Open Format was an idea my partner and I came up with back in 2015 when modding portable turntables didn’t quite exist yet. We started the company out of my parents garage in Carson, C.A. We thought of the name to represent an Open Format movement of DJ’s, Artist, Producers and Creatives in the music industry. At first we primarily focused on showcasing content catered to the Portable Turntable community then later branched off to other sectors of the music industry. We approached the scene similar to the “skater culture” perspective, putting the viewers in the front seat, showing what really goes on behind the scenes and getting them involved with modifying their own unique custom turntable.
The overall goal was to push this new portable turntable movement scene forward and have both new and old artists be able to be created anywhere they desire. It was always a goal for us to have more people build out the ultimate portable studio where everything is battery powered and there’s no need to be stuck and cramped up in a home studio nowadays. Why not create music on a beach? Or with a scenic mountain view, or up high in a hot air balloon? We wanted to keep the format wide open for artists to be as creative as possible.
My partner and I both come from a DJ background and grew up in the 90’s era of DJing “The Golden Age” of Hip Hop and Turntablism. So digging for vinyl was definitely our first love when it came to DJing. So having a portable turntable to listen to records at a record store or record swap meet was important to us.
But fast forwarding to the past 6 years, it all started with the creation of the portable external crossfader by these 2 companies “Raiden Fader” based in Los Angeles, C.A. and “Frisk Fader” out in Japan. The Frisk Fader was the first fader we knew about, and it was primarily created as a key chain accessory to carry with you to practice fader movements. But it was a lot harder to access here in the U.S. so we were introduced to Raiden fader which gave us our first sponsorship as beta tester for the fader. After one revision of the fader it opened up a flood gate of ideas for the portable scene, primarily the Numark PT-01 series turntables.
Our first modification was born from problems in the portable turntable scene. Our first issue was in regards to 7” scratch records. There just weren't any 7” scratch records available or made at the time. One of the first 7” records was made by DJ Focus a while back but was really hard to find. The 7” scratch market just wasn’t solidified yet. DJ Qbert then released a 7” Scratchy Seal skipless scratch record that sold out within the first 10 mins he released it. So immediately I thought of a solution so I could scratch any type of record on any portable turntable. So then the 7” Serato record was born.
I went ahead and filmed the process of how I made the 7” Serato record out of a 12” Serato record using an oven, scissors and 2 sheets of glass using my mom's oven. It was one of the first do it yourself videos we filmed and put out into social media. Even Serato was baffled on how I was able to connect everything to get each piece to work. We compiled this entire process in a 10 second video because Instagram only allowed 10 second videos to be uploaded at the time. And the video went viral enough to attract our first partnership with GoPro which later turned into a legitimate GoPro video that was viewed all over the world. We later had a ton of requests for 7” Serato records and answering each dm was too much. I put in the work and hand made each record for a ton of people all around the world. So Open Format was born and the 7” Serato record was one of the first products sold on the site.
Definitely the Jesse Dean Designs Internal Fader is the most sold modification for the PT-01 Scratch. It’s pretty much mandatory for every PT-01 Scratch if you’re looking for that fader like movement and precise cut in similar to high performance battle style mixers that have been released in the past. But an actual modification that we sold a ton of is the rechargeable internal battery mod for the PT-01 Scratch. Normal D batteries just don’t last that long and they add way too much weight to the PT-01 Scratch. The internal battery mod could last weeks on one charge and could be recharged anytime. It also cuts down the weight of the turntable making it one of the lightest modified turntables in the market.
It’s truly been a blessing and I could always look back at it as one of our best accomplishments. It’s opened up so many doors and opportunities for us. I never thought I would meet all my favorite DJs and producers in person, let alone get to modify and make modified turntables for all these high profile artists. The networking and the help of the entire DJ community all around the world played the biggest role for us. Some of our best friends, partnerships and co-labs have all happened through the portable/turntablist community worldwide. Huge shout-out to The Beatjunkies Family, Battle Ave, Skratcher, Jesse Dean Designs, Bihari Designs and Turntable Training Wax for opening up this network of opportunity and creating a place for all DJ’s and Artist to share ideas and motivate each other on this underground global network.
Definitely the “Built-in Serato Mod” for the PT-01 Scratch is definitely my favorite Modification. The goal was to not have so many external pieces connected to the PT-01 Scratch and just have the ultimate “All-in-One” digital portable turntable. It took me a little over 8 hours straight to modify one of the first Built-in Serato Modded PT-01 Scratches. I was definitely obsessed with the mod scene. With the help of Jesse Dean Designs we were able to cut down the install time and design the first actual built-in Serato modded pcb board for the PT-01 Scratch. There’s only a few of them floating around. There’s a few celebrity artists that actually have these rare Serato Modded PT-01 Scratches.
What attracted us to modify the Numark PT-01 series turntable was a problem we found with the Turntable. The first issue we found was that there was no start/stop button. We always had to move the tone arm back to the tone arm holder in order to stop the platter from spinning. So we came up with our first solution and created the first Start/Stop Arcade Button style modification for the Numark PT-01 Scratch. So I bought my first drill press and drill bit and started drilling holes in everyone's portable turntable adding start/stop button mods for everyone. We made the turntable look like it was a classic gaming controller like the old school street fighter arcade cabinets with the joystick.
The portable scene is definitely growing especially with the help of The Beatjunkie Institute of Sound in L.A. They constantly get both new and old DJs coming in for lessons and they’re all heavily involved with the portable scene and it’s benefits for scratching on the fly or just simply to listen to records. The best spot for a session is definitely “The Beatjunkie Institute of Sound” or at the Open Format Shop here in L.A.
Like I mentioned above, it was always our goal to see more kids or current artists create music outside of their typical comfort zone. We’re now seeing more Producers, DJ’s and artists filming themselves during their performance posting unique content on social media adding that visual aspect to the music. We see the future of the portable scene moving towards the “all in one” battery powered studio. With features of being battery powered, modular, pocket-sized and packs a punch, joined together to communicate and create a type a type of feeling and sound that not a lot of people see or hear nowadays. “Explore your Sound” is the model we live by.
Open Format has now grown into an all in one Pro Audio company. So we now offer products from Akai, Denon DJ, Numark, Rane and the list continues to grow. We’re still striving to accomplish offering products to not only the DJ community but also producers, artists and creatives. We still strive to offer battery powered setups but we also support the stay at home or professional studio producers with solutions to their unique studio setups. We’re always finding ways to mod and improve gear by all the different brands from keyboards to drum machines to turntables. We’re constantly innovating and will continue to move this scene forward and show the world what really goes down behind the scene. We got a ton of tutorials and do-it-yourself videos we plan to show everyone in the community. So stay tuned!
