You can't discuss the Manchester dance movement without A Guy Called Gerald. Simon Trask talks success and setbacks to one of Britain's most influential young artists.

NAMM Report

American software engineer Chris Meyer submits a personal, highly subjective and utterly biased report on Chicago's summer music extravaganza. Well, he was only there for a day.

From the ashes of the ill-fated Linn 9000, Roger Linn and Akai have brought forth the MPC60. Simon Trask takes a look at this powerful drum machine and sequencer.

The Rhythm Section

Harmony in the UK - John Wetton and Bill Bruford still rhythmic after all these years.

How it was done in the heyday of Pop - Philip Bashe tracked down the bands your dad snogged along to and found out the history of the '60s hits

A major new series describing the design and construction of a high quality modular effects rack. This first instalment deals with the Sub Rack assembly, Power Unit and the first module: the Pro-Gate.

Emagic Notator Logic 1.2

With real acoustic instrument sounds

The pick of 1983's equipment releases.

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Plenty has changed since E&MM last ventured into the hallowed chambers of Maida Vale. Simon Trask reports from the studio that started it all, but now seems aloof from the modern music scene.

The Eno collaborator and leading exponent of American minimalist music, Harold Budd, discloses the fascinating background to his new solo album 'Lovely Thunder', his love of the piano and his strange union with the Cocteau Twins. Mark Prendergast attends the masterclass and takes notes.

Over the last few years musicians have consistently been more excited over the latest MIDI hardware developments than they have over MIDI software. Whilst other micros have come and gone, the Atari ST and Macintosh micros have quietly become the established computers for making music with MIDI. Ed Jones reveals why with a look at Steinberg's Pro-24 (V2.1) and Mark Of The Unicorn's Performer (V2.2) programs.

in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe

Session player Julian Colbeck tells the tale of how he got the gig as support keyboard player for Rick Wakeman on the recent Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe world tour, and runs through the instrumentation he and Rick used on stage.

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

Jean-Michel Jarre In Concert

We go backstage at Jarre's recent Wembley extravaganza to see how the show sound was put together.

We get the artists' views

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

BMF REPORT

The excessive heat in London's Olympia gave the latest hi-tech gear a run in the "who's hottest" stakes at this year's British Music Fair. Simon Trask sweats it out.

RCM Synthesizer

The DX7 captured musicians’ imaginations like no other synthesizer before or since. But the legacy of releasing endless variations on the DX theme has turned some musicians away from FM synthesis and into the waiting arms of a new generation of 'sample plus synth' keyboards. Now Yamaha are back with a vengeance, an even more powerful method of synthesis (Real-time Convolution and Modulation), and a spanking new flagship synth. But has the SY77 got what it takes to regain the hi-tech musician's vote? Martin Russ finds out.