Once again the polystyrene logos were dusted and the hardboard partitions erected, taking the strain of every major and minor manufacturers' 1985 product line. The Frankfurt Music Messe took place in the second week of February, and by now a number of the products should have made their way to your local retail outlet. Some of it won't be seen until much later on in the year, and some maybe early next. Some won't even be seen at all.

If you were thinking of buying something new over the next few weeks, make sure you read this supplement before you make your purchase; there may be something better just a few weeks away...

Akai are one of the newest companies to have expanded into the world of professional musical equipment, having only released their first products less than six months ago. Never the less, they have already launched five major new additions to this range — a new polyphonic programmable synth called the AX90, a remote (mother) keyboard called the MX76, a modular version of the AX90 called the VX90, and possibly their most exciting product is their MIDI digital sampling unit called the S612. This will generate a six note polyphonic output of any sampled sound by using 12-bit processing, giving sample times ranging from 0.25 to eight seconds. Controlled from any MIDI instrument, it will also loop manually, store the samples onto their optional 'quick disk', and will retail for approximately £800.00.

The fifth major new item from Akai is their 'Music Computer' system. This comprises four individual units — the computer/dual disk drive, recorder board, editor board and display; and is essentially a large MIDI sequencer. This was not, however, in a working state, and judging from appearances, it looks very elaborate and rather expensive.

Still on the Akai stand, we came across a few interesting MIDI accessories — a MIDI digital delay (ME10D), and a MIDI digital fader (ME15F); which has one MIDI in, four MIDI outs, and each output has its own fader. Both of these items simply work on the MIDI bus, remotely controlling the MIDI instrument's output. One other little box of interest is their MIDI arpeggiator (ME20A) — good news for ex-Juno 60 or Jupiter addicts.

AKG are another fresh from the drawing board with a new product — the D321 dynamic, shock-proof microphone. This is a rather phallic looking hand held mike, whose design is such that both its permanent magnet and the coil are suspended in the same housing. Theoretically this should all but eliminate pickup of handling noise, although we were not given a practical demonstration. Looks interesting though.

AKG also had some new wireless systems (as did most mike manufacturers) and in their case these were versions of the popular D330, the CK67 'tie clip' mike, and the new D321.

Allen and Heath brought their two new computer interfaces with them to Frankfurt — the CM164 with its built in software for expanding the CMC mixer's internal computer (when used in conjunction with a Commodore 64); and the CMS64 which is designed to complement the CM164, expanding the CMC's sequencer functions. Also on the AHB stand were their new range of SR Sound Reinforcement mixers as well as the Inpulse One drum computer and the new CMC mixer itself.

A subsidiary of Peavey, AMR, launched themselves into the European market with a whole range of stuff aimed specifically at the small studio market: a couple of small four-track mixers, a graphic Eq, three reference monitors, a power amp, a couple of mikes and a four-track cassette machine running at 1-7/8ips using either Dolby B or C and intended for use with a mixer. We have to wait and see what the British prices will be.

Though they no longer have the monopoly on aural excitement, Aphex were showing a new modular version of their ingenious Aural Exciter to fit either their own rack or the dbx modular system.

Aria have produced consistent, quality products over the years and look set to continue, judging from the evidence produced at the Fair. The Knight Warrior is an extremely presentable Strat shaped guitar with a humbucking, Hot Blades pickup in bridge position and two Hot Blades single coil units in neck and middle position. Interestingly enough, nearly every guitar company has models with this type of pickup configuration. The other features include Kahler Flyer trem and bolt-on neck.

The Lazer Electric series has a budget priced guitar around £150, again no prizes for guessing the shape. Joined in this range is an active twin pickup bass at £230 and a passive version at £180.

We're familiar with the brightly coloured ZZ guitars but Aria have added a new one, the Standard, which features an "Act-Ex" trem, Protomatic IV pickups and colour options of black and see-through red or blue. This should retail around £200.

Existing Aria trem guitar owners might be interested in the 'Act-3' trem assembly which is offered as a retro-fit. The trem features looking nut and fine tuners as well as saddle locks. Similar to the Floyd Rose, it should retail around £100.

On the FX side, there is a new effects controller which can switch various combinations of external effects — the APB-5. Five effects can be individually linked — the advantage being that any make of effects can be used although only three combinations can be programmed. The APB-5 will cost about £150.

For the economy minded guitarist the Series '£' effects will be of interest, priced between £40 and £65. Also a new Digital Delay pedal the DD-X10 with hold facility and a delay time from 14-1024 msecs which will retail at £180.

Audio Technics are one of many company who have jumped onto the proverbial portastudio bandwagon this year. Their four-track called the AT-RMX64, is unlike the majority of newcomers into the four track department, because it is primarily a top quality (and top price), professional model. With a three motor, direct drive, two speed transport, six input channels, balanced inputs with phantom powering Dolby B and C and soloing to mention but a few of its features; this looks to be quite a powerful tool, and will be available in this country from June onwards with a retail price of around £1100.00.

Bandive had their new 18-8-2 Seck mixer with a new meter bridge looking quite posh, and they also had the new addition to the Accessit range of effects on show — the Exciter.

Remo Belli, the man with more heads than Hydra, has further extended his range which now includes gold and silver-coloured Pinstripes. His pre-tuned kits now have a new covering which was tested in the boot of a car stranded in the desert. It didn't warp, so should stand up to a few lanterns in the local pub. The PTS kit is also available in power tom sizes.

Bokse are a British company who produce a universal synchroniser called the US-8. This will just as easily interface a Fairlight with any old mono synth, as it will the TR606 with anything else you care to think of. Certainly worth having a look at if you are in the market for a synchroniser, and they come from Royston, no less (where?).

Bond would liked to have thought that this was their show — the Frankfurt Daily (a daily trade paper produced for the show) ran much in the way of advertising and editorial on the Bond 'success' story. On the street, so to speak, it was a different story — Bond have a long way to go before the industry and the public come to think as highly of their guitar as they do.

The buzz of course, was about the (deep breath) 16 memory onboard programmable guitar with digital onboard tuner. Not such a surprise really as this has been mooted all along due to the phantom powering. However, the new Bond guitar is still in the prototype stage and we can't expect to see it for three months, six months, nine months — depending on which one of the Bond Empire is to be believed.

Still, whenever the instrument arrives it will no doubt be quite revolutionary. The programmability encompasses pickup selection, volume and tone, which can be over-ridden immediately the preset is called up if necessary. The on-board digital tuner is another very sensible idea which sits on the top of the guitar in full view of the player and promise to be very accurate.

Speaking to Andrew Bond and Dave Siddeley, the electronics designer at Bond, it is quite apparent that the new and existing guitars are really revolutionary, but I can't help thinking that the aggressive publicity behind the Bond instrument is doing more harm than good. If Bond truly are going to 'Beat the World', isn't it about time that the instrument itself did the talking? However, I look forward to seeing the new programmable guitar when it's available. At £1400, its proposed RRP, it will also be the most expensive mass produced guitar ever in the UK.

