Music Radar Team

Budget kits take another step forward with this glittering new addition to Ludwig's Accent range

Yamaha honours its greatest endorser with this princely black kit

If you use beats in your music-making (like most of the Western world), Battery 3 is a fantastic instrument - and a bargain to boot.

Cross the Radias with the MicroKorg and what go you get? Korg's hybrid vocoder-synth, that's what

With some functionality issues ironed out recently, things are looking pretty good for this ground-breaking product.

Orange releases a new amp that's practically guaranteed to fly out of the stores. You'll want one

The MV-8800 is a professional box that's also great fun and intuitive to use. As such, it fulfils two of the biggest requirements of any studio: it's inspiring and it can deliver.

After the introduction of the mp3-based version of its phrase trainer for guitarists, the third generation of the CD model is the best yet

Paiste enters the B20 field against the Turkish American manufacturers with this versatile series

The most affordable USA PRS brings something new to the table

The XS is an expensive machine, but it has a top-class selection of presets, is sonically very capable and comes brimming with features.

This V-Synth is extremely good value when you consider that you get twice as much firepower as the original. Furthermore, it's very intuitive to program and perform with.

Roland's Handsonic units have a legion of devoted fans, and rightly so as the HPD-10 proves to be yet another winner

The CPU consumption needs improvement but Arturia have outdone themselves with this big-sounding emulation.

Not perfect, but this harmony-creating software is a bargain.

With new shells and snappy finishes, Pearl's EXR variant of the all-conquering Export kit is hard to miss

This could be the perfect combo of guitar and computer - via the sounds of the world's greatest ever guitarist.

More user-friendly than its shell material and sizes might suggest, this super shiny kit will have Bonham fans drooling

This keyboard-player's dream is sure to capture the hearts of session players, both in the studio and on the stage.

A rhythm station, control surface and 16-track hard disk recorder in one

This is a programmer's dream, with an intuitive, bold surface that simply begs you to get a-twiddling.

As the Aston Martin of hardware sequencers, the Genoqs Octopus is very nice if you can afford it.

Drumagog attempts to replace the vibrant drumming session scene of old.

Version One lagged behind the competition, so Waves gets a needed update.

In this 'mastering' format the Phoenix is a brilliant piece of gear. Yes, it's expensive, but for good reason.