ADD-ON KEYBOARDS

Tony Mills weighs up the pros and cons of augmenting your home micro with an add-on keyboard

for the Kawai K4

Spirit Folio Lite

Miniature mixer

You may remember the Minimoog and the ARP Odyssey, but when was the first time you saw an EMS VCS3? Annabel Scott travels back to the days of VCAs, VCFs and non-programmability.

multimedia workstation

A 'home' keyboard with attitude, or does the WX2 have ideas above its workstation

Games Feature

Now that computer games are available on CD, they’re no longer restricted to naff sound effects and music. We talk to games producers Ocean and composer Debbie Wiseman about the arrival of serious sound for games...

alternative percussion sounds

AWM2 Workstation

Yamaha's new SY85 eschews FM technology and instead concentrates entirely on powerful sample-based synthesis. Derek Johnson finds that user sampling, powerful filters, and 'easy edit' sliders are just a few of the tricks that make this far more than just another sample-based workstation.

The latest from the music industry

The best bits around

Lexicon PCM70

Launched over two years ago, the PCM70 digital effects processor is still at the forefront of technology thanks to Lexicon's foresight in making it software updatable and MIDI controllable in every conceivable way. Mark Badger checks it out.

John Walters, Tom Bailey and Frank Tovey

Richard Mitchell explains his use of electronic music for film.

GS Synthesiser

Not simply a stripped-down JV80, Roland's new JV30 has some surprises to add to its minorbuck price tag. Simon Trask test drives a new Roland which could prove a popular buy amongst cost-conscious synth players.

Martin Russ has fun turning his Atari computer into a multi-function sampler, drum machine and digital effects unit with the aid of Microdeal's low-cost Replay 4.

A Glimpse of Current Activities

Music Synthesizer

The name might not be memorable - how about the synth?

Casio's CZ101 joins the ranks of old favourites DX7, SH101 and Poly 800 as the subject of this month's readers' sound patches.

SynthCheck

A sampling synth for less than £180? Jim Betteridge stands back in amazement.

interacting with the future

The automation of creation

Tonmeister Course lecturer, Francis Rumsey, explains how timecodes are used to synchronise audio to video in Part 3 of our series.

David Mellor looks at the world of advertising, and how music is created and mated with the visuals in a TV commercial.

Yamaha's family of synths and expanders has a new member: a module counterpart to the SY22 keyboard. Nigel Humberstone celebrates the happy event.

Phil South examines the ins and outs of programming various aspects of AI synthesis, as used in Korg's 'M' and 'T' ranges of synthesizers.

The marriage between MIDI and SMPTE is now complete, but the burning question remains: how will musicians and engineers benefit from it? Chris Meyer traces the link from its source to its users.