CROSS-FADES, beat-matches and hamster-style - the stuff that disc-jockeys (DJs) use to funk up the dance floor.
So that the end of one title crosses over to the beginning of another without too much decibel difference (cross-fade) and so that one track hops to the next with nary the club-goers missing a beat (beat-match).

Then, to add spice to the jiving, digital DJs manipulate vinyls to give the high-pitched scratchy sounds, hamster-style.

Instead of painstakingly creating these effects using an array of gizmos as before, DJs today do all these tricks on one machine - the laptop, using software that pulls together sound effects, decibels and rhythm with a few quick clicks.

In fact, digital methods have turned DJs, who normally just spin tracks, into music producers as well.

Observed Aldrin Quek, a DJ who spins bi-monthly at Zouk dance club: 'There's been a major shift of attention from being DJs to being music producers. These producers, who may not necessarily know how to DJ, have struck gold with a slew of recent hits or dancefloor anthems, and are now finding themselves being booked by clubs all over the world.'

Most of the artists use music software like GarageBand and Logic or free-to-download services like Audacity to produce their audio concoctions. These software let you edit recorded tracks by adding in sound effects to create your own remixed tunes.

So favoured are such software, that nearly every other DJ uses them.

Digital Life polled 20, and nine said they rely on software to create bleeding-edge electronica, trance or house music.

And it's not just the pros who are fervent about them. Even teachers and students have cottoned on too.

To-date, more than 1,200 students have gone through the ropes of digital deejaying with EduBlitz.

The local start-up teaches primary and secondary students how to apply the cool hamster-style stuff on laptops instead of on traditional record vinyls.

At lower cost too.

Instead of using expensive vinyls, which can cost up to $3,000 each, the course gets students going on standard $1,900 laptops.

Fourteen-year-old Jeremy Lim is one digital DJ student who loved the experience.

'The software and equipment were very easy to use, and it was a blast trying to create professional DJ sound effects.

'At the rate we are going, we could be giving DJs like Timbaland a run for their money!'