If music-making becomes more and more popular, will the quality of popular music automatically slide downwards? Is the Casio VL-tone responsible for Starship?

More hot news from the hi-tech side of the music industry; software, hardware, underwear... it's all here.

MT readers give their views a thorough airing, and nobody is safe - least of all MT itself.

Another selection of readers' technical queries, answered by MT's resident team of agony aunts.

Multi-talented sequencing software is all very well, but if you're unsure about recording with computers, you need a starter program to test the water with. Ian Waugh tries out just such a package.

It's new, it's one of the cheapest MIDI switching boxes available, and it's designed and built in this country. Simon Trask assesses the argument for buying British.

Nothing to do with paddy-fields or Uncle Ben, but Ian Waugh reviewing two versions of a new drum program for the under-used BBC computer. Is it cost-effective?

Having trouble projecting the right image on-stage? Paul Tingen reports on a unique way of improving your performing confidence, and your outlook on music in general.

Jim Burgess sends us an exclusive preview of Apple's powerful pair of new computers - and assesses their implications for tomorrow's MIDI-using musicians.

'What's the Colour of Money?' was one of last year's most inventive hit singles, but since then, little has been heard from Mark Rogers. Tim Goodyer talks to him as the first HB album is released.

Another batch of MT readers' own synth sounds. Featured this month: the Korg DW8000, Roland Jupiter 6, Yamaha DX7 and Casio CZ101.

Your sampler may only have a mono input, but that shouldn't stop you taking two-channel samples for a fatter, more realistic sound. Howard Massey shows you how.

They were once a six-piece band playing "systems jazz". Now they are seven, and the music has become even more difficult to classify. Tim Goodyer tries to solve the puzzle.

With Casio's CZ synths showing no sign of losing popularity, Ian Waugh looks at an editing package that uses a Commodore 64 to help make Phase Distortion accessible.

You want a synthesiser, a drum machine, a sequencer and a sampler, but you've got less than £500 to spend? Home-keyboard buyers are currently being offered just such a package, as Dan Goldstein discovers.

...Is already hugely successful as an engineer, producer, musician and programmer for the likes of Grace Jones and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Paul Tingen finds fame has made him disillusioned and cynical.

...Beating Like This. Chris Meyer and Matt Isaacson with the second part in our series on better drum programming. This month: how to make your percussion sounds stand out from the crowd.

MT new boy Bob "I'm Confused" O'Donnell checks out the cutest eight-track sequencer available. Have too many corners been cut to reduce the cost?

In an exclusive interview, the co-founder of the Fairlight company and father of the CMI talks about the machine's development, and outlines his plans for the future. Simon Trask pops the questions.

Is this the synth to topple the DX7 from its throne? Will Linear/Arithmetic Synthesis become the programmer's new catchphrase? Will Simon Trask die of a broken heart? Find out in our exclusive review.

Tim Goodyer talks to the man who's programmed Peter Gabriel's synths, recorded a host of electronic albums under the name Synergy, and started up his own record label for instrumental music.

Few companies make synthesiser debuts as good as the Kawai K3. Now the same company has introduced its first digital beatbox; Simon Trask finds out if they've maintained the standard.