Canary, a well known name from the past, are very much back with the new Sterling Series: a range of low cost, high quality mixers suitable for either PA or four-track recording applications. Features include four-band fixed Eq on inputs channels and group outputs, four auxiliary sends, long throw faders and LED metering. The prices are unusually low for the quality of facilities provided.

As expected, Casio revealed their full size version of the CZ101 at the show. Namely the CZ1000 this proved to be identical in spec to the 101, yet with full size keys and velocity sensing. In addition to that, Casio had only a prototype of the CZ5000, looking pretty exciting, though we'll have to see what it sounds like next time.

Other than that, Casio's new products were pretty much as expected, with the addition to the home keyboard range of the MT-85, 36, 210, 100 and CK-500.

Carlsbro's large stand included the new Cobra and Marlin multi-purpose mixer amps. The Cobra has 90 watts output with twin inputs plus tape input, while the Marlin has similar spec but a higher power output at 150 watts. The Taurus range of PA cabinets looks as their name implies — extremely robust — and range from a single 122 12" speaker and radial horn enclosure — the ST2120 — up to the ST8150 'Four Way' cabinet handling up to 300 watts.

Leaning casually up against some Carlsbro stock were England's own Overwater guitars and basses looking typically smart. No new models as yet although an active guitar is promised, plus something which is entirely secret and I am not allowed to mention it!

Concert Acoustics, a small British firm, were presenting a new range of compact PA systems. They may not have the sophisticated appearance of some but they do offer a great deal of performance at a low cost.

Over on the Crumar stand was a final version of the Bit 1 expander. Called the Bit 01, this has a few more additions in the MIDI department since we last had a look at it. However, it looks a bit (no pun intended) boring in comparison to all the new arrivals on the scene.

Three new combos from Custom Sound are the 60 watt bass Cub with chorus and the matching lead and keyboard combos. Also new are their mini spot monitors all nicely finished in their unusual cloth covering.

From the DOD stable comes a range of rack mounting digital effects units under the heading of DigiTech, some of which have strange names and all of which offer good value for money. They include a range of delays, a multi-effects unit called a Chain Reaction, a kind of aural exciter entitled the EXR Projector, the Model 848 12 spring reverb device with pre-delay, the RD320 digital delay designed for PA time-alignment and a couple of 1U rack mounting graphic equalisers offering either two 15-band channels, or a single 1/3rd octave channel. The range looked well thought out and generally aimed at the budget studio.

Seymour Duncan just never stops — not content with the excellent Convertible Combo, he's now come up with a head and cab convertible amp which has to be heard to be believed. Of course it is pickups that Seymour is renowned for and new additions here include replacement Gretsch pickups, plus an active bass pickup with switchable Eq. Would you also believe that in his 'spare' time he's playing in a small combo with Albert Lee, as well as designing all sorts of non-guitar oriented products?

If the last 12 months have seen an ominous rumbling of activity from the European side of the Dynacord camp, the Frankfurt show saw their final eruption into an unspeakably wide range of new and innovative equipment, soon to be finding its way on to UK soil. Not only is it unspeakable, but it's also unprintable in detailed form with the space we have available. However, the range includes an 19" rack mounting intelligent MIDI control computer called the MCC 1. This unit can store up to 99 programmes which can be selected from an optional footswitch. It has one MIDI input and four outputs, each of which can be individually programmed to send a different programme command on a different MIDI channel for any single MIDI programme number input. The BIG BRAIN 16-track MIDI sequencer offers 16 dynamic tracks, no less than 1,500,000 bars of memory, a humaniser function and sync in/out. The Boomer is a digital sound sampler that will take a standard mike or line input, digitally quantize it, provide various editing/processing facilities, and store it in a digital memory module to be replayed by an external trigger pulse, such as from the Dynacord Percuter. Coming back to less hi-tech realms there was a range of power amps — the PAA Series, a new 2 x 130w 8 channel mixer amp — the ES800, a two-way electronic and a new range of stereo stage mixers: the MC12:2, MC16:2 and MC24:2, all with a full set of standard features including two stereo effects returns, stereo tape-to-mix-buss inputs and 100mm Alps faders. Also, many of the existing digital products have gained the suffix 'M' which shows that they are now MIDI compatible — even the amps.

On paper at least Dynacord's Reference Series bass and guitar amps look set to clean up with their combination of new and old technology. All the features — two input gain controls, four tones, spring reverb etc can be fully programmed into 16 memories. The amps can be controlled either by the key pad on the amp itself or a MIDI Memory foot-controller which not only calls up the memories but can control any link of the MIDI'd effects which Dynacord offer in profusion. Just to make your mouth water a little more, the amps are all tube. They can be rack mounted, placed in a combo or in a head configuration, which makes them extremely versatile. The Reference Series offers a 500, and 1000 — 65 and 120 watts respectively — amps which come in combo form or as a head or 19 " Rack mounted configuration and are specifically designed for guitar. The Bass version is the 4000 which includes BiAmping and Chorus facilities plus a seven-band Eq plus all the features of the guitar amps already mentioned. Lastly comes the Reference 2000 — the baby brother to the 4000 this comes without the programming facilities.

Also of note for the bass guitarist is the Performer series. The DSX-512 combo offers 300 watts, 11 band Eq BiAmping and has a 4x10" speaker configuration. A 150 watt combo, the DSX-312, offers seven-band Eq and a single 15" speaker.

Electro Music Research are a software company who shelter under the Rose Morris umbrella. At this year's show, they have unveiled their latest items, quite interesting as it happens; five MIDI interfaces for five different micros — Spectrum, Amstrad, BBC B, Commodore 64 and MSX. They also have several new software packages for performing, composing, editing and even notating (only in mono at the moment).

EMT, famous for their plate reverberation systems, have a new Digital Delay, the EMT 445. True to form, it is very powerful (16 bit, 20kHz bandwidth, 99 memory, 2-6 tap outputs...) and rather expensive (starting at £3000.00 for the dual tap model).

All the E-mu Systems team were over in Frankfurt, giving one of the most entertaining demonstrations, with primarily four Emulator IIs and the latest Drumulator mod with MIDI. Also on show was a prototype of the Drumulator II which they promise will be very cheap (!) and available in the summer — user-sampling 12 bit format, SMPTE reading/generating, MIDI, and fully dynamic and tunable voices...

Two of the most pleasant surprises of the show were to be found on the Ensoniq stand. First was their bargain priced sampling digital keyboard, the Mirage — eight bit multi-sampling, velocity sensing, split keyboard, built-in disk drive, etc for less than £2000 (see review elsewhere in this month's issue); and the second factor that made this stand such a popular one with the crowds were the two beautiful young ladies helping out behind the counter...

At the time of writing, the range of Europa pedal boards made in France do not have any UK distribution, but perhaps this mention will change the situation. These modular FX boards really are programmable, especially the MC1000 which is controlled by a microprocessor. This enables different settings as well as combinations of effects to be stored and recalled. The board has 12 memories and a range of modular effects units.

