From the response to last month's launch edition of ES&CM, it would appear that we're achieving our aim of presenting an interesting and innovative magazine. This was emphasized by the number of subscriptions we received in the first week — some, amazingly, even before the first copy appeared on the bookstands. Surely that's a good omen for the future.

Particularly noteworthy in this issue are the Prophet T8 review, our Drum Synth project and the Special Focus on computer-based music hardware — all the result of considerable effort at making sure ES&CM readers get value for their 65p.

The new T8 synthesizer is set to become a studio standard and possibly a few of our Drum Synths will take the same route. And as for 'Sampling Synths', the article speaks for itself — or rather, the artists do and that's the way it should be!