Cities in Concert Paris, La Defense

Jean-Michel Jarre recently trod the boards in magnificent style in Paris to mark the occasion of Bastille Day - report in full from Mark Jenkins.

Mark Jenkins reviews this handy set of power-packed sampled percussion pads.

What the ghetto blaster is to hi-fi, the CZ230S is to synthesisers. Annabel Scott takes a spin in Casio's streetwise preset synth.

New music on album

LPs, EPs and CCs

Music For A Small Planet

An enterprising duo who mix business and pleasure in the pursuit of music making.

He's big in Japan, massive in America, and beginning to conquer Europe with his own brand of ethereal synthesized 'mood music'. Mark Jenkins talks to the phenomenon that is Kitaro.

Don Larking

Klaus Schulze & Rainer Bloss, Tim Souster

A special report on the proceedings at this year's UK Electronica festival. Words by Tony Mills; pictures by Alf Annison, Stuart Catterson, Tony Mills and Chris Jenkins.

Long-distance MIDI transmission is no longer a dream, now that Quark have developed a system that converts it into a more durable format. Annabel Scott reports.

Volume 1 - Drums

If you're bored with your sampler's factory disks or simply can't find a decent snare drum to sample, then Syndromic Music's 'Star Samples' may well prove the ideal solution. Mark Jenkins assesses their range of sampled sound cassettes.

...while Annabel Scott listens to words of wisdom from a Transatlantic keyboardist of a very different kind - Saga's Jim Gilmour.

The new FM synthesis

Mutually exclusive?

UMI-2B

Sequencing interface for the BBC

Portable DAT Recorder

As the market prepares itself for an influx of DAT recorders from the giants of the hi-fi world, Mark Jenkins takes a brief look at a new portable offering from Technics, the SV260.

Tony Mills thinks Neuronium's curious blend of electronics, guitar-strumming, and psychedelic art could be just the thing to break the musical jelly mould in 1985. See if you agree.

Disk Recorder / Sequencer

Mark Jenkins gets to grips with this unassuming dual channel MIDI sequencer from the States and unearths some interesting facts...

A subjective and selective round-up of drum machines, old and new, by Mark Jenkins.

Roland MPS & MUSE

Roland's first serious venture into software takes the form of composing packages for Commodore, Apple and IBM computers. Annabel Scott checks them out.

Computer synth rental

Yamaha QX7 sequencer / TX7 expander

The latest additions to Yamaha's 'X' range - the QX7 keyboard recorder and TX7 expander look to be some of the most interesting yet.