The Fairlight Voicetracker came up a lot in conversation at the exhibition. This little box will analyse an audio input in real-time, such as an instrument or your own voice, in terms of its dynamic envelope (changing loudness), its changing harmonic content (tone) and its pitch, and convert the results into a MIDI code (note, key velocity and pitch bend) that can be used to control another MIDI instrument. If you have a video monitor, you even get a graphic display of what's going on. In this way every non guitar-playing vocalist's dream may come true: select the right sound on your MIDI synth, and simply sing those breath-taking solos that you know you have in you, if only you didn't have such clumsy fingers; it will even correct your dodgy intonation. The possibilities for abuse by the HM fraternity are spine chilling; but what a great idea from Fairlight. From the same company comes a relatively low cost 'video paint box', the CVI. It works on the basis of a microprocessor controlled field store, allowing brush strokes, colours, lines and textures to be combined in real time with a recorded video image. No specialised knowledge is needed.

The Fender stand was full of earnest looking gentlemen who would rather not talk to me in case they got it wrong. You see, as periodically happens, Fender go mad — discontinuing ranges, bringing out new ones and generally confusing all, including their own staff. Eventually I received the Press Package, so I will now impart the news. William C. Schultz (Bill to his chums) has acquired Fender and all its production lines. This means that soon, Pre-Schultz Strats will exchange hands for sums of money only slightly less than Pre-CBS ones! UK distribution at the time of the show was still up for grabs, but it looks as though Ivor Arbiter is a very serious contender.

The main percentage of Fender guitars are now made in Japan and the new models are grouped in the usual confusing fashion. But first, let us start with the tremolo system, or rather the three tremolo systems — I, II and III. The System III is a beauty, with far more innovations than I've got space to mention. Suffice to say it's "user-friendly" — micro tuners that don't get in the way, tremolo lock so it can be trem or non-trem, and all the adjustment keys are built into the arm! The actual locking nut is also rather ingenious. It has a lever type action which simply locks the strings immediately it is moved. This System III trem really needs a review of its own and actually has five patents pending on the design. The system two tremolo has the locking nut but not the fine tuners or the lock-out feature on the trem. The System I trem has a standard type locking nut, two knife edge pivots and is really an upgraded version of the typical Strat trem bridge.

Of the guitars made in Japan, we have a Fender range and a Squier Range, each having three series; the Standard, Contemporary, and HM Series. Firstly the Fender guitars.

The Standard Strat has the system I trem and is the closest to the old standard Strat with Rosewood or Maple board. The Contemporary has five Strats and one Tele — these have no scratchplates and have various combination of pickups, humbucking and single coil. They use all the three trem systems and the top three models use the TBX tone system left over from the Elite series. There is a single Vintage guitar — a Tele sunburst with binding. The HM Series features an angular wedge shaped guitar called the Katana with a system I trem and a TBX tone. Only one bass is new, a Precision Jazz bass which as you can probably guess features both types of Fender bass pickup on a Precision body. All the Fender models now feature 22 frets, except of course, the basses.

The difference between the Squiers and the Fenders is the price. In the Squier Standard Series we have what used to be the Popular range, but with a four-bolt bolt-on neck and small headstock. The Squier Contemporary Series has two Strats with one or two humbucking pickups, the old style trem and 21 frets. The Squier HM series houses one Katana shaped guitar with single humbucker. Three new basses are offered in the Squier series; a medium 32" scale Precision, Jazz Bass and Katana bass again with a medium scale.

Prices range from £370 for a Standard Fender Strat to £646 for a Fender Contemporary Strat with a system III trem. The Squier series on the other hand, has a standard Strat at £241, a Contemporary Strat at £222, and a Jazz bass at £299.

Only the Vintage Series of guitars and what used to be the Elite — now being restyled to become the Performer — are made in the USA and were not on show here. The Vintage Telecaster mentioned is made in Japan. Certainly the new instruments look interesting and it will be worth waiting until later this year to see what other guitars are on the production line. We have to accept that barring the top of the line instruments, all Fender guitars are now exclusively made in Japan.

Fostex's extremely popular B16 16-track machine has had a slight upgrading (all you present B16 owners will be pleased to hear); the modification to the B16 itself being the direct drive motor. This gives the machine a faster start-up time (0.4sec.), as well as knocking off a few hundredths of a percent from the spec sheet. Additionally, the B16 is packaged with two 19" rackmounting units for the conversion of level matching from the standard B16's -10dB phono, to +4dB cannon.

Things haven't been good for Gibson in the UK for some time now, but once more they have some new guitars and have overhauled a few old ones in order to compete. There are basically five new models in the Alpha Series, the Q100, 200 and 300 and the XPL Standard and Custom. The Q models are distinctly Fenderish with their offset body shape and six-in-a-line machines. The 100 has a single Dirty Fingers pickup, the 200 has a Dirty Fingers in bridge and a P-90 update — the NP-90 in neck position, while the 300 has three HP-90's. The guitars feature Rock Maple necks and Ebony boards.

The APL's are nothing more than a couple of Explorers with a slightly sharpened shape. The basic difference is that the Custom comes with a curly maple top and edge binding. Dirty Fingers pickups are the order of the day with optional Kahler Flyer tremolo fitted.

Other new models come in the "By Special Request" series, a Les Paul DC XPL — a double cutaway with Explorer head. Flying V XPL with black hardware, Explorer head and Kahler arm. An old type Explorer shape with black hardware and Kahler and a bass version. Lastly the Spirit 1 and 2 XPL models with Explorer headstock bound tops and the Gibson Supertune trem by Kahler.

Gibson also have a Designer and Graphic series — basically Explorers with custom finishes and name guitarist finishes, etc, although I doubt that too many of these will find their way to the UK because of the prohibitive cost.

Cost has been the problem with Gibson guitars over the past few years and they are still expensive, but one thing is for sure — the quality of these instruments is immaculate.

Gretsch have joined the increasing number of companies entering the electronic drum field, though they're not actually making the drums themselves. The Gretsch Blackhawk was originally going to be Simmons-shaped but, rightfully so, Simmons are kicking up a bit of fuss about the more familiar looking electronic drum pads and Gretsch are still working on the shape. The brain got delayed on the way so I can't tell you anything about that. The Blackhawk name is also to be used on a new line of budget kits made in Taiwan as opposed to the US factory. After developing a bad name for dodgy stands, they've also introduced a new range of hardware called Techware, featuring quick-turn bolts, nylon inserts (even at the bottom) and a generally hefty look.

At last someone has produced a replica of Brian May's guitar and very good it is too. Featuring a Kahler trem and DiMarzio pickups especially designed for the guitar, this and other Guild instruments will be available direct through Mike Cooper who also handles Kramer in the UK. (There will be an in-depth interview with Brian May plus a review of the guitar in next month's issue).

Hamer guitars are not readily available in the UK, though enquiries should be directed through Rod Argent's store in London. Certainly it is our loss that Paul Hamer thinks the UK market is just too expensive to bother with. Hamer have a synth controller for both the Roland and Synclavier guitar synth systems called the Phantom A-7 as well as numerous well made colourful guitars. A recent addition is the Steve Stevens guitar in shocking pink — not for the faint hearted!

