In a constant slew of monochromatic monotony, it’s inspiring to see a company stand up and dare to be different. And the guys over at DJ TechTools certainly planted their flag in the left field territory with their original Midi Fighter controller. Their controllerist captive audience loved it and bought it by the crateload, which enabled DJTT to step even further left field with the performance oriented Midi Fighter 3D. But now it’s time for the one that kicked it all off for them to get an upgrade – behold the multicoloured marvel that is the Midi Fighter Spectra.
First the official verbiage:
DJ TechTools Releases The Midi Fighter Spectra,
A Customizable Performance Controller for DJs and ProducersSAN FRANCISCO – (Jan. 20, 2013) – Today DJ TechTools introduced the Midi Fighter Spectra, an upgrade of the revolutionary Midi Fighter Classic. The Midi Fighter Spectra allows DJs and producers to take their performances to the next level and get noticed doing it, with full-color lighting and fantastic new material options for the unit itself.
The Midi Fighter Spectra takes the popular paradigm of 16 arcade buttons and adds stunning full-color ring lighting in each arcade button, with color and animations controlled via MIDI or set in the Midi Fighter Utility software. This allows the creation of dynamic yet highly intuitive controller mappings while also visually enhancing your performance. The unit also includes six additional function buttons on the side of the unit, opening up a wider range of preset, effects, and drum rack selection.
Each Midi Fighter Spectra is custom-built to the user’s specification with the color of the buttons, silicon body, and a wide range of top finishes allowing endless possibilities. This results in a beautifully unique product guaranteed stand out from the pack.
“The first Midi Fighter was a DIY, renegade project made from love and community passion. ” said Ean Golden, founder of DJ TechTools. “Now that we have learned how to make a serious controller that can compete with the best, it seemed only natural to re-engineer the original without sacrificing the fun community ethos of our favorite buttons”
The Midi Fighter Spectra is available starting today, January 21st, for $175.99 exclusively from the DJ TechTools store. For more info about the Midi Fighter Spectra, visit the official product page: http://store.djtechtools.com/midi-fighter- spectra
As the PR says, the Midi Fighter has come from home-brew hacking, but is now in the realms of gorgeously polished boutique objets d’art. Many lessons have been learned along the way, and they’ve now shaped the Midi Fighter Spectra to be a stunning unit. Granted, at its core the Midi Fighter is a just a box of 16 arcade buttons, but it seems to have found a real niche with controllerists who would otherwise be looking at considerably duller mass-produced units.
The Spectra isn’t just a prettied up Midi Fighter though – it has gained the de rigour RGB lights as well as 3 new buttons per side for switching things up mid-performance. And there’s a growing number of mappings for these devices, both from the DJTT team and user submitted ones. I suspect that you’ll be able to find something to match your style and tweak it further yourself.
I think that DJ TechTools have address 2 key issues that I’ve identified over the years:
Timeless design — this format works now and will be valid for probably decades to come. The need for triggering samples or engaging effects isn’t ever likely to go away. Assuming it’s built to last, this should still be part of your DJ setup even as everything around it changes, which is a nice thought considering that the shelf life of most things is measured in months rather than years these days.
Personality — the utter simplicity makes it easy for DJTT to customise it to your exact needs. You don’t need to have the same black box as every other DJ out there. As DJs are fighting to be seen and be different from the next man, having a signature device that reflects your personality will make people remember you.
This is likely to be a runaway success. It’s at a price that people can afford and can be personalised to a ridiculous level that the big manufacturers simply cannot offer. Personally I prefer a rubber pad to an arcade button, but the lure of splashing out on a Walnut topped Orange buttoned black case version for the growing gear archive is very strong indeed.
I like many others do find myself more reserved when it comes to DJ gear colour schemes, but the point here is choice. I could go all Black to match the rest of my setup, or I could equally induce a headache with a random rainbow of ill matching colours. it’s entirely up to you. Check out the order page to get a grip of the full choice. I bet you find it hard to pick an exact colour scheme. You can quite literally own shiny new shiny.
Throwing this out to you – do you have a Midi Fighter? Do you own and use a MF3D and all its waveyaround coolness?
