Are 8 bits still viable? Martin Russ temporarily abandons his Atari ST for a look at the latest version of this music sequencer package for the BBC micro.

Stephen Luscombe, Adrian Lee and Clare Hirst

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Hot news from music's ivory towers

Name Your Poison

Usable Packages

The sun rises on computer music, or so says Tony Mills

The baton passes to Richard 'Luke' Walmsley and the beat goes on

The Manson

This month, Electronic Dream Plant to Elka.

including The A-to-Z of Analogue

Following last month's list of synthesis casualties, David Ellis delves deeper into the archives and finds yet more mysterious products of human ingenuity. Some of them are quite spectacular.

UMI 2B Software

The 1B version was good, but Simon Trask has spent a month with its successor, and reckons it deserves its reputation as the most professional sequencing package designed round a home computer.

Eden Studios

Paul Bacon takes up his fig leaf and descends to Eden

Six stars outline their home demo set-ups

sketching song ideas at home. how certain successful stars record their demos - John Entwistle, Nik Kershaw, Annabel Lamb, Adrian Belew, Blancmange

scurrilous gossip from the musician fraternity

How To Write Lyrics

Richard Walmsley takes a look at the under-estimated art of lyric writing

Tomorrow's news today — the IM tardis is off again

From the profound to the downright silly, we wind up a year's chit-chat

The Fall and Rise of Technology in Music

Steering this magazine through the '80s made Dan Goldstein a prominent character in the music industry. Putting aside 90 Minutes he gives a personal view of the last decade in music, technology and Music Technology.

A Soft Touch

Jay Chapman discovers why this 16 track MIDI sequencer package for the BBC B micro, described as the musical equivalent of the humble word processor, is receiving so much acclaim from studio users.