Mike Harrison, the man responsible for designing the very successful HH V range of MOSFET amps and the PTA series, has developed a new range of extremely high performance MOSFET power amps under the Harrison name. It should be noted that he has absolutely nothing to do with the US mixing console establishment. Said amps are the P900 and the X-Series: X150, X300, X600, X1000, X1200 and X1600 giving 76 watts, 150watts, 300watts, 500watts, 600watts and 800watts respectively, stereo into 4Ohms. Price range from £353.71 to £1,229.92.

In the mid seventies we lost a big name in drums, but the mid eighties have seen their return. Hayman drums were originally made in the UK, but now the 6-ply Mahogany shells and hardware are made in Taiwan, the familiar circular nutboxes and heads are British, and the lot is assembled here in Blighty. Two kits are now available; the Showman at £525, and the Universal at £400, plus an extra 8" and 10" tom for £150. They looked damned impressive to me, but you'll have to read Henrit's review in next month's IM for the full suss.

H/H have condensed two of their old combos, resulting in a new 100 watt bass unit retailing at £272.00 with six band graphic and compression. The old K-80 is replaced by the K-100 with an increase of 20 watts with three input channels and tape input as well. Designed specifically for keyboard players this should cost £342.24. The guitarist has a new Lead combo, the L100, to replace the Studio 100 with twin channel switching and two FX loops-well priced at £301.

On the PA front H/H have three new speaker cabs in the Invader series — a single 15", single 12" and a 2x12" and a 2x10". With a very rugged appearance, atypical price for these, which all handle 100 watts, will be £327.00 for a pair of the 15". The MXA 100 mixer amp replaces the NA 80. This four-channel mixer amp with reverb will retail at £235.00.

Big news at the Hohner stand was the Steinberger licensed wooden headless copies which come in all sorts of colours and feature the Steinberger trem (not the transposing one) and the new Steinberger leg-rest. Certainly Ned Steinberger was more than happy about these guitars. Four models are available at present; a standard and active bass and the standard and trem guitar. The retail prices on these is expected to be around £300.

Also worth a mention are the Sound Producer combos, the SP35, 55 and 75watt models. These looked very neat indeed, all featuring reverb and twin switchable channels, and it seems it won't cost a fortune either.

Hohner also surprised everyone with the showing of their electronic drum kit. Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone on the Hohner stand who could speak English, and no-one polite enough to find me someone who could. I gather the kit's called the Hohner Citec, and a non-modular brain appeared to contain digitally encoded sounds for bass drum, snare and four toms. There also appeared to be a modular brain — a rack mounted affair — which held an assortment of percussive and 'unusual' digital sounds. The pads were round and tensionable and looked a bit on the cheap side, though the sounds were pretty impressive. I'll let you know more about them when I've mastered a few more languages.

Worthy of a mention is Hondo's Flash bass. This stick bass is ingeniously designed by independent luthier Harry Flashman and features two piece-electric pickups in the bridge plus a standard Jazz-type pickup as well. Made from hard Rock Maple it has a two octave 24" scale.

The Ibanez range is so big and so constantly updated that one would think that the whole aim behind them is to have a different Ibanez in every house in the world! What's new? Well, I'll take a deep breath and here we go; MC940 and 924 Musician basses have been installed with active electronics and low impedance pickups. Pro Series Guitars have oil finished necks and the fashionable pickup configuration of humbucker in bridge position with two single coils in neck and middle position — tremolos are obligatory.

The Roadstar Series gets a couple of new additions — the RS530 which features red and black binding and 24 frets, and the RS525 which is the same, but with an arched top as opposed to a flattop. On the bass side, there's the RB Active bass with bolt on neck and binding.

Allan Holdsworth has a rather unique talent and very strong thoughts about guitar design too. Ibanez's Allan Holdsworth guitar, therefore, is rather unusual, with a lightweight Basswood body and 'sound cavity' under the scratchplate — an interesting guitar.

JVC had dozens of their excellent new KB-600 keyboards littered around their stand for all to play on (quite infuriating), and the closest we got to seeing the latest addition, the KB-800, was as a big poster on one of their walls...

New additions to the incredibly successful Kahler range is a non-trem flat mounting bridge with fine tuners designed especially for heavy string benders. It also comes with a string lock and cam pivot.

Kahler now have their own strings too, not just for tremolo uses, but general heavy bending use. A special fusing technique is employed at the ball end of the string to strengthen the winding. Gauges available are .009" and .010."

For those people who find the Kahler arm has too soft an action they have come up with some higher tension springs which replace the standard Kahler spring and with this is a thicker trem arm as well.

Korg have a very exciting range of new products — the DW6000 digital polysynth (see review elsewhere in this issue), the MR-16 MIDI rhythm sound unit with 19 different digitally encoded drum sounds, a MIDI pedal-keyboard called the MPK-130 (polyphonic and transposable), and another very exciting new item is their new SDD-2000 sampling digital delay. Sporting all the functions found on Korg's excellent SDD-1000, the 2000 has 64 memories, a maximum delay/sample time of 4368msec, and the samples can be played monophonically from a MIDI source. The programme changes can also be controlled via the MIDI buss, and this looks like being a winner at under £700.00 (hopefully).

Somewhat to everyone's surprise, the much talked-about user sampling software for the Kurzweil 250 digital synth was on show, and will be available in the UK soon with a price tag probably somewhere around the £2,000 mark. It works in conjunction with the Apple Macintosh computer and provides 20 seconds of sampling time at a sampling rate of 25kHz (12.5kHz bandwidth), and if your bandwidth requirements are minimal, you can have 100 seconds at the lowest rate of 5kHz (2.5kHz bandwidth). It is possible to programme dynamics by entering two or more samples at differing volumes; the Kurzweil programme will then extrapolate between the two points to give an even overall response. Samples can be stored off-line on floppy disc. The new sound block is also now available providing an extra 15 new sounds, including the extraordinary choral voicings, plus 84 new factory-defined keyboard setups. The block is in the form of a PCB which simply plugs into one of the spare positions in the 250. The idea of using the front cartridge port for anything other than fault diagnosis has been dropped. And finally from Kurzweil, we have the RAM Sequencer Expansion option, which extends the internal sequencer to 4,600 notes, or alternatively the extra memory can be used to store extra keyboard setups. UK prices are still to be announced, Kurzweil seem to be right on schedule, and no doubt there are more new packages around the corner.

Roger Linn could be said to be the man to thank (blame?) for the current trend in music towards the driving backbeats of dance orientated Rock. His latest creation, the Linn 9000, is certain to make just as big an impact as its predecessors did, with its ability to do... everything! The 9000's total programmability of hi-hat decay time alone justifies a place in the history of major design achievements. Check out our review of this masterpiece within the pages of this very issue...

