You may be a whizz with the little black boxes, but how are you at recording real sounds and real performances? Wilf Smarties serves up a selection of tasty studio tricks.

An in depth interview with this amazing character who is now recognised as one of the world's most inventive and original electro-musicians.

The turn of sequencers, software packages and computer music systems to receive attention from E&MM’s unique price guide.

8 -Track Digital Recorder

Paul White finds his Holy Grail in a 3U rackmount package — Alesis' revolutionary ADAT, the first digital multitrack tape recorder to compete in the same price bracket as affordable analogue multitracks.

Cheap Electrics

Guitars from Sakura, Vox, Westone, Hondo...

Continuing on from last month's review of the Roland D-50 Linear Arithmetic synthesizer, Martin Russ takes a detailed look at the technical aspects of the D-50, liberally sprinkled with excerpts from a rare interview with Mr Ikutaro Kakehashi, President of the Roland Corporation.

Over the last few years musicians have consistently been more excited over the latest MIDI hardware developments than they have over MIDI software. Whilst other micros have come and gone, the Atari ST and Macintosh micros have quietly become the established computers for making music with MIDI. Ed Jones reveals why with a look at Steinberg's Pro-24 (V2.1) and Mark Of The Unicorn's Performer (V2.2) programs.

The Making of an Album

When Julian Colbeck went back to Bach to find musical inspiration, little did he think he'd end up recording a whole album.

Synthesizer Module

Established as a top keyboard player in Deep Purple and Whitesnake, our interview analyses the music of his new LP ‘Before I Forget’.

Lyricon-blowing John Walters, of Landscape fame if not fortune (yet), undertakes the western world's most comprehensive guide to the history, construction and playing of the Lyricon wind synthesiser.

Following on from last month's pictorial exclusive, this account of Europe's largest hi-tech music exhibition fills in the details. Tim Goodyer files the report.

Emulator III Sampling Keyboard

If there is one company which has made its name on sampling that company is E-mu Systems. The term 'Emulator' is now synonymous with sampling and now the third instrument in this distinguished series is on the market. Paul Wiffen checks it out and finds E-mu bang up to date.

Learn to read the future in these pages...

An exclusive interview with Rick Wakeman plus music from '1984' for you to play.

Jean-Michel Jarre In Concert

We go backstage at Jarre's recent Wembley extravaganza to see how the show sound was put together.

three-month investigation finishes with six mixers priced £1500 to £3500

Mark Prendergast begins a two part in-depth appraisal of the thoughts, words, music and art of one of the most influential artists of the last decade: Brian Eno.

A complete guide to all the hardware interfaces for home micros available so far, plus the software that goes with them.

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface has revolutionised the way we write and record music. Martin Russ delves deep into MIDI's 10-year history, explains its many recent changes and additions, and looks ahead to see what the future will hold.

A survey of trendsetters

Goes Chrimbo Crazy

A special seasonal waft of your favourite news and gossip column, this time drifting through the whole magazine and including mini-interviews with the likes of China Crisis and jokes from the likes of us. The fun starts here.

New Gear Galore.