Who's recording what where

Warwick 'Thumb' Bass

Marvel at previously unrevealed secrets of famous musical instruments and their inventors.

if your music feels lacklustre, dabble in dance rhythms from the dark continent

Jez Ford grabs this expander from 360 Systems by the MIDI lead and puts it to the test

We go behind the scenes to see how the Cutting Crew pull together their live performances

RETROSPECT: elvis costello

an appreciation of one of the decade’s great songwriting talents; could you match them?

Analysis, comment, discussion... hey, Rock'n' Roll

forming your first band and don't know what to do? Read on...

Yet another selection of recently announced new products to whet your appetite!

Who is Uli Jon Roth? How can you learn to read bass music? What does Chas de Whalley look like?

Shop now for Christmas.

Expert tips on fine-tuning your effects in exact time with your BPMs.

All the snippety little secret bits of musicians' gossip that no-one else would print

BassCheck

Dave Burrluck on Staccato's affordable, hi-tech instrument

For '85

Paul Day's choice for '85

Positive superlatives all over the place as Dave Blake's rhetoric embraces a couple of Ibanez instruments.

A special report on the proceedings at this year's UK Electronica festival. Words by Tony Mills; pictures by Alf Annison, Stuart Catterson, Tony Mills and Chris Jenkins.

Pitch Training On The BBC Micro

A new pitch trainer for the BBC B

DAT is beginning to take a firm hold in the studio market despite all the controversy. Ed Jones reflects on Digital Audio Tape and roadtests Sony's new TCD-D10 portable recorder.

Most of us have bought CDs bearing the label "digitally remastered", but how many of us appreciate what's happened to the music in the process. Tom Doyle exposes the power behind the remastering button.

Show Reports

what we saw

The Recording of a Film Soundtrack Music

Ed Jones sits in on a major film music session in Abbey Road Studios, London, and reports on how the London Symphony Orchestra and a host of extra musicians recorded the music soundtrack to George Lucas' forthcoming prequel to 'Star Wars' - 'Willow'.

Disk Recorder / Sequencer

Mark Jenkins gets to grips with this unassuming dual channel MIDI sequencer from the States and unearths some interesting facts...