Yamaha

Behind the conventional facade of Yamaha's latest drum machine hides a section of sophisticated features — like 'human feel' groove quantisation, bass sounds and built-in digital effects. Paul Ward gets into the groove.

After last month's test-drive of Yamaha's top-of-the-range-QY300 music sequencer, Martin Russ now takes its baby sibling, the QY8, for a spin around the block.

The Walkstation grows up! After causing a stir with their 'pocket-sized' QY10 and QY20, Yamaha have produced the 'Big Brother' of the range, the QY300. Martin Russ discovers to his delight that it's not just the size that's increased...

Yamaha's popular cassette multitracker now benefits from a selection of hardware improvements, including double speed operation, and adds an S to its name. Shirley Gray checks out MT120 Version 2.

For around the same cost of the equivalent individual pedals, you could buy this intergrated, programmable effects pedal system, which includes an amp simulator for direct recording. Paul White checks it out.

A new shape? A large LCD? Martin Russ finds out what Yamaha are up to with their latest expander, which aims to give GM compatibility ans a whole lot more...

Will Yamaha's MT8X depose Tascam's 488 as the market leading cassette 8-track? Paul White cast a critical eye over this aggresive newcomer and discovers that the answer is far from cut and dried.

After all the political talk in recent years about a return to traditional values, Paul Wiffen kicks off a major new series on synth programming by arguing the Analogue Fundamentalist Party case — that an understanding of the basic elements of traditional analogue synths is essential to fully exploit the various types of synthesis available today.

Like the Doctor in the TARDIS, Yamaha's newest Walkstation sequencer is small but deceptively spacious. Martin Russ dons his floppy hat, winds his stripey scarf a little tighter, fortifies himself with another jelly baby, and enters a different dimention...

At £899, the AN1X is one of the most affordable physical modelling synths on the market — and it's no less than 10-note polyphonic, with a host of features designed to bring out the control freak in you . Martin Russ follows up on our exclusive preview with this in-depth studio test.