The case for education?

A selection of opinions and queries from the E&MM postbag.

If it's important and it's just happened, you'll find news of it here.

A special preview of some of the new goodies that'll be on show at the Frankfurt Musik Messe - Europe's premier music fair - when it gets under way in the second week of February.

Criticised in the past for their poor implementation of MIDI, Roland have given their new mid-price polysynth the full works. It sounds good, too, as Paul Wiffen discovers in this exclusive review.

Some drum sequencer software that's as user-friendly as it's versatile. Paul White enthuses over MPC's latest little marvel.

If you've got a serious syncing problem, chances are the new Sync Box will be your best bet for a solution, as Paul White explains.

And on a less spectacular scale, Korg introduce a synchroniser that won't break the bank, though it'll still crack a lot of problems, as Trish McGrath finds out.

Following on from last month's five-amp round-up, Paul White puts two more keyboard combos thoroughly through their paces. Do they make the grade?

There are still more computer-shy musicians around than many would have you believe, so for them, this dedicated MIDI sequencer could be just the ticket. Trish McGrath investigates.

A personal view of the School of Music at the Newcastle College of Arts and Technology, by one of its students, Paul Evans.

Take one of the most influential electronic composers of the current generation, a Fairlight, an entire library of vocal recordings from all over the world, and a few more-than-talented guest musicians, and you have the recipe for Zoolook, Jean-Michel Jarre's latest album. Here he talks about its creation.

There seems no end to the creativity of New York performance artist Laurie Anderson. In an exclusive interview, she talks about her music, her lyrics, and life as a 'Diva' for artist Jean-Michel Jarre.

Exclusive reviews of two avant garde music festivals that saw technology pushed to its creative limits, Ars Electronica at Linz and the International Computer Music Conference at IRCAM, Paris.

Detailed notes on the design and construction of a complete synthesiser voice card you can build yourself, by the team that put it all together in the first place.

We conclude our series on synchronisation by looking at Time Code and its applications in the video and music industries. Film editor Richard Atherton is your guide.

Geoff Twigg and Neville Unwin cast a critical eye over two books aimed at taking the mystery out of synthesisers, and come to vastly differing conclusions.

The readers' synth sound page. Almost a Yamaha takeover this month, with CS01, CS60 and DX7 models all featured, plus a token Roland.

Continuing our series for the complete newcomer to electronics in music, Steve Howell takes a look at the VCO, the synthesiser's heartbeat.