Synthesizers

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.

Gordon Reid is bitten by the memory of a brilliant, but deeply flawed trio of Italian synthesizer designs that could have been the last word in affordable analogue.

The streamlined '90s exterior of Emu's Audity 2000 claims to hide a virtual modular hybrid, harking back to the company's own lost '70s analogue megasynth.

Long awaited and much anticipated, Novation's digitally-modelled analogue synth module is the company's most ambitionus offering yet.

Simon Trask previews the Supernova, Novation's most ambitious synthesizer module to date.

Korg's new module makes the synthesis technology of their flagship Trinity workstation range more affordable — but at what cost?