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With several successful dance-oriented synth successes to their name, Quasimidi attempt to buck the trend with their latest offering. The Polymorph does offer plenty to interest the dance fraternity — real-time modulation knobs, and an analogue-style sequencer and user interface — but behind the façade lurks a powerful synth.

The East German company Microtech Gefell only became known in the West after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it was founded by no less a man than Georg Neumann in 1943. Hugh Robjohns tests a new mic with an impressive pedigree...

Designed as a replacement for high-end tape-based multitracks, Otari's original RADAR 24-track random access recorder/editor captured a sizeable chunk of the pro market. We take a look at its successor, RADAR II, which offers a host of enhancements including 24-bit audio.

Analogue Systems have expanded their RS Integrator modular range to include an analogue step sequencer and several new modules — as well as a new, complete high-end system.

FM synthesis was the success story of the mid-'80s, and synth based on its principles, like Yamaha's DX7, sold by the bucketload — until affordable sample-based synths arrived at the end of the decade. Now, with their new FS1R, Yamaha have updated the technology for the late '90s.

'80s technology is still out there in abundance and going cheap. Derek Johnson spotlights a budget beatbox that has everything it takes to slot into the '90s studio.

The Minimoog rides again thanks to Welsh company Moog Music Limited. But how close does it sound to the original? We at SOS knew opinion would be split, so we got five of our regular synth reviewers, all previous or current Mini owners, to give us their views.

Prepare to shed a tear in another near-miss tale of a desirable analogue synth swept aside by the rise of digital technology.

Though they're usually not specifically designed for recording, miniature mics can be real problem solvers in certain situations.

It's certainly borrowed (for the purposes of this review), and it's unquestionably blue, but is it old or new? Synth Guidance Counsellor and long‑time K2000 owner Paul Ward checks out Kurzweil's VP makeover of this legendary workstation.

Does the new 266 compressor from dbx really excel?

The ADAT format is more often the choice of personal studios than professional facilities — but the new M20 is set to change all that. Hugh Robjohns takes the 20-bit ADAT for a spin.

Korg have upgraded their well-established Trinity range of sample-based workstation synths with a new board offering the sonic capabilities of a Z1 polysynth.

Simon Lowther introduces the clan of classic American analogue synths, the Oberheim OBs.

Line 6 announce a software upgrade for their physical modelling guitar amplifier. Paul White plugs in, turns on and checks out the reborn AX2.

The new SP808 has little in common with its namesake, the TR808; one was an analogue rhythm unit, the other is a feature-packed sampler, multitrack digital audio recorder, synth and remix tool. Clearly, Roland are hoping that some of the 'hi-tech classic' status of the TR will pass to the new SP.

The AD8000 is a high performance 8-channel, 24-bit A-D converter which can cope with an array of different digital audio formats, either in its basic form or with the addition of one of several optional cards.

Paul White studio-tests Sennheiser's new range of affordable vocal microphones to see if they really can give the established models a run for their money.

If you've £250 to spare and a reverb-shaped hole in your studio, Lexicon would like you to fill it with their latest budget processor, which offers 20-bit converters, a digital output as standard, and the famous Lexicon Ambience effect.

Paul White meets the junior member of Alesis' family of Type II 20-bit ADAT recorders.