Mike Drane informs us of his clandestine bedroom activities!

Use the Sinclair ZX Spectrum to create sophisticated digital envelopes.

Ever since the invention of the wax cylinder, listening to recorded music has been a passive experience; now CDs are capable of holding MIDI and other performance data. Bob O'Donnell looks at the changing face of music.

New York was the setting for the 83rd Convention of the Audio Engineering Society, where audio manufacturers gathered to show off their new wares. Craig Anderton provides a rundown of the main highlights.

Forthcoming new products from the hi-tech music recording field.

Steim Studio

Europe's most forward-looking centre for music technology development is alive and well and flourishing in Holland. Ron Briefel pays it a visit, and comes away suitably impressed.

A plethora of new hi-tech products to whet your appetite.

Sampling Keyboard

E-mu enhance their popular Emax sampler with a built-in 20 Meg hard disk and two new methods of sound synthesis. But how successful is the sampler-as-synthesiser? Bob O'Donnell takes it to the max.

Sample Editing Software

A sample editing package to beat all sample editing packages? Robert Rich test-drives a universal editor that may be the answer to many a sampling studio's prayers.

Roland Report

Martin Russ reveals the hidden features of Yamaha's budget digital multi-effector and explains how it can be coaxed into supplying more than one effect at once.

AES Convention 1988

Los Angeles' recent AES convention pointed the way ahead for recording technology. Bob O'Donnell takes a trip to the fair and finds the rides to his liking.

Synthesis Software

CAD meets synthesis inside the Apple Mac. Robert Rich fires up a program that allows you to design your sounds on computer before transferring them to your sampler.

Rather than keep the module-addicts happy with a rack version of their EPS sampler, Ensoniq have incorporated some attractive improvements into their EPS-M - like quadrupling its memory. David Bradwell liked it so much he bought it...

Alesis are known, more than anything, for their digital signal processing expertise, yet their new mixer is an all analogue 16:2:2 design - but employing a revolutionary construction technique. Paul Ireson lends an ear.

Intelligent Pitch Shifter

Most pitch shifters wouldn't know their A minor from their E major, but DigiTech's IPS33 knows a thing or two about playing in key. Simon Trask finds himself in harmony with the Intelligent Pitch Shifter.

Although expensive, digital audio workstations are a pointer to the kind of features we can expect to see on the next generation of 'affordable' hi-tech instruments. Craig Anderton takes a look at one of the very latest workstations to appear, the AudioFrame.

A New Kind Of Synthesizer

SOS reader Colin Muir tells why he wants a new kind of synthesizer for Christmas.

Part four

Continuing on from last month's review of the Roland D-50 Linear Arithmetic synthesizer, Martin Russ takes a detailed look at the technical aspects of the D-50, liberally sprinkled with excerpts from a rare interview with Mr Ikutaro Kakehashi, President of the Roland Corporation.