Continuing our series that looks at hi-tech companies and design personnel working in the field of music and recording technology, Paul Gilby talks sampling with Kim Ryrie, President of Fairlight Instruments of Australia.

Simon Trask takes the bull by the horns and previews the latest 16-bit, £60,000 version of the Fairlight CMI. Millionaires have never had it so good, and there's more to come from Australia...

THE ULTIMATE SOFT MACHINE

The Fairlight (in its previous Series II guise) was/is probably the most famous computer musical instrument in the world. Everybody knows the name, but few really know what its true capabilities are. Now there is a new breed of Fairlight, far more powerful and far more sophisticated than the old one ever was - the Series III. Richard Elen takes a look at the mind-boggling potential of this Rolls-Royce of sound sampling/synthesizing machines.

SynthCheck

Paul Fishman sings the praises of Fairlight's unique instrument — and finds himself controlling a DX7

Technology For The Common Man

The distance between the affordable and the state-of-the-art. Is it getting narrower?

Southlands Studio

Paul Ireson goes in search of paradise and finds it in the newly renamed and refitted Southlands Studio in Chiswick, London.

Pete Gleadall runs up a transatlantic phone bill waiting for hip-hop whizzkid Mantronik to finish his hamburger and explain why the TR808 is still his favourite drum machine.

The art of writing music for popular television in the last few years may have been single-handedly redefined by Jan Hammer. His upbeat, rocky soundtracks to the hit TV series 'Miami Vice' (along with a few of the chart hits used in the show) have now produced two albums of instrumental music. Ed Jones finds out how they were done.

The Ever-Ready Studio Complex

Ralph Denyer takes the lid off this top London studio complex to discover how it and the people that work their tick.

Musical trends come and go but the hi-nrg beat goes on and on... David Bradwell talks to the hi-nrg production team who've released more records in the last 12 months than Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

Recording engineer Del Palmer has worked with Kate Bush for almost 13 years. Here he provides an insight into how this innovative lady works in the studio and the background to the recording of her hugely successful album, 'The Sensual World'.

Chris Jenkins and Simon Trask examine the musical implications of Commodore’s 16-bit monster computer. Will it be simply a haven for the gamesters and the accountants, or will it find a place on the shelves of music shops?

Could you make music using only samples from natural sources? Paul Tingen talks to a band who've done just that in an attempt to draw attention to our environment.

Dream Machine: ensoniq EPS/EPSm

the all-singing all-dancing all-bankrupting Ensoniq EPS

The coming of age of the Digital Audio Workstation has implications that go far beyond being simply another item of interest to electronic musicians. Craig Anderton brings us up to date on what’s happening at the top-end of the professional recording world and how it will affect us mere mortals.

Four years on from the successes of The Flat Earth, Thomas Dolby has moved to LA for his follow-up LP, Aliens Ate My Buick. Tim Goodyer discovers that aliens have a lot to say.

Lillie Yard Studio

Where can you find a complete audio-video recording system, a Fairlight a separate programming suite and the biggest modular synth in the world? Matthew Vosburgh discovers heaven off the Earl's Court Road.

Battery Studios

Jive Records' own Battery Studio complex has to accommodate acts as diverse as Schooly D, Mark Shreeve and Samantha Fox. David Bradwell raps technology.

From his involvement in the infamous Frankie Goes To Hollywood sessions, Andy Richards has become an accomplished producer and programmer in his own right. Nicholas Rowland listens to a rationalisation of technology.

In 1985 Propaganda produced a seminal electronic music album - then they vanished. Five years on they've returned to pick up where they left off. Michael Mertens talks to Tim Goodyer about technology and the German tradition.

Paul Wiffen takes an exclusive look a Ensoniq's latest offering in the field of sampling

Your sampler may only have a mono input, but that shouldn't stop you taking two-channel samples for a fatter, more realistic sound. Howard Massey shows you how.

Since heralding in a new musical era in 1976 with the release of his innovative synthesizer-based opus, 'Oxygene', Jean-Michel Jarre has gone on to sell almost 34 million records worldwide. Currently embarking on a new album project, as well as planning a series of concerts to welcome in the new decade, Richard Buskin visited Jarre in his home studio to talk about the technology behind his music.

Steve Cogan talks to J.J. Jezalik about life, the universe and sampling car doors

IRCAM Computer Music

According to composer Tim Souster, the aisles were certainly full of noises at October's symposium on personal computers in music held at Paris' distinguished music research centre, IRCAM. Read his report.