As we (hopefully) sledge merrily into the New Year, now is the traditional time to look back on past events and forecast the future.

Undoubtedly, 1986 will be remembered as the year of the digital sampler and affordable stereo reverb. It may have taken some of them a very long time to get their products in the shops, but in the end every major manufacturer released at least one 'serious' sampling device this year - except for Yamaha.

Amongst the Japanese it is Akai who have the greatest experience with samplers, and the release of the X7000 (reviewed p38) seems to indicate that they are going to pursue this line further. Their well-publicised involvement with designer Roger Linn should also bear fruit in the early part of the New Year and, judging by the rumours, first off the production line may well be a sampling drum machine a la Linn 9000 (Akai currently have no representation in this field remember).

What became increasingly clear in 1986 was the shifting emphasis in sampling devices - they quickly began moving beyond the 'musique concrete' stage and heading for digital recording territory. E-mu Systems' Emax is a prime example of a new machine bristling with recording-like functions (see review p18) and a lengthy enough sample time to allow music storage - the present incarnation just happens to have a keyboard attached (its Expander brother does not). But it is a far cry from a gimmicky Casio SK1 sampler - or an Emulator 1 for that matter - and fully deserves a more adequate description than 'sampling keyboard'.

Fellow American's Sequential appear to be heading in a similar direction by stepping into the gap left by the disappearance of the revolutionary Linn 9000 with their soon-to-be-released Studio 440, another powerful recording-based product that makes use of what is essentially sampling technology.

So what of Yamaha? Why haven't they jumped on the sampling bandwagon yet? Could it be they intend bypassing the middle market and bringing out a world-beater next year? They are showing all the right signs.

The appearance of their truly astounding compact disc quality digital automated mixer, the DMP7, at the recent Los Angeles AES (see p35) indicates that their involvement in things digital is more than surface deep. Yamaha's hi-fi division in Japan have already shown a working 'multiple track' digital cassette recorder that conforms to the R-DAT digital format. What price it is likely to sell for when (if?) it is released remains unknown, but it clearly shows in what direction Yamaha's thoughts lie.

It all sounds very promising and one thing is for certain, 1987 shows every sign of being just as exciting as this year, if not more so!

MIDI truly became a universal standard in 1986 and, of course, it will be equally prevalent on the New Year's machines. But those ubiquitous DIN sockets may well soon be accompanied by another unassuming little socket mysteriously labelled 'MTC'. We'll be telling you all about what this does in the near future, so don't worry if you discover one on the back of your Christmas present!

Finally, on behalf of everyone at Sound On Sound let me wish all our readers and advertisers a Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year in 1987. Keep reading the mag!

Best wishes,
Ian Gilby