The products that made headlines at the Association of Music Industries' annual London get-together.

For those not in the know, the British Music Fair is the most important event in the UK music industry's calendar, and while it pales into insignificance by comparison with the big multinational shows (at Frankfurt each February and Chicago every June), it's the one exhibition just about every dealer in the country gets along to, even if it's just to order another dozen or so trumpet mutes.

It generally acts as a launchpad for a good-many new music products from manufacturers both British and foreign, and this year's show was no exception, even if many of the goodies on show had already been seen in alternative guises.

There were several themes running through the show from an electronic viewpoint, but perhaps the most important was the return of the modular synthesiser.

Korg and Yamaha were both showing performance keyboards, Korg's RK100 is designed specifically to link up with their EX800 MIDI Expander (you can win both of them in our free competition, see elsewhere this issue) while the Yamaha KX5 also transmits and receives information along the music world's most infamous communications bus: Dave Bristow was demonstrating it - along with its full-size brother, the KX1 - to the world and his wife in one of Yamaha's many demo rooms.

Roland's variation on the same theme - the Axis - won't be here until December, but they had an altogether grander form of modular system on display. First unveiled over a year ago, their MIDI-based 'mother keyboard' system should be available by the time you read this.

Basically, you start off with a choice of two free-standing controlling keyboards: the MKB1000 (£1665), which has an 88-note wooden keyboard, or the MKB300, an altogether cheaper (£990) but only slightly nastier version. Both 'mothers' look very elegant, if a little on the delicate side considering that many musicians will no doubt want to use them on stage.

You've then got a choice of two rackmounting polysynth modules and a piano module. The latter is the MKS10 (or 'Planet P', as Roland would have it) which offers eight piano-type sounds and, like the others in the range, fits in a standard 19" rack and is fully MIDI-compatible. RRP is £990. The synth modules are the MKS30 ('Planet S') and the MKS80 ('Super Jupiter'), priced at £875 and £1800 respectively. Both have a lot in common with established Roland poly-synths, notably the JX3P and Jupiter 6/8, and like the former, programmer add-ons are available for those unused to digital parameter value selection. The Planet S can be used with the already-established PG200, while the Super Jupiter has a 19" programming module of its own, the MPG80, RRP £395.

Hats off to Roland for taking the modular idea a step further than anyone else (MD Brian Nunney sees it as being 'the only way forward'), but whether many will be prepared to pay the new gear's formidable asking prices is a question only time will answer.

The 'Big Three' Japanese concerns weren't the only ones showing off modular systems, though. Italians Siel were one of the first to exploit the potential of expanding synths via MIDI when they released their Expander at the beginning of the year, and two further developments should ensure that their system remains competitive. The well-known Opera 6 polysynth has been re-packaged as the DK600, and new features include fully-assignable MIDI Channels and programmable keyboard dynamics: it's gone down in price too, to £999. Siel were also demonstrating a number of software packages for their own MIDI hardware interface, among which was the Expander Editor program, which displays an Expander's internal circuitry as a graphic representation of the DK600 control panel, and allows the user to adjust individual parameters accordingly.

Oberheim's aptly titled Xpander (see review elsewhere this issue) was drawing a lot of attention in the Atlantex room, and deservedly so, whilst Yamaha's modular DX rack (effectively eight DX7s in a 19" box for something in the region of £4000) has undergone a visual facelift and an ID change, from T8PR to TX816. Whatever it's called, it should prove immensely popular with wealthier musicians once it goes on general sale sometime in the ensuing months, especially if Yamaha's screen dump program for the CX5 (more of which anon) can be made compatible with each individual module, which will make programming the things a lot easier.

"Both Roland's mother keyboards look very elegant, if a little on the delicate side considering that many musicians will no doubt want to use them on stage."

