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It's all very well grumbling about some musical aspect of your PC's performance, but unless you know the cause of the problem you may have little idea what needs to be done to improve matters. Martin Walker points you in the right direction.

After last month's overview of the equipment and processes involved in compiling an album master from mixes, Paul White gets down to the business of sorting out wanted audio from unwanted...

In this month's instalment of his series on the basics of subtractive synthesis, Gordon Reid considers the magic ingredient that makes all the other elements sound interesting...

With demand increase for original analogue synths, and the second-hand market drying up, more and more people are contemplating building their own. As Ken McBeth explains, all the necessary resources are available on-line...

Paul White introduces the concept of VCA and moving-fader mixer automation in the first part of a short series on automated mixers and their applications.

Martin Walker advises manual dexterity, speeds up his internet experience, and finds yet more tweaks for Windows.

Dave Shapton keeps track of the latest developments in the coding of computer audio — and the hardware used to amplify it.

Hums and buzzes in your signal path are not the only cause of noise problems in the studio. The mechanical noise emitted by some equipment can be equally disruptive — but, as Martin Walker explains, you don't have to suffer in (lack of) silence.

Dedicated Atari users were able to check out the latest from the core Atari hardware and software developers at the recent All Micro Show. Derek Johnson was there for SOS.

Martin Russ looks back at a bad and good month for Apple, and writes them out a Christmas wish list.

In the first part of a new series, Paul White looks at the practicalities of stereo editing. So, if you plan on compiling your stereo mixes into an album master, you'd better read on.

Having laid bare the inner workings of oscillators, contour generators and filters, Gordon Reid turns his attention to something which at first sight seems entirely self-evident. Can the humble voltage-controlled amplifier really hold any Synth Secrets?

Martin Russ puts the new iMacs in context, and delves further into his new G3.

The facility to construct sophiticated arrangements of virtual faders, knobs and buttons, and use them to control studio equipment via MIDI, is one of Cubase's most powerful features — but also one of its most under-used. Paul Sellars explains how to make Mixermaps work for you.

Mike Simmons concludes his serious on designing and cosntructing a web site by answering some of the mant reader queries received in response to earlier instalments.

Fancy multi-port MIDI operation for your Atari? Derek Johnson looks at a three-way interface that can expand the musical horizons of Atari users and rounds up some more ST news.

These days, any decent synth or sampler offers plausable orchestral sounds — but there's much more to creating believable arrangements for orchestra than realistic samples. Keyboardist/composer Dave Stewart offers some guidance, passes on some advice from pros, and explains how orchestral samples were used to create an arrangement for the latest Geri Halliwell single.

This month Martin Walker discusses processor overclocking, as well as bringing you up to date will the latest PC news.

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.

Mike Simmons ties up some loose ends with some words on browser compatibility, a look at other Internet music other than Real Audio, and a brief guide to using frames on your site.