Sequencers / Grooveboxes

Emu's eye-catching new Command Stations repackage the sounds of their MP1 and XL1 sound modules, adding hands-on sequencing and real-time controls. Can the company win fans with these late entries to the groovebox market?

For 10 years, Yamaha's compact QY 'walkstations' have offered an impressive set of tools for the mobile MIDI musician. Nicholas Rowland checks out the latest, which adds guitar and vocal processing.

Yamaha's RS7000 is a groovebox with a difference. Incorporating a sequencer, sampler and a synth, it claims to offer everything you might need for modern music production.

The latest in Korg's series of dance-friendly Electribe groove workstations is sample- rather than synthesis-based, but serves up the same beguiling blend of hands-on user interface and cutting-edge sounds and effects as its predecessors. Nicholas Rowland takes it for a spin...

It looks like a groovebox, but inside it's a powerful FM synth, fully editable via bundled software. Derek Johnson & Debbie Poyser modulate those frequencies...

Roland followed their first MC303 Groovebox with the well-specified MC505. Now there's the MC307, with a spec more like the 505, a price closer to that of the 303, and more DJ-friendly features.

Is it a home organ-style keyboard? Is it a real synth? Is it a complete crock? Paul Ward explores the Korg Sigma, an instrument with a serious identity crisis...

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...

With its host of programmable backing patterns and an audio track for live recording, Boss's JamStation is designed to enliven the tedium of solo practice, or provide an instant sketchpad for ideas. Nicholas Rowland strikes out on his own...

The analogue-style hardware sequencer has always suited some ways of working better than its software cousin, and the latest company to try to bring it up to date are MAM.

Three years ago Paul Wiffen concluded that Akai had brought the concept of the sampling drum machine up to date with the MPC2000. Now he takes a look at its successor to see how much more you get when you XL.

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.

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.