Insisting on getting hold of new equipment for a reasonable length of time before passing judgement has been a strict E&MM policy more or less since the magazine's inception. The idea is that unless we have the time to test the gear thoroughly, our conclusions aren't going to be of much value to our readership. Clearly, there's little point jotting down a few paragraphs on the basis of a half-hour demonstration at a show: they simply aren't going to be worth reading.

But it's a policy that has its drawbacks. The first of these is that actually getting the equipment out of the grasp of its manufacturer can be a frustrating and at times utterly futile task, but once that hurdle has been overcome, a second starts to loom large on the horizon. What do you do if, for whatever reason, the equipment you've taken such trouble to get your hands on is lacking in some vital ingredient, like confirmation that it is exactly as the production models will appear, or appropriate documentation, or simply the leads to hook it up to an amp?

Well, the normal course of action is to get back in touch with the manufacturers. And that's where a couple of firms have been of immense assistance this month, helping us transform ill-informed, incomplete essays into accurate, comprehensive appraisals.

The first problem concerned Yamaha's top-notch FM production system, a costly but impressive set-up that has no overall title, but whose component parts - TX816-QX1-KX88 - read a bit like a Portugese car number plate. Anyway, all three items of hardware arrived safely at the door of reviewer David Ellis some time before this issue went to press, something for which we were grateful enough. Only problem was, the good Doctor had no audio cables with which to connect the TX816 to his mixer.

'No sound, no review', we said to Yamaha, who responded by graciously sending about £100 worth of XLR-to-jack cables direct to David's London address. First panic over.

The second on our list of mishaps befell staff newcomer Tim Goodyer, who'd been given the unenviable task of reviewing a prototype Akai MIDI sampler. The machine - code number S612 - came without any official documentation of any kind, so there were bound to be a few technical questions we'd want to ask before publishing anything.

Fortunately, and through the good offices of Akai UK and their PR company, our questions were not only relayed to the Japanese but also replied to within a day or two after Easter. Giving us sufficient time to turn Tim's incoherent scribble into a piece of (reasonably) investigative journalism that actually makes sense.

Which brings me neatly to describing some assistance of a different sort, namely within E&MM's own hallowed chambers. For this issue sees the swearing-in of two new additions to the magazine's editorial staff, Tim Goodyer (who takes up the post of Music Editor) and Hardware Editor Simon Trask.

Actually, Simon's job title is a little misleading, because in addition to having overall control of E&MM's hardware reviews (you know, the bit at the front where we tell all those ever-so-helpful manufacturers where they're going wrong - and why), he'll also be applying his considerable software expertise to E&MM's Computer Musician section. And from the word go, there's been no reason to doubt Simon's enthusiasm for the task that lies ahead; he's already spent two entire nights working on reviews, the products in question being the Sequential MultiTrak and the Joreth software package.

As for Tim, he's now recovered from the shock of having the Akai sampler thrust into his unsuspecting hands on his first day in Cambridge, and from now on will be taking care of most of the artist interviews and related features that make up our Music section, as befits his title.

So with any luck, all I'll be responsible for on the June issue will be making sure the new boys can spell correctly, and trying to think of something interesting to say as a leader comment. Sounds great.