
TOY STORY?
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...
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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...

You may know Naim as a UK-based hi-fi manufacturer, but they also own a record label, and apply the same esoteric standards to the records they release as they do to their audio equipment. Phil Ward investigates the label's obsession with sound and explains their recording and mastering techniques.

Paul Tingen catches up with the musical innovator and legendary force behind BeBop Deluxe at his minimalist home studio, and finds him producing more music than ever before.

Paul White looks beneath the surface of Sound Diver 3 to discover an immensely powerful and flexible patch editor and librarian system.

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.

Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser check out a product which offers up to four minutes of sample time, 22 different effects, audio processing and resampling facilities — for £199. If you'd been reading this only a few years ago , you'd have assumed that some digits had been missed off the price...

Sophisticated effects and audio processing have become pretty standard on professional synths and keyboard workstations. The Kurzweil K2500's capacities in these respects, however, were looking a little dated until now. Paul Lehrman plugs in the new KDFX expansion board.

Rackmount studio samplers may be pretty much a relic of the past, at least in terms of manufacturers producing new examples, but it's not quite all software and computer RAM yet — not if instruments such as this new one from Korg are anything to go by.

Korg's mission to bring musicians the benefits of physical modelling synthesis at an affordable price continues; you can now have a polyphonic, multitimbral Prophecy for well under twice the price of the original. The synth is called the Z1, and Gordon Reid is the man with the exclusive technical preview...

Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser test Fostex's new eight-tracker, which once again lowers the entry-level price for the musician aspiring to digital.

U2 have always striven for a new sound on each of the records they make, and during the sessions for their latest album, their aim was once again 'to construct a new sound for U2 whilst still making them sound like U2'. To this end, they brought in production wizard Flood and Scottish dance artist Howie B and set about new methods of recording. Paul Tingen investigates the art of Pop...

Creamware's SCOPE Fusion Platform is a powerful and flexible PC and Mac-based music-production system that's often overlooked by computer-based musicians. We take a detailed look at the system and investigate what you might be missing.

The man behind the Mini has brought us the Voyager — an updated version of the original Minimoog for the 21st century. How does it compare to the original, how does it sound, and how does it play? Read this in-depth review and find out.

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.

Sam Inglis meets the production crew behind one of the year's biggest garage tracks.

SOS visits another reader's home/project studio.

Ten years after the K5, Kawai return to the technology which gave them the most successful implementation of additive synthesis ever, and include something of everything else they've learnt in the meantime. Paul Wiffen wonders if it all adds up...
Modern digital effects units always include emulations of analogue effects such as tape delay and flanging — but none of them ever seem quite like the real thing. Paul White explains how these vintage effects worked, and offers insight into how our modern attempts could be made more accurate.

Though digital technology has transformed the nature of synths, effects, and even multitracks, project studio mixers have largely remained steadfastly analogue, breaking the chain which, if complete, would allow your music to remain in the digital domain from sequencer to master.Korg's 168RC forms the heart of a system designed to all but eliminate the analogue signal path, and Paul Wiffen wonders where it's been all his life...

Since the launch of their A100 modular synth in the mid-'90s, Doepfer have been quietly adding modules to the system, some fairly simple, others splendidly esoteric. We explore some of the latest...