what the famous want from St Nick

Complete construction details and circuits for a new, essential timekeeper for the modern musician.

Studio Test

A multitude of digital effects in a single box for only £600

Kendall Wrightson rounds off his introduction to SMPTE with a look at its application in modern music production as exemplified by a synchronisation unit - the Friend Chip SRC.

The world's best-known electronic music band have reached a crossroads, with a line-up change, a lengthy concert tour and an uncertain recording future. Annabel Scott talks to them.

His career began in punk performance, digressed into a fascination with synthesisers, and now finds him in collaboration with a classical composer. Colin Newman explains performance and musical subversion to Tim Goodyer.

In fact, when is it a musical instrument? We start making sense of the silicon chip.

Your sampler may only have a mono input, but that shouldn't stop you taking two-channel samples for a fatter, more realistic sound. Howard Massey shows you how.

Wilf Smarties kicks off our regular look at new sample CD releases.

Jerry Harrison makes it go

The second part

After spending four years recording The Seeds of Love, Tears for Fears are back and touring the world. Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal talk tears and technology with Dan Rue and Tim Goodyer.

Boss RSD10

A budget pitch following sampler for the ever expanding Boss Micro Rack.

Computers have made Vince Clarke a different Keyboardist. And you'll never guess why.

Durham University Electronic Music Studio

Power Station, NYC

We visit the world-renowned studio, and talk to owner and producer Tony Bongiovi.

Take one of the most influential electronic composers of the current generation, a Fairlight, an entire library of vocal recordings from all over the world, and a few more-than-talented guest musicians, and you have the recipe for Zoolook, Jean-Michel Jarre's latest album. Here he talks about its creation.

...In March 1981, E&MM's publishers launched this magazine onto an unsuspecting musical public. Dan Goldstein looks back at the issue that started it all.

Signal Processor

It sounds like a cheap TV ad, but this device puts an end to all known clicks and pops. Vic Lennard gives the latest development in noise elimination the Rice Krispies test.

Keyboard programmer Paul Wiffen brings you the latest developments on the Sequential sampling system: the new 2002 rack-mount, and the superb Digidesign visual editing software. He also takes a look at the Prophet 2000 and passes on some useful tips for using its 'mapping' function to the full.

Akai S1000

No-one can deny that Akai's S900 is the 'industry standard' sampler, having kept all newcomers at bay for well over two years. But now there's a new heir to the throne. David Mellor looks at the long-awaited 16-bit stereo, 16-note polyphonic S1000.

Bosendorfer Recorder

When one of the world's most famous grand-piano manufacturers starts getting involved with digital sequence recording, the world had better take notice. Simon Croft reports.

hear's to future days