I think this could honestly be the smallest DJ set-up I’ve ever seen, for better or worse. It’s called Drift Zero, and is currently in a Kickstarter-style phase where early supporters can help fund its production.
It’s got built-in memory to hold a music collection, built-in set recordings, beatgrids, sync, looping, mixing and keylock, it offers clock sync and CV for incorporating into a bigger DJ/production set-up, and has a rechargeable battery for DJing anywhere. Just add a wired speaker/headphones and you’re good to go.
The makers, Drift DJ Industries, say it is “the perfect companion for mobile DJs, hardware enthusiasts, and audio innovators seeking creative audio playback beyond the traditional booth”, although how big that market turns out to be (and how many people will take to fiddling around with tiny controls and a single jogwheel) are valid questions at this stage.
Small but intriguing
What caught our interest here (apart from the fact that it is a truly laptop-free new DJing OS they’ve developed) is that the makers talk a lot about the way it manages a music library.
You can add up to 32GB-worth of tunes (you should therefore think MP3s, not WAVs presumably, we’d like to have seen more storage available here), build and edit playlists, search for smooth key and tempo transitions, and edit song metadata on the device, including tags, titles, BPM, beatgrids, and cue points.
You can even add custom library menu items to group songs by tag clusters, custom string-matched genre names, BPM ranges, and more.
Read this next: Have Controller, Will Travel – 5 Best Micro DJ Controllers
Find out more
If you’re interested, it looks like it will be available in black and white, it’ll cost $449 if you pledge $125 of that now to facilitate production ($499 when on sale), and you can find out more here.
Oh, and I managed to get all the way to the end of this piece without using the phrase “if Teenage Engineering made a DJ controller…”
Phil Morse