Definitely the most tasteless of the plethora of electronic drum kits on show, was the German company Liss' AS 50 PC, apparently the "Rolls Royce" of its field. The Liss pads are hand crafted in wood to an octagon shape, with a gold name plate. A round rubber pad is fixed to the top to complete that dinner table with place mats look. The brain is another analogue/digital hybrid which holds five units in a modular format. As it happens, the sounds weren't half bad, but I can't tell you much about control over them because of a slight communication problem. The brain could also be triggered from the 'Drumcombr', a boiler suit affair with built in silver trigger pads and flares. A few of the pads were positioned dangerously close to the crutch area, so mind how hard you hit.

No new kits from Ludwig, though they did introduce a few cosmetic changes to their existing range; six new colours, a new plastic covering for the Rocker series and a return to the original 'crest' badges on the shells. They did have a new range of Modular 2 hardware, now made in Taiwan, including a hefty looking chain driven hi hat stand with internal spring adjustment.

Everything has gone modular it seems, but to good effect judging by the new Integrated Bass System from Marshall. The system consists of amps, slaves, combos, cabinets and amp sleeves all of which are totally interchangeable. This enables the bass player to start with a small 100 watt combo and gradually build up his gear for live work or any other situation. The amps can be racked or put in a sleeve to form a head and prices start at £221.03 for a 100 watt amp while the 100 watt combo with 1 x 15" speaker will retail at £370.76. The amps feature MOSFET devices and have bi-amping capabilities on the more powerful models.

Meinl cymbals have introduced a new range to bridge the gap between their Lazer and Profile series cymbals. Called the Raker range they're said to feature an extremely rapid response.

On MTR's stand were a few new items. Cutec's TFE1531 switchable stereo/mono graphic looks quite interesting for less than £250.00, and they also have a bargain priced 10 band stereo graphic selling for under £100.00. Unfortunately we will have to wait a while longer for the Octette eight-track, still in prototype form. MTR also have a few new items from Vesta Fire — the new RV-3 stereo spring reverb (only £215.00), and a new compressor/limiter with balanced XLR connectors called the SL020, which will sell for £290.00.

A lot of quality products, including Manson guitars, ENGL digital amps and TC Electronics FX were on display on the Musimex stand. Session have a new 200 stereo guitar amp head with reverb, two FX returns and switched channels as with the sessionette. Also new are the Super-shield solderless instrument cords which carry a 10 year warranty.

Oberheim can always be counted on to come up with some rather exciting products, and this year is no exception. As if one of their Expanders were not sufficiently powerful, they have incorporated two Expanders into a completely programmable, polyphonic, split, layering, touch sensitive keyboard called the Matrix-12. Billed as 'the ultimate analogue synthesizer' — for once a brochure might not be exaggerating as this beast can provide you with 12 voices which are all individually programmable, and costs around one and a half times the price of an Expander. Another newcomer to the Oberheim range is the 'XK' programmable MIDI keyboard controller. This is a mother keyboard sensitive to velocity, release, and after-touch, with 99 memory locations for storage of three user-definable split points. MIDI channel, patch number for each split etc. One more new item from Oberheim is the 'Stretch' accessory for their DX digital drum machine, adding a further 12 sounds for immediate use.

Ohm have added a new combo to their sturdy British made products — the TR16, a reverb version of their existing Tramp Lead 16watt combo, the ideal practise amp and studio amp. The new version will retail at £122.99. Ohm have also added two new model Road PA Enclosures — the MR652 180 watt, 6x5" coax drivers and bass bins to match and the MRU Sub bass 115 bin with a 15" driver and 50 watt power handling.

Sharing the Ohm enclosure (geddit!) was the extremely tall Mr Keith Hand with a nice array of Gordon Smith and Gordy guitars and basses.

Paiste have expanded their new range of Colorsounds Cymbals, and had what a lot of people thought to be one of the best looking stands at the show. New Colorstands introduced include a 12 " splash, heavy hi hats and a couple of chinas.

UK guitar maker Ashley Pangborn hoped to unveil his entry into the Carbon Fibre market, but unfortunately he ran out of time. Still he didn't seem worried — he was, as they say in the business, doin' okay. The Europeans, it seems, don't object to paying for quality and in fact Ashley's economy bass which he'd felt pressured to make by the constrictions of the UK market was not a favourite.

Perhaps the very best of the new electronic drum kits to arrive at the show was Pearl's DX1. The pads themselves are an extremely familiar hexagonal with round rubber playing surfaces, mounted on substantial Pearl 900 series hardware. The stands also allow for a cymbal arm to be mounted on them.

The brain itself is a rack mountable analogue unit utilising digital control, and a total of eight sounds can be stored. It comes with seven in the memory which can be erased and one empty one for building up your own sounds. When the memory protect is switched off the seven presets can be built up with control of pitch, decay, etc. An LED lights up which drum you're working on and another LED indicates the sound parameter you're changing. Overall it's very simple to operate, the sounds are strong, and it also features a line in socket on the back so you can play along with something, and a headphone socket on the front. Volume for line in and phones is controllable via the front panel. No definite price had been fixed but they expect it to be "around the £1000 mark".

Set up with the kit were an unusual array of eight sided cymbals, though they weren't sure whether to market them in this country. What they will be marketing, however, is a new range of cymbals labelled CX-500, said to offer a Paiste 505 sound for "ridiculous prices" — how does £30 for a pair of hi hats sound? In addition to this they've also brought down the price of their recently extended Wild range.

Despite Peavey's entry into the guitar market a few years ago they have never reached big league status in the UK. Still, the guitar range is good, with additions being the Predator with locking trem and the Milestone — both should be mid-priced in the UK.

One does gets the impression though, that Peavey have no great plans to dominate the market here.

The Butcher is an accurate name for the new stack featuring two 4x12 cabs and 100 watt amp head, not unlike a Marshall stack in appearance.

PPG are not a company who will rest on their laurels. Only a short while after the appearance of their PRK processor keyboard, the original design has been re-vamped to include a high speed floppy disk drive, modulation wheels, MIDI etc. Called the PRK FD, this should be available immediately. PPG also have a new Wave Term, called the Wave Term B. This is now much faster and uses 16 bit sampling, therefore reducing the amount of attention needed by the user for details such as recording level, etc.

Premier used the Frankfurt show to introduce their new range of hardware, but I won't go on about it here as there's a full Accessorycheck review of them elsewhere in this issue. I will mention, however, that they had a very impressive new collection of drum cases, finished in silver with metal handles and in some cases castors.

Quantec were showing their new mono (and hence lower cost) room simulator, digital reverberation system. Instead of two inputs and four outputs, this unit has one input and two outputs, but still maintains the main features of its big brother.

