A tuning and calibration unit for synthesiser oscillators

Budget Beats

A beat on the cheap?

Gerry Taylor

the instrumental side of touring

Tascam 388

A ‘portable’ 8 track recorder/mixer

The Rhythm Section

Harmony in the UK - John Wetton and Bill Bruford still rhythmic after all these years.

Betteridge surfaces again to quiz producer Mick Glossop about his work on Furniture's hit, Brilliant Mind

gear-speak from all the band's men

Simmons SDX Drum Sampler

Lurking inside this angular-looking monster is a versatile computer system that will turn what is ostensibly an electronic drum kit (albeit a state-of-the-art 16-bit sampling one) into a formidable MIDI workstation. Ed Jones test drives Simmons' powerful, new SDX system.

M.P.C. Percussion Roundup

The MPC percussion system: DSM1/2; DSM 8 Auto Tom; DSM 32 x 4 drum synth; Programmers Rhythm Sequencer.

Tunes from ex-tones

Welcome to The News where we tell you what on earth is happening.

Recording Chris de Burgh

Stephen Tayler tells Richard Buskin all about recording and mixing Chris de Burgh's recent single, 'By My Side'.

Rock-steady Rozzer on drums meets shufflin' Max Kay

Total Percussion Sound Module

Sequencer owners rejoice! Roland have taken the 16-bit PCM sounds from their popular R8 drum machine, put them in a convenient rackmount case, and added extra slots for ROM and RAM cards to produce a beat-box par excellence. David Brenton reports.

Amcron, Milab and Sennheiser ‘pressure zone’ mics.

Drums

Ramblin' Pete Randall gives the rundown on Synare 3, Tama Octobans and Pearl stands.

Power Amps and Loudspeakers

The songs are good, the band is great, but no-one will be unpressed if they can't hear you properly. David Mellor advises on PA hardware.

For all of you that have ever thought, 'If only I could build my own 24-track studio, I'd have it made', we present this cautionary tale.

Secrets of samples and songs

First of an occasional series of chats with engineers; Richard Elen extracts facts from Phill Brown.

Drums

Peter Randall knows the cymbal secret and, for some reason unknown to us, is prepared (for a not inconsiderable sum) to let you know too. Innee nice?

Programmable Drum Machine

The world's cheapest programmable digital drum machine looks on paper to be a fine companion for Korg's similarly-priced Latin percussion machine. Paul White checks out the reality.

Alligator 200 watt electro-percussion combo in the studio.