When is digital technology "better" than its analogue counterpart? Tim Goodyer measures the development of music technology against musicians' and technicians' abilities to use it.

Fallen hero, what were you trying to prove? Fallen hero, all you got was front page news. -OTT Vixen lyric.

Readers air their views on such topics as MT's interview policy, synth programming, CD players, robots, MIDI guitars, drum programming... Anyone need advice on marital aids?

When The Stranglers had timecode trouble and the big studios couldn't help, the Time Code Refresher could - they liked it so much they bought one. Vic Lennard feels refreshed.

A disk full of sounds from Signal to Noise for the Yamaha SY22 and TG33 stars in this month's Patchwork. Vic Lennard Vectors in on someone else's patch.

"Build a better mousetrap", they said, "and the world will beat a path to your door". Nobody warned Nigel Lord that writing a drum programming column for MT has the same effect.

When cassette multitrackers were new they said everybody should have one - now that there are machines like the X28 around, everybody can. Nigel Lord says small is beautiful.

Felton Pilate's success spans "traditional" funk to the rap revolution - just now he's writing, producing and playing keys for Hammer. Nick Batzdorf raps tech with the Hammer man.

Conflict between hardware and software sequencing intensifies - can dedicated sequencers still compete with the flexibility of a computer? Simon Trask experiences Brotherly love.

Quantisation: the sequencer's revenge on the trained musician. Vic Lennard looks at this much-used but little-understood feature and finds that it has feelings, too.

Using your sampler as a synthesiser is wonderful in theory but frustrating in practice - until Virtual Wave, that is. Vic Lennard waves hello to Resotek's ST software.

Roland's VP330 Vocoder Plus not only helped to put vocoders on the map, but has since become a classic keyboard in its own right. Gordon Reid says "synths that make you go Hmmm".

Your drum machine used to dictate the sound of your music - but the variety of sounds in Alesis' drum expander gives you back your freedom. Tim Goodyer says everything starts with a D.

Gordon Matthewman's interests in hi-tech and his horn have found him in some of the most unlikely musical settings with his project Blow. Simon Trask blows another man's trumpet.

If you're looking for computer scorewriting, Rhapsody could be what you need - as well as helping to save the Archimedes from musical oblivion. Ian Waugh gets to know Clare and Archie.