musical life(and I really mean THIS)my whole idea and concept of what a guitar should do and sound like were turned upside down when I put on the sound page and my ears were greeted by CLIFFS OF DOVER live at AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.I have since that day read ERIC'S interview from that magazine a million times and it has been like an inspiration to me when I have been in a rut and in times of darkness and sorrow it has been like a beacon on the bay showing me the way almost like a healing touch and a kind gaze.

His music has left me with no words to express what joy and inspiration I have got from him, but along with that I have tried to imbibe in me what he stands for,LOVE,JOY,SHARING,KINDNESS,HEALING and MUSIC amongst so many other great things.I have tried to understand and follow ERIC not only musically but also in his attitude towards life and that is why i have kept his interviews so close to my heart and i follow them almost like rule books to life.

I have tried to read between the lines and follow every word that has been printed on his album sleaves to grasp every bit of inspiration and that special something that i cannot find a word to define.Maybe a term called ERIC'ISM will come about someday.

Well through the years my impatience to actually know the man got to such a degree that i finally put pen to paper in mid 1988 and wrote a letter to ERIC JOHNSON care of GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE.It took me a major part of a day to craft my masterpiece of prose!!!And I remember writing it down in a rough format in my notebook and after intense proof reading and then neatly writing out the letter in my immature hand writing. I think I managed to really scare ERIC out of his wits, he must have thought this is one hell of a demented fan and maybe a stalker for all you know. The letter was a very heartfelt commentary on how he had changed my life for the better and how his music had lifted me out of this morbid daze I was in!!!!I received a nice thick padded envelope in a couple of months with a sticker label from JOE PRIESNITZ,i knew the name from reading all his album covers and I could not contain my excitement remember running around mad for about 5 minutes before even opening the envelope to see what was in there. My brother finally coaxed me into opening the envelope which I did very gingerly and hey presto!!out came a cassette tape of TONES and a personally autographed photograph of EJ with the following written-ALL THE VERY BEST WISHES VIKRAMJIT LOVE ERIC JOHNSON.I almost fainted in happiness that he had actually put pen to paper and written my name.

I have since framed that photo and it hangs in my living room wall much to the amazement of my friends and students. The tape is in my home studio cd shelf and stands proudly with all the other EJ cd's.

The tune SPACE GUITAR is my humble effort to say thanks for everything to ERIC and I hope he will remember me from 1988 as the strange fan from INDIA.

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