Yamaha

In the second instalment of this two-part retro, Gordon Reid recalls FM's finest hour, and describes the heyday of what was perhaps the most successful family of synthesizers ever developed.

Although FM synthesis has its roots in the sixties, the instruments that popularised it were to dominate the synth scene of the eighties. Gordon Reid uncovers the origins of FM and charts its rise to fame from its unlikely beginings in academic research in the USA.

It looks like a groovebox, but inside it's a powerful FM synth, fully editable via bundled software. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser modulate those frequencies...

As with any recording system, the first goal of recording on a PC is to preserve as faithful a copy of the source sound as possible. Achieving this, however can be a complicated business. Martin Walker goes back to basics.

It may look somewhat toy-like, but Yamaha's latest desktop synth workstation is actually anything but - it features serious synthesis from the AN1x and a host of performance-friendly controls. Chris Carter gets modelling...

The answers to some of the more basic questions we receive at SOS might seem obvious, but they are, in fact, more complex that they appear. Mike Senior sets about answering the unanswerable...

Rumours of a new Yamaha synth were circulating at January's NAMM show, but nothing was confirmed until a few weeks later, when SOS were invited to Yamaha's London R&D Centre. Matt Bell meets the Motif...

Paul White tests Yamaha's new rival to the Pod and J Station modelling guitar preamps.

The debate's been going on for as long as drum machines have been around: can they really sound human? Nicholas Rowland takes jazz drumming as his test case and tries to find out.

Paul White experiences the delights of this all-digital, automated mixing environment where unwieldy cable harnesses and tiered patchbays are the thing of the past.