Synth-pioneers Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark talk to Dan Goldstein about the twists and turns in their musical development, and how they managed to make their new album, Junk Culture, sound more acoustic through the use of computer instruments.

HitSound Pascal Gabriel Sample CD

Paul Ireson listens to the first of AMG's Producer Series of sample CDs.

mother keyboard and baby modules

Casio CZ-1

Since the release of their diminutive yet ground-breaking CZ-101 synth, Casio have been steadily improving the facilities of their Phase Distortion keyboards with each subsequent CZ product. The culmination of those efforts is now manifest in their best-ever synthesizer, the CZ-1, a truly professional performance instrument. Chris Jenkins says 'welcome'.

Mark Jenkins reports on this recent addition to the popular CZ range of polysynths and suggests that the Phase Distortion synthesis it employs could well be the answer for those of you caught in the 'analogue versus digital' dilemma.

Guitar Construction

This month we explain the unusual terms of guitar construction in plain language.

A new range of American mics that sound and look good.

PCM Personal Keyboard

Far-Eastern giants Matsushita have now transferred their PCM-encoded instrument voices from console organs to personal keyboards. Nigel Gomme analyses how elegantly the transition has been accomplished.

In the light of the winter's music shows at Anaheim and Frankfurt, is modern technology now becoming available to every musician, and does every musician want to know?

hear's to future days

SynthCheck

A sampling synth for less than £180? Jim Betteridge stands back in amazement.

The Mercedes of bends The perfect Precision ports?

Positive superlatives all over the place as Dave Blake's rhetoric embraces a couple of Ibanez instruments.

An analysis of The Concerts in China double album on Polydor PODV3

The last of our backroom boys. Say bye-bye with guitarist Mitch Dalton.

They're a brilliant Soul band. A dub-Reggae band. An avant-garde band. And they don't know how they do it. Or do they? Tony Reed asks the questions...

Casio plug a gap in their range by introducing a CZS000 without the sequencer. Trish McGrath uses her fingers to see how it sounds.

offspring of the Chroma