Questions & Answers

PART 8: David Mellor expands on some of the points that have arisen so far in the series and looks at some alternative patchbays from Connectronics.

S900 owner David Mellor receives a package in the post from Akai, which rekindles his enthusiasm in the sampler which was one of the first to combine a wealth of facilities with a reasonable price. Will the Version 2.0 software update bring the Akai into line with the latest samplers on the market or has it become old technology - just after its first birthday?

unbeatable coverage of all the new gear at the year's most important instrument show. Don't buy ANYTHING until you've read it.

Fiat Lux

The Man and his Music

We feature one of France's most fascinating Electro-Musicians, and look at the man, his music and the philosophy behind his composition.

Simmons SDS9 electronic drum kit

Simmon's new drum kit

As well as writing, singing and playing on his new single 'When A Heart Beats', Nik Kershaw also took the credit for its production. In an interview with Nick Webb he displays a rarely seen side of his character and discusses his knowledge of recording studio technology and approach to songwriting.

Golden boy of the teeny bop scene a closet guitar hero? It's true, all true. Muso musings captured for posterity by Dave Burrluck and Susan Rookledge.

As you've probably already got your sampler playing drums, horns and strings, getting it to sing to you may sound deceptively easy. Tom McLaughlin explains there may be more to sampling the human voice than you'd heard.

At last! A new system that gives you hi-fidelity sound from a standard video recorder. Could it become the stereo reel-to-reel machine of the future? Judge for yourself.

An inside look at one of the most popular recording courses both in this country and abroad.

"...comes back from Hammersmith."

What we saw at the big fair, including famous gear and famous people.

Hubbub from the hub of the biz

What goes on behind the hallowed portals of Bush House and the BBC's radio training department? Read this and find out...

This successful Reggae band discuss the recording of 'Labour Of Love' and their new studio.

gear-speak from all the band's men

Mammoth Electro Fest: Simmons' contender, the UP5, Yamaha's RX15 drum machine, new Digisound chips for the Drumulator, Quicksilva's Drumkit program for the BBC micro...

Michel Huygen/Neuronium

This Spanish synthesist explains the working methods and motivation behind his psychotronic musical landscapes.

In engineering and production - as in musicianship - flexibility and adaptability are precious qualities. Martin Rex has covered artists as varied as Neneh Cherry, Fela Kuti and Michael Nyman - Ollie Crooke listens.

One of the foremost composers of electronic film music, here he talks about his celluloid career and his more recent excursion into the world of popular music producing, and his own Danse Electronique.

On studio, stage work, and future solo projects

A glimpse of the equipment you could well be buying in the forthcoming year

THE ULTIMATE SOFT MACHINE

The Fairlight (in its previous Series II guise) was/is probably the most famous computer musical instrument in the world. Everybody knows the name, but few really know what its true capabilities are. Now there is a new breed of Fairlight, far more powerful and far more sophisticated than the old one ever was - the Series III. Richard Elen takes a look at the mind-boggling potential of this Rolls-Royce of sound sampling/synthesizing machines.

Version 4

Brian Heywood evaluates the latest update to Voyetra's powerful PC-based sequencing program.