An exclusive interview with Rick Wakeman plus music from '1984' for you to play.

I.M. caught Rick Wakeman after Arthur and before Liszt

The six best keyboard ideas of Rick The First, in condensed, easy-to-follow Making Music style.

in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

Session player Julian Colbeck tells the tale of how he got the gig as support keyboard player for Rick Wakeman on the recent Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe world tour, and runs through the instrumentation he and Rick used on stage.

in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

Session player Julian Colbeck tells the tale of how he got the gig as support keyboard player for Rick Wakeman on the recent Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe world tour, and runs through the instrumentation he and Rick used on stage.

Could hi-fi giants Technics have set a new standard with the digital sounds of their PX1 MIDI Piano? Consultant keyboard player extraordinaire, Rick Wakeman, checks out its performance.

The six best keyboard ideas of Rick The First, in condensed, easy-to-follow Making Music style.

What is 'New Age' music? Who plays it, and why is it apparently so popular? Our resident musicologist Mark Prendergast traces its development back to the work of 'new music' composers Arnold Schoenberg and Erik Satie.

Into the Seventies

Making tracks

More news, views, and a smidgeon of hot gossip!

Vintage technology strikes back

including The A-Z of Analogue

Electronics

Electronics and synthesiser music.

The Mellotron

Once considered an instrument no keyboard player should be without, more recently regarded as a mechanical monstrosity, the Mellotron was definitely an early sampler, but was it the first? Dave "Crumbly" Crombie reminisces.

John Renwick goes back to school with a whole range of music tutorial packages from Hybrid Arts

MIDI Keyboard Controllers

As MIDI equipment becomes more and more sophisticated, the job of a MIDI controller keyboard becomes more and more demanding. Simon Trask takes the A train with Roland's latest MIDI controllers.

MIDI Keyboard Controller

'Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye' - as Val Doonican once said. Now you can with Roland's portable MIDI keyboard controller, designed for those with a severe case of guitar envy. Nicholas Rowland discusses the angle of the dangle

Once infamous as a roadie's nightmare, the CS80 has settled in synth history as an instrument of almost unmatched character. Peter Forrest rediscovers the pain and the pleasure.

Readers' patches for the OSC OSCar and the Yamaha CS30 make this month's patchwork an all-analogue affar. This and Stiletto's Roland D-series and Casio CZ-series synths.

Acoustic drum samples from producer Bob Clearmountain rub shoulders with Mega Beats drum machine samples, while SSU sounds for the Yamaha SY77 complete the lineup in this month's Patchwork.

David Bowie