Most of the good stuff we netted yesterday, but plenty more action from day 2. The highlight? Surely seeing (and hearing) how Yamaha's Vocaloid 2 has been coming along. What's Vocaloid? A attempt to 'synthesise' the human voice by extensive sampling of phonemes which are then re-strung to produce pharses that can then be played back at the desired pitch, thus negating the need for a real live singer. That's the theory, but the reality is a little way off just yet. Perhaps Vocaloid 1.1 would have been a better name, although we're intrigued to hear more from latest vocal patch Big Al from PowerFX... truly mesmerising were our first impressions!

But on to more serious matters... Rhodes are back with a new range of electro-mechanical pianos, just like the old days! There's a beautiful ruby red one on their stand.



prices should be around the £1,500 mark, although given its desirable import status I wouldn't be surprised if it cost a bit morre...

Loads more digital DJ'ing packages, not least of all from Native Instruments, who show off Traktor Scratch. Feels rock-solid, and the timecode is twice the resolution of other packages. Fine looking interface as well, which will be sold separately for those interested.



Universal Audio finally unleash a laptop solution for their UAD-1 platform – it’s about time too...!



Oz Owen