News from the front

the rest of the instrument news

Recording your own music is only the first step to getting it heard; to do that, you need to deal with A&R people at record companies. Paul Tingen meets them, and discovers why so few bands succeed in impressing them.

Another year, another host of hardware to look back on. We take you through the goodies and the baddies that came out during '84, just in case you missed any of them.

Sound Sampling System for Apple II/IIe

Mainframe's sound-sampling add-on for the Apple is now available to the general public. David Ellis puts the system through its paces.

In which five of E&MM's writers pick their fave things of the year. If your personal preferences aren't there, don't take it out on us.

Bass Sounds

By way of introduction to better coverage of recording studios and the technology within them, we look at the current state of the recording art and report from London's recent APRS studio show.

Ensoniq Piano

The Q-chip that was the heart of the Mirage and ESQ1 keyboards proves itself to be yet more versatile in the latest in electronic pianos. David Ellis dons concert pianist's tails and tinkles the ivories.

NAMM Winter Market, Anaheim

Paul Wiffen, hotfoot from California, reports on the machines that made headlines at the US music industry's winter shindig...

Time For A Change

TWO BOOKS TO DEMYSTIFY THE SYNTHESISER

Geoff Twigg and Neville Unwin cast a critical eye over two books aimed at taking the mystery out of synthesisers, and come to vastly differing conclusions.

We get the artists' views

Yesteryear's Gear: Roland Juno synths

classic analogue synthesizers for today's acid sounds

Computer synth rental

Jezz Woodroffe's page

would we lie to you

An easy-to-follow project to fit separate outputs to your Dr. Rhythm to increase its versatility.

Electric Productions

The last of the current series finds James Betteridge and some Geisha Girls involved. We have the negatives, Jim...

More soft poop scoops from the investigative mind of Adrian Deevoy

Phil South examines the ins and outs of programming various aspects of AI synthesis, as used in Korg's 'M' and 'T' ranges of synthesizers.

The comings and goings of everyday studio folk

Effectscheck

Some sharp effects with strange names. Review by Tony Mills