Fairs are great for demonstrating technology, but do they do enough to further the cause of music?

The World's Best Songwriters

four stars choose their favourite songsters - Fish, Vince Clarke, Edwyn Collins, Chris Difford

Profound thinker Trynka is back with chewed pencil for another month's diary, and the strain's beginning to tell...

five stars pick their fave sounds

Vince Clarke, Jon Lord, Steve Levine, Bill Nelson, John Foxx... five heroes of the keyboard nominate their favourite synth tracks and sounds

Software Stumbling

The software revolution hits a snag.

tim simenon turns the tables

If you've the tenacity to take on and beat the (ex-)GLC, then putting together an upmarket 24-track studio is a piece of cake! Tony Hastings visited this South London studio to glean the details of how it came to be and what it offers.

filter bank

The filters that launched a thousand analogue synth lines.

Simple complex, very dire straits

Disturbing tales of everyday studio folk

Daniel Miller, head of Mute records, has taken the label to a very successful conclusion with some massive UK hits. He tells of the joys and despair of the British record industry, and his work with electronic music.

Founder member of Depeche Mode and Yazoo, Vince Clarke is joined here by Eric Radcliffe, his partner in a new band, The Assembly, air their views on writing and recording in the 1980's.

Up to the minute and down to the nitty gritty

TWO BOOKS TO DEMYSTIFY THE SYNTHESISER

Geoff Twigg and Neville Unwin cast a critical eye over two books aimed at taking the mystery out of synthesisers, and come to vastly differing conclusions.

Wilf Smarties gives a new batch of CDs a spin.

NAME: new album/new equipment/sound techniques/change of style/gig horrors... LIST

A 2-page Paracetamol for your technical headaches.

Once you've got your sequencer up and running you're gonna need some extra sound sources. Paul Wiffen guides us through the MIDI Expander jungle

Usable Packages

The sun rises on computer music, or so says Tony Mills