Industry Talk

Sound On Sound's first decade has been graced by synths that were revolutionary, synths that were fascinating, synths that were seminal, and synths that were simply loved. Julian Colbeck takes a personal look at 10 of the best from synthesizer history.

Martin Russ takes a look at the changing face of technology during the first decade of SOS.

Regular SOS contributor Martin Russ returns to the back page with some rabid thoughts on software updates.

Brian Heywood traces the development of the most popular computer platform in the world, and examines its application in music.

What do you do if the expensive piece of gear you've just bought doesn't do what it's supposed to? Here, producer and studio owner Mel Simpson bemoans the fate of the reluctant guinea pig...

Nick Rothwell had a problem; although he owned an impressive MIDI setup, he found much of it useless when his musical project Cassiel came to provide the music for live dance performances. Here he explains how he solved his problems and adapted his setup to fit in with new requirements.

There's a revolution taking place and it's heading your way! David Mellor explains the increasing importance to musicians of optical technology for data storage.

Canadian company QSound Labs were among the third-party TDM developers present at Digiworld, the recent Digidesign-hosted event in London. Paul White chatted to QSound's head of technical support, Scott Willing, about the latest developments in their 3D processing technology.

Paul White trips off to California to discover the inside track on sampling, resynthesis, Darwin, and the future power generation of musical instruments from industry pioneers, Emu Systems.

Thanks to MIDI, modern musicians can achieve effects that would have seemed nothing short of magical only a few years ago — but it can still seem like mumbo jumbo to the uninitiated. Regular SOS contributor Paul Ward believes it could be so different with just a little standardisation.

We think nothing of using computers to help us create music via the wonders of MIDI — so why not use the computer to generate the actual sounds, and take entire synthesis systems into the realm of computer software? Paul D. Lehrman puts the case for and against this move and talks to some software synth developers.

Spain's annual Sonar festival, held this June in Barcelona, is one of a growing number of European events devoted to electronic music of all types. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser were in attendance.

Ever wondered whether you are a 'typical' SOS reader? Editor Paul White lets you in on a few secrets gleaned from our 1995 Reader Survey...

As well as heading up the USA arm of Emagic, Mikail Graham is a part of the Emagic development team, and the company's most evengelical demonstrator. Paul White caught up with his rolling roadshow at Birmingham's Musical Exchange store.

In his inaugural speech to celebrate the opening of this new column, Paul White proves he can rant with the best of them...

Anthony Graham passes on some valuable advice to help maximise your chances of landing that elusive recording/publishing deal.

Martin Russ tunes into a very different BBC Radio One...

Though there's now no new shortage of recording and music technology courses available, the situation was rather different 20 years ago, when the Gateway School was first established. Paul White talks to pioneering co-founder Dave Ward about almost a quarter of a century of audio education.

Paul White discusses the future of digital effects processing with Lexicon's Steve De Furia.

Paul White caught up with Bill Katoski at a recent trade fair, where they discussed the ideas and influences behind KAT's range of innovative percussion controllers.

The untimely death of musician Duncan Browne part-way through an album project spurred keyboardist Nick Magnus on to complete the recordings. Here Nick tells the inside story of how he accomplished it.