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Shredder

Article from One Two Testing, October 1985

here is the news, with instruments and equipment



The PPG Wave system is the type of synthesizer/computer set-up that the majority of musicians never see. Up there with the Fairlight, the Synclavier, and the Kurzweil, on the hi-tech Mt Olympus, mere mortals are permitted only occasional glimpses of this heavenly beast. Until now.

Throughout October at the Turnkey Shop in Percy Street, W1, every Wednesday will be Walk-In Wednesday, with PPG demonstrators on hand to guide visitors through the complexities of the updated system. These updates mean that PPG now offer 16-bit resolution, 42kHz sampling rate at 21k bandwidth, auto-looping and merging, with up to 13 seconds of sampling time; apparently, it's now possible to mix together up to four sampled sounds, and then resave them as a single voice. Beezer.

Even more beezer is the fact that these upgrades are available to existing owners. Even if you're not one, try Turnkey at 14 Percy Street, each Wednesday in October, between 9 and 5.30.



A correspondent has been near the Kurzweil factory in the US and reports that what recently seemed like a dodgy company has now been refinanced and have, er, "got their act together". Relatively immediately we can expect the K250, a racked expander version of the stand-alone 250 sampler keyboard, and a MIDI interface board which Robert Moog has been helping out on. Later, however, we are promised the K150 expander. Details are few, but apparently it includes the facility to steal information from all over its scenic memory map so that the concept of 4, 8, 16-voice or whatever becomes something of the past. "It's looking fully polyphonic", in fact. But as usual, don't hold yer breath. Similar breathing advice covers the Fairlight CMI Series III, the third generation of the legendary computer synthesis machine that hails from Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales. Fairlight tell us they expect to have the Series III ready "at the end of the year", and boasts significant expansion and polishing of the existing Fairlight facilities. An Australian person told One Two: "The Series III will offer what is virtually an independent sound production system capable of orchestrating up to 80 music channels." Breath held, and counting: one... two...




Loudspeakers. Hmm. Boring but necessary, wouldn't you agree, One Two chums? So some news of new things in this area for you — but keep reading. We'll be brief. Tannoy have got a new little box called the Mini Lynx, which can split into two 8in dual-concentric drivers — use as one 2x8, or individually. Clip on a wall, bung 'em on a stand, their frequency response is 60Hz to 20k and their price is £322. Fane have re-organised their model nomenclature: PA and studio drivers come under the Studio banner, and guitar combo speakers are now part of the Crescendo M range. A number of new models have been introduced in both areas, and Fane promise a "detailed technical brochure" if you write to them at (Contact Details). And McKenzie are getting noisy about their new Studio 7 Series, being 10in, 12in and 15in drivers rated between 100 and 400 watts. A full anechoic test comes with each speaker so you know what you're getting. "This gives our customers a factual written account for their Q.A.," said McKenzie's Glyn Baxter, "not a smoothed picture that everyone would like to publish," but we were really weren't sure what he was on about.



Q: what's the difference between a Radox bath and (insert your drummer's name here)?

A: a Radox bath bucks up the feet, while...



Style-conscious readers might have noticed a peculiarly eye-catching advert in this and last month's OTTs for Guitar Works, of (Contact Details); but apart from attracting attention, the jolly design wasn't desperately informative. Telephone time: Guitar Works is a guitar workshop run by Colin Burns. While they do sell guitars second-hand on a sale-or-return basis, their main employment is in making and repairing guitars of all types. Instruments can be made to order from scratch, existing guitars can be customised in any way. So now we know.



GUITAR BITS AND PIECES is the heading for this ominous block of text, or "copy" as it's called around these parts. Mind you, the first item isn't necessarily guitar-shaped. US-based Monster Cable now have an outlet (should we say "link", tee-hee) in the UK, and offer a wealth of interconnection cabling with every conceivable connector attached to the ends. Wilmex Ltd are the chaps doing the business, and their address for pretty brochures and so on is (Contact Details). Part & Parcel, mail order specialists in guitar gadgetry, announce a kit of parts for converting standard basses to headlessness. Presumably an electric saw? No, don't be silly, reply Part & Parcel: you get a bridge/tailpiece, four "spindle" tuners, a clamp/string retainer nut, and a real Allen key. It's black, it's a hundred quid, and it comes from P&P at (Contact Details). And Seymour Duncan have a, ahem, hot new pickup available, delicately entitled Hot Rails. It's a side-by-side humbucker to fit in Strat-sized single coil spaces, "The sound is warm and smooth," suggest importers Labtek, who will let you have a bridge-position model or a middle or rear type for a mere £72.50, through your friendly local dealerperson. Enough bits, really.



