NEW GADGET

One, two. One, two. Check, check. Two, two. Now getting nifty on the decks is child's play thanks to the awe-inspiringly innovative Computer DJ Kit from the audio boffins at Ion. It takes the analogue chore of lining up separately spinning plastic discs and digitizes the whole messy business.

Doing for DJ mixing what Photoshop has done for photography, it's nothing short of a revolution in the lives of would-be jocks, mobile DJs, party dudes and hardcore bedroom anoraks.

It looks like a two-channel mixing deck. It is, to all intents and purposes, a two-channel mixing deck. But, by cleverly substituting a pair of Technics SL1200s for your common or garden PC, it transforms even the humblest nerd into a cyber-friendly Judge Jules.

This complete kit has everything a self-respecting dude could need to play MP3s, WMAs, WAVs and other music files straight from PC. DJ-friendly USB technology enables splendidly easy plug and play connectivity with no drivers or sound cards needed - and, in the unlikely event that you will need to rig-up a phono connection to an old-fashioned set of decks, then, yes, you'll find those inputs are included.

And before you can say 'this one's for all you lovers out there', you're a real, live DJ who's just swapped his bulging record box for floor-filling classics for a sleek laptop chock-full of banging choons. Man.