The Circuit

The four circuit diagrams that lie at the heart of our MIDI Controlled Sampler project, with a full description to follow next month.

Part 5. Tidying Up

Co-designer Tim Orr takes us through the mechanical construction and front panel controls of the MIDI Controlled Sampler.

How it Works

Part three, and a look at the design thinking behind this astonishing MIDI-controlled sampling unit.

Playing with Time

MCS stands for MIDI Controlled Sampler, E&MM's most exciting build-it-yourself project yet. Tim Orr gets the ball rolling with a discussion of the effects this Powertran unit can be used to produce.

Part 4: Testing, Testing

Tim Orr on how to test your MIDI Controlled Sampler once you've put it together: tips and diagrams aplenty.

Software writer Jim Grant and hardware designer Tim Orr begin our two-part coverage of a new interface that can connect an MCS1 to a BBC Micro using non-MIDI codes

...of an English kit builder.

An insight into the problems and pleasures of constructing electronic music kits - by Godric Wilkie, who’s built hundreds.

Session player, freelance producer and 1-Level keyboardist Duncan Bridgeman discusses what it's like to live in a recording studio for 11 months of the year. Interview by Dan Goldstein.

Hardware and Software for Sinclair Spectrum

E&MM new-boy Simon Trask gets his teeth into a Spectrum-based sampling system that retails for no more than £50.

In which five of E&MM's writers pick their fave things of the year. If your personal preferences aren't there, don't take it out on us.

A sampling digital delay line from Korg - the SDD2000.

Hybrid Technology's Chris Jordan, designer of the Music 500 Synthesizer for the BBC Micro, speculates on the future of MIDI and what developments it requires to satisfy the needs of more adventurous users and the promise of more advanced technology.

Yamaha SPX90

Is it a reverb? Is it a sampler? Yes and no; it's Yamaha's new digital Jack of all trades and it offers surprising value for money.

Polyphonic MIDI Sound Sampler

A real advance in the field of accessible polyphonic sound sampling. Tim Goodyer finds out if the 612's beauty is more than price-tag-deep.

...was the title of The South Bank Show's much-criticised electronic music extravaganza of a couple of months back. Here the programme's musical consultant, composer Tim Souster, argues the case in favour of the show's content.

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.

One of the stars of Channel 4's Fourmations, Brian Johnson's Improvisions combine musical performance with real-time manipulation of video images. Peter Ridsdale trips on this.

Digital Keyboard

How can the principles of Artificial Intelligence be employed to make a computer musical instrument sound like a grand piano? David Ellis delves deep into the workings of a £10,000+ Stateside keyboard.