ABOUT

Ean Golden

Ean is a DJ of 15 years and creator of DjTechTools.com who lives and works out of San Francisco, California. He travels around the world playing shows, creating ground breaking dj technology, and writing about the dj industry. Ean is widely considered one of the pioneers of digital djing and a founder of the up and coming controllerism movement.

From 2005- 2008 Ean wrote the influential “digital dj” column in Remix Magazine. He now runs the leading dj technology blog, Dj TechTools, which is the largest website in the world of digital djing.  Dj TechTool’s videos and articles get upwards of 3 million views per month. A himself since 1996, Ean switched from turntables to midi controllers in 2003 and never looked back, forging the path which many top artists are now taking today. In addition to heading up a growing company that is defining the future of his field, Ean was responsible for designing the following ground breaking dj controllers:

  • The Novation Dicer:
    The first controller that mounts to a turntable, it is now standard for many djs today.
  • The Traktor S4:
    The top selling dj controller in the last year
  • The Midi-Fighter:
    A high performance midi controller with arcade buttons that is now an industry icon.
  • The Vestax VCI-100 Ean Golden edition
    The first run sold out in 2 days around late 2008

As a club dj, Mr. Golden has held many prestigious residencies at every major club in San Francisco through the House period of 1999-2002 and then the mashup period of 2003- 2006. Not just a local success, his sound has traveled around the world with numerous tours through Asia, Europe and South America.


Today Ean continues to develop his live performances and plays live a few times per month.  Using a palette of custom controllers: various bass heavy genres are effortlessly blended together into a show that merges art and technology in a meaningful way. Part rock show, part controllerism performance and part dj journey, Ean really puts everything on line at every performance taking it far beyond a traditional dj.

Here is brief history of some the key developments in his remarkable career:

  • 1996-1998 Starts djing in Salt Lake City, Utah at Bricks and gets noticed by the local program director, Sean Phillips, who begins to air Ean’s mixes on his popular dance radio show.
  • 1999 Makes a move to San Francisco to pursue djing full time.
  • 2000 Ean is a success in the exploding deep house scene and secures 2 giant residencies with Release and 2nd Sunday.
  • 2001 Formed “LYVE”,  pioneering the integration of live music, djs and visuals in a club environment.
  • 2003 Abandoned turntables for a midi controller, and started developing controllerism.
  • 2004 Started a group called CRFTP, which kicked off mash-ups on the west coast and created many well-known classics including “Sweet Home Country Gramha” (featured in TIME magazine).
  • 2004 Worked with Apple computers on the first fully integrated digital dj-3D visual combinations which was demostrated at WWDC 2005 during a major keynote presentation before 5 thousand worldwide software developers. 2005 O’Reillys publishing asked Ean to write the world’s first comprehensive book on digital dj technology.
  • 2005 Starts writing the “Digital Dj” in Remix Magazine.
  • 2006 Begins working directly with Native Instruments on software design and  writes the official Traktor 3 DVD tutorial.
  • 2007 Created Dj TechTools.com to begin educating the emerging digital dj market. The website takes off and quickly becomes the leading voice in the new movement.
  • 2008 With digital djing exploding and controllerism gaining popularity, Vestax creates a limited edition “Ean Golden” VCI-100 controller that sells out in 2 days.
  • 2009 Dj TechTools develops the “Midi-Fighter”, a high performance controller designed specifically for controllerism.
  • 2010 Novation releases “the dicer”, a breakthrough concept designed by ean that combines turntables and controllerism.
  • 2010 Native Instruments releases the Kontrol S4, an all in one dj controller designed from the ground up by Ean Golden as a replacement for the CDJ paradigm.
  • Today Ean continues to design new products and re-define what is possible on stage. He carefully selects and plays a few shows a month, but focuses most of his time on building and developing the worlds largest dj community.

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