If you've ever fancied having a go at DJing your favourite tracks, Nero SoundTrax will put your skills to the test. It's intended for the production of compilation and mix CDs, rather than live performance, but many of the principles it uses are similar. The ScratchBox and SoundBox provide some of the features that professional DJ software has to offer.

Nero SoundTrax can assemble tracks into a pre-defined order, but it does more than run through the playlist. It can:

• fade tracks into each other, making the transitions less jarring between tracks
• slow playback, or speed it up, to attempt to beatmatch between two recordings
• apply effects and plugins (both VST and DirectX)
• support edits, such as clips cut and pasted across the timeline
• control the volume and effect intensity on individual tracks

Nero SoundBox is a basic, but usable, sequencer component within SoundTracks that includes a drum machine and text to speech engine. It can be used to create small, original clips to layer over tracks or segue in between.

The Nero ScratchBox is a virtual scratching and mixing interface that gives more adventurous users a hands-on experience. It looks more like a turntable set-up, and will be of interest to users who want to practice their skills in real time.

Nero SoundTrax can import audio directly from attached audio capture devices, such as USB turntables and cassette players. It can also rip CDs. Its wizard interface is designed for novice users, so you can turn a cassette into a CD without any complex processing.

Finished mixes can be exported in a number of formats, such as 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound for home cinema systems. Nero SoundTrax can work with ACC, AIFF, AC-3, OGG, WAV and many more formats, including its own NWF and NPF file types.