Secret SAWs: the story of the impossible sampler that made the Stock Aitken Waterman smashes, and the backroom boys that pushed it to its limits

Stock, Aitken and Waterman

Back in the early '80s samplers and sampling were very much the hot story in the studio. But before music went sample crazy the emergent digital tech of the time was put to more sober studio duties – creating solid-state versions of the unreliable, unrealistic analogue echo and reverb units of the day. 

While super-expensive leviathans such as the Fairlight and Synclavier get all the credit in the '80s the real magic was happening elsewhere...