A name new to the European market is RAMSA. They come under the Panasonic umbrella and were showing their extensive WR range of mixers for both live and multitrack applications, some of which were similar to those used by them for the sound system at the 1984 Olympics is Los Angeles. That has to be some recommendation and indeed the consoles are very impressive. The WR-T812E/WR-T820E is a comprehensive eight-group console available with 12 or 20 inputs, featuring electronically balanced mike inputs with individually switchable 48v phantom powering, three-band sweepable Eq, for pre/post auxiliary sends plus HPF, 2 stereo phono inputs and 100mm carbon faders. The WR-8616, in its studio version, is a 16 channel, four-group desk is designed for multitrack work and can offer up to 16-track monitoring using special group output modules. It features a choice of mono mike/line or stereo line input modules, two auxiliary sends, three-band sweepable Eq, 16 direct outputs, balanced outputs, 100mm carbon faders and a separate power supply. The S208E/S212E/ S216E are equally high quality stereo desks intended for live applications. From the same company came two ranges of compact PA speakers, one looking not unlike the Bose 802's, the WS-A70E's, with the other being larger and more robust looking, for acts on the road, the WS-A200E's. Further products included a range of three sturdy looking dynamic mikes and a couple of rack-mounting power amps. RAMSA are straight in at the deep end. UK prices are yet to be announced.

Riverhead's headless Unicorn series is now complimented by the headed Jupiter and Phantom guitars and bass series. The Phantom series consists of a guitar and bass with a modern angular design and tuners on the body and a head 'stub' as well. The Jupiter Series is altogether more conventional with active guitars and basses, tremolos and various pickup configurations. The top of the range Jupiter guitar, the RJG-1300, looks especially good with active circuitry and locking trem.

Last year saw Rogers' entry into the cymbal market with their White Hot and Red Hot ranges. This year we've got the Black Rock range, a pro series hammered and made in Germany covering the most popular hi hat, crash and ride sizes. Hats start at £85, crashes at £57 and rides at £85.

Absolute secrecy was the name of Roland's game, keeping the news of their latest products close to their chest until the formalities of the Frankfurt show. Their newest polysynth, the JX8P, was the only major newcomer to the Roland range to be unveiled before the show — possibly as a taster for the rest of the new range that was to follow.

Roland did manage to surprise a lot of people by entering into the electronic drum kit market. Comprising of the PD-10 bass drum pad, the PD-20 snare or tom pads, and the DDR-30 'brain', this will provide the drummer with digital drum sounds, a very flexible system for sound modification, as well as MIDI compatibility.

The tom and snare pads are triangular in shape and the surfaces are a little too hard for my liking. The bass drum is an altogether stranger looking contraption, considerably thicker and sturdier than your average electro bass drum.

The DDR-30 has six touch sensitive drum voices (Bass drum, Snare and four toms), each with four different PCM digital sound source from which to choose. These voices can be edited by the user with 13 parameters, such as Pitch, Voice, Attack and Eq. The modified sounds, as well as up to 32 combinations of voices (whole 'kits'), can be stored in the DDR-30's memory, and all this comes in a single 19", 2U unit, which will be available in September for a retail price of £1450.00 for the brain, £140.00 for the bass drum, and £80.00 each for the snare/tom pads.

Still in the percussion department, Roland have brought out a percussion version of their TR707, called the TR727. Identical to the 707 in every respect (including its price of £525.00), the 727 has all the usual digitally recorded sounds of bongos, congas, timbales, agogos, cabasas, maraccas etc. as well as some more unusual choices (for a drum machine), such as quijada (jaw-bone), whistles and tubular bells (more like wind chimes).

Roland are perhaps best known for their range of professional synthesizer keyboards. In this department the aforementioned JX8P (see our review in last month's issue) was 'the big news' for '85. However, as Roland are dedicated to the MIDI module, they have developed a whole range of MIDI accessories in their Boss range — a MIDI input selector, output selector, and a MIDI channel filter/converter, which will change a signal's MIDI channel, as well as giving you the option to filter out all but the key information from that signal.

They have also produced a home version of the Juno 106, called the Synth Plus-60, with built-in amp and speakers, with a finish 'to match any home environment'.

Roland have a new MIDI-CV interface, as well as a very interesting new product, the MKS-900 signal indicator. This has an 88 LED display in the configuration of a piano keyboard, which displays the desired MIDI channel's Key-on information, which is extra-fascinating when used in conjunction with a guitar synth.

Two more MIDI items to appear from the Roland camp are their new DDL — the SDE-2500 (17kHz bandwidth, and up to 70mS of delay, with 64 memory locations for storing all parameters selectable via MIDI programme select), and the SRV-200 digital reverb. This last item is a programmable reverb, with reverb time selectable from 0.1 to 99 seconds, 24 memories, pre-delay, digital filter, high-frequency damping, nine room sizes, as well as internal gating of the reverb to simulate 'that' drum sound (for example). All this is available in 1U 19" rackmountable unit, and will retail for £1450.00 from July!

Boss have branched out into a few new departments as well. They have a new range called the Micro Rack Series, which comprises of a rackable or stackable digital delay, compressor/limiter, flanger, phaser and graphic equaliser. Boss also have a high-performance DI box, and a digital sampler pedal called the DSD-2. It will sample or act as a digital delay, with a maximum sampling time of 800mS, 7kHz bandwidth, and a price tag of £200.00.

The highlight of Roland's range of new combos has to be the superb sounding JC77, a smaller version of their ever-popular JC120, reviewed elsewhere in this issue. I had forgotten how good these amps sounded — well worth a listen.

Just when you thought you'd seen the last of the rivet cymbal, Sabian found a totally new application for this well used idea. Their new sizzle hi hats feature an array of rivets on the bottom cymbal, and three holes drilled into the bell. This new cymbal came to be under the request of Harvey Mason and Gerry Brown who both wanted more sound from their hi hats, and actually got 10ks more into the bargain. Generally speaking, Sabian are expanding their product lines and refining them to enhance their reputation as "the world's finest cymbal makers since 1982".

Sennheiser are certainly no newcomer to the world of music, and this point was emphasised by their re-issue of the MD409 U3 dynamic microphone. Possibly one of the most unusually attractive mikes I have ever come across, this little gem is resistant to very high sound pressure levels, is able to handle most situations, and will be selling for under £100.00 (gold-plated grille and all). Look out for our review of it in a forthcoming issue of IM.

Over on the Shure stand, one will find a rather odd looking microphone called the SM91. Until now, having a directional Pressure Zone Microphone (PZM) was a contradiction in terms (almost). However, Shure have now developed a half-cardioid directional PZM called the SM91. Its specs are very impressive; with a maximum sound pressure level of 144dB and a very linear frequency response from 20Hz to 20kHz, it looks as if this mike might just be something rather revolutionary.

Sequential Circuits were showing two new MIDI synths based on their existing Six-Trak design. Upmarket of it is the Multi-Trak which is reviewed elsewhere in this issue, and downmarket of it we have the Max. Like the Six-Trak it is a six-voice polyphonic with a built-in, multi-timbral sequencer. As standard it comes with 80 non-editable presets, but in conjunction with a Commodore 64 and the SCI MIDI interface 242 and their Model 920 software/interface, it becomes fully programmable. Two other Commodore 64 software programmes out of the bag were: 1, the Model 910 which allows two Six-Traks to be driven by one Commodore 64, or expands the facilities of a single Six-Trak allowing such things as three-way keyboard split and the expansion of the sequencer memory to 3,400 notes. 2, the Model 964 which can be used with most MIDI equipped synths to give on-screen graphics for editing, disc data storage and sophisticated multitrack sequencing. Present in mock-up form only was the SCI programmable MIDI digital drum machine called TOM, featuring eight recorded instruments and a 3,000 note memory for a mere £839.00. Programmability includes volume, tuning and stereo pan and a 'human touch' minor variation facility.

