For us on the business side of the industry, there seems to be more talk about the future of companies than there is about new gear right now. And news has reached us that innovative and pioneering controller company EKS has closed its doors. You may or not be aware that EKS is the company behind One DJ, the software that fuses DJ technique with some production abilities, and throws in a good deal of high quality MIDI and audio routing in for good measure.
Thankfully however, the people at EKS have stepped up and bought One DJ and Audio Artery, and the future is looking very bright with a renewed focus. Here’s a short press release:
Got FX?
One Dj under new ownership and gets VST FX support in October.We are glad to announce that the ownership of One DJ software has been acquired by the key team behind the development. To celebrate this we are launching 1.7 update in October that will bring VST Effects to One. We will keep developing One DJ with passion and the 1.7 update is the first step on our path. The update is free as always to all current users.
EKS made some amazing controllers, and were one of the first companies to have real success in this area. The XP5 was everywhere, and when the Otus hit, EKS established themselves as a very cool and future-looking brand. Sadly, the market no longer has much room for boutique controllers (Ean Golden says that DJTT is out of that market for now too), and is dominated by just a handful of companies producing a stream of very similar hardware. I shall miss EKS’s unique take on controllers — I had an original Otus, and love the Otus RAW too. Perhaps I’ll snag one for the gear archive.
So that leaves One DJ 1.7. Coming with VST effects, it’ll have a renewed focus from the owners, who won’t be trying to swim upstream against the strong controller flow from NI and Serato, and will instead be able to throw their whole resource into making a solid alternative for those who wish to dabble and tinker to make the perfect DJ and performer workflow.
Sad times. The cartelling of the industry is certainly not good for long term innovation and vibrancy.
I just made up a word.
I’ll be cartelling my wife later tonight….
what a damned shame. To think that the wide world of innovation has been derailed and shrunk down to a handful of rubberstamp ‘jog wheel’ dj controllers. Too bad.
One DJ v1.7 is finally out (Dec 20th 2014).