This is the sixth consecutive year that those masters of multitrack - Turnkey - have graced London with the opportunity for anyone interested or involved in multitrack recording to update their recording knowledge. Spread out over three hotel suites in the Clive Hotel, in Chalk Farm, it provided a chance for the average punter to try out many new products as well as to attend the various seminars held throughout the two days.

Upstairs was the location for the different exhibitors with the emphasis being on 'hands on'. Tascam had a row of Porta Ones with four track demo tapes which people could have fiddled with, next to which could be found their eight tracks and twin tracks, again with pre-recorded tapes for the fiddlers. Soundtracks had on show a selection from their range of mixers, connected up to a few Fostex B-16s. Fostex units were 'all over the place' with X15s in every corner, and even more desks popping up to match the infamous B-16. Namely Seck had their new 1882 desk with a retail price of £1399.00 with people cueing up to mix whatever was recorded on its designated B-16.

Whilst on the subject of 16 tracks, Tascam had promised to have the first UK showing of their new 16-track machine. Unfortunately this never materialised. Meanwhile on the FWO Bauch stand details were revealed on their new mastering machine, the A820, with over 40 user-programmable audio and transport functions, software controlled audio and tape deck parameters, and a host of other facilities...

Over on the Soundcraft stand were examples of their new look mixing desks - very posh - and Otari were another big name with their two, four and eight tracks on show. Atlantex, who bring into this country such gems as the MXR01a, Oberheim and the like, chose the Hands On Show as the time to announce their merger with Bandive.

Among numerous lines distributed by Atlantex they were showing a surprisingly competitive range of Delta Lab sound processors: once relatively obscure and high priced these are now competitive: witness a digital reverb with frequency response to 12K and delay time to over one second for £250.

Quick references must be made before I run out of space to Rebis and their plug-in studio processor equipment - new Comp/Limiter, Filter Gate, Expander and powered rack frames are on their way; Akai's new entries into the world of music were making their presence known; and additionally there were some first-runs of the new 'Stand Easy' stands for large monitors; horizontal mounting of small-ish multitrack machines and mixers all in one unit. The man behind this lark is non other than Don Larking's brother. Also worth watching is Harrison Information Technology, which consists of ex-members of the H/H team offering an attractive and full featured range of power amps with five-year guarantees.