Siel really have been beavering away the past few months and have developed a rather posh looking, budget priced polysynth called the DK80, and a MIDI Expander version of it called the Expander 80. Essentially a dynamic, 12 voice, bitimbric synthesizer, with a built-in sequencer, this is very straightforward and portable, yet versatile and is promised to sell for a bargain price...

Furthermore, Siel's software division have produced some MIDI application software packages — Multi track Composer, 16 Track Sequencer, Expander Editor, Data Base, Digital Echo Delay, Keyboard Multitracking, and a couple of programmes for graphic editing of the DK80 and Expander 80, all for the Commodore 64 with Siel interface (some can also be used with the ZX Spectrum).

Sonor had quite possibly the best looking acoustic drum kit on display at Frankfurt; their Phonic Plus kit, now available in a very attractive Hi Tech Grey finish, with black hardware. This power tom kit actually works out to be a lot cheaper than you may expect from Sonor — £1875 for an eight piece including all hardware. If that's still too much the Sonor Performer series is now available in the UK which should retail for under £750. Though not a power tom kit, the bass drum is 22 " by 17" and toms are slightly deeper than usual, and the hardware is very meaty. Finally their double bass drum beater is now available as an add on to an existing Sonor pedal, which saves you £150 over buying a complete unit.

The Soundtracs range of mixers is extended still further with the introduction of the M Series: A high spec fully modular console available with either eight output groups featuring a 4x8 matrix for distributed feed applications or alternatively eight groups with 16-track monitoring. Facilities include both mike and line phase reversal, four-band Eq with two sweepable mids, six auxiliary sends, LED metering... it's a nice looking console.

Spector is probably a new name to most people, but their wooden basses are designed by Ned Steinberger. This was one of his early concerns before his own manufacturing company. The futuristic NSX bass is the newest in the range featuring an all wood design with headstock plus EMG pickups. These instruments should be available in the UK within three or so months and an approximate retail on them will be £800.

Since the Portastudio appeared with a deafening roar some years ago the changes have been minor — the occasional rack mounted variant, and Tascam's mixer-less 234 being the most adventurous anybody's got. But now Studiomaster, whose wedge-shaped four-track was among the best of the last lot, have broken new ground with their Studio 4.2. Basically, it's a mixerless twin tape deck styled very neatly with black and smoked perspex much in evidence and containing a doublespeed four-track and a normal-speed stereo machine for mastering, and of course playback of normal tapes. Noise reduction in Dolby B-C with their HX Pro headroom extension. And this will be offered either on its own or in a package with a rack-mounting mini-mixer, or an expandable 8/4 unit, still under development. The price of the package with the mini-mix will be just over a grand but no news on the 8:4 mixer yet.

And still on the RSD front, three new power amps that are confidently expected to be the thing every studio and discerning PA company is going to be bolting into their racks soon. The Stellar Fet 1, 2 and 4 give 100, 200 and 400 watts per channel stereo respectively and offer a frequency range of five Hertz to 280 kHz (Fet 4) which should be enough for virtually anyone... signal-to-noise ratios of 100dB,... and a harmonic distortion 0.005% bracket. Mighty impressive, but not unreasonably priced at £365 (100), £481 (200) and £677 (400) — all those prices are for free-standing models, so add about £20 for rack-mounting versions.

Pat Townshend and team have been very busy making small but crucial changes to the superb Staccato Guitar system. They have a reinforced plastic fingerboard — (the plastic used remains secret) — which has the frets moulded into it. When a re-fret is necessary you, 're-board' it. They also have a new range of pearl cellulose finishes and moulded fibre-glass cases to match. Without doubt one of the finest examples of hi-tech guitar making at the show.

The amount of people crammed around Steinberger products indicates just how much interest the 'home of the headless' company is generating. At the top end of the price range is the Steinberger controller for the Roland guitar synth. This is the culmination of a two-year joint project with Roland and certainly the guitar's material construction lends itself to synthesis.

The Pro Series wooden bodied bass and guitar were certainly causing a buzz (see this issue for review)

Other items include the Active Eq being offered as an add on for Steinbergers and other guitars featuring the EMG type pickup system. Designed by Henry Zajac of HAZ labs, the Eq consists of a single control with a centre flat position which one way boosts treble but leaves the bass alone, and in the other direction the treble is cut and the bass boosted. Also included is a mid-range switch. In one position it boosts upper mid frequencies and in the other position lower mid. The centre switch position will be flat.

Steinberger also offer a phantom powering system with a couple of outlets to power FX as well. This serves to power the EMG pickups and active Eq and when in use cuts off the battery power. However, if the mains supply is for any reason stopped the battery power cuts back in automatically.

Also La Bella strings are manufacturing double ball end strings to Steinberger's design including the threaded ball end type necessary for the transposing tremolo.

Amongst all the new guitars at the Frankfurt Fair, only a select few are genuinely innovative. When first introduced instruments like the Steinberger and the Z-bass raised eyebrows, but one of the few six-strings to produce a similar effect this year was the Stonehenge. The Stonehenge is in every respect a charmingly original instrument. The triangular body is formed in matt black finished brass tubing with contoured black fir panels to support the pickups and controls, the rest being an open space-frame. A Maple neck with Ebony or Rosewood fingerboard is comfortable to hold and has excellent action: the hallmarks of a handmade guitar. It's made in Italy and is called Stonehenge because the maker perceives an analogy between the interplay of energies around the famous stone circle, and those between the body and neck of the guitar. Thus the sun's rays, which as everybody knows strike directly under the Principal Arch and across the inner and outer stone circles upon the dawn of the Summer Solstice, resemble the strings which bear a similar relation to nut, bridge, pickups and body. Perhaps someone should tell Uli Roth about it.

Theory apart, however, this is a very impressive, playable instrument, nobody else has one remotely like it, and as far as we can determine its direct selling price from Alfredo Bugari, 60022, Castelfidardo, Italy is in the region of £500-£600.

Tama introduced a range of electronic goodies to be used in conjunction with their Techstar kit. These include a drum sequencer for £429, which is programmable over six channels and lets you create and store your own drum patterns and play over the top in real time, and a trigger bank, a six channel trigger interface that triggers any Techstar voice module from acoustic drums, drum machine, keyboard or any other trigger or audio source. Tama have also had the good sense to introduce a combo amp specifically for use with an electronic kit at £459. The TDA60 is a 60 watt amp with a heavy duty two-way speaker system.

On the acoustic drum side they've introduced black heads as standard on the Swingstar kit, a tilting hi hat pedal that pivots from the middle and a twin bass drum pedal.