Siel UK were also demonstrating MIDI sequencing software for both the Spectrum and Commodore 64 (the latter package looking particularly impressive), while the company have also succeeded in modifying an interface to work with the BBC B, with production models on the way. Certainly, Siel's display showed them to be one of the most forward-looking of UK keyboard importers, and with the prospect of some new all-digital synths not too distant, their future looks rosy indeed.

Still, they weren't the only ones exhibiting MIDI software.

Jellinghaus Music Systems were tucked away in the company of Rosetti, who inadvisedly stayed away from the main part of the show and exhibited instead at the Electronic Keyboard & Organ Trade Fair at the Connaught Rooms, thereby ensuring that almost nobody genuinely interested in the JMS stuff actually got to see it. I managed to, but only after being informed of the software demonstrations' existence by Wolfgang Jellinghaus himself.

JMS were in fact one of the first companies anywhere to start designing and marketing MIDI software, and their new Recording Studio package should be music to a good few computer musicians' ears, offering as it does 12 tracks of fully polyphonic, real-time note storage, complete with assignable MIDI Channels for each track and some basic editing facilities, and all at a very competitive £99.

The Germans are also close to releasing two bits of hardware that should be of interest to a good many modern musicians. First off is a single-channel analogue-to-MIDI interface that should confidently undercut most of the competition if the German price of £150 is anything to go by, while Jellinghaus' Master Synchroniser does the same job (give or take a couple of pulses-per-quarter-note variations) as the Doctor Click et al for a fraction of the price. It's to be built in England and should be in music shops before Christmas.

Lastly on the software front are Yamaha, who are still in the process of developing multitrack sequencer programs for their own CX5M music computer. The latter is now in full production with a proper-sized OWERTY keyboard, MSX and MIDI, and amongst the software packages being demonstrated were some educational programs, a DX7 screen dump and an editor for the CX5's internal FM voices.

There are now two alternative keyboards (one miniature, the other full-size) to go with the CX, and it seems likely that the former will be offered as part of Yamaha's introductory package.

Electronic percussion - in the form of both programmable drum machines and more 'conventional' electronic drum kits - seems to be as popular as ever, as evidenced by the number of new percussion-related products making the debut at their show.

"Jellinghaus' single-channel analogue-to-MIDI interface should confidently undercut most of the competition, if the German price of £150 is anything to go by."

Yamaha (yes, them again) have now got the RX11 and 15 into full production, and both sounded as excellent as the prototypes had done back in February.

But Korg stole the show in the drum machine stakes with their remarkable 'Super Drums' and 'Super Percussion' units, previewed last month in our NAMM Show Report. Both employ PCM-encoded drum voices and are fully programmable, and although they lack MIDI, Korg's own KMS30 MIDI Synchroniser enabled them to be linked up to a Poly 800 for a truly stupendous (and largely impromptu - the machines only arrived in the country a day and a half before the show's commencement) demonstration of the Rose-Morris stand.

A few unbelievers were heard to mutter that the sounds on the DDM110 (the conventional drum kit variant) were a little on the muffled side, but who can seriously argue with the machines' specification at an RRP of only £229 each, or with the fact that the DDM220's Latin Percussion voices are simply superb?

Moving on to drums you can actually hit, Japanese giants Tama unveiled the Techstar, their first foray into the world of electronic drums. To many, the kit will have looked and sounded much like any other Simmons copy, but what a number of drummers seemed to be remarking on was the sheer playability of Tama's pads: even the man from Simmons had a worried look on his face as he approached Summerfields' stand, and perhaps not surprisingly so, in view of the fact that Tama are the first manufacturers of 'traditional' drums to enter the electronic field.

Elsewhere, things aren't quite so rosy in the Dynacord garden. They proudly demonstrated a complete electronic drum system consisting of pads, sequencer, and sampling unit at Frankfurt back in February, but one production difficulty after another has meant that only the first of these is yet available. Still, the Germans have at least found a neat way of fitting the PROMs for each voice so that the user can exchange and insert them at will: Dynacord's plug-in modules looked about as drummer-proof as anything can be.

