So you've got a shiny new 4-channel MIDI DJing controller… but what are you going to do with it? For time immemorial, DJs have toiled over the ones and twos, but in this digital age, where rulebooks have been torn up and conventions shunned, the modern DJ has to contend with not only the ones and twos, but now the three' and fours.

Now that so many hardware manufacturers have decided that four channels is what we want, we're left to work out what we're are going to do with them, but give a DJ four turntables and, let's face it, their options are limited.

Play four records at the same time? Juggle two and mix two? There was a definite flirtation with this multi-deck approach – particularly in the ‘90s, with pioneers such as Carl Cox leading the way, but it wasn't long before the novelty passed, and other areas of creativity were explored.

These days, of course, the game is very different. Digital DJing has turned what were barriers into nothing more than creative stepping stones. Nowadays, you can do whatever you want, and four decks are no longer the preserve of self-indulgently complex mixers.

Here are nine options for you to explore in this liberated digital landscape.

NEXT: The octopus