KDJ-ONE Portable Music Studio Update

Developers of the KDJ-ONE portable music workstation have announced that it is now being made available to project backers for US $395.

Features:

  • 64 voice polyphony
  • 15 MB waveform memory
  • 240 waveforms
  • 7 filter types
  • 200 synth presets, 100 drum kits
  • 20 effects
  • 6 track sequencer
  • 16 velocity-sensitive keys
  • 512 MB memory
  • 4 GB SSD memory
  • 10 hour battery life

The KDJ-One is available via both Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

39 thoughts on “KDJ-ONE Portable Music Studio Update”

  2. This thing looks righteously AWFUL. The endorsement doesn’t make any sense, and Sid himself seems barely able to justify the product.

    No hate – the more tools out there the better – but seriously, I cringe at the thought of the losses this company is going to have to weather…

    1. “I cringe at the thought of the losses this company is going to have to weather…”

      Don’t cringe too hard – they’re crowdfunding production, so your statement doesn’t really make any sense!

  3. It looks ok, I’d try it if someone loaned me one. But I hate that the initials “DJ” get into hardware and software that has nothing to do with mixing records ( in any format )

    A Dj is a disc jockey, not a person who tinkers with loops.

    If you do both, then you might be called a performer. But a DJ is just a DJ, not a performer. Anyone can mix with bpm sync and good trax now.

    The price of this is too much, but it will be snapped up by the Japanese for sure. They like these pocket plastic gadgets.

    These days you can get all sorts of apps on an iPad mini and be far more functional and less skint:)

  5. For that price? I may just bite. Love portable synths but I need some depth on what this thing can actually do and sound like!! Until then I will invest in the electribes

    2. This is sort of ugly and awesome at the same time. It looks sort of like a Gameboy on steroids.

      I think there’s a place for this, especially among people that are anti-apple or that just prefer dedicated hardware solutions.

      To me, though, the iPad + Korg Gadget is a pretty killer alternative to this.

  7. Interesting that they compare it against the OP-1 on their kickstarter page. Good on them, seeing as their device is going for half the price.

    1. they’re not doing a very good job then. trying to compare this to the op-1 is like trying to compare a burger to a 3-course meal. what this thing basically is is fl mobile in a box.

    1. The socks? Ehh, he’s trying to look like a gang banger… it’s a West Coast thing. As with saggy pants, I just don’t get it. You’d think, as a ‘banger, you’d want to look “tough”, not like you threw on your obese cousin’s jeans by accident.

  11. KDJ? I hope that the fantastic artist Kenny Dixon Jnr finds out about this and goes after them to change the name. The product and the sound demos aren’t my cuppa…but different strokes for different folks. I love small, well-designed boxes and have several in my studio-I don’t think that the ‘celebrity endorsement,’ the name-drop of DJ Paul Anthony, or any of the demo tunes will hold my interest. But, for the kid that must have EVERYTHING…this will be the ‘NEXT BIG THING’…or the next ‘beat thang.’

  13. Guys, what we’ve just witnessed is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in the rambling, incoherent response was he even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this blog is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on the souls of the people who made this product.

  16. The gift that just keeps on giving! Another naff video. Just superb. Comedy gold!
    They should just keep releasing more videos as a comedy spoof & forget any actual product.
    More videos please KDJ One people.

  17. Hold on people!

    remember marc newson? google the pentax he distroyed with his design..

    and who is his new boyfriend ?

    i think there is a sleeper in kdjones design crew that wants to make sure that the iPad stays no1 in mobile music…

    this might be serious

  19. It’s hard to take it seriously with how he presents the product. Imagine someone else doing a demo for this though, like someone you actually like, it doesn’t really seem that bad then. It’s just so late to push this out with the tablet market now. I can do everything this can do and more on my 1st gen ipad mini with BM2. Another thing I would worry about is the support for the software months/years after it’s release. Just seems like a product that will get left in the dust and forgotten about by the company quickly to move on to more lucrative opportunities. Maybe these will end up wicked cheap on ebay in 2-3 years, in which case, I would be pretty tempted to pick one up just to tinker with occasionally.

  21. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting where they chose this, um, person to represent the thing.

    I’d like to think he was number 17,492 on the list of potential “celebrity” spokespeople and that numbers 1–17,491 said “no way,” but maybe that’s giving too much credit to the folks who named their company CyberStep.

  23. I think maybe they were trying to employ Nintendo’s successful design philosophy of
    “Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology”

  24. Katsunori Ujiie was mightily impressed with it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5uTawE7SIs) I suppose his opinion doesn’t count for much around here? For years Yamaha had a whole range of these things. Roland had the PMA-5 which is pretty yippy-skippy and I find fun to use. If modern technology allows the pocket studio finally to be made in a truly usable form, what’s wrong with it?

    1. I’m a fan of Katsunori but even after watching that video, I still don’t see why anyone would buy this. For the same price you can pick up an ipad mini and cubasis with the same amount of portability AND way more options for expansion without any of the limitations. I understand that these type of niche products appeal to a certain demographic but buying this thing today would be like paying $400 for an old motorola flip phone.

    2. “Katsunori Ujiie was mightily impressed with it. I suppose his opinion doesn’t count for much around here?”

      Not anymore it doesn’t.

      “For years Yamaha had a whole range of these things. Roland had the PMA-5”

      LOL, that was 20 years ago.

      1. Yes, and if you read all of what I write instead of jumping on one part and spouting your uninformed opinion, you would understand I am indicating that modern improvements now make this kind of device possibly preferable over the breakable and lag-prone piece of glass that is the iPad (which I dislike immensely if only because it is difficult to hold.) Perhaps you weren’t even born twenty years ago, which might explain the attitude of a wet-behind-the-ears kid and the “LOL” response so endemic of the new age text-everything illiterati.

        1. Crotchety old-timer heaps praise on purpose-built, non-upgradeable mutant GameBoy portastudio because of some weird personal hangup with the iPad and/or Apple, more news at 11.

      2. From what I could understand at the end of his recent video our man Katsunori states that he actually had a hand in the design of some of the patches and patterns in the KDJ One. I find it a bit less annoying after finding this out…

  25. Yeah lets email the track from this little thing “beep beep bloop” and have my dj friend play it in front of 30 thousand people 30 minutes later. I am really not feeling the sales pitch.

  26. The next time people are taking startups, and someone says ‘what is the worst thing that could happen’, I can just show them this.

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