For A Few Dollars More...

What price a reputation? The Revox brand name is well established and very well respected, but the new model C278 8-track costs a lot more than the Fostex and Tascam equivalents. David Mellor asks whether it is worth the extra.

Scanner I And II Radio Mic Systems

Cassette Deck

Paul Ward

Paul is a key figure in the Surreal to Real independent record company and has achieved success with his instrumental compositions. RM visits his home studio.

Another digital reverb from Alesis, a waveform digitizing pad for the Roland S50 sampler, Passport's multitrack software for the Atari ST, exclusive news of the world's first ever 8-track recorder to use standard cassettes, and more...

You can always get more out of your equipment if you know more about it. David Mellor begins a new series that explores the innermost workings of various studio devices. This month: the Tape Recorder.

Don Larking guides you through the various equipment that goes to make up a home studio.

Angel Music

Trynka trucks up to Hull, and hears the sound of Angels. Odd boy.

Tascam Porta Two

This month's cover feature, the brand new Tascam Porta 2. Bristling with features, this 6-channel, 4-track portable studio still falls within an attractive price bracket.

Tanrak System

Ian Waugh concludes our appraisal of Tantek's budget modular FX system, and reveals there's plenty more to come in the near future.

Studio Test

Dbx 'X' Processors

Apart from noise reduction systems, dbx make a studio quality range of 'budget' signal processors. Engineer Gareth Stuart put three of them - the 163X compressor/limiter, 263X de-esser, and 463X noise gate/expander - through their paces.

Tascam Porta Two

Gareth Stuart has been bouncing, syncing and generally laying down tracks with Tascam's new mid-priced 4-track Ministudio. Find out what he thought of it.

Take the Fostex X15, restyle it, add new features, raise the price by the cost of a dirty weekend in Blackpool and you've got their new X30 multitracker. Nicholas Rowland finds out if they're on the right track.

Every Current Model Reviewed

All you need to know about choosing a cassette multitrack, plus concise reviews of every current model on the market.

4-Track Recorder/Mixer

MIDI Synchroniser

As tape synchronisation becomes an indispensable part of modern music making, the demand for cost-effective sync boxes grows... Simon Trask discovers that it takes more than Tipp-Ex on the tape to throw the MTS30 off the track.

Cassette Multitrack

It is said that small is beautiful - and Tascam's new personal multitrack machine is certainly small. Nik Newark dubs his demos and road tests Tascam's latest four-track cassette machine.

Software Surplus

Writing new music software seems to be the most popular current preoccupation for the world's music and computer industries. We take a look at six of the latest packages to hit the UK.

How To Upgrade Your Akai S900

What do you do when your 12-bit Akai S900 sampler starts to seem a little underspecified in comparison with the latest models? Upgrade it with a '16-bit injection' from Marion Systems. David Mellor reports.

Geoff Adams tells us what you can do with a broom cupboard and a little imagination...

cheeky parts

The cream of the recording equipment from the recent show