Your First Guitar

problems to watch for on cheap and secondhand electrics

the beat goes whirrr

how to survive your first gig and maybe even enjoy it!

& a unique survival kit for those first few minutes of glory

Our regular readers' demo page is packed with invaluable tips on how to record the perfect demo.

National Music Day

Part 2: Mike Lethby prepares for National Music Day.

In 1984, The Blue Nile released an album widely hailed as the finest debut LP of recent years. After five years of silence, they've produced another masterpiece in Hats. Paul Ireson talks to the men behind two of the decade's finest records.

How To Survive Live

This month, we address the practicalities of working in a less than ideal live venue.

Protecting Your Home Studio

A little inside information, courtesy of the local police, could help prevent you losing your treasured equipment to thieves.

Multitrack Recording In The Classroom

Our educational consultant describes a basic, 4-track recording session from initial recording to final mixing.

Do It Yourself with National Music Day

Acid jazz of the counter-culture

Part 1: The Shoot

We all know how modern cost-effective musical instruments and recording equipment allow professional standard tapes to be produced at home. But does the similar trend in video gear mean that the average musician can now shoot his own promo? Paul Wiffen and Darrin Williamson thought so. This is their story.

Ben Duncan passes some of his tried and tested methods of evicting any studio gremlins that may be residing in the mains supply, and also explains the phenomenon of the singing light bulb.

The French answer to the MSQ100? A polyphonic sequencer with comprehensive interfacing facilities, and a few tricks up its sleeve gets the treatment from 'le docteur' Simon Trask.

The feasibility of putting your own records out; Richard Dean tells how to beat them at their own game.

Scottish band Danny Wilson were led by Gary Clark, who regards his debut solo album Ten Short Songs About Love as his finest work to date. From conception to birth, it was made entirely at home. Phil Ward drops in on the basement studio, and finds both album and proud father doing very well

In an exclusive interview, this longstanding keyboard hero and Miami Vice music maestro discusses keyboard technique, and what it’s like to achieve mass recognition after years of obscurity. Annabel Scott takes note.

What A&R Managers want from your demo

For many musicians, their first stab at getting their music heard is sending a demo to a record company or producer. But what do the people who listen to demos every day want from your tape? Sue Sillitoe finds out.

Secondhand Polysynth Guide

Whether you can't afford to indulge yourself in this month's Polysynth Checklist or simply prefer something that's now out of production, E&MM's guide to things secondhand could save you a lot of time and trouble.

Power Station, NYC

We visit the world-renowned studio, and talk to owner and producer Tony Bongiovi.

An in-depth dissection of electro-pop; how to create it, how to adapt it but not how to dance to it.

Phil and Paul Hartnoll are Orbital, and their pioneering brand of user-friendly electronic dance music is a lot more fluid than the traffic on the motorway that prompted the name. So Phil Ward avoids the M25 and heads straight for the heart of the P&P music factory

Never mind avoiding presets and programming your own patches... how about rebuilding the whole damn synth? Richard James - aka Polygon Window, Caustic Window, Diceman, Soit PP, Blue Calx, AFX and The Aphex Twin - isn’t happy with his hardware till he’s had the toolbox to it. Phil Ward enters the twilight zone of the lad from Cornwall who’s spearheading the ambient onslaught.

Calum Malcolm: Going to Caledonia

People, Gear, Events, Gossip

happening people, gear, gossip, events