Where do I start? Ok, £74 - that's all it costs - almost the same as a new sample CD. But you get a whole lot more!

Wired - EOT is based on the Intakt beat slicer/sampler from Native Instruments. If you haven't tried Intakt then I suggest you do so if you're into chopping up/mangling your loops. It's a very versatile beast. Individual samples can be tweaked with effects and with filters and envelopes. Sounds can be routed to multiple outs. Everything from drum loops to synth arps can be sliced and diced and then effected to your hearts content. It takes minimal cpu to run (3% on my AMD 2400XP) and unless your sampling at 192/32 the sounds won't take up too much ram. No crashes so far touch wood. It seems very robust and stable.

Now back to Wired. Installation is straight forward - there is a 14 day grace period before registering. Copy protection is challenge and response. I registered over the net and just added the license to my NI account. New users without an account will be asked to create one during the reg process. I was up and running in minutes. Wired includes an Intakt manual which covers everything.

Wired is a sample player. Ok, so you can't load your own sounds but the ones on offer are very versatile and are appropriate for a range of dance styles. There are drum and percussion loops, single hits, synth, pad and FX loops and single sounds. They're mostly aimed at Trance but I think anyone making dance music will get something out of Wired.

The sounds are set up as construction sets and as individual sounds so Wired is quite versatile. I like the way the sounds are set up. I wish more instruments were so easy to audition sounds. The sound is clear and punchy on my system. It seems like time has been spent matching levels and compiling sounds that work well together.

Sounds can be manipulated with effects and the usual synth parameters such as filters, lfo and envelopes. The filter could be better IMO and I think they should've included reverb - but then one of the biggest recurring problems in a mix is too much reverb so perhaps the idea is to spare us that sin.

Customer support, hmmm. NI are a bit corporate in this department. After I registered I tried to download the DFD for Wired but it was nowhere to me seen. Perhaps we don't get one? I also have Adrenaline (based on Intakt) and it came with info about a link to download a DFD program. But this was nowhere to be found. So the mysteriously missing DFD extension remains to be solved.

If you have Intakt then you'll be pleased to know that Wired banks and presets can be loaded into it and used with your other samples and loops. But Wired is versatile enough in it's own right and definitely has enough banks and presets to fullfill most dance musicians needs.

Wired won't do it all in the mix but combined with other synths it will enhance any track. It offers a lot of sounds and editability for low cost. Try the demo in store!