Andy Jones Editor andy.jones@futurenet.com

The ending of a year – and as you read this, it should be the closure of 2022 – can often feel like an exaggerated full-stop, and then a moment for some reflection on the previous 12 months. In magazine parlance that usually means summing it all up and choosing our best bits. We don’t usually do such an obvious ‘thing’ in Computer Music but in this issue have certainly grabbed 2022 by its sometimes not so welcome horns to shake down the best parts. There’s free software aplenty (of course) with a selection of the best plugins we’ve added to our suite this year. Then there are our best sample giveaways of 2022, and roundups of what we consider the essential synths, instruments, hardware and effects of the year. In the middle of all that noise is one of the best compression features we’ve ever run – surely the most underrated of music production techniques. All in all it’s a bit of a change for us as, like I say, we don’t really ‘look back’ so much as look forward. Which leads nicely to resolutions – the ideal way to look ahead and which are something we all love, of course. Now we’ve (finally!) got rid of FileSilo (see last month’s Welcome for more on that, plus all our downloads at bit.ly/ cm317downloads) I don’t really have any resolutions left. Except to get less stress and more hair. Same as 2021 then. And 2020. And ’19, ’18, ’17, ’16, etc etc.