A chance to check out some of the forthcoming new products that might force you to dig deeper into your pockets later this year.

What were the best products of 1987 according to Sound On Sound readers? Here are the long-awaited results of our poll.

It’s a tough world out there in the 16-track studio jungle, but Abbeydale’s owners have made a success out of providing a ‘personal production service’ for songwriters and bands. What's their secret? Read on...

With a creative mind and a decent digital sampler you can work wonders for your music. Brian Howarth provides a sampling strategy for constructing and manipulating vocal arrangements.

Why use an expensive sampler for playing bass sounds when you can take advantage of the Pro MIDI Bass and free your sampler for more worthwhile tasks? Mike Collins lets his fingers do the walking.

Hugh Padgham has worked with some of the best contemporary artists - The Police, Genesis, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Hall & Oates, and Phil Collins, to name but a few - and has earned his place in the recording industry history books through his sensitive, innovative, and inspired sound engineering and production work. How did he do it? Brian Jacobs finds out...

Our regular column devoted to readers’ hints and tips about their recording equipment, instruments, software and playing techniques.

The start of an 'experimental' column devoted entirely to Steinberg software. Written and compiled exclusively for SOS by Steinberg's experts, it will contain hot news of current and forthcoming software revisions, 'in-house' tips and tricks on its use, and will discuss computer-based MIDI sequencing systems in general. Read on and respond!

If there is one company which has made its name on sampling that company is E-mu Systems. The term 'Emulator' is now synonymous with sampling and now the third instrument in this distinguished series is on the market. Paul Wiffen checks it out and finds E-mu bang up to date.

There has been an enormous upsurge of interest in African music of late. Artists as diverse as Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads and Brian Eno have acknowledged its inspiration on their work. But there is little information around that explains the fundamental concepts behind it and how a musician can incorporate the sounds and ideas into their own work if they wish to. Kofi Busia suggests a few ideas.

The return of Roger Linn, as a member of the Akai team, promises much to the world of musical technology. The ASQ 10, bearing the Linn name, is a heavyweight sequencer in all senses. David Mellor assesses its abilities.

Ever wished you could store and recall all the control settings, sounds, drum patterns and sequences used for a song in one fell swoop? Martin Russ turns fantasy into reality using MIDI’s powerful System Exclusive messages.

The start of a new series for FM synth owners, in which Martin Russ attempts to give away the secrets of FM programming!

Many people own one and even more would like to, for the E16 is the 16-track tape machine to aspire to. Gareth Stuart finds out why.

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