Chicago is a place that I've been to, and you haven't... ha, ha... ha, ha, ha... ha, ha (thud — "arrghh").

Sorry about that, but flying takes different people in different ways. Chicago is the mid-year host for the NAMM (= National Association of Music Merchants) show. There are lots more people in America than there are in Britain, which is why they don't let them into their music fairs. NAMM is a purely trade event useful to youse and us for two reasons: (a) it's where the major manufacturers unveil new gear they didn't have ready in time for Frankfurt (the world's biggest music expo, in February) and, (b), you get to see the smart, backroom boy inventions spawned in garages up and down the States that seldom make it to England.

Example, the very first thing we saw, 50 seconds after entering was the Sustainiac — instant, guaranteed, controllable guitar feedback at a handful of watts. How does it do this? By taking what you've just played, amplifying it, and feeding it back through a transducer (crudely, a loudspeaker) fixed to the underside of the headstock. This keeps the neck vibrating, which keeps the string vibrating, which sustains the note, which keeps the neck vibrating... etc, etc. Brilliant, simple, and with the attached footpedals for level and harmonic selection, very controllable. One of the cleverest objects at the show, and this time we may get to see it. The Sustainiac has been slated for appearance at the alternative BMF in the Hand and Flower Pub opposite Olympia, but since they're having to manufacture special British mains versions, there are no promises.

And while we have winged briefly back to Blighty, then hark. The best live demonstration at NAMM is due to be repeated at the British Music Fair — it was the newly unveiled Yamaha WX7 Wind Synth. Standard Boehm sax fingering, but coming in loose and tight lip models, it's semi-duophonic - able to sustain one note on one MIDI channel while you play a new one on a second. Akai's EWI wind synth is barely on the streets and already has a fierce (and perhaps cheaper) competitor. If you see nothing else at the BMF, attend the Yamaha demo and wonder how the hell they make a wind instrument play a guitar solo like Gary Moore.

A small competition goes on amongst the press at NAMM. Yamaha won. Its press release on new products was actually 21in thick. We have: the Yamaha DX7-S (as exclusively revealed in last month's Making Music), a cheaper, single layer version of the DX7II (about £1200 was the rumour), the MSS1 MIDI to SMPTE synchronizer boasting a 10 bank memory with a wild 7168 memory locations; the QX3 sequencer offering 16 tracks, 48,000 notes, and a built in 3.5in disk drive (£1130); the TX802, (essentially a DX7II in a rack) (£1330); and a whole line of mixers which we don't have room to go into here, plus the heralded REX50 digital effect library — a giant potential killer of a reverb/delay/flanging/modulation effects unit (£365).

The drum machine that nicked the headlines came from those depressingly successful people, Alesis. A full 16bit sampled, 48 sound, 100 pattern/100 song digital drum machine for £449. Yes four, four, niner. Unusually for a product this early in its development (the display model was hollow), it's the samples themselves that win the day. Someone's done a magnificent job in recording a selection of beautiful snares and bass drums which are noticeably more realistic than current sampled drum boxes. There's an 8-track MIDI sequencer to go with it at £299. They're called the HR-16 and MMT-8, and will make that thin bastard Bob Wilson who imports them a rich man.

Guitar synths? Couldn't move for them. There were Casio's as mentioned last month which I'd like to tell you about, but the American demonstration was one of the most inept and self-indulgent I've seen. The British are better, thankfully. There was a Suzuki... er... guitar with moulded rubber strings and a built in drum box, though I think we'll file that under brave effort and 12 year old's Christmas present.

But there was also the Quantar. Oh yes. For once a guitar synth that looked good — a simple white Strat body and normal neck, no pickups, just a compact tremolosed tailpiece — and which broke away from the confinements of pitch-to-MIDI, or electrical fret contact.

It works... ahem... by radar, more or less. A signal is sent up and down the strings, scanning them to see where your fingers are, and interpreting that as the MIDI data. It can sense string bending, damping, muting, hammer-ons and pull-offs but all the strings have to be the same gauge — Bs. The demonstration was good, but if the Stepp guitar has taught us anything, it's "never judge a guitar synth by its guvnor." When we get our own hands on a Quantar, we'll let you know if they've solved the musical puzzle of the decade.

Fuss was also being made about the Passac Sentient Six, a pitch-to-MIDI job, able, it would seem, to sense the position of your pick on the string, and its direction (up or down strike), and use the data to control modulation and/or other MIDI commands. Again it sounded good and fast, but see previous warning about hands-on judgements.

