Vestax VCI-100 first impressions and some MIDI technical

halcyon days · Post by **halcyon days** » Wed May 09, 2007 2:51 am

Hey there, thought you guys might be interested. I've written up a first impressions of my Vestax VCI-100 with some technical information on how the jog-wheels work if you're curious. You can scope it out on my blog @ http://www.remix.net/weblog/?p=107

corporation · Post by **corporation** » Wed May 09, 2007 4:23 am

nice review!

the issue with the jog wheels is the only thing i regret about my purchase.

but i knew that going in, since i've had the same issue with my dm2midi setup over the past few years... definatly seems like a traktor issue...

other than that, the vci-100 is great for traktor.

for live i just use my monome.

again - great review.

darclex · Post by **darclex** » Thu May 10, 2007 12:51 am

hey corp-

what's wrong with the jog wheels?

halcyon days · Post by **halcyon days** » Thu May 10, 2007 1:45 am

darclex wrote:hey corp-

what's wrong with the jog wheels?

It's covered in my review. Long story short, the jog-wheel when touched sends C2 note-down, and rotational CC16 values 0-65 for reverse, 65-128 for forward.. When you lift your hand from the jog-wheel it doesn't stop the C2 note-on signal until the wheel stops spinning which means that if you're scratching a sample that is in motion (like a record spinning) when you complete a scratch it stops the playback completely before going back to it's correct play speed.

User paddydj from the Native Instruments (http://www.paddydj.com) has a novel solution for this by binding the 'Scratch Mode Off' action to the 'Vinyl' button on the VCI as a workaround, that way you can throw the record to get it back into sync and release Scratch Mode with the jog-wheel still in motion (and hopefully in sync with the other track.)

His TKS file is available here: http://www.paddydj.com/vci-100_Scratch_Settings.tks

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu May 10, 2007 2:08 am

Read the article, good writing.

In a nutshell, as a Live user, why might I want this?

I'm still unpatiently waiting for a way to scratch samples as a VST in Live, I've tried some of the current options (turntablist pro), they're cute but nowhere near the feel and simplicity of grabbing vinyl and a crossfader.

halcyon days · Post by **halcyon days** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:10 pm

Tone Deft wrote:Read the article, good writing.

In a nutshell, as a Live user, why might I want this?

I'm still unpatiently waiting for a way to scratch samples as a VST in Live, I've tried some of the current options (turntablist pro), they're cute but nowhere near the feel and simplicity of grabbing vinyl and a crossfader.

It really depends on what you want. I think with Paddy's technique VCI scratching solved my main beef with scratching with it.. Now that it's out there and its MIDI events for the jog-wheel are pretty easy to work with we should see some VST scratching utilities in the next couple weeks.

I've already got a sample scratcher built in Reaktor working with the VCI-100 which I think sounds great, this weekend my goal is to build one in SynthMaker so I can make a stand-alone VST for the job. I would expect the scene to get a mini-flood of VST scratching solutions in the coming months as the VCI-100, Kontrol DJ, and other jog-dials become more prevelent. I'd wait a couple weeks to buy tho.

If you're a vinyl purist and you don't like the small jog dials on the VCI, you won't be happy but the way I'm seeing it is that the VCI fits another niche and ultimately will result in the creation of scratches and techniques that would otherwise be impossible with vinyl due to physical constraints.

Tone Deft · Post by **Tone Deft** » Thu May 10, 2007 9:19 pm

So in building scratch modules in Reaktor and whatnot there are DSP modules out there that have the scratching algorithm built in?

Basically I like to take vinyl of sounds, people talking, whatever and scratch the crap out of it. I learned to beat juggle, then I got Live 3, I don't think I really need my 2nd turntable anymore.

I'd love something where I could make a beat or record my voice in Live, grab a piece of hardware and scratch the f-ck out of the sample while resampling the output. It doesn't have to be great but hokey sounding scratches are sad.

thanks for the info!!

halcyon days · Post by **halcyon days** » Thu May 10, 2007 10:22 pm

Tone Deft wrote:So in building scratch modules in Reaktor and whatnot there are DSP modules out there that have the scratching algorithm built in?

Reaktor handles scratching (and has quite nicely) for many years now.. There just haven't been many elegant MIDI interfaces for exploiting it. Until now

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Fri May 11, 2007 12:01 am

Which are the scratch-tastic ensembles? Was already considering the vci-100 to use with Traktor as I still have issues with Live's sound for djing.

halcyon days · Post by **halcyon days** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:30 am

muthafunka wrote:Which are the scratch-tastic ensembles? Was already considering the vci-100 to use with Traktor as I still have issues with Live's sound for djing.

Well, like I said, Reaktor has been _capable_ of scratching for many years, as evidenced by this ensemble from 2001.

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... atchid=556

But, you can't just plug in the VCI-100 and start scratching with it.. I've gotten scratching to work but haven't gotten it refined enough to release a 'VCI-100' controller ensemble yet.

halcyon days · Post by **halcyon days** » Fri May 11, 2007 6:28 am

halcyon days wrote: But, you can't just plug in the VCI-100 and start scratching with it.. I've gotten scratching to work but haven't gotten it refined enough to release a 'VCI-100' controller ensemble yet.

I take that back.. While you can't just plug in the VCI-100 and go, the amount of work required to get scratching with this is pretty minimal. It covers a lot of the problems that I had tried solving in my ensemble and does it much more gracefully.

Vestax VCI-100 first impressions and some MIDI technical

Vestax VCI-100 first impressions and some MIDI technical

what's wrong with the jog wheels?

Re: what's wrong with the jog wheels?