Roland's new MIDI Micro Composer, Studiomaster and TOA MIDI Mixers and Soundcraft amplifiers are viewed through the crystal ball this month.

For those of you who missed it, here's our brief round-up of the excellent day's events at the recent Yamaha/DX Owners' Club convention in London.

In the penultimate part of his series, designed to help you get the best from your sampling machines, keyboard programmer Paul Wiffen returns to his analogue roots to modify some samples.

Digital Delay, Dynamic Control and Arpeggiation emerge from the MIDI jungle. Paul Gilby observes this rare species.

A second generation 8-track from Fostex that offers autolocate and timecode control to the budget studio. Paul Gilby opens the box to discover the secrets of the black magic.

Yamaha smash new price barriers with their latest FM synths - the DX100 and DX27. Mark Jenkins assesses their performance as stand-alone keyboards and as compact MIDI expanders.

Ted Fletcher documents the rise of a talented studio engineer whose recorded credits already include albums by Gary Moore and China Crisis.

Wave goodbye to constant repatching of MIDI cables and problems with the delay-inducing Thru socket using these useful MIDI routing boxes from Quark. Paul Wiffen enlightens us.

Ever since Fostex released the B16 multitrack, mixer manufacturers have been claiming their models to be the ideal match for it. Dave Simpson reckons ACES' latest attempt comes damn close to being the perfect match at only £1300.

The marriage of valve and MIDI technology in Dynacord's Reference 500 guitar amplifier results in an astonishingly good design as Ian Gilby discovered.

As their hit single 'Perfect Beat' proves, Bronski Beat are more than capable of producing enjoyable, dynamic electronic pop. Mark Jenkins talks in depth to Bronski's Larry Steinbachek about how they encompass modern technology in their recordings and live performances.

Dave Simpson discovers a remote control, autolocate and spare hand all in one compact unit - the QuPlay QP1.

Jay Chapman designs his own MIDI protocol this month to help show you how the real MIDI system orders about the binary information it uses to represent music.

Ian Waugh makes a global search of the UK MIDI software scene and presents this roundup of what is available and from whom.

Radio drama relies heavily on the skills of the sound engineer as you can well imagine. Janet Angus spoke with one of its leading exponents, John Rowland, aboard The Barge Studio to discover what special techniques are involved.

Virtually every synth and keyboard made has passed through the hands of Keyboard Hire's Alexander Skeaping at some point in time, so we sent David Etheridge along to tap his thoughts on the subject of buying secondhand keyboards.

Producer/Composer Robin Lumley details what's involved in writing and recording your first piece of music for a TV commercial.

Like many keyboard aces of the Seventies, Rod Argent too has turned his talents toward writing music for films and television, his most recent venture being the music for the highly acclaimed BBC TV series 'Soldiers'. Here he explains to Ian Gilby the procedures involved.

The release of the new Fostex synchronisers reinforces the importance of timecode in today's recording process. So, to help you familiarise yourself with their applications, Francis Rumsey begins a new series that should tell you all you need to know about timecodes.

Information, news, gossip and views.