John Harris draws on personal experience to reveal some of the problems encountered when recording TV pop music programmes.

Games Feature

Now that computer games are available on CD, they’re no longer restricted to naff sound effects and music. We talk to games producers Ocean and composer Debbie Wiseman about the arrival of serious sound for games...

Catch a glimpse of what goes through the mind of a Newcastle musician commissioned to provide a suitable soundtrack for an animated film whose subject matter revolves around a woman living alone in a high-rise block of flats. John Goodenough relates his experiences.

Want to get on in the music biz? Then you'll have to get on TV. Mike Hrano shows you how

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Plenty has changed since E&MM last ventured into the hallowed chambers of Maida Vale. Simon Trask reports from the studio that started it all, but now seems aloof from the modern music scene.

Rockschool

Has the BBC finally woken up to rock music?

trying to get on telly could be the most frustrating experience of your musical career; we pinpoint the pitfalls

TV Sound

How the experts go about getting better concert noise on the box

Cheap images, part two

Cheap ways of getting your band on the box.

Alan Hoida looks into the postproduction stage of making a pop video.

Alan Hoida delves further Into the world of promotional videos with a look at the planning stage.

Alan Hoida road tests a portable video studio.

Alan Hoida takes us through the shooting of a video.

Part one of a new series by Alan Hoida setting out what is involved in the making of a promotional pop video.

From our Greenland correspondent.

Alan Hoida dons his Santa outfit and explains the pros and cons of working on film as opposed to video.

John Harris and Shirley Gray take a look behind the scenes to find out how the tube is recorded and how much planning is necessary to produce the apparent unrehearsed chaos that we all know and love.

Richard Mitchell explains his use of electronic music for film.

how soundtracks changed one star's life

Later with Jools Holland

Behind the scenes at TV’s premier music show

PART 3; David Mellor looks at how the requirements of different types of music for TV and film can dictate the sophistication of your synchronising capabilities, and at how machine synchronisation works in practice.

Is video a mystery to you? Would you like to dip a toe into its murky waters, or are you worried about getting out of your depth too quickly? In this new series David Mellor explains the essentials of synchronising audio to video, and finds out what it is like to upgrade a home studio to audio post-production standard.

In the fourth part of this series, David Mellor looks at the Fostex 4030/4035 synchroniser system, and how it is set up and operated.

PART 2: Timecode - much talked about but little understood - is of increasing importance to musicians and recording engineers. Whether you are synchronising audio to video, or MIDI to multitrack, at least a working knowledge of SMPTE/EBU is required. In the second part of this series, David Mellor explains what timecode is and how it is used.