Steve Jansen & Richard Barbieri

Following a brief diversion in the form of last year's Rain Tree Crow project, Steve Jansen and Richard Barbieri are once more pursuing their creative partnership. Paul Ireson reports on the recording of their latest album.

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

Yello made the sort of music everyone had heard of but few people heard - until Shirley Bassey helped them into the pop charts. These obscure Swiss art rockers reveal all to Nicholas Rowland.

Universal Patch Librarian

Tired of rummaging through RAM cards and boxes of floppy disks in search of a particular synth patch? Greg Truckell checks out a far more convenient way to store and recall patches.

An exciting Music Maker special that uses state-of-the-art micro control.

The eagerly-awaited 16-bit digital stereo audio processing system for the Atari ST has arrived. Scott Gershin checks it out and acquires a new outlook on sound sampling.

Janet Angus reports on Dave Foister's varied activities at the Guildhall.

Four Track Cassettes

A survey of all the popular machines including TEAC, Fostex, RSD, Clarion, Yamaha and Cutec

Turning a collection of samples into a usable keyboard patch is one of the most important aspects of sampling. Tom McLaughlin puts samples on the map.

Synth Performance Controls

Bass Parade

bass amps perused from Rockman, Carlsbro, Session, Peavey and Trace Elliot

Part 1: The Casio CZ Series

Baffled by MIDI Mode 4 on the Casio CZ synths? Paul Wiffen plots a path through one of modern technology's minefields, and explains how to get the best from it.

Sample Editing Software For The ST

Martin Russ edits, analyses, time corrects and synthesizes as he explores the features of the Steinberg's Avalon software.

Programmable Drum Machine

The world's cheapest programmable digital drum machine looks on paper to be a fine companion for Korg's similarly-priced Latin percussion machine. Paul White checks out the reality.

Ultravox: New improved formula

Chas de Whalley talks about the prime of Mr Ian Broudie

Synthesizer Module

Four pages packed with news hot from BMF

Percussion Voice Expander

Nick Rowland takes sticks to Simmons pads - and finds a whole load of tuned percussion sounds appearing at the other end. Will drummers start putting xylophonists out of work?

This month David Mellor presents a guided tour of Steinberg's ubiquitous sequencer program.

Up to the minute and down to the nitty gritty

Drum recording guide

From miking cymbals to mixing toms - all you need to know

The importance of impedance matching at line levels is widely misunderstood. This article attempts to clarify the situation.

Hundreds of affordable and useful gift ideas for the musically minded. Indispensable reading for the Santa Claus in your life

PART 2: Greg Truckell winds up his two-part power user's guide to this popular LA expander with some applications techniques.