PC DJ Dance Producer

Like all the savvy and stylish PCDJ set-ups, the software features a colourful and potent central console, which acts as your "base camp" for your assaults on Mount Techno. From this locus, the idea is you sally forth to sample, rip, loop, strip, peel, add, and warp the various sounds you download and shift about with your mouse. With a single click you can trim, pitch and loop the lengths and tones of your samples, add in special sound effects like flange and reverb (or filter and vibrato), and generally get creative with the riffs and paradiddles herein digitised. The beats can also be "automatically sliced", the audio effects are "plug-in based", and there are 600 megabytes of royalty free samples waiting for you to do the Muso Thing.

If there are criticisms, they are minor--perhaps a greater variation in percussion styles would be good, and a bit more interest on the vocals wouldn't go amiss--but these are minor quibbles. For almost all DIY DJs, the PCDJ Dance Producer will take the disco biscuit. --Sean Thomas