Instead of the usual track window view, with Cutting Edj you are presented with a bank of 16 rectangles. Each of these can be loaded with a sample and then matters get interesting. Basically, you can then play each sound by pressing a key on the keyboard.

The keys Q-I correspond to the top eight banks and A-K correspond to the bottom eight. Pressing the key simply plays that sample. Now you might think that this is going to be a rather tricky way of composing a tune, unless you happen to be an octopus.

But you can lock a sample in by pressing the space bar - so you can lock the drums and bass in, and then start dabbling with the keyboard sounds, maybe lock one of them in before throwing some voice effects in... and so on. The samples themselves (there are 1,600) are of a fairly decent quality, though it should be noted that they are all dance/trance related.

However, lurking behind this real-time mixing system there really is a standard track window view, which you get to play with in the edit mode that appears after you've recorded your tune in real time. Here you can fine tune anything you mis-timed and indeed add completely new samples if you wish.

It's a flexible little system, although creating a track from scratch does take some time as the interface is somewhat clumsy when it comes to browsing and loading the samples. Another problem is that when recording your mix, pressing too many keys together at the same time can throw up keyboard errors. There are also very limited facilities for adding effects to the samples.

Still, this is a smart package, given further value for money because it's now bundled with MP3 Virtual Decks - a virtual mixing desk setup which doubles as an MP3 player, which wannabe DJs will really appreciate.