John Renwick guides us through the Cheetah Series of keyboards

Controller Keyboard

As synth and sampler expanders become more popular, the demand for an affordable master keyboard increases. Simon Trask puts Cheetah's latest - and best test.

Chris Jenkins looks at a master keyboard of a very different kind, from the people who brought you drum machine and sampling add-ons for home computers.

As the world of musical synthesis shrinks ever more into a 19" black box format, where do we find the MIDI master keyboard to persuade these expander modules to give up their sounds? Since the big manufacturers currently seem reluctant to give us soundless MIDI keyboards, is there a small company we can turn to who can supply us with the equipment we need? David Mellor lets the cat out of the bag.

Cheetah MK5 MIDI keyboard

A master MIDI keyboard for under £100 may sound like a joke to you, especially when it is sold by Boots, but Jay Chapman quickly stopped laughing when he plugged it in. Find out why...