Yamaha CS80

Once infamous as a roadie's nightmare, the CS80 has settled in synth history as an instrument of almost unmatched character. Peter Forrest rediscovers the pain and the pleasure.

Keyboards

No free ads for the Superman film here (woops), but the dynamic Duo from Hohner (Pianet and Clavinet combined) finds favour with frolicking Dave Crombie.

Mark Jenkins reckons he knows his onions when it comes to hi-tech gear, so we asked him to concoct a tasty little number with this new French sampling drum machine - a cross between an RX11 and SP-12.

Keyboards

An extended feature this month to incorporate many of the new products shown at NAMM and the Frankfurt Music Fair.

Being a new section mainly for interesting and musical people of medium height: a little short for a feature but far too sturdy for a news item. Today, Weather Report refugee Alphonso Johnson and an instrument to gawp at and the curious Gruppo Sportivo (Q: Are we not Italian? A: We are Dutch).

We've now reached Part 4 where Robin Lumley surveys the technology of syncing sound and vision.

In depth.

High quality sampled bass sounds that you can play from any MIDI keyboard, sequencer or drum machine are offered by the 360 Systems MIDI BASS. Tony Hastings assesses its performance.

Quite why a particular studio becomes popular at one time is a mystery. We seek to solve it by asking top musicians about their choice of studios.