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Psychoacoustic enhancers are a frequent topic of enquiry here at the SOS office. Hugh Robjohns provides the answers to some of the most common questions.

British company Digisound's affordable modular synth may not have the cachet of a Moog or an ARP, but — as Paul Nagle explains — they were innovative, well designed, and sounded great... Additional material by Dave Robinson.

Colin Owen rediscovers the joys of Atari-tight timing on his blue G3 Mac with Emagic's AMT8 interface, featuring their new Active MIDI Transmission.

Gordon Reid reveals some of the limitations of the 'classic' ADSR envelope with reference to a practical synthesis example, and explains some of the different types of envelopes found on 'classic' analogue synths, from AR envelopes right up to highly flexible digitally controlled EGs.

Guitarists who use sequencers have been waiting many years for the perfect MIDI guitar. John Walden tries the Parker MIDIFly to see if the wait is over.

One of the most exciting developments in sound processing technology this year was the announcement from Sony of a dedicated reverb unit which applied ambience 'sampled' from real acoustic spaces. Now the theory is reality. Hugh Robjohns gets his hands on the DRE S777.

Waldorf's flagship keyboard synth has been available for months — but until very recently, it was so unfinished that it was scarecely reviewable. Since April, Gordon Reid has stuck with it, painstakingly noting the improvements that have come with each system software upgrade, until finally, with the synth standing at OS version 1.13, enough features are working to justify a full SOS review.

Gibson are best known for their good old-fashioned guitar technology, but they're also behind an immovative new standard for connecting digital audio devices — which, if it takes off, will revolutionise the way we connect gear together. Dave Shapton finds out more...

Most jobbing producers would regard jetting off to exotic locations to spend a year with one of the most famous artists in the world as a fantasy. For programmer and producer Kipper, however, the dream became reality — thanks to Sting. Tom Flint caught up with Kipper in his Surrey home studio.