If music be the food of love, then eJay is probably the equivalent of a quick fumble round the back of McDonalds. Its takeaway tunes can be swiftly composed and the program requires absolutely no knowledge of music or musical talent; in much the same way that McDonalds has no need of trained chefs. However, the analogy cruelly crumbles when you consider that the tunes eJay can potentially construct are pretty tasty.

It's all change for version 7 of this famous music-making package, as it's been given a complete redesign from the ground up. The new interface certainly looks fresh and streamlined, although the essence of the program remains the same; it's still aimed at the total beginner.

Composing a song is a simple matter of scrolling through a library of samples, then dragging and dropping them into the main track window, layering your drums, bass, vocals and other samples on top of each other. User friendliness is paramount: for example, to copy and repeat a section of your song, you drag-select a box over the relevant bars to copy them into the clipboard, then point and paste.

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About the only annoyance we found with the new control scheme was the program's sample previews. When you click on a sample in the library, it plays automatically - although it stops if the mouse is moved. That's actually a neat feature if you've heard enough and are moving on to select another sample to listen to, but the trouble is, if you even move the mouse a hair's breadth by accident, you halt playback (and have to re-click to start it up again).

Naturally, all the samples are dance music (what with this being Dance eJay) and there are five thousand of them to pick from, all divided neatly into the usual categories (bass loops, drums and so forth). They're generally middling to high quality affairs, although the program does stray into cheesy territory sometimes, particularly with the vocal samples.

There's more to eJay than just samples, of course, as a comprehensive range of sound editors is provided. Effects editors are on hand to modify samples with echo, reverb, chorus and so on. There are also virtual bass and poly synthesizers, an eight-track drum machine and a sample loop editor, which can all be used to edit existing samples or create your own from scratch. The drum machine is particularly well designed in terms of ease of use, and it's great fun to play around with.

All these editing facilities boast basic modes of operation, so if you don't want to fiddle with the intricacies of the advanced mode - and its tens of decay/damp/delay knobs - it's just a matter of selecting an overall effect from a simple menu. There's plenty of scope to get experimental on the editing front, and it's even possible to sample direct from an audio CD, or a microphone, or any device connected to your sound card's line in port. Rudimentary CD burning facilities are also integrated into eJay Dance 7.

The latest eJay is looking very fresh after its overhaul. It's still easy to use, yet it offers a well featured set of editing tools and synthesizers, the highlight of which is a very groovy little drum machine. At this price, eJay 7 is a bargain for amateur musicians.