Forsaking guitars and drums for a wall of keyboards and racked modules, Sub Sub turned a home studio into a hit factory. ‘Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)’ peaked at Number 3 and took everyone by surprise - except Phil Ward, who heard the single pre-release and contacted the band immediately.

Now you can upgrade Kurzweil’s market-leading synthesiser, the K2000, with a sampling interface. According to Simon Trask - and who are we to argue? - you can mingle your own samples with the synth’s onboard sounds, and edit the whole lot to your heart’s content in up to 64Mb of RAM. Whistle Kurzweil while you work, indeed.

Dom Foulsham continues his series with a guide to the ever-expanding world of sample CDs: what to look for, how to find it, and how to get the best out of the off-the-shelf loop. I know we said the series was concluding last month, but we were wrong, OK? Think of it as a bonus.

16-bit wavetable synthesis? 32-note polyphony? GM file support? Sounds like a job for Ian Waugh, and sounds like the product for any PC owner entering the wonderful world of digital sound.

Nicholas Rowland examines the successor to Roland’s classic R-8 drum machine and asks: is there life in the old beatbox yet?

Digital recording takes another step into your living room with this PC-compatible modular package, with four tracks in a 19" rackmounted unit. Bob Walder finds out if Soundscape have got this direct-to-disk business taped...

Ian Waugh unveils the secrets of a good old-fashioned analogue sequencer that generates MIDI data, courtesy of some good old-fashioned German R&D from manufacturers Doepfer, with a little help from their friends Kraftwerk. Vorsprung durch technik, as Ian says.

Never mind avoiding presets and programming your own patches... how about rebuilding the whole damn synth? Richard James - aka Polygon Window, Caustic Window, Diceman, Soit PP, Blue Calx, AFX and The Aphex Twin - isn’t happy with his hardware till he’s had the toolbox to it. Phil Ward enters the twilight zone of the lad from Cornwall who’s spearheading the ambient onslaught.

Before you ask, it’s not a typo: HMM Piip Oy is the name of the Finnish manufacturer of this auto-composition software called John - and why not? If you still don’t believe a computer can write music, ask Ian Waugh.

128 new General MIDI sounds for the price of a return flight to New York - just plug in and go with the unit that kills all known GMs. Ian Waugh goes a bundle.

His name is Trask (Simon) - and he is funky. More hot tips on the bottom end for the keyboard-based musician, with a look at the styles and techniques of funk. You can’t get any lower.

There’s a 16:8:2 and a 24:8:2, and both have MIDI-controlled automation. Furthermore, Steinberg have written a Cubase-like automation program for your ST, so there’s even less need for any of that awkward stretching. Vic Lennard enters into the Spirit.

Hip-hop beats, anarchic industrial noise and the odd jazz lick are the hallmarks of The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy’s debut album Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury. Kean Wong drops in on San Francisco’s uncompromising renegades and discovers which are the sharpest tools at the cutting edge of rap