Sequencers / Trackers / Grooveboxes

There have been Grooveboxes and user -friendly MIDI file players, but it's been a while — nine years, in fact — since Roland last added a full-on hardware MIDI sequencer to their product line up. Now the MC80 seeks to bring the idea bang up to date. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser take the hard option...

Is it a synth, a sequencer or a sampler? The answer to all three questions is an emphatic 'yes', as Paul White finds out when he takes the E4XT Ultra into his studio.

In all the fuss about last month's launch of the Triton keyboard, you'd be excused for having overlooked Korg's other new products — the diminutive Electribe EA1 synth and ER1 beatbox. As Chris Carter discovers, you won't be able to ignore them for long...

Derek Johnson looks at a new baby hardware sequencer and GM/XG synth from Yamaha.

Gordon Reid gets twiddling with two small but perfectly formed analogue units aimed at the pockets — literally — of today's aceed‑hungry dancemongers.

Subtle timing nuances play a large part in the feel of much of today's rhythm-based music. Martin Walker bangs the drum about creative use of groovy time-tweaking functions.

Fancy having 24 assignable faders and 72 buttons to control your MIDI gear? How about an eight-track MIDI step sequencer with CV and gate outputs too? Paul Nagle explores a product that gives you both.

Yamaha have taken their time in entering the market for all-in-one dance workstation sequencers, but their new RM1x looks set to be a heavyweight contender.

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.

It's a MIDI patchbay! It's a MIDI data filer and player! It's a sampler playback unit! It's... impossible to sum up in a few words. Martin Russ is delighted to make the aquaintance of the grand seigneur of all MIDI file players.

If you like your music production tools hip, knob-laden and all in one box, you're probably drooling over the MC505. Derek Johnson gets into the groove.

The original MAQ 16/3 analogue-style step sequencer, developed with the help of Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider, was released almost five years ago, but Doepfer clearly believe in shelf-life and have continued to update this unique instrument. Chris Carter steps ahead.

There are still plenty of people who just won't have a computer in the studio, but nevertheless need some way of saving MIDI data. Nicholas Rowland checks out the successor to the venerable MDF2.

Quasimidi are delivering on their promise to provide new goodies for owners of the 309 dance box. Derek Johnson raves a bit...

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...

Is it a hi-tech bathroom scale? Is it a 21st-century computer game? Is it Darth Vader's toilet seat? No, it's an innovative LED-laden MIDI step sequencer, with the power to wring new life from your old synths. Paul Nagle pulses and flashes with excitement.

Quasimidi have distilled the experience gained from their successful dance-orientated keyboards into a one-box solution of concentrated rave power. Derek Johnson gets on the ravy train.

The latest MIDI and percussion combination from Akai is the first not to feature Roger Linn's signature, although it clearly takes its inspiration from those that do. But Paul Wiffen discovers that, although this unit adds a feature he's been waiting 10 years for, it's missing the high price tag of its predecessors.

Roland's MC8 began electronic music's move away from the limited compositional scope of the analogue sequencer, and left its stamp on some of the seminal pop of the 1980s. Chris and Cosey's Chris Carter, a pioneering MC8 user himself , fires up the 20 candles on the MC8's birthday cake...

Paul Wiffen, a ferocious advocate of hardware sequencers for many years, takes a look at Yamaha's new flagship sequencer and finds himself reminiscing about the way things were (and could be again).

Roland once stated that they would never bring out a follow-up to their now terminally trendy TB303 Bassline. However, the success of other manufacturers' TB clones and the inflated price of the original have made them think again. Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser are proud to present the UK's first in-depth review of the new MC303.