Photos from Crave's tour of DJ TechTools' San Francisco office, including shots of the company's handmade DJ controllers.
Donald Bell
Donald Bell has spent more than five years as a CNET senior editor, reviewing everything from MP3 players to the first three generations of the Apple iPad. He currently devotes his time to producing How To content for CNET, as well as weekly episodes of CNET's Top 5 video series.
DJ TechTools' founder Ean Golden parlayed his job as a music technology writer into a business manufacturing a unique line of DJ gear.
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MIDI Fighter
The MIDI Fighter was the first solo project manufactured by DJ TechTools. Each device is handmade in San Francisco and custom-configured to customer specification.
The MIDI Fighter hooks up to a computer over a standard USB connection, allowing DJs to associate each button to a music software feature.
3 of 6 DJ TechTools
MIDI Fighter 3D
In 2012, DJ TechTools released the MIDI Fighter 3D. The controller includes an integrated gyroscope, allowing you to control your DJ software with the position and angle of the device.
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Soldering MIDI Fighters
Each MIDI Fighter is assembled by hand in DJ TechTools' San Francisco office.
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A rainbow of knobs
One of the hallmarks of DJ Tech Tools' collaborations with other hardware manufacturers is these brightly colored knobs and crossfader caps.
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Ean and Donald
Ean Golden (left) was nice enough to lead me through a tour of the DJ TechTools office. For an arcade addict and musician like myself, the MIDI Fighter controller I'm holding is a fun and intuitive way to mix and mangle digital audio.
