Now it's time to learn the easy four-chord turnaround: write great pop songs, make money etc.

Rudi Cazeaux explores the nature of sound and presents some basic guidelines for synthesizing the various standard groups of acoustic instruments.

Sampling clichés and how to avoid them.

bass now wholly graphite

Yamaha DX5

Merely two DX7s in a box, or a valid addition to the Yamaha range of FM digital keyboards? Simon Trask takes the mid-price algorithm through its paces, and comes to mixed conclusions.

Erasure head man Vince Clarke and his new band face the horror of a Tony Reed interview

flash keyboard chords

midi sound module

Our monthly bring-and-buy sale for readers' synth sounds. January's models include the OSCar, the Moog Prodigy and Yamaha's ubiquitous DX7.

Simple complex, very dire straits

funk and hi-tech facilities

Sequencers

Not so much a home studio as a studio in the home.

MIDI Guitar Controller

Casio's first truly professional MIDI guitar boasts an onboard synthesizer and claims to have the fastest pitch tracking of any MIDI guitar. Rowland Jones bought one to find out!

KeyboardCheck

Will Richard Walmsley warm to Kawai's MIDI-equipped upright electric? Read on ...

It's no stay-at-home

Piano Sound Module

On the face of it, this low-cost sound module looks like it could be a useful addition to the MIDI synthesist's armoury. Tony Crowle checks its suitability.

Multi-Timbral Expander

Hot foot from the BMF, hard-working Martin Russ brings us his review of this innocent-looking multitimbral LA expander which packs many of the features of Roland's D-50 synthesizer, including onboard digital reverb, but with the added bonus of 28 sampled drum sounds!