As mentioned in last month's Frankfurt preview, Tascam have a new 16-track on 1" tape machine, and have additionally brought out a small series of mixers, called the 300 series. These are suitable for live or studio four-track mixing; however we feel that they do not really represent the last few months of work for the Tascam R&D department; and thus by logical deduction, we here at IM formally predict the next Tascam product to be of the 24-track variety... but when?

TED Digisound are gradually becoming more well known here in the UK, and they were certainly making themselves known in Frankfurt. They not only have some very exciting new products, but they also were driving most people up the wall with their infuriating sampled whistle. Every time this was triggered, everybody turned around to see who was whistling to them. TED's new products are the 'Digimemory' — a digital Eprom player for all types of Eproms; and 'the Winner' — a digital sound sampler, Eprom programmer/blower/copier, MIDI and computer serial in/out. Both of these items look very exciting indeed, and will have a retail price of £139.00 for the Digimemory, and £730.00 for the Winner.

Teczon are another Japanese company to have produced yet another four-track cassette system. Dubbed the Dub Multi 4x4, this is a cheap looking system, but does feature simultaneous four-track recording, as well as a fairly decent mixer section, and will sell for just under £400.00 in this country.

'New products' is a strange term when referring to 90 percent of Tokai's guitars — 'new old' products would be more appropriate. However, an actual new product is the Talbo metal bodied bass which looks exceedingly tasty, in fact the rather unusual shape seems to suit the bass much more than the six-string. Of real interest to the guitarist is the Brooks Bender — a 'B' bender, which can be fitted to any Telecaster, but without the extreme amount of routing that this type of system usually needs. Also there is a '3' bender which bends the top three strings up a tone, and tone and semi-tone on the E, B and G strings respectively. This would allow you, I'm reliably assured, to bend from an A major to a D6, for example, without moving your fingers! Expensive? Not a bit — £138.00 only.

The continuing rise of Trace Elliot is hardly surprisingly, especially as their new MP 10 Digitally Programmable pre-amp is set to take over the world!

Seriously, the MP 10 is very special, featuring a 10 band graphic Eq which is entirely programmable. The pre sets can be recalled via a digital memory key-pad which can be fitted onto your bass or more conventionally operated from a foot switch. Although still a prototype, the MP 10's development is nearly complete and will be available soon.

The AH350X is a new addition to the family, a 350watt stereo cab with crossover and matching 18/18X cab. These retail at £674 and £440 respectively. Not content with pleasing the bassist, Trace Elliot have come up with a new amp system specially designed for electronic drummers — the EPAS which is capable of delivering up to 700 watts. Designed in association with Simmons, the amp is still of a prototype stage.

Sharing the same stand was Status basses and what a fearsome combination they make. New here was the 2000 — the 100% moulded headless bass with the really fab fibre weave construction. The good thing is that this bass is cheaper than the combination carbon fibre and wood II Series bass. The 2000 is expected to retail at £1195 while the Series II will sell for £1249. Both basses feature the new GMT 'Hyper-Active' pickups and come in fretted and fretless options complete with flight case.

New from Ursa Major is a multi-tap stereo processor, called the MSB-126. This signal processor will provide comb filter and multi-tap stereo processing, as well as digital delays, room simulation, delay cluster and a form of harmonising using its stereo comb filter tuned at musical intervals. The MSB-126 should be in the UK towards the end of the year and will cost a little over £2000.00.

Vox showed off the latest in their combo collection. The two newies go under the 'Concert' moniker and are the 501, a 1x12" 50 watt affair and the 2x12" 502, which again has a 50 watt output. Both have channel switching and full LED indication and boast the inimitable Vox sound that has been with us since the birth of the AC30. Aesthetically the Concerts differ from the AC30s, due to the fact that the famous diamond thread cloth has been replaced by a slick black fabric with gold trim...

Heavy metal guitars are extremely popular at present and Washburn probably win the award for the most tasteless. Their Explorer shaped HM range features a 'Red Rip' splatter finish. These guitars feature the new 'Wonderbar' trem system and should retail around £399.

The popular Force Series has received a new look to follow current trends. The Strat shaped guitar now has no scratchplate and like every other electric has a locking trem system fitted.

The double necked bass Bantam guitar caught many an eye at the show and is really quite a good idea with fretted and fretless neck. This should retail just below the £900 mark. Certainly the Bantam range looks very competitive and if you want a wooden Steinberger copy you won't go far wrong with one of these. The guitar is now being offered with a bound front, too.

With the bottom dropping out of the home organ market, Wersi were seen dipping their toes into the pro market with the introduction of an electronic drum kit. The pads were very plasticky, and the brain had a programmable rhythm section straight out of their home organs. It did have 28 sounds in it, however, which you can mix in to your real time playing. To keep the cost down, the kit is available in kit form, if you get my drift.

Due to a distinct language barrier myself and the Japanese rep on the Westone stand, I'm not at all sure what is new and what isn't — certainly Westone's Rail Bass isn't new although the said Japanese gentleman assured me it was. Still the Spectrum Series of guitars and basses looked good with the familiar Westone shape and various usual options. Then there was the Super Headless Basses — at least they had bodies!

There was also the obligatory Explorer and Star shapes (a cross between an Explorer and 'V') called Dynasty, with all sorts of eye-catching colours, not forgetting (how could we?!) the locking tremolo system. Nothing much to report on in the originality stakes, but so long as they keep the prices low, who cares?!

Yamaha had a wide range of new products at this year's show, all exclusively revealed in IM's Frankfurt Preview last month (he said smugly). In their professional keyboard department were found the TX7 module, QX7 sequencer, KX88 mother keyboard, and DX5 FM synthesizer; and in the recording department they have their new MT-44D four track cassette deck (still running at normal speed), a new dedicated mixer for it called the RM-602, and a couple of new signal processors — a twin channel compressor/limiter called the GC2020, and a 31-band graphic — the GQ1031. DX7 owners will be pleasantly surprised by the appearance of six 32 voice ROM packs for the DX7, and these will be available in June for around £50.00 each. I must add here, however, that there's no plans as yet to bring in the CX5 software mentioned in last month's preview.

Yamaha also have two interesting new BA mixers from the MC range, the MC-1608M and the MC-2408M, specially designed for mixing down monitor signals using either 16 or 24 inputs into eight outputs (monitor sends).

The new guitars were almost as we expected — very posh and sporting tremolos but no headless model or flying V + Explorer shape as reported last month in our preview. Those particular ones won't be available in the UK. They didn't keep still on the acoustic drum front either; enter the 8000 series. Now their drums start at the 5000 series, then 8000 and up to 9000 recording. The 8000 will feature painted Birch and Mahogany shells similar to the recording series, though not quite as special. Prices will be slightly more than the old 9000 series by about 10%.

And finally, no massive extension of ranges from Zildjian, but simply a new K "traditional" ride cymbal for a low, dark pitch. Apart from this they've got a new cymbal cleaning kit to keep it shiny.

So from new cymbal cleaning kits to further development in the digital revolution, Frankfurt '85 offered something for everyone. Now it's up to you to decide whether or not to part with the cash, or wait for Frankfurt '86...