Product Reviews

Whether you host polite soirées or raucous knees-ups, a well-stocked MP3 collection is much more manageable than a pile of CDs for keeping guests happy. However, there's something painfully uncool about iTunes' Party Shuffle mode. EJay's DJ Mixstation is much more appropriate. At its simplest, it can work through playlists in MP3, WMA, Ogg Vorbis and WAV (but not AAC) format, crossfading between tracks for uninterrupted music. It also includes a manual crossfader and pitch sliders for a more creative approach to mixing. There's a wide range of effects including compression - for maintaining a constant level - and a basic sampler for

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triggering sound effects. Its vinyl scratching simulation is dire and the ability to loop sections of a track is cumbersome, but it's fairly easy to play two tracks with their tempos in sync and crossfade between them.

A common problem with DJ software is that a mouse is a poor substitute for the tactile controls of real DJ equipment. DJ Mixstation makes up for this with extensive keyboard short cuts. It's a pity the list is buried among the options rather than being displayed when the cursor hovers over the interface, though. One crucial feature that's missing from the onscreen buttons, but included in the keyboard controls, is a pitch nudge for correcting tracks that have drifted slightly out of time with each other. This feature uses the Page Up and Page Down keys.

Another common problem is an inability to preview a track on headphones while another track is playing. DJ Mixstation allows this if two sound cards are installed, although it can't use front and rear outputs of a surround-capable sound card. This makes using a laptop, which will have only one sound card, difficult.

Serious DJs will find DJ Mixstation too clumsy, but if approached light-heartedly, it should provide plenty of entertainment.