Now here’s a brilliant idea. Rather than gracefully retiring his trusty Akai MPC4000 to the great loft in the sky, Zombie Nation is auctioning his online for charity! Yes, get a top MPC with celebrity heritage AND do your bit to help the rainforest too.

“This MPC has travelled with me to many countries and seen quite a lot of clubs It’s also the machine I made my last album, Zombielicious on,” he tells us. “It’s modded with an DOM 4GB disc and comes with an additional hard disk, CD ROM and the eight output option. It’s still covered in my gig stickers including one that says "HD up", which means "Head up, don´t look on the display like a nerd!”

Reason for sale? “I switched to the MPC 1000 recently, simply because it weighs 12 kilos less, which makes my life a lot easier! But this 4000 works great and is the most advanced hardware sampler ever built.”

So why the charity auction? “I wanted it to go to someone who appreciates the story of this machine which gave me a lot of great moments. The final auction price will be donated to WWF for rainforest conservation project in memory of Daniel Hansson - founder of Elektron Music Machines - who was a big supporter of the WWF. Remember: Paper has two sides so print doublesided!”

“The highest bidder will receive a copy of the proof of donation of the full amount as well as a signed photo of me and the MPC plus a list of all the dates and clubs this MPC travelled with me.”

The auction goes live on the 1st of March and you can find the page here. Bid generously and let us know if you win!

Future Music 223 is officially on sale today! It looks like this! Yes, we know some WH Smiths had it on sale on Saturday. But that's because they love it!

The theme this month is 'decades' both past and present. We've a round up of the hot new gear that'll take you through 2010 and beyond AND the results of our Gear Of The Decade awards.

It’s incredible to think that the noughties are over so quickly. But what has felt like a gradual change in music making has actually been surprisingly pronounced when you look at the facts. In the last 10 years we’ve seen massive keyboard workstations giving way to a laptop and software and elastic audio granting the power to make anything happen.

Hardware samplers are mostly consigned to eBay while the resurgence in classic analogue hardware grows ever more fierce. We look back at the last ten years and pick out the landmarks that shaped music in our Gear Of The Decade feature.

Likewise we look to the decade ahead across this issue, from the first wave of new gear in our Filter section to our review zone which sees not only the successor to clubland’s most popular DJ kit (the Pioneer CDJ-2000 gets reviewed for starters) but the return of Korg’s critically lauded but criminally under-employed Wavedrum. We’ve got the new generation of this amazing hardware reviewed too.

And this month we’ve more tuition (with more audio, video and project files on the disc) than ever before – backed up with a trio of In The Studio specials, from Joris Voorn, Sharam Jey and American legends The Crystal Method.

Check out the trailers below for a taster of the goodness on 223's free DVD!

Another packed issue! And if you're in any danger of not finding a copy you can:
A) Email us at futuremusic@futurenet.co.uk and tell us where you expected to see one (and we'll have words with our excellent circulation department and Mr Newsagent sharpish). Or...
B) Head to myfavouritemagazines.com and secure a copy via our online store there. (Go 'Music', 'Future Music', 'Buy A Back Issue' and go for 'February 2010'.)

King Kong Records owner and producer Sharam Jey gives FM a tour of the synths in his studio.

This weeks Production tip is the last from our ADE 09 collection and is from Flamingo Records star Patrick La Funk.

Joris Voorn gives us an insight into why he such a fan of the Mu-Tron Bi-Phase. You can see a full 'In the studio' with Joris in FM223 on sale 26 January 2010.

This weeks slice of production knowledge comes from UK Trance producer Simon Patterson.

The Noughties are over – goodbye Big Brother (almost), adios MySpace (kind of), farewell the music industry as a whole (yep) – wipe away your tears and embrace a new decade. The twenty-tens are here to stay (for a while at least) and here at FM not only do we look to the future (it's in the name) but we proudly salute the past. After all, where would the future be without generations of innovations and ideas and it's with this in mind that we put together our quick homage to the decade that was.

And for producers, musicians and engineers, it's been a hell of a ride. The cost of quality productions fell along with the perceived cost of music (d'oh) and with the hardware and software advancements we've seen in the past ten years, it's arguably easier than ever to get stuck in to producing professional music. We've decided to champion the gear that impressed us most, but we need your help. We've split our feature into five categories, and we need you to comment like you've never commented before and express your vote for each of the headings. The categories are as follows, with some examples to get you thinking:

Best Hardware Synth (microKorg?)
Best Studio Gear (LiquidMix?)
Best Software Synth (ImpOSCar?)
DAW of the Decade (Ableton?)
Innovation of the Decade (Melodyne?)

So make yourself heard and put your favourite bit of kit of software forward – and please don't say 'the Apple Mac'! Also, make sure you follow us on Twitter for more announcements and for even faster voting: FM Twitter

FM223 – On sale January 23rd

The first of our Production tips for 2010 comes from Flamingo Records star partnership, Shermanology.

FM222 goes on sale today and you can get the full 'in the studio' video with Simian Mobile Disco giving you a walk-through on creating sound using their huge modular synth the 'Wardrobe'.
If you cant find it in the shops then head over to www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk and grab a copy today.

This years last production tip comes from Trance star Sean Tyas.