As a classically trained musician, it may be surprising that I even ask this question. I would be the last person to want to stop playing my acoustic piano, but as a composer using electronics, I have reached a turning point in my approach to making music. The two traditional methods of writing are either done with your instrument helping you along or by translating musical ideas straight onto manuscript. Plenty of acceptable modern music comes from experimentation although I am very often drawn towards traditional form. But now I am concerned with many other factors that lead me through several tasks to make my final piece.

First, the sounds have to be constructed and here I might spend several days linking devices with treatments that give the expected result. Sometimes, a different sound will emerge that takes me in another direction. More and more along the chain of composition in electronic music I am 'playing with dials', interfacing and even constructing to overcome limitations of existing equipment. Limitations in playing - in polyphonic playing due to the inability to cope with many parts at the same time or in monophonic, due to poor accuracy on fast notes - can all be overcome using dedicated micro/instrument storage and sequencing. Programming can set me back a week for just one small 'event'.

The more instruments and processing equipment I have, the more I must be able to select the right devices from the start. Then at last, I reach my actual composing stage (usually planned earlier) and afterwards spend considerable time evaluating tracks as to their quality and accuracy. The final mix down to stereo or quad marks the end of the piece, although it will be some time before I feel it is acceptable.

And so my piano is neglected, the instruments need maintaining and updating and further projects are planned for making new sounds and treatments. Listening to a wide range of music is vital in between times as a stimulus for new ideas. Discussing with other musicians problems and methods of composition is also an essential part of creating music.

E&MM can help in many ways to fill gaps in your knowledge of electronics, and provide information on musical events and performance that is essential for the modern musician. Like a good composer, it thrives on suggestions and feedback from its readers.

In choosing the spheres of electronics, computing and music as our specialist subjects, the magazine embraces the areas that are motivating a huge consumer industry into action and it is only the indiscriminate few who will reject or miss the opportunities for the future.