MIDI OSCar

A marriage made in heaven, as OSCar gets MIDI... we attend the reception.

Digital FM Synthesiser

After last month's preview, Simon Trask gets to grips with FM's friendlier face. Can simpler programming compensate for the deficiencies of four-operator sound?

a poly to compare and contrast

Studio Test

The MIDIverb set new standards for low-price, high quality digital reverb. Can the MIDIfex do the same for even more digital effects? Curtis Schwartz reports.

Multi-fx Processor

In their efforts to establish their signal processors as strongly in the UK as they have in the States, ART can't seem to bring out enough effects units. Nigel Lord evaluates the ART with aspirations to be number one.

Performance Signal Processor

Korg's A5 series of effects is aimed to offer a variety of effects to a variety of musicians. Simon Trask test drives them and discovers guitar distortion works for drum machines.

Is Roland's new W30 just another sampling workstation? Paul Ireson checks it out and finds features that allow it to excel both as a stand-alone system and as the heart of a more extensive MIDI setup.

Marion Systems Prosynth

Multi-timbral analogue monster

MIDI is often perceived as being incredibly complicated, but learning to use it can be quite painless.

Steinberg & Soundbits

Tony Wride investigates the Steinberg and Soundbits Atari-based voice editing programs for the Kawai K1 multitimbral synthesizer.

Vic Lennard considers the trials and triumphs of storing your synth patches as SysEx files within the sequences they're intended for, and concludes that MIDI really is your friend after all.

Mike Collins investigates the magic behind Enigma Studios, a MIDI-based recording facility in London's East End.

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.

Eddy Roberts takes us through the K1-II synthesizer from Kawai

A mixer from Simmons? Why not? The application of MIDI control to audio mixers is resulting in a radical departure from traditional designs, as Tony Hastings found out when he road-tested the SPM8:2 recently.

If you've ever wished you could sing a violin or hum a tune straight into your MIDI sequencer, this French "MIDI microphone" could be for you. Debbie Poyser sings something sampled.

Ensoniq Mirage Multi-Sampler

Manufacturers of keyboard samplers are now turning their attentions to the studio market by offering enhanced rack-mount versions of their products. Mark Jenkins waited anxiously at Heathrow for the first device to hit our shores - the budget-priced, 8-voice multi-sampler from Ensoniq. Read his report.

Kawai K11 Keyboard Synth

The ever-popular K1 has been the mainstay of many a hi-tech musician's keyboard armoury, but will this 32-note polysynth follow in its footsteps?

Total Percussion Pad

On the trail of Roland's successful Octapads comes the SPD8 - a MIDI percussion controller with a neat line in onboard sounds. Simon Trask says beat it.

Atari ST Software

Not only will Explorer 32 edit sounds on Roland's MT32, MT100, E10, E20, D5, D10, D20, D110, D50 and D550, it will also store edits in C-Lab's Creator and Notator sequencers. Ian Waugh is Our Man in LA.

SynthCheck

Tony Mills toys with the latest Korgi and gets enthusiastic

Why use an expensive sampler for playing bass sounds when you can take advantage of the Pro MIDI Bass and free your sampler for more worthwhile tasks? Mike Collins lets his fingers do the walking.