Ever fancied yourself as a top drummer, but can't afford the hundrds of pounds which most decent drumkits cost? There is a cheaper solution, in the form of Drum Studio, re-released at £4.99 from Smash 16.

Twenty percussion sounds are stored in the program, accessed by pressing the function keys. As only ten such keys are present, the sounds are held in two banks of ten, switchable by the press of a button. A recording facility is included to let you write your masterpiece and save it to disk, while pressing the Space bar reveals a demo song to give you an idea of the capabilities of the utility.

Drum Studio can't be regarded as a serious help to the home musician. The sampled sounds are a little scratchy and there is no option for mouse control (only keys are used). Still, at £4.99 budding Stock, Aitken and Watermen can't complain. It's a fun little package which should at least annoy the hell out of mum and dad, and that's what drumming's all about, isn't it?

Want to produce the next number 1? It's doubtful you'll do it with Drum Studio, but you'll have a lot of fun trying.