If you're still waiting to see your particular synth featured in these pages, then why not be the first to submit some sounds?

Don't forget that if your patch gets published, you'll receive a free year's subscription to MUSIC TECHNOLOGY with our compliments. So send us your favourite sounds on a photocopy of an owner's manual chart (coupled with a blank one for artwork purposes) accompanied by a short demo-tape (don't worry too much about classic performances and impeccable recording quality; just present your sounds simply and concisely - and convince us you're the best of the bunch). Include a decent-length description of your sound and its musical purpose in life, and write your full name and address on each chart. And remember, edited presets are all very well, but an original masterpiece is always preferable. OK?

CASIO CZ101 - Sad Smiles

Nicholas Maher, Clwyd, Wales

The ubiquitous CZ101, in conjunction with Nicholas Maher, presents another in a long list of musical goodies. 'Sad Smiles' is a deep, rich, emotive string-like sound that'll find a few new homes in other CZ memories. Its creator suggests varying the Fine Detune (7-13), and even trying the sound an octave higher.

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KORG DW8000 - Sounds Acoustic

Michael Vickerage, Devon

A superb selection of sounds for the DW8000, which were most ably demo'd by their creator. The theme is simulating acoustic sounds, while emphasising the need to play them sympathetically - yes folks, it's the way you play 'em time again. So without much further ado, we'll pass the mic to Michael:

Acoustic Piano (A): Very effective around the middle, though the top end suffers from lack of a scaling facility; great for general accompaniment.

Nylon Guitar (B): Benefits from sympathetic playing, arpeggios and repeated notes and so on. Very beautiful (with strings) as a melodic instrument.

Saxophone (C): good for solos and polyphony, so it's excellent as an ensemble sound for beefing up rhythm sections.

Strings (D): the old reliable. Tonally, this sort of sound is perennial because of its homogeneity through all registers. The real-time parameter I've programmed is a bowing one, taking it from legato, through detache, to hammered with one slide of a finger.

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ROLAND ALPHA JUNO 2 - Four for All

Lee Baldwin, Cinderford, Glos

From a selection of patches from sixteen-year-old Lee, we've chosen our favourite four - which Lee describes as:

Guitars 2 (A): a melodic chorus guitar sound that suits complex chordal structures. (Key transpose is very effective for this patch.)

Bass Riff (B): a funky bass guitar sound which can sound even sharper if slapped, so this patch is quite responsive to keyboard dynamics.

Juno 60 (C): an attempt to recreate the Juno 60 string chordal ensemble sound used by Howard Jones on his Humans Lib album.

Digital (D): programmed to demonstrate the delay effects that could be obtained by judicious use of the envelope settings; very responsive also to dynamics and aftertouch.

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YAMAHA DX7 - Soft Strings

Mark Granger, Crawley, Sussex

From a variety of admirable sounds from Mark, we chose this emotive string patch as we felt it may surprise some people who consider FM strings to be similar to the British summer - cold, in other words. Mark attempted to create an analogue-sounding string sound for the DX7, and we hope you agree with us that the result, 'Soft Strings' is pretty impressive - and begging to be put to good use.

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