Rock and Roll Charity

Eddie Van Halen's guitars may well have traipsed across these very pages during the past, but have you ever seen one? (And I don't mean via some sweat stained binoculars at some flea infested festival). Come to that, have you ever wondered what Duane Eddy's worn and torn and well battered and fatigued semi-acoustic must look like after all these years?

Well, ponder no more as the world's greatest Rock 'n' Roll restaurant has all the answers. London's Hard Rock Cafe, in association with America's NBC Radio, recently unveiled Europe's first Rock 'n' Roll museum, and for the price of a burger (the best burgers on both sides of the Atlantic), the last Sunday of every month will welcome members of the public to witness for themselves the aforementioned items as well as hundreds of others.

Owner Isaac Tigrett has amassed a cool half million pounds worth of Rock memorabilia — from one of Pete Townshend's Les Pauls to an Eric Clapton Strat to a Police gold disc to some original lyrics by Marc Bolan (Metal Guru and The Slider).

Those present at the opening ceremony were Nik Kershaw, Jeff Beck, Stuart Copeland, Rick Parfitt, and Steve Lillywhite to name but a few. Koo Stark even showed up and revealed a dash more suntan than the whole of Costa Brava put together, but that's besides the point.

In aid of the less fortunate, each musician who has presented an instrument has been given a cheque for £2,000 which is to be donated to a charity of their choice.

Sounds like a good idea to me, and to 13,000,000 Americans (to whom the show was simultaneously broadcasted), and a host of stars, Live From The Hard Rock Cafe is the best museum in town. DM

Lexicon 200 Reverb Software Update

DM Lexicon's professional mid-priced digital reverb, the Model 200, has some new programmes and updates to add to its existing reverb programmes. The Model 200 itself is not as well known in this country as it is over in the States, where you would be hard pushed to find a professional studio without Lexicon outboard gear. To get an idea of the Lexicon 'sound', have a listen to Vangelis' Chariots of Fire soundtrack, or just about any major Stateside release over the past four years.

Although the 200 has been around for a little while, the new software does give it a substantial facelift. Previously, the 200 had three types or reverb programmes — 'Halls', 'Plates' and 'Chambers'; each of which have 10 variations which can also be edited by the user.

These programmes have now been augmented by 10 'Rich Plates', 10 'Rich Splits', and six 'Inverse Room' programmes. The Rich Plates are alternate Plates, slightly bigger and more colourful alternatives to the standard plates. The Rich Split is a very interesting programme as it transforms the standard 200 from being a two-in/two-out unit into two one-in/one-out units, making it possible to have a mix of two different programmes from the one input. The third new programme is a straightforward backwards room programme, rather similar to the AMS's, yet with a little more colour and variation (of which there are six versions).

The other major improvement is that these programmes also have facility for infinite hold of the reverberant signal, which I found to be much more versatile and useful than one might at first assume.

These programmes can be fitted free of charge to all existing Lexicon 200 units, and the 200 itself will still be retailing at under £5,000.00.

If you are in the market for spending this kind of money on a digital reverb, make sure you check this one out before jumping at the AMS or Quantec units. CS

Sycologic MIDI Matrix

In the back of Syco Systems' showrooms (that incidentally have more in common with an art gallery than a high-tech music shop) is their answer to the Emerald City, which goes under the name of Sycologic. Once your eyes become accustomed to the green glare of the interior decoration, you can see the sorry sight of bits of Fairlights lying alongside bits of Emulators, no doubt in the process of being repaired. This is, in fact, Syco System's workshop, yet repairs are not all that happens behind their closed doors. Sycologic, you might remember, are the blokes who, amongst other things, make the MX1 expansion board for the DX7 (increasing its internal memory from 32 to 128 voices).

What all this chat is leading to is their latest 'gift' to the MIDI musician, the MIDI Matrix. This is a unit which will take four MIDI inputs and four MIDI outputs, and be able to route any of them to each other by infra-red remote control no less!

The Matrix consists of a small, grey box with a four-by-four grid of LEDs, surrounded by two sets of push buttons. These relate to the MIDI sources and destinations, the source buttons also having an LED built into each one of them to indicate the transmission of MIDI data. The routing of MIDI information can either be done from the mother unit or by an optional hand-held remote control unit.

This is the solution for the growing number of people who are for ever unplugging and re-patching MIDI leads from their sequencer, drum machine, synthesizer, expander etc.

For further information Sycologic can be contacted on (Contact Details). CS

The Winners Take All

More celebrations took place at the IM headquarters the other day when two stunned readers took delivery of their competition prizes; to wit, a Westone Thunder guitar and bass in smart and matching light oak finishes.

Guitar recipient Colin Henson, a denizen of North London's Palmers Green, wasn't surprised by the finer details of the guitar's construction — he's already got one.

"Oh yes," he said confidently, "the only reason I entered is because I wanted another guitar like my main one. Now I can snap all the strings I want." Devotees of Colin's string-snappingly fast playing should be warned he plays in a couple of bands; one Jazz, the other ostensibly Pop, and both based near his home. Catch him and his new Thunder in the area soon.

Bassist Stuart Woodley, however, couldn't have got much more of a difference from his previous old and well-knackered Ovation bass. His brand spanking new Thunder was, he confided, to play its very first gig that selfsame night. Although his home address is in Tamworth, Staffordshire, Stuart plays — and indeed, though it's the same thing, works — at the Cafe De Paris in Leicester Square, deep in the heart of London. He's one of that rare breed, a professional musician, so he was delighted to get such a workmanlike axe in his sweaty mitt. "It'll really piss off the guitarist in my band," he said, "he always enters these competitions and this is the first one I've tried."

Westone distributors FC&N, in the guise of benign, bearded Ray Wilson, gave away the guitars without too much of a struggle and at the end of the day everyone went home tired, happy and having eaten far too many sandwiches. CM