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The digital age has always been about cramming more into less. But there has to be a practical minimum at which DJing becomes impractical. So imagine the task given to the clever people at Allen & Heath - please squish 4 decks into a laptop sized bag. They did a hell of a job with the xone: 3D and 4D, but no - they needed smaller dammit (fist thuds on boardroom table). Oh and one last thing - they want it plug and play as well as MIDI and effects and cue and loops and ridiculous ins and outs and at ridiculous high quality… and for less than the price of a 4D. That's quite some task, but the bitter pill was sweetened with the addition of Serato's ITCH. What came out was the xone:DX and an eye-opening DJ experience for this vinyl veteran.

The detail of the hardware is in the review, but I just want to talk a little about my own experience with the DX. I come from a time long before computers. So for me, everything dished up in the digital is pretty wondrous. I learned my craft on mixers without crossfaders and decks without motors or straight arms. Mixing music featuring real drummers together on such wonky gear was on the face of it some sort of miracle by todays standards. So when I get to play with a lump of hardware that all but does the beatmatching for me, you might think - like so many voices on so many forums right now - that I'd be pissed off and throw hissy fits along the lines of the destruction of the artform.

Well chew this over for a moment - if it can be automated, how much of a artform is it?

Now perhaps having paid my dues and earned my stripes the hard way, some might feel that it's OK for me to use this type of gear, because I can do it on traditional gear. But I've always felt that fighting with hardware to mix 2 beats together is nothing short of a tiresome chore. The craft comes in DJing is the creativity, and this is where the DX's technology comes into play and makes me a very happy DJ.

The DX makes it incredibly easy to lock 4 tracks together, leaving me to concentrate on taking my music to another level. Oooh but wait… isn't the skill in the beat matching? Well let's see - take a beginner and an experienced pro and give each of them a DX and a laptop of analysed tracks. Both can press the sync button and lock beats together, but what then? Exactly. That my friends is where the craft and skill of DJing comes into play.

The DX opens up new creative avenues for those used to just 2 channels. And for those used to 4 and the large amount of chaff that goes with it, the xone:DX makes for a considerably more streamlined experience without compromising on features. It might not be for you, but that does not mean it is a bad product. I'm sure we all wish it was cheaper, but quality generally costs. It's the price of a pair of Technics - that's 2 decks, a mixer and effects unit short of a DX but costing just as much.

Another sermon over - check out the review and feedback as you see fit. And as a brief teaser - ITCH v1.7 is on it's way which may well address some of the concerns I've raised…