A look at several of the more significant new products to be launched at this year's British Music Fair at Olympia.

This long-awaited successor to Roland's evergreen MSQ700 sequencer offers increased song and note capacity, 'microscopic' editing of every single MIDI command and stores both music and rhythm tracks to 3.5 inch disks. Mark Jenkins fills in the details.

David Etheridge pays a visit to this expanding 8-track London facility which has carved out a successful niche for itself as a well-equipped modern day songwriter's studio.

Several months after the MIDIVERB turned the world of stereo digital reverb on its head, Alesis look set for a repeat performance with their latest unit - a combination of digital delay, reverb and stereo enhancer. Paul Gilby seems lost for words.

The second of our series that takes a behind the scenes look at companies and design personnel involved in recording and hi-tech products. This month Paul Gilby talks to Scott Berdell of dbx.

A multitrack sequencer with a built-in synth or a velocity-sensitive 8-voice polysynth with a built-in 8-track step/real-time MIDI sequencer? Tony Hastings tries to make up his mind about this versatile and well-priced instrument.

Best known as a top Flamenco guitarist, Juan Martin has recently released a sensitive album that combines classical guitar with the ethereal textures of Mark Isham's synthesizers. Robin Lumley questions him about this unlikely collaboration and discovers the best ways of miking up classical guitars into the bargain.

This Japanese audio company seem hell-bent on making a name for themselves as producers of high quality products and this rack-mount electronic keyboard mixer incorporating a four channel MIDI Thru box certainly fulfils that aim. Ian Gilby reports.

'Are Friends Electric?' and 'Cars' will go down in the musical history books as classics of their genre but the writer of those hits, Gary Numan, has yet to match his early successes. Mark Jenkins met up with him during sessions for a forthcoming album at Rock City studios, Shepperton, only to discover that the Numan of today is finding it tough to get airplay for his recent work...

How do they manage to pack so many wonderful facilities into a 19" box? Paul Gilby sets the tempo, stripes the tape and explains why this MIDI/SMPTE synchroniser is a godsend to any studio.

Final part. Jay Chapman concludes his long-running series on the software aspects of MIDI with a look at the finer points of Active Sensing.

Hans Zimmer is the complete antithesis of the serious German synthesist - he smiles a lot for a start! As co-founder of Lillie Yard studio and the proud owner of a surviving Moog Series 8 modular synth, his approach to sound synthesis is a refreshingly traditional one eschewing the very thought of ever using an unmodified factory preset on any of his work! Ralph Denyer explains why.

This latest release in the popular Micro Rack range of budget signal processors is put through its paces by Mark Jenkins.

This UK company's stereo noise gate offers many of the functions contained in top class gates but at a budget price. Martin Sheehan assesses its value.

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