Roland strike a happy note with a new MIDI percussion device that doesn't fill the stage or empty your pocket. Nigel Lord and Alex Murray declare it a hit.

Tone Generator

Latest in the SY/TG line of descent, the TG33 module offers post-FM synthesis combined with the vector control pioneered on the Prophet VS synth. Ian Waugh expands on the '33.

KeyboardCheck

Richard Walmsley on the State of the Joanna

Ensoniq SD1 Music Production Synthesizer

The SD1 is the new flagship of Ensoniq's synthesizer/workstation range. Paul Ireson feels the quality.

Sample Replay Unit

In a musical climate dominated by preset sounds, why not produce a rack-mounting unit that simply replays other people's samples? Paul Wiffen analyses Oberheim's attempt at doing just that.

Wind Controller

Yamaha's WX7 MIDI wind controller has already attracted the attention of professional sax players like Courtney Pine. Man Jumping saxophonist Andy Blake gets his second wind.

Phase Distortion comes clean

Another colourful bonanza of hot new products served up to delight you

Studiomaster powered mixer

Just add speakers and go

Emu Proteus Master Performance System

Martin Russ continues his in-depth look at Emu's new keyboard.

Software for the Atari ST

If you own an Atari ST computer and either a Yamaha DX100, 21 or 27, then you should be interested in what David Hughes has to say about this low-cost librarian/editor software from Syndromic Music.

UMI 2B Software

The 1B version was good, but Simon Trask has spent a month with its successor, and reckons it deserves its reputation as the most professional sequencing package designed round a home computer.

Where everything clicks

If it doesn’t work, it’s in the help file

Digital Sampling Workstation

After a recent change in UK distribution, Ensoniq look set to increase their popularity with this upgraded version of their EPS sampler. Simon Trask likes what he samples.

Producing String Sounds

A new in depth look at building up complex patches

Digital Space Echo

When Roland made the most popular tape echo unit in the world they called it Space Echo - now they've revived it in digital form. Gordon Reid listens to echoes from the past.

Three pages of forthcoming new products to tempt you to dig deeper into your pockets later on this year.

Performance Synthesizer

John Renwick looks at the new SY-77 from Yamaha

Synthcheck

Paul Fishman does his Bit

All that was new and all that was interesting at the this year's sojourn into Germany.

A behind-the-scenes glimpse into who does what, and how, in the making of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe's classic synth-pop records.

Stuck for a good string sound or one you haven't used a hundred times before? Tom McLaughlin explains how an old guitar, a violin bow and a little ingenuity can work wonders.