The pop charts, who wants 'em and needs 'em? Tim Goodyer glimpses a world without pop charts and the marketing that accompanies them.

Murder 'orrible murder, read all about it, police dumbfounded. OK, no actual murders this month, but there's plenty of hi-tech musical news in Newsdesk.

Drum machines are characters too - or so Paul Deane believes. This and other readers' opinions aired in Music Technology's regular letters page.

Following in the footsteps of their impressive FB01 editor, Ian Waugh reports that Quinsoft's latest editor is a cost-effective method of getting the most from 4-op FM.

It's powerful, it's intuitive and it's cheap - just about everything an ideal Atari sequencing package should be. Ian Waugh reviews.

Part two of this series on combining live instrument performances and MIDI recording looks at a typical session in the studio of Ollie Crooke and Simon Thomas.

The 100 Series is Yamaha's compact, cost- effective line of studio modules. Simon Trask tests a selection of units from mixer through effects to monitors.

The new videola music and video format is taking music video into the next decade. T-Cut K talks to one of the genre's most technology-conscious acts about the medium and the message.

South America: home of Latin rhythms and countless rhythmic influences is this month's port of call for Nigel Lord on his rhythm programming journey.

With two-minutes of sample time, Casio's FZ20M would seem to be an instant contender for any serious sampler's shortlist - but size isn't always everything, as Vic Lennard discovers.

MIDI Time Code, an overdue MIDI sync standard or a missed opportunity for musicians and manufacturers alike? Vic Lennard finds out what time it is.

Every new synth seems to herald a new generation of software editors - and so with IMS and Dr T's Atari ST editors for E-mu's Proteus. Vic Lennard gets in shape.

By ignoring the charts and treating dance music as a live phenomenon, Adamski has won himself a huge following and a chart placing. Simon Trask talks about the live applications of studio music.

It's not simply an SY77 in a rack, more an alternative application of Yamaha's latest synthesiser technology - Ian Waugh gives the TG55 a full workout.

A list of "classic" analogue synths could not be complete without Oberheim's OBXa. Peter Forrest reminisces about an instrument that won the hearts of many musicians.

This combined sequencer and tone editor for the IBM PC will work happily with Roland's MT32 and LAPC1. Ian Waugh looks into a serious PC music system.

Passport's Encore Mac scorewriting software aims to optimise music entry, playback and printing in one program. Mike Collins checks out the dots and the dot matrix.

In the beginning was the Midiverb; the Midiverb begat the Midiverb II and the Midiverb II. Nigel Lord checks the latest incarnation of Alesis' standard-setting reverb.

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.