From his involvement in the infamous Frankie Goes To Hollywood sessions, Andy Richards has become an accomplished producer and programmer in his own right. Nicholas Rowland listens to a rationalisation of technology.

Dave Hastilow fishes around for some new angles on recording technique — in the field or at home. Or in the river.

if you’ve got plenty of feeling but your technique lets you down - try playing the blues

Bass Traps

Phone booths into concert halls - if you can ace your bass, that is

news from the front

newsworthy items for your interest

Don't delete those unsatisfactory samples until you've tried resampling them. Tom McLaughlin explains how you can turn a bad sample into a good one.

Jean Michel Jarre is about to stage the world's biggest ever concert in the London Docklands. David Bradwell finds out about the technological dark age and the art of showmanship.

Wendy Carlos still loves digital synthesis. Through her pioneering soundtrack work on movies like Tron, and her synthesised interpretations of the classics, she has done as much as Jarre, Kraftwerk and Eno in making synthesisers both respectable and popular. She also used to be Walter Carlos. Daniel Rue investigates

In Search Of The Truth

Despite the fact that Standard MIDI Fil es have been about for quite a while there is, for many users, still more than a little confusion about their purpose and use. Paul Overaa sheds some light on the subject...

Korg SQD1

Tim Goodyer goes in search of visual appeal and finds a mean-looker in the form of Korg'sfirst-ever digital sequencer. And with a built-in disk drive and big storage capacity, beauty is more than skin deep.

Radio drama relies heavily on the skills of the sound engineer as you can well imagine. Janet Angus spoke with one of its leading exponents, John Rowland, aboard The Barge Studio to discover what special techniques are involved.

Live Music for the Hi-Tech Musician

Continuing our 'How It Works' series, David Mellor lays bare the facts about the applications and workings of the commonest types of microphone.

Everything you didn't want to know and couldn't be bothered to ask

Richard Walmsley enquires into a smooth operation

Soundcraft Spirit Folio

A quality name, a quality product, an affordable price tag — Soundcraft's new portable mixer seems to have it all. Derek Johnson wants to carry one home.

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.

All the stuff the Sun leaves out!

'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...

Are They A Good Mix?

mixing the pop world's most powerful cocktail: should your music have a message?

Who are the music biz' management, and do you really need them? David Bradwell talks to the people who take care of the stars and their affairs.

Bass modes

Perfecting the acoustics of your studio

talk the best of

Riff Raff, FON

In Part 1 of a series on independent labels, MT looks at the case histories of Fon and Riff Raff to discover just what it takes to get going and avoid the pitfalls

Tape Machine Line-Up

Richard Dean looks at tape machine line-up.