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DJ: Decks and FX House Edition Review - PS2

Music-generating games - which allow you to place certain instrumental, vocal and electronic sounds in sequence in order to make your own music track - have been slipping out onto shelves quietly for a number of years. Developer SECI has applied this concept to the mixing of music tracks - the people who do so known as DJs or Disk Jockeys - in their DJ: Decks and FX House Edition.

Gameplay

DJ: Decks and FX House Edition essentially allows you to mix and play with music tracks on a virtual DJ deck; think of it as MTV Music Generator, but instead of creating music tracks you mix them by adding effects, playing two different tracks at once and altering the treble and the like. A large number of tracks are preloaded into the game for you to play with, seeing as you can't generate your own or upload a few from a CD. These obscure tracks consist mostly of electronic-style tunes and light vocals, making good mixing material. If the locations of the preloaded tracks don't take your fancy - considering they're situated in categorised folders - you can enter the game's Record Box mode and shift them around, making them easy to find during mixing sessions.

The game screen consists of a singular deck at all times. This deck - packed with all sorts of knobs, switches and display screens - is what you'll use to mix tracks; no menu or sub screens are involved at all. This concept works well; aside from making the game feel authentic, all of the deck's functions are explained quickly and successfully in the game's Training mode, so while the look of the deck may be daunting at first, you'll be mixing like a pro in a matter of minutes.

Using taps of the D-Pad you can navigate the deck, sliding across to its various panels in order to use functions belonging to a particular area of it. On the edges of the deck are the two record players, upon which you must obviously place tracks to be played before being able to start mixing. If you wish you can use only one of the deck's record players, though using two makes your music much more interesting and varied. In the middle of the deck is a series of knobs that adjust the treble, and below this is the cross fader that alternates the sound between the two tracks playing according to its position on a horizontal meter. On the top centre of the deck is a recorder, which records a sample of one or both of the tracks playing. This can be used either as a repeated sound or simply when you feel necessary. On the top right of the deck is a sound effects panel, allowing you to load a sound effect from the fairly limited selection available to be played throughout your mix. And finally, on the top left of the deck is one of the (continued next page)