What else have we got? The Akai sponsored Linn drum machine, for a start, incorporating 12 bit enhanced sampling, 40K of memory (a total of 13 seconds), a nifty way of dealing with hi-hats, touch sensitive rubber pads, 16 samples output at once, Shift Timing so a whole track can compensate for MIDI delay, and more than 200 help messages built into the software. Lovely, but at £2,999 the ADR 15 has to go some when 16 bit technology is breaking through at £499 with who knows what to follow.

At £6,000 the Simmons SDX sampler/kit maker is even pricier, but what a piece of software. The most sympathetic and inventive we saw. Kit maker is our title, and not an undeserved one. The SDX lets you design your own drum skin to trigger any sound you've sampled. It builds in nine layers so you can dictate how the Simmons pad reacts depending on where it's struck, how hard it's struck, 'why' it's struck... it will be the state-of-the-art drum sampler, providing there are enough state-of-the-finance drummers to apply it.

Tascam introduced the Porta 05, Fostex uncovered the X-30, both duelling for the ground entry end of the home studio market. Four-track, portable, cassette recorders they are, but the X-30 is certainly the zippiest looking — all angled and upended sliders, and a sleek rounded case which ventures away from established layouts. Spec details on the 05 were slim at NAMM, but the four-in/two-down, hi-low eq decks look closely matched for facilities. DBX on the Tascam, Dolby B or C on the Fostex.

You can now buy Ibanez six strings with hand-holds cut into the body; little, finger shaped spaces sliced out of the upper bout at just the position the guitar balances. And in garish colours. Who needs a case, raise the shields, Sulu.

Guitars, generally, were a disappointment, only reinforcing the need for a Strat backlash. About the only American makers worth standing a drink for were Paul Reed Smith, and Charvel, both turning in delightful guitars for guitarists, if rather rich ones. Experts told us Gibson had much improved their finishes.

Washburn went ever angular with the Limited Edition Tour series, most striking example being the Ace Frehley model with its distinctive two octave Carbonite fretboard, slashed through by a white zig-zag halfway up the neck. What will they, etc etc. A more traditionalist line from Peavey, who are still targetted on taking over the world by word of mouth and lean priced product. Interesting to talk to the boss, Hartley Peavey, who recognises they have an image/endorsement problem amongst top players in Britain. Not enough of them seen using it. Even though they do.

Now let us talk samplers. For a start there is Emulator 3 — 16 bit, 16 voice, 8 megabytes of RAM producing 135 seconds of sampling time at 31 kHz, onboard sequencer running SMPTE and MIDI, five octave, weighted keyboard, but will arrive in keyboard or rackmount versions by the fall. That's autumn, Limey-types. This time it follows a very cool, pastel design, not unlike the E-Max, and carries an internal 40 Megabyte hard disc drive. "A musical instrument, post production work and digital effects processor in one system," they said. The E-Max has also been upgraded to onboard 20 Megabyte hard disk, loading its library in three seconds. Anything else! Oh yes, the E3 is fully stereo.

Korg appear to have upgraded their DSS-1 sampler and slotted it into a rack. The 16 voice DSM-1 gives you 64 seconds of sound, divided, so it would seem from the slightly woolly spec, into four layerable levels. Plenty of split points, and an individual output for each of the 16 voices, if you wanted. Top sampling rate is 48kHz, but not sure whether its "One Mega Word" memory provides for 64 seconds at the rate, or something lower.

Two years ago 360 Systems cleverly released the MIDI-Bass bearing a quartet of preset, monophonic bass samples for you to trigger from a sequencer. Everyone needs good bass lines, don't they! It was a positive success, and this NAMM saw the new version — eight samples now with definable crossover points and sample swapping when you hit the keys harder. No built-in keyboard, of course, just a slim, MIDI operated, rack-mounted unit selling in the States for $595. It comes with samples of flat picked Precision, thumbed funk, popped funk, flat picked Jazz, pizzicato stand-up acoustic, finger picked Precision, flat picked Precision (flat-wound strings) and flat picked Steinberger. Never knew there was so much you could do with four strings.

While in preset mode, Roland revitalised an old set of initials with the CR-1000. Remember the old, pre-programmed drum boxes that used to adorn early Phil Collins albums! Disco 1, Disco 2, Samba, Cha-cha, and all that! Now there's a PCM sampled update offering 48 rhythms to take the strain off the brain.

But you'll see all this at the BMF anyway, won't you!!