Still in his early 30s, yet a man who's worked with The Police, Genesis, Bowie and McCartney, Padgham is one of the most successful young producers in the world. Paul Tingen coaxes him into revealing a few secrets.

Maximum Percussion Module

Having set standards with their Proteus sample reader and their Pro/formance piano module. E-mu are trying again. Simon Trask beats up the new Pro/cussion drum expander.

What to expect at the Big Show in June

Sound Sampling System for Apple II/IIe

Mainframe's sound-sampling add-on for the Apple is now available to the general public. David Ellis puts the system through its paces.

Mark Jenkins pins down the expert synthesist/programmer best known for his work with Peter Gabriel, and discusses the release of his eighth solo album - 'Metropolitan Suite'.

Mark Prendergast interviews this French-Canadian engineer/producer about his long-standing production partnership with Brian Eno and his recent involvement with Peter Gabriel and U2.

Paradise Studios

Synth players in search of Heaven need look no further than West London, where a recording studio puts the emphasis firmly on hi-tech musical equipment, but doesn't charge people the Earth to use it. Simon Trusk pays Paradise a visit.

A long-time member of the MIDI establishment, Jeff Rona is a musician who gets more mileage out of computers than most. Scott Wilkinson listens in on Mac, PAN, digital editing and Jon Hassell's latest LP.

In which five of E&MM's writers pick their fave things of the year. If your personal preferences aren't there, don't take it out on us.

Magneto-optical Disk Recorder

Akai's DD1000 Magneto-optical recorder applies state-of-the-art technology to four-track dedicated digital editing. Vic Lennard sees the light at the end of the sample.

Yamaha V50 Workstation

Paul Ireson explores Yamaha's latest professional keyboard, which integrates FM synthesis, a drum machine, a powerful sequencer and a multi-effects unit into a single package. Could it be FM's finest hour?

through the year darkly with One Two

Who says multitrack hard disk recording has to cost the earth? Digidesign's Deck allows four tracks of digital audio to be played back and mixed on a Macintosh II, with full 16-bit/44.1khz digital fidelity. Paul D. Lehrman investigates.

Is the future Linear?

Does Roland's new LA synthesizer mean the end of FM is in sight? Martin Russ falls in love with the world's first ever Linear Arithmetic synthesizer whilst trying to find out...

The price guide to beat all price guides continues with a rundown of available sequencers, software packages and computer music systems.

BMF Report

Lager bottle in hand, the Editor guides you through the gallery of new music technology on demonstration at last month's newly-public British Music Fair. Plus lots of photographs so that those who missed it can find out what the gear looks like.

First Take

This month's colourful round up of new products to tempt and tantalise.

The Additive synthesizer

Once upon a time, 'additive synthesis' was an expensive and little used option on expensive computer music systems. Now, thanks to Kawai's latest keyboard, there is an instrument dedicated to this type of synthesis. Paul Wiffen, long-time advocate of creating your own waveforms, investigates.

Wilf Smarties gives a new batch of CDs a spin.

Question: What do Phil Collins, Howard Jones, Chaka Khan and David Bowie have in common? Answer: They have all recorded with Arif Mardin, one of the world's top record producers. Robin Tolleson chats to the man himself...

Founder of Ultravox and owner of The Garden Studio, John Foxx talks about all aspects of his recording methods and highlights the technological changes that have caused him to rethink the way he composes.

Samplecell is a top-quality RAM sample playback card for the Macintosh II, and the latest addition to Digidesign's impressive range of digital audio hardware and software. Paul D. Lehrman enthuses.