Form Or Function: What Are We Paying For?

Do manufacturers and distributors care too much about the appearance of products and not enough about performance? Paul Wiffen offers an insider view.

His successful production of U2 has brought musical sage Brian Eno back into the public eye. John Diliberto finds out what's become of his oblique strategies and how he approaches the latest technology.

Founder of Ultravox and owner of The Garden Studio, John Foxx talks about all aspects of his recording methods and highlights the technological changes that have caused him to rethink the way he composes.

The wonderful guitars that made the wonderful Midge the wonderful guitarist. That he is.

Sky's keyboardist was one of the first musicians to take the Yamaha DX7 on the road for the band's last tour, here he explains how it stood up to the rigours of the road.

Part two, in which we meet the fifth Beatle, George Martin, and also brush with Trevor Horn's Fairlight.

At last — a BBC MIDI interface

We report on this top chart group.

Simmons SDS7 and SDS8

In a special report, Ultravox drummer Warren Cann takes a look at two new electronic drum-kits from Simmons - the people who started it all. One is a straight forward 'Simmons-sound-on-a-budget' model, the other a sophisticated modular system employing both analogue and digital sound-generation, as well as versatile user-programmability.

Light fantastic?

Ian Gilby looks at how you can programme that 'human feel' into your drum patterns or sequences using another clever device from the Bokse company - the MIDI Humaniser.

Dave Hutchins compares the traditional and modern methods of recording.

Chris Huggett, the man behind OSCar speaks

A lively Exit by Tony Reed

MT readers get their chance to see their own synth sounds in print. Instruments featured this month include the Juno 106, Poly 800 and DX21...

Ian Gilby visits The Garden Studio and learns how John Foxx composed and recorded tracks from his recently released album 'In Mysterious Ways'.

Yamaha's DX1, here at last

A deity speaks

news from the front

new gear news

MIDI Percussion Voice Generator

Simon Trask confronts a technological puzzle. Why have Korg put 19 digital drum voices in a box that contains no sequencing software?

UV PoP

Helden, Laurie Anderson, Fad Gadget, The Enid