Has popular music really become as stale as you think, or have you simply lost your ability to assimilate it? Tim Goodyer looks at the effects of growing volumes of music on limited listening resources.

According to your English teacher, there are only 26 letters in the alphabet; so how come the world's leading hi-tech music mag attracts many more each month? Perhaps it's because - like MT's letters - only a proportion are printable. Keep them coming...

Watching the news and not eating your tea / A freezing cold flat and damp on the walls... - an entertaining lyric from Paul Weller's Jam days.

After some 30 months, Nigel Lord's seminal On The Beat series draws to a close. Over the months, it has covered programming skills and a wide range of drumming and percussion styles, and proved popular with amateurs and pros alike - it will be copied but never bettered.

One of the nerve centres of any studio is its mixing desk - but how do you choose a mixer which is both affordable and expandable? Tim Goodyer discovers a desk which is built to last and to grow - and cost very little.

Having helped establish the direction of British electronic experimental music in the early-'80s and helped guide it through the dance explosion, Cabaret Voltaire have released a new album. Tim Goodyer finds out why the tracks sound strangely familiar.

In their efforts to establish their signal processors as strongly in the UK as they have in the States, ART can't seem to bring out enough effects units. Nigel Lord evaluates the ART with aspirations to be number one.

Korg's latest additions to their popular 0-series synth range include the professional flagship 01/W Pro-X keyboard and the more affordable 03/R rackmount. Simon Trask assesses their position in Korg's line and today's keyboard market.

Whether you're gigging every night of the week or simply building up a small MIDI studio in your bedroom, you need something to prop everything up. Tim Goodyer inspects a range of keyboard stands whose cost belies their quality.

Confronting the "difficult third album" syndrome has presented fewer problems for Inner City mentor Kevin Saunderson than the "more of the same" second album syndrome. Simon Trask discusses musical ideologies, pop trends and advancing technology.

If the limitations of your Atari are restricting your music, you may have been thinking about trading it in against something more powerful - but there are alternatives. Tim Goodyer rejuvenates the ST with a memory expansion.

What happens when you press your sequencer's "stop" button and why does such a simple operation sometimes cause so much trouble? Vic Lennard offers a few troubleshooting tips and reveals that there's probably more to it than you think.

Not simply a stripped-down JV80, Roland's new JV30 has some surprises to add to its minorbuck price tag. Simon Trask test drives a new Roland which could prove a popular buy amongst cost-conscious synth players.

With software synth editors challenging the instruments' own front panels for attention, Quinsoft have brought the popular Alesis Quadraverb an editor of its own. Ian Waugh looks in on the Quaddy.

The final disc in the Zero-G Datafile series joins Coldcut's Kleptomania in the growing library of sample CDs - Tim Goodyer checks them out, while Andy Neve loads The Sound Foundation's programming efforts into his Roland MKS70 in this month's Patchwork.