Vestax VCI 100

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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softserv
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:27 am

Vestax VCI 100

Post by softserv » Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:21 am

Does anyone use this as a midi controller for Live rather than with Tracktor Scratch or similar? I want quasi turntable function without Scratch and I like the jog wheels.

Thanks!
softserv

Nathan Ramella
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:48 am

Re: Vestax VCI 100

Post by Nathan Ramella » Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:10 am

softserv wrote:Does anyone use this as a midi controller for Live rather than with Tracktor Scratch or similar? I want quasi turntable function without Scratch and I like the jog wheels.

Thanks!
softserv
Avoid the Vestax VCI-100 at all costs.

It's got a nice crossfader but it's a pile of garbage. After being a Vestax fanboy for ages (4 mixers, 2 turntables) I got one with high hopes only to find out that Vestax doesn't know anything about digital hardware manufacturing and support.

I'm sending mine in in the next week to finally get it's firmware upgraded after a year of it not working right..

No thank you!
remix.net - versus / liveapi / hangthedj / ammobox

softserv
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:27 am

Post by softserv » Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:49 pm

goood 2 know, thank you!

Any bright ideas about how I can get turntable-like functionality with ableton live?

thanks,
s

Nathan Ramella
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2007 10:48 am

Post by Nathan Ramella » Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:53 pm

softserv wrote:goood 2 know, thank you!

Any bright ideas about how I can get turntable-like functionality with ableton live?

thanks,
s
You're kidding right?

-n
remix.net - versus / liveapi / hangthedj / ammobox

softserv
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2007 12:27 am

Post by softserv » Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:14 pm

No, dude, I'm not kidding. Why can't peeps just answer questions on this forum? I want to have a least a good set of jog wheels, which I realize will not give me scratch action, but I want to be able to manipulate songs and effects in that way. Any suggestions?

thelike5
Posts: 2047
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2002 10:12 pm

Post by thelike5 » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:03 pm

softserv wrote:No, dude, I'm not kidding. Why can't peeps just answer questions on this forum? I want to have a least a good set of jog wheels, which I realize will not give me scratch action, but I want to be able to manipulate songs and effects in that way. Any suggestions?
By turntable functionality, do you mean scratching or simply mixing? I believe the initial trouble was the scratching delay people experienced. Mixing should be fine.


As far as I know, the VCI-100 now ships with the upgraded firmware that Nathan is getting. A properly functioning new firmware enabled VCI-100 with Traktor should get the job done. Just last week, I heard someone destroy a club using the VCI-100 exclusively (I think with Traktor). I was hammered and didn't ask if he had the new firmware enabled.

The VCi-100 will get the job done well. I heard it with my own ears.

Otherwise, I've heard good things about Serato Scratch and semi-good things about using Torq.

hacktheplanet
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Location: Chicago, IL
Contact:

Post by hacktheplanet » Sat Apr 19, 2008 5:23 pm

You might check out the MS Pinky pluggo:
http://mspinky.com/WreckedSystem_Pluggo.html
Image

h_double
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Location: Wash DC area
Contact:

Post by h_double » Fri Apr 25, 2008 6:03 pm

I just got a VCI-100 a couple of weeks ago and so far I love the thing. I haven't gotten it set up in Live yet, but have been tooling around with it in Traktor and am very happy with the quality and performance of the hardware. The jog wheels feel better than I expected and the faders are really nice. All the units shipping now should have the new firmware and I haven't had any problems with delay on the jog wheels (scratching or otherwise).


EDIT: unfortunately, at least after brief experimentation, I'm unable to get the VCI-100 to work at all with Live; the MIDI learn won't respond to any of the VCI-100 controls, nor does Live's MIDI activity light show anything going on. The Vestax website says "LIVE 6: Testing. Firmware and control assignment files are being made." but who knows when that will happen.

Anyway if anybody has gotten this thing to work from within Live, I'd love to know how.

evanb
Posts: 231
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 1:52 pm

Post by evanb » Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:35 pm

what about the new vci-300 coming out looks promising with its only hardware dedicted version of serato itch

Hardtoe
Posts: 182
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 3:50 am

Post by Hardtoe » Fri Apr 25, 2008 8:17 pm

Works fine for me - I like it a lot and I have had several (korg microkontrol, etc) midi controllers - I have found it hard to find use for the jogs as they send a rather "loose" signal for controlling things like a filter, but they are cool for triggering samples. I do really like the feel of things and I like the dj mixer paradigm as I have an easier time remembering what does what. I agree that tech support sucks though - I have emailed them about getting the firmware update and have NEVER heard back.....

Nathan - how did you get some action???

Cheers

Orion
Can you hear it?

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