If you thought that it was difficult differentiating between live sound and good audiotape recordings, wait until you hear the sonic tricks that digital sampling technology is reaping. Locked up ...

US company Ensoniq had a lot to live up to in 1988. Its price-busting Mirage had put sampling into the hands of 30,000 workaday musicians, albeit with rather compromised 8-bit fidelity. Still, such lo ...

Ah, the '80s! A decade drenched in hairspray and carried aloft on the padded shoulders of the first wave of MTV video idols. New wave and synth-pop ruled the airwaves, and hip-hop was maturing into a ...