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Most home recordists would love to own a stereo digital recorder, but the relatively high price of DAT and MiniDisc has kept this desire a pipe dream — until now. Paul White tries out the very attractively priced Philips DCC730 digital recorder and discovers what could be a new standard in affordable digital mastering.

Paul White tries out Yamaha'a new easy-to-use digital effects unit, and finds it brash rather than bashful.

Novation have squeezed the innards of their successful BassStation analogue bass synth into a 1U rackmount model, throwing in some handy new features along the way. Jonathan Miller gets lost in bass...

Most new software arrives in a blaze of publicity, but Synclavier's incredibly useful Mac utility dropped unannounced onto the SOS desk. Paul White checks it out.

Paul White takes a look at the smallest of Fostex's 'D' range of pro DAT recorders.

Paul White's on the trail of an ingenious low-cost tool that helps you learn chords.

Vintage synth collector and self-confessed Korg fanatic Alex Clarke waxes extremely lyrical about the early '80s Trident — a hybrid of polysynth and string machine.

Just when you thought all the bargain mics came from the former Eastern Bloc countries, the Australians turn up a bargain of their own. Paul White decides whether it's as good as their wine or merely as good as Neighbours.

The latest addition to the Alesis dream studio line are the Matica 500 and 900 power amplifiers. Paul White checks out the 500.

Roland's latest attempt to part you from your savings boasts no less than 1700 patches, a well-specified sequencer, comprehensive effects section and expandability via Roland's popular wave expansion boards. Julian Colebeck takes it for a spin.

JL Cooper's new remote controller could become the nerve centre of your studio, driving all your MMC-compatible studio equipment from its front panel. Control freak John Harris checks it out.

The SOS team discover a viable alternative to a DI box for guitars and basses.

Despite the preponderance of digital technology in the modern recording world, many independent manufacturers continue to produce valve-based processors for the subjective warmth they add to recordings. Paul White looks at one of the latest, Ridge Farm's new valve DI box.

Paul White packs away the keyboard and plugs Roland's new guitar-MIDI interface into his sequencer.

Paul White checks out what must be one of the smallest 8-buss recording consoles around, which sports MIDI muting and MIDI machine control and still maintains a very afordable price tag.

Paul White takes a SoundField ST250 Stereo Microphone to a live recording session to see if the reality lives up to the legend.

American company KRK have gained quite a reputation for distinctive monitor design since their inception less than 10 years ago. Paul White checks out their most affordable speakers, the nearfield K-ROKs.

It's 28-voice polyphonic, with 128 sounds and a computer interface — and comes in a box the size of a video tape. Derek Johnson finds out whether size matters after all.

The JS30 forsakes the familiar rackmount sampler format for desktop presentation, and aims for simplicity and immediacy of operation. Derek Johnson checks it out.

The mid-priced XR7 is at the top of the new Fostex cassette multitracker range. Shirley Gray checks it out.