Hyped up about hype. David Ellis challenges hi-tech advertising.

CX5M/Roland Winners

Take one noise gate, add a drum machine plus a dash of imagination, then see what happens.

Dr.T's Keyboard Controlled Sequencer - Level II V3.0 for the Amiga

One music software house that showed greater awareness and belief in the Commodore Amiga from the outset was Dr.T. David Ellis checks out version 3.0 of their top-of-the-range sequencer to see how it rates against the growing competition.

Hints, Tips & News From The World Of Music Software

Drums get beaten, synths tinkled and demos hammered in the encapsulated everything section this month

E-mu Emulator

These days a few hundred pounds will buy you technology that once cost thousands. Gordon Reid looks at an early sampler and discovers there's more to it and its manufacturer than you might have known.

Sounds, samples, & software upgrades for the modern studio

New software, updates, sounds, and samples

The cheap alternative?

A History Of Knobs

guitar controls: big ones, small ones, useful ones, icky-kacky ones...

In the wake of the successful TR707, Roland have produced a well-nigh identical machine, loaded with percussive gems of a less predictable nature. Dan Goldstein puts the TR727 through its paces, shortly before emigrating to South America.

Playing Live

Electronic music live - a special focus

Vesta Fire SF100 Space Commander

Spatial expansion can produce very impressive effects without sounding unsubtle. This digital unit gives you a lot of options, but you pay for them!

When is it better to buy secondhand gear, rather than new gear? Tim Goodyer looks into equipment costs and sound fashions.

Fostex MTC1 Sync Box

Take Fostex's R8 tape deck, Steinberg's Cubase sequencer and an MTC1, and what have you got? Total creative freedom! Richard Aaron discovers the missing link in the recording chain.

For Windows

Walking into Windows

Roland JV880 Synth Module

AmpCheck

Hugely powerful and impressively loud. Martin Brassell, that is

Mail for those who can’t wait for the postman

Computer music at Goldsmith's College

Drum Machines

improve your programming with the experts

What is Library Music? What does a Music Library do? Freelance engineer Richard Elen answers these questions and more as he takes a look inside one of the world's premier recorded music libraries.