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.

Sound engineer with Sky chats about his work and gives advice about recording.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Radiophonically speaking

Total Percussion Sound Module

From the R8 Human Rhythm Composer comes the Total Percussion Sound Module "humanising' without a sequencer? Simon Trask investigates Roland's latest beat box and a selection of sound cards.

(Sometimes)

Just as MIDI has made it as easier to produce great music, so it has facilitated the production of worthless garbage. Paul D. Lehrman explains the problem and how to avoid it.

Paul Ireson beats a path to the door of Roland's new flagship drumbox and finds a groovy kind of love.

Exclusive reviews of two avant garde music festivals that saw technology pushed to its creative limits, Ars Electronica at Linz and the International Computer Music Conference at IRCAM, Paris.

All the news you can eat. And then some

Budget Beats

A beat on the cheap?

Digital Audio For The Atari ST

Kendall Wrightson examines an inexpensive Atari-based tapeless recorder offering digital audio editing, plus MIDI controlled hard disk recording with Notator/Creator, Cubase/Cubeat or Virtuoso.

Jon Hassell has been at the leading edge of new music for three decades, with major contributions to western avant garde and world music. Following the re-release of two classic albums from the early '80s, Mark J. Prendergast presents a retrospective of Hassell's work.

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.

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.

You've heard of harmonisers costing thousands, but we've scooped the first ever kit project that does it all for under £200!

And what news there is. A special preview on the Frankfurt fair, lifting the veil on 1987's most important gear.

Guitar Weekend

IT's guide to Britain's premier guitar show!

RCM Synthesis explained

In this second part of our in-depth review of the SY77 synthesizer, Martin Russ delves into Yamaha's ultra new synthesis method: Real-time Convolution and Modulation.

Sound On Sound's DEFINITIVE guide to DX7 RAM & ROM cartridges

We bring you Sound On Sounds DEFINITIVE guide to all ROM/RAMs available for the Yamaha DX7 in the UK. Over 2500 voices tested and everything you need to know about the products revealed in a comprehensive round-up and table.

TX816 Rack, QX1 Digital Sequencer, KX88 Master Keyboard

At last, a detailed appraisal of Yamaha's state-of-the-art MIDI system. FM rack, digital keyboard recorder and master keyboard come under David Ellis' careful scrutiny.