Alesis Quadraverb Plus and Datadisk SQ

Upgrading your equipment doesn't always mean selling the old stuff and replacing it entirely: new facilities and features may be only a chip away. Tony Hastings looks at updated versions of two Alesis units.

More hints and tips revealed as the expert teaching staff of London's Gateway School of Recording & Music Technology answer your queries.

If you're looking for inspirational rhythms but don't want to lift them from somebody else's music, you should check out Dr Beat. Ian Waugh boots up and boogies down to some MIDI Files.

If Roland samplers have previously been under-recognised by the music industry, the S770 may be about to straighten things out. Simon Trask returns to Roland's super sampler to "delve deeper".

Effects made simple: a users' guide to mushing and wanging.

Mark Jenkins reckons he knows his onions when it comes to hi-tech gear, so we asked him to concoct a tasty little number with this new French sampling drum machine - a cross between an RX11 and SP-12.

Coldcut, David Ruffy

Wilf Smarties looks for the perfect beat in two new HitSound sample CDs, from production team Coldcut and drummer David Ruffy.

More sequencing tips

APRS Review

Now that our feet have finally recovered from walking round the show, we can tell you what impressed us most (after the free drinks and sweatshirts).

Kurzweil K250

Sampling with the Kurzweil 250. Will it knock out the Fairlight?

Still largely neglected by the software houses, the Acorn Archimedes is the host machine for the Armadillo sampler. Vic Lennard investigates a powerful sampling package for a powerful computer.

Simon Trask takes the bull by the horns and previews the latest 16-bit, £60,000 version of the Fairlight CMI. Millionaires have never had it so good, and there's more to come from Australia...

Akai S01 Sampler

Andy McCluskey manoeuvres his way around our questionnaire

Gajits Breakthru Sequencer For Atari ST

We put this value for money Atari sequencer through its paces.

It's British, it works with an Atari ST computer, it gives very high quality sound and it won't break the bank! Ian Gilby presents a sneak preview of this forthcoming 16-bit stereo sampling machine.

Akai S900 Sampler

State-of-the-art sampling at a state-of-the-building society account price.

Akai S900 Sampler

Akai's first foray into the sampling market, the S612, was a resounding success. Their new sampling system, aimed more at studios, is considerably more advanced yet still a respectable price. Eventually it will incorporate a multitrack event recorder and harmonic synthesis module, but just released is the first system component - the S900 rack-mount sampler. Mark Jenkins checks it out.

System Exclusive messages promised to make MIDI a flexible and powerful communications standard; instead it seems to have caused MIDI havoc. Vic Lennard takes an Exclusive look.

Mark Jenkins reviews this handy set of power-packed sampled percussion pads.

Part three of this fascinating project from Paul Williams.

Turning a collection of samples into a usable keyboard patch is one of the most important aspects of sampling. Tom McLaughlin puts samples on the map.

Digital Drum Machine

Paul Colbert decides that the smaller brother of the R100 digital drum machine is a very clever piece of work.

Jaydee Crusader 'Jazz'