Teenage Engineering DJ Console Concept Brings OP-1 Style Aesthetics to the DJ World – Yanko Design

Over the past decade, Teenage Engineering has become an inseparable part of the music community. Since their OP-1 synthesizer debuted in the music video for Swedish House Mafia’s “One,” the company has enjoyed a meteoric rise, releasing Pocket Operators, record/playback equipment, kids’ turntables, and even venturing into phones for Nothing and the R1 AI device for Rabbit. Their position in the new-age music industry, however, remains solidified for years to come. But if there’s one piece of equipment missing from their music-making tech repertoire, it’s a great DJ console. While most people love to make music, you also need to play your music to connect with your listeners. DJ consoles help artists do just that. Designed to fill that gap, Chris Matthews designed the OP-J, a Teenage Engineering-inspired console for DJs looking to play and remix tracks.

Designer: Chris Matthews

DJ consoles don’t really need to be portable, but the OP-J’s sleekness is an understated beauty. It’s about as thick as its synthesizer counterpart, with the same design language. You get two rotating discs, buttons, keys, knobs, cross-faders, a speaker, and two displays that guide you through playback as well as effects settings.

True to the company's focus on music creation, the OP-J lets you do more than just play and merge tracks. Sure, it's a pretty capable DJ console, with everything a DJ would need to get on stage and play bass… but you get an extra 8 buttons and 8 knobs to record/trigger loops, play melodies, or activate some intros/outros to spice up your songs. While it's not featured here, I wouldn't be surprised if you could plug the OP-1 into the setup and take your performances to even higher levels.

Colour-coded knobs let you control effects and envelopes, while a dedicated effects display lets you monitor what you’re doing. It’s unusual for a DJ console to come with its own speaker, but just in case you want to practice in the privacy of your home or hotel room, the OP-J lets you rock out without the need for a separate speaker system. Yes, the audio jacks on the bottom let you plug in external speakers if you can, or headphones so you can preview tracks before listening to them.

The OP-J is just a fan-made concept for now, but if anyone from Teenage Engineering is reading this, we could all use an OP-style DJ console! Also, let's take a moment to appreciate the Darth Vader-esque black and red version below?!