A similar plug-in system is also employed on the d-drums, Swedish-built electronic percussion units that are also made (under licence) by E-mu Systems in America where they're known as E-Drums, which is all highly confusing. Anyhow, d-drums are sold as single units containing a touch-sensitive pad, controls for pitch, pitch sensitivity, bass and treble, and one pre-recorded EPROM of the purchaser's choice. Some of these contain up to four sounds, depending on the length of sample needed to replicate a sound convincingly.

The units are superbly constructed, and the quality of some of the samples is excellent, thanks to some extensive research by the manufacturers into the sorts of sounds drummers want and how to set about recording them. Many of the available bass and snare sounds, for example, were recorded using a Lexicon digital reverb system, and it certainly seems to have paid off.

One of the most novel products in the 'things to be hit' section was Roland's MPC8 MIDI Pad. Demonstrated only in prototype form and awaiting a change of ID code to prevent further UK corporate embarrassment, it nonetheless succeeded in transforming the same company's TR909 rhythm box into a 'live' instrument of some power.

"Even the man from Simmons had a worried look on his face as he approached Summerfields' stand... Tama are the first manufacturers of 'traditional' drums to enter the electronic field."

Basically, the MPC8 is a MIDI controller with eight individually-assignable, touch-sensitive pads, with foot control for hi-hat and bass drum, assuming you're using it to control a drum machine. You could, of course, connect the MPC8 to a MIDI keyboard and assign each pad to a different note, thereby reversing last year's fad for controlling individual drum machine voices via set notes on a dynamic keyboard.

Still on the subject of MIDI, it seems that several companies have realised the scope for putting the new interface standard on instruments aimed at the domestic end of the market, the idea being to encourage home micro owners to get into 'serious' computer music without having to spend vast sums of money on sound-generating hardware they're not (yet) competent to handle.

To this end, Yamaha, Siel and Casio have all produced MIDI-compatible personal keyboards. Unsurprisingly, Yamaha's PS6100 features FM-generated preset voices and a drum machine that incorporates PCM-encoded percussion sounds, and a built-in 'music programmer' that takes the basic programming facilities of the smaller MK100 keyboard (reviewed in E&MM July) a stage further. Less predictably, the 6100's spec sheet also includes a three-way splittable keyboard and after touch - not the sort of thing domestic instruments are normally endowed with.

Like the new Yamaha, Siel's new MK900 incorporates some degree of programme ability as part of its auto-accompaniment section, though in terms of sound-generation it is less adventurous. Still, one novel feature is the provision for four of the instrument's preset drum sounds (bass, snare, cymbal, and bongo) to be played manually using the topmost notes on the keyboard. Built-in rhythm units will never be the same again.

Meanwhile, Casio's lengthy abstention from the professional/semi-pro side of things was ended with the launch of the CT6000. Again, its keyboard offers touch-sensitivity and after touch, while as if to make absolutely sure nobody mistakes the 6000 for a home organ in a flashy case, its designers have also included a pitch bender in the traditional position at the left-hand end of the keyboard. There are 20 polyphonic voices to choose from, and many of them, the string voices in particular, were very impressive.

Finally, a word about Polaris. This, as you may recall, is the Chroma's younger brother, a six-voice polyphonic synthesiser complete with 132 memories and a fully polyphonic sequencer. It's now being produced in Japan, and has undergone a drastic control panel colour change (from orange to blue) since it was first unveiled. Rhodes (or CBS-Fender, or Chroma, or whatever you want to call them) seem to have given in over the subject of MIDI, since both it and the standard Chroma Apple interface are incorporated into the Polaris' specification.

At the trade show, the Polaris was being ably demonstrated by the redoubtable Vic Emerson (see interview, E&MM April '84), a self-confessed Chroma freak and a great supporter of all things analogue. He wasn't the only one who was relieved that the Polaris had finally made it into production, exactly a year after it was featured on the front cover of E&MM...

RRP is expected to be in the region of £1700.