Drift DJ Industries Zero: Cool DJ Device + CV/Clock
Portable device lets you DJ anywhere and even sync to your Eurorack system.
4,4 / 5,0 | 
Expand your hybrid DJ system with Drift DJ Industries Zero, a portable (and cute!) new device from Chicago, the home of house music.
Drift DJ Industries Zero
Chicago has given us many things. There’s house music (of course). The Bear (season 3 what!). Even the Blues Brothers. And now Drift DJ Industries, a new company making a unique and portable DJ device called Zero that has me pretty excited.
Drift DJ Industries Zero: Chi-Town Represent
I made it a point to mention Chicago as Drift DJ Industries Zero does as well. On its website, it highlights not only that the company is Chicago-based (founder Jared Wheeler moved there because of his love for house music) but also that it uses local, Chi-Town-based manufacturing plants. As an American and house music fan myself, I think this is really cool.
Drift DJ Industries Zero: Portable DJ Device
I also think Zero looks really cool. The company announced it just recently after working on it for more than 10 years, and it’s a real labor of love – with more than just DJ capabilities.
At its heart, it’s a two-channel portable DJ device powered by a rechargeable battery. Using the single jog wheel, you can mix two tracks of audio. It features tempo-stretched playback so the pitch doesn’t change when altering speed. There’s also a beat grid for synced playback – you can of course disable this if you like.
Zero also sports effects (delay, reverb and flange) with a three-band EQ on each channel. There’s also a looper for improvising live remixes and crafting buildups and breakdowns. Drift can also capture audio internally. Used to make mixtapes? Now you can again.
Drift DJ Industries Zero: The Library
Rather than use any old existing DJ software, Zero features a proprietary library. With the playlist system, you can import songs from your computer and then organize them in the device, with editable track metadata as well as cue points. You can also group songs by tag clusters, custom string-matched genre names, BPM ranges and more.
Drift DJ Industries Zero: Connectivity and Recording
More than just a DJ device, Zero features some unusual connectivity. The configurable inputs and outputs let you route audio, CV, and clock signals. This means you can clock Zero with a modular system or connect a MIDI/DIN sync adapter to drive an older instrument like a TB-303. This brings the device into the realm of live performance. I can already imagine using it as part of a hybrid DJ setup or to trigger backing tracks in a computerless live set.
Drift DJ Industries Zero: Price and Availability
Drift DJ Industries has yet to announce availability or price. We’ll update this story when they do.
More Information
- Drift DJ Industries Zero product page
- All about DJing
- All about modular
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