Commodore's Amiga computer is the beneficiary of this impressive - and colourful - sequencing package. Ian Waugh welcomes the illusion.

Mark's quantum leap

From synth pop to sequencers and back. Two-and-a-half years since they lost graced our front cover, Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey tell Tim Goodyer how progress is made, as album number seven hits the streets.

Chris Maillard goes West to meet the upbeat hoedowners

Jac Holzman

Chronicles of a moustachioed maestro. Philip Bashe reporting.

Feel Every Beat

Are Electronic, mutant offspring of New Order, The Smiths and the Pet Shop Boys, the first electro-supergroup? Does it matter? Mark J. Prendergast ignores the hype, sidesteps trivial speculation, and talks technical to Bernard Sumner.

...is a bassist turned producer/engineer who has worked with many artists in both Europe and America. In this article he gives his opinions on the techniques and equipment he uses.

Drumcheck

An abundance of features and digital sounds. Bob Henrit gets down to some serious TOMfoolery

In the early '70s reggae was the star of the pop charts; these days its profile is lower but its influence almost inescapable, Nigel Lord looks at programming Ja rhythm.

Who'd have guessed that Akai Iceland were about to release a MIDI bass controller and major software updates for the DD1000? Mørv Smørdilørv proves that you never can predict innovation.

Over the last three decades John McLaughlin has done more than anybody else in popular jazz and rock music to explore the potential of the guitar, both acoustic and electric. Here he talks to Mark Prendergast about his eclectic career, pioneering use of guitar synthesizers, and the Synclavier.

With A Sampling Keyboard

Sampling keyboards offer far more creative scope for sound manipulation than most people give them credit for and they can be a real life-saver during studio mixdowns. Craig Anderton reveals some modern day production tips that will allow you to put your sampler to good use.

Our regular monthly exploration of upcoming new products.

Laurie Anderson, pioneer and populariser of avant-garde electronic music, and arguably the performance artist, recently brought her 'Empty Places' show to the UK. Interview by Mark J. Prendergast.

the experts help

White Eat, white light, and what gear from the Wobbly Ones.

Etcetera

Modular synthesis

A plaintive request for a return to modular synthesis, what it means and what it can do for the creative musician.

...In March 1981, E&MM's publishers launched this magazine onto an unsuspecting musical public. Dan Goldstein looks back at the issue that started it all.

Trish McGrath gets the lowdown on a whole stack of readers' own synth sounds, while Paul Wiffen gives an appraisal of a new library of samples for the Ensoniq Mirage.

What is 'New Age' music? Who plays it, and why is it apparently so popular? Our resident musicologist Mark Prendergast traces its development back to the work of 'new music' composers Arnold Schoenberg and Erik Satie.

Sold on the 3-Minute Song

Erasure's fifth album sees the duo of Vince Clarke and Andy Bell going from strength to strength, delivering electro-pop at its finest. But the doyens of synthesizer pop recorded Chorus with almost no MIDI instruments at all. Vince Clarke tells Paul Ireson how he made a hit album with 10-year old technology.