Since introducing the world to the delights of pure synth-pop in 1981, Vince Clarke has continued to demonstrate his mastery of the popular song form through the medium of synth technology. Paul Ireson investigates.

From synth pop to sequencers and back. Two-and-a-half years since they lost graced our front cover, Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey tell Tim Goodyer how progress is made, as album number seven hits the streets.

Will the new-look ABC find success as easy as 1-2-3? Or will their latest Lexicon of Love lose something in the translation? Philip Bashe finds out.

Mic definitions and terminology.

Akai MPC3000

Sampler, sequencer, synchroniser

Mick McKenna

Engineer Mick McKenna provides an insight into recording with the Rolling Stones Mobile.

Belgian sampling innovators Front 242 have been accused of encouraging a fascist following - where does the sampling stop and the politics begin? David Bradwell brings news from the front.

With The Roland JD800

One year after reviewing the instrument that brought back knobs and sliders, Julian Colbeck presents an in-depth user report on Roland's flagship JD800 synthesizer.

Thomas Dolby explains his new strategy

Lock your sequencer to audio and video with a little help from Chris Smith's definitive guide

Rhythm Sound Module

By ignoring the charts and treating dance music as a live phenomenon, Adamski has won himself a huge following and a chart placing. Simon Trask talks about the live applications of studio music.

4-Track Recorder/Mixer

Tascam M2600

Cosmopolitan eight-buss console

why the beatmasters make a mess with their lunch

In fact, when is it a musical instrument? We start making sense of the silicon chip.

The final disc in the Zero-G Datafile series joins Coldcut's Kleptomania in the growing library of sample CDs - Tim Goodyer checks them out, while Andy Neve loads The Sound Foundation's programming efforts into his Roland MKS70 in this month's Patchwork.

After producing artists ranging from Bomb the Bass and S 'Xpress to Bryan Ferry and Wet Wet Wet, Pascal Gabriel is about to begin his own career as a recording artist. Tim Goodyer discovers a Lovechild.

In the first instalment of a two-part article, UK synthesist Ian Boddy gives budding EM performers the confidence and advice you need to take your show on the road.

Korg M1 Enhancement

Much talked about in the US but still unavailable in the UK, Cannon's Frontal Lobe promises a new lease of life for your Korg M1. Gordon Reid asks "does it deliver?"

You may not find a 24-track recorder in this London studio, but you will find two synchronised Fostex E16s and a veritable Aladdin's cave of hi-tech paraphernalia being put to some very interesting uses. Read on and discover how...

Techno music, the true successor to late seventies synth-pop, translates the desolation of post-Motown Detroit into electronic dance rhythms. Simon Trask listens to the programmer's tale.

Martin Russ has fun turning his Atari computer into a multi-function sampler, drum machine and digital effects unit with the aid of Microdeal's low-cost Replay 4.

Check out some of the forthcoming and recently released new products from the hi-tech and recording fields.