A big "harro" from Roland Corporation Japan who are proud to announce their 9th Annual Synthesiser Tape Contest for anyone and Class A professional musicians and synthesists and Class B amateurs including "complete beginners". Pieces of cassetted music of no more than three minutes length made mainly with the electronic instruments are needed to win prizes like the new Teac Portastudio 246, Fostex speaker systems, a selection of Roland computer-synthesiser equipment, and various cassette tapes. Should you wish to follow in the multitracks of previous prizewinners like Erik D Huber ("Dance Of The Neutrinos" 1983), Alain Thibault ("Space-Time Distortion — Quarks Muzik" 1982), and Shigeo Ogasawara ("Reality In A Fantasy... And I" 1984), pick up an entry form from your local Roland dealer, or write to Roland UK at (Contact Details). Closing date is October 30th.




Things for the recordist. MTR tells us they now have available the PB-One patchbay, a two-unit high rack-mounting device which has 32-way interconnection. High quality components, we're promised, and a price of £51. MTR also shout about their new TP1200 MOSFET power amp, 600 watts per channel, giving 1560 watts bridged-mono into four ohms, and going for about £850. Patchbays evidently being this month's thing (and if you read our recent mixer multi-review you'll know how worthy these dull bits of gear are), ADO Distribution tell us of their Adopatch unit, again 32-way and again a two-unit high rackmounter. Prices start at around 50 quid. MTR are at (Contact Details), and ADO are at (Contact Details). While we're on the subject of sounds that go whoop on the tape, Gateway Education Services, endorsed by One Two as thoroughly good chaps, reckon that having taken on-board synthperson Steve Howell, their Synthesiser Course, covering everything from analogue to FM and sampling, is heartily improved. The five-day course runs in addition to Gateway's established and recommended Recording Course, and costs £200. More info from Gateway School of Recording & Music Technology, (Contact Details).




Now children, get out your diaries and write these dates in them, because you've been so forgetful lately. For the rest of September, the Turnkey Shop at (Contact Details) promises events, clinics and demos, including, every Saturday, the chance to get your ailing Porta-Studio "if not repaired, then diagnosed" free of charge. Ring up to see just what's going on. The International Music Video Festival in London, "IMV 85", takes place at the Kensington Rainbow, (Contact Details) from 16th to 18th October. Apparently it "gives buyers and sellers together with the creative people in the music video marketplace the opportunity to meet each other". If this means something to you, call IMV 85 on (Contact Details) for more information.

More dates: visitors to the Scottish Design Centre ((Contact Details)) in between 24th September and 26th October will be greeted with the sight of The Design Council's In Tune With Design exhibition. This show is intended to demonstrate how "a new generation of British designers and engineers is beginning to make its mark with innovative new products designed to meet the changing demands of today's music makers", as they say.

On display, as well as the less photogenic items such as the SYCO M14 MIDI link and the Acorn Music 500, you'll be able to see the Synthaxe, the Premier Advanced Power Kit (APK), Bandive's Seck mixer, artwork from XL and Assorted iMaGes, and instruments from Chris Eccleshall's workshops, amongst other attractions. One of these "other attractions" is that entry is free.



Two new bits of software to chuck at your by-1999-every-home-will-have-a-dozen microcomputer. First, from Supersoft, is a sampling package for the Commodore 64, called Microvox. Eight different sampling rates are offered, the maximum giving 20k bandwidth at a trifle under a second's sampling time. "But it's difficult to hear the difference between 20k and 10k sampling," Supersoft insisted, "and most people would use 10k, which gives you nearly two second sampling time." You also get a 2000-note sequencer (real-time recording, steptime editing) and a full-sounding MIDI implementation. It's £230 on disc, but Supersoft are working on a ROM version that might just leave a little extra for sampling memory. Super-soft are at (Contact Details). Second, an 8-track real-time sequencer for the Yamaha CX5 from Digital Music Systems. In effect, you can compose either with the internal CX voices, up to a maximum of eight voices, or from external MIDI synths with a combination of internal or external voice tracks not totalling more than eight. There's also step- or real-time pitch correction, playback from a specified bar, quantising error-correction down to 1/32 of a crotchet, transposing, MIDI clock syncing, and level and pan mixing with disc/cassette dump. Contact Digital Music Systems at (Contact Details).




Evidence, cinerama-style, of our fave bassist Mark King assisting Dr Spliff with your bass-ic enquiries on One Two's BMF stand. Mucho gracias, senor King...



Previous Article in this issue

Digital Dada

Next article in this issue

British Music Fair


Publisher: One Two Testing - IPC Magazines Ltd, Northern & Shell Ltd.

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One Two Testing - Oct 1985

Donated by: Angelinda

News

Previous article in this issue:

> Digital Dada

Next article in this issue:

> British Music Fair


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