Ministry of Sound - StikAx handheld music mixer
$249
www.stikax.com

Here's a device that is truly different – it's a handheld device that'll turn you from music listener into music maker, even if you've had no prior experience!

Although one clear target market is younger people who've no musical experience, the StikAx has nevertheless been designed for beginners through to advanced users. It's from the maestros at the Ministry of Sound, and music is your thing, you'll be remixing the latest hits or creating your own complete with the option of custom video clips at the touch of a few buttons!

The included music software lets you take samples from CDs or mp3s, and also offers 450 samples on CD so you can effortlessly create your own tunes. It comes with a series of buttons, and each button is assigned its own sound. Assign drumbeats to one or more buttons and different samples to other buttons, start pressing them and you're creating your own tunes!

It really has to be played with to see how simple the whole system is if you're a beginner, and how much fun you can really have if you're already into music and know what you're doing.

While it is primarily a music mixer, you can also add video clips and have them play with music as well for an amazing audiovisual experience that you've created yourself! Better still, you can hook two or more units up to a PC and create your own jam session with your buddies. Look out, MTV, here we come!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt