computer music

There’s only one thing to cover in issue 303 of Computer Music and that is, of course, the Roland TB-303. We like to think we’ve done this iconic piece of tech justice in a special feature (p16) and with double the number of new sample packs dedicated to it. And for these we’ve now gone ‘download only’ as, just as we went to press last month, we heard that DVD costs effectively trebled so it’s gone, as have all plastic covermounts from magazines in our company. “And why not?” the environmentalists among you might say, and I’d like to say this was our motive – our very own contribution to COP26 – but really there was little choice. I’m politically neutral, of course, but various worlds have collided and DVDs are simply no longer viable. Anyway, the silver lining is that we get the money we spent on the DVD to create extra content for you which can now all be downloaded. We’re currently still using FileSilo for this which we very much intend to make our secondary ‘backup’ system, with a faster, more C21 option replacing it. But bear with us on this; it’s happening ‘live’, as it were, so we’re looking at options as I write. (Do check out a document on FileSilo this month called ‘New download system’ which will have details to download larger files if you are struggling with FileSilo.) Ultimately, we’ll end up with a slicker, more environmentally friendly way to share our software, samples and video, so, long term, this will be ‘a good thing’. As ever, more info next issue!