Sample Player

The ethnically sound rack-mount

synthesiser

A new keyboard for those that like their synths off the rack.

Yamaha QY20 Music Sequencer

Yamaha have bowed to pressure and released an easier to programme DX with an abundance of features. Tony Wride gets to grips with Yamaha’s first ever multitimbral synth with a keyboard!

new gear, stuff, objects, items etc

Atari Sequencing Software

Son of Cubase: this stripped-down version of Steinberg's powerful sequencer retains many of its best functions. Nigel Lord and ST, and Cubase makes three.

A collection of CDs which should be the sampler's delight are the stars of this month's Patchwork. If your music needs a boost from Ed Stratton, Coldcut or Pascal Gabriel, check out these disks.

Roland's top of the range sampler is the last of those announced at Frankfurt to reach the marketplace, but its 16-note polyphony, 512K memory, and built-in visual editing software could well give it an edge over existing £2000 samplers. Paul Wiffen takes up the case.

Digital Drum Kit

First there were Ddrums... Nicholas "animal" Howland returns to his skin-bashing roots to test a Swedish electronic kit that aims to replace its acoustic relative.

Best known as a top Flamenco guitarist, Juan Martin has recently released a sensitive album that combines classical guitar with the ethereal textures of Mark Isham's synthesizers. Robin Lumley questions him about this unlikely collaboration and discovers the best ways of miking up classical guitars into the bargain.

An English playwrite talks to Nicholas Rowland about the lure of electronic sampling techniques; the sounds of the theatre come of age.

Flying in the face of fashion, Oberheim's new Matrix-6 polysynth utilises traditional analogue voicing and offers some of the most powerful and versatile sounds around. Keyboards man Paul Wiffen checks out its pedigree.

The assembled masses of the IM review department wax lyrical over their selected favourites from this year's music fair.

Multi-Timbral Expander

Hot foot from the BMF, hard-working Martin Russ brings us his review of this innocent-looking multitimbral LA expander which packs many of the features of Roland's D-50 synthesizer, including onboard digital reverb, but with the added bonus of 28 sampled drum sounds!

The gossip that's hot from the team that's not

Digital Wave Memory Synthesizer

A digital wave memory synthesizer to be precise. Kawai may well be the world's largest supplier of acoustic pianos but does their forte also lie in the hi-tech field? Mark Jenkins investigates.

ICMC Report

Fresh from his exploits at Steim Studios, Ron Briefel takes a look at what last year's International Computer Music Conference had to offer in the way of new instruments, new music, and new ideas.

Software for the Commodore 64

Ian Waugh explores Joreth Music's integrated Music Composer System and Real-Time Linker - two powerful MIDI sequencing packages for the Commodore 64 micro.

Tone Generator

The recent launch of Yamaha's new flagship synth, the SY77, seems to have somewhat eclipsed the arrival of its sibling, the TG55 tone generator. Rightly or wrongly, the TG55 has taken something of a backseat whilst its big brother hogs most of the limelight. David Hughes assesses its star potential.

Omar: comin' to ya, on a dust road

Danish Delights?

It should have been the prince of polysynths, but it flopped. Peter Forrest looks back at the disappointment that accompanied the Polymoog and offers the '90s perspective.

Roland XP-50

Well-equipped new workstation

Frank Zappa is never short of a word or a thousand. In this case, there were so many, we had to make it a two-parter. In this first, Ralph Denyer finds out why Frank doesn't hate people (quite) and why London's one of the worst places on earth.

Korg M1 Enhancement

Much talked about in the US but still unavailable in the UK, Cannon's Frontal Lobe promises a new lease of life for your Korg M1. Gordon Reid asks "does it deliver?"