Dance eJay 5 review

Ever fancied yourself as a bit of a music guru?

Is your finger on the pulse of all that's hip and funky? Most importantly, do you know your wack beats from your phat breaks? Well, it's time to find out if you've got what it takes with the latest incarnation of Dance eJay.

One of the best features of the eJay series has always been it's accessibility to even the most technophobic of users. The Sample archive allows you to cycle through and audition which of the 5000 samples you'd like to use, and as they are split into 8 distinct categories its easy to get started making tunes of your very own. The process is made even easier by the fact that all the samples are in the same musical key so you needn't spend hours getting them to sound 'right' together. Just drag, drop and listen.

Once you've got your track sounding half decent then you can move on to the Mixer. This allows you to alter the volume of individual tracks, change their stereo position and decide whether to pipe any of the samples into the FX Box so that you can change the way they sound. The FX Box allows you to add reverb, echo or chorus to your sounds. In fact, Dance eJay has a few quite decent effects and I managed to squeeze some great noises out of the software without much effort.

Further welcome additions are the Hyper, Bass and Chord Generators, which allow you to write hooks and riffs with no hassle, and make your tunes more individual. It's also a doddle to record your own samples, which you can then edit in the inbuilt FX Studio. Great stuff!

Dance eJay 5 looks good, works well, and is light years ahead of Emission's Dance Producer that we reviewed in February 2003. It isn't as flexible as our Top 50 music software, the sublime Acid Music 3.0, but if your funds are limited and you want to make music with the minimum of hassle, Dance eJay is a tempting proposition.