The Frankfurt Finale, courtesy of Curtis Schwartz

So There We Were - Surrounded!

SynthCheck

Big brother of the Alpha Juno-1, Roland's latest addition to the new-look analogue Juno range has its ivories tickled by the estimable Jim Betteridge.

Ampcheck

Costly but classy. Review by Paul Bacon

David Mellor concludes his 2-part review of the latest version of Steinberg's Cubase sequencing software with an investigation of some of its more complex features: the IPS, MIDI Mixer, and Logical Editing.

Best from the West?

Ramsa 9000 Seres Power Amps

Len Davies of Apex Studio, Cardiff assesses the performance of two of Ramsa's powerful new 9000 Series amps.

Basscheck

Hot, headless and state of the art

Ephos 16:2 mixer

Compact desktop mixer

Rack-Mount Sampler/Sequencer

A rack-mount version of the EPS was something Ensoniq swore they would never produce, but they have finally bowed to public pressure. Paul Wiffen looks at the extra memory, extra outputs and SCSI applications, and concludes it has been worth the wait.

After April's In Brief review, Rick Davies sends us a user report on the latest FM synth module, and throws in a review of the MDF1 MIDI data filer for good measure.

distortion, delay, described

The popular Scintillator has now been updated.

This Japanese audio company seem hell-bent on making a name for themselves as producers of high quality products and this rack-mount electronic keyboard mixer incorporating a four channel MIDI Thru box certainly fulfils that aim. Ian Gilby reports.

Atari ST Software

mother keyboard and baby modules

Effectscheck

Some sharp effects with strange names. Review by Tony Mills

Accessories

Infra-Red Guitar Pickup

It sounds like sci-fi, but someday, all guitar pickups may work by sensing shadows along the frets with an infrared detector. Rick Davies again.