Vestax VCI-300 digital DJ bundle

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Vestax VCI-300

The Vestax VCI-300 is a hardware and software bundle that transforms your laptop into a professional, portable DJ rig. With a list price of $1,300 (around $900 street), the Vestax VCI-300 isn't cheap, but its uniquely integrated system offers stability and control that's hard to find.

Hardware
The most striking part of the Vestax VCI-300 bundle is the hardware interface, which roughly mimics a traditional mixer and turntable setup on a smaller scale. The control interface uses a solid metal chassis covered in an attractive, glossy, black plastic, and measures 1.5 inch tall, 16 inches wide, and 11 inches deep. All the faders and knobs are as full-sized and professional-feeling as any analog mixer we've tested, with spacing and positioning that most DJs will find familiar. The Vestax VCI-300's buttons are backlit and are formed from a hard plastic that feels durable, but isn't as inviting to wail on as the rubber buttons found on the Numark iDJ2.

Easily the coolest feature on the Vestax VCI-300 is the pair of 5-inch illuminated jog wheels. The jog wheels are made from clear acrylic, sandwiched under a textured-metal plate and bolted to the chassis with three stabilizing screws. Unlike the Numark NS7 or Stanton SCS-1D, the Vestax VCI-300's jog wheels aren't motorized, which takes some of the gee-whiz factor away, but also means there are fewer parts to wear out. The Vestax VCI-300's jog wheels are touch-sensitive, however, so placing your hand on the wheel while a track is playing in scratch mode will stop music playback as if you were placing your hand on a spinning record. Likewise, releasing your hand from the wheel resumes playback where it left off, and moving the platter back and forth produces a sound that is indistinguishable from the sound of reversing and cuing vinyl.

Vestax built in jog-wheel tension-adjustment knobs on the sides of the VCI-300, which let you dial in the perfect amount of resistance for your DJ style.

The back of the Vestax VCI-300 includes a USB socket, a jack for an optional power adapter (the controller is intended to run off USB power), and adjustment knobs for the jog-wheel touch sensor. More importantly, the back of the Vestax VCI-300 offers a pair of stereo master-audio outputs (RCA and 1/4 inch) and a single AUX input (RCA) with a gain knob and an emergency thru switch (sic) that allows you to switch over to a backup audio source in case your computer crashes.

On the front of the Vestax VCI-300, you'll find a few more audio connections, including a 1/4-inch headphone output on the right, and a 1/4-inch microphone input on the left. We're perplexed as to why Vestax would place the microphone-gain knob conveniently next to the mic input, but not place the headphone controls near the headphone output (headphone volume is located near the top of the unit, instead). Still, it should be fine if you're the type who typically sets-and-forgets your cue mix.

Software
The Serato Itch software that comes bundled with the Vestax VCI-300 is a competent, yet slightly stripped-down version of the popular Serato Scratch Live. As far as music organization goes, Itch makes it easy to collect all the music files from your computer or external hard drive (MP3, WAV, AAC, and Ogg Vorbis are supported, however, iTunes-protected AAC files are not), sort them using editable ID3 tags, search for songs by name, and file them into virtual crates. Song tempos can be detected automatically by the software, entered directly, or tapped-in manually. One little feature that caught our eye is that after a song is over, Itch color codes the title to prevent you from repeating it later and boring people to tears.

Compared with a program like Native Instruments' Traktor or PCDJ DEX, Serato Itch is extremely light on effects and advanced EQ settings. If you want to add filters, delays, or flanger effects to your mix, you'll need to do it with outboard gear. Itch does offer a three-band EQ (0-6 dB), a reverse/censor effect, and three independent cue-point loops per channel.

Our favorite feature of the Serato Itch is the audio waveform view, which is colorized to distinguish high-frequency sounds (snare drums) from low-frequency sounds (bass drums), making it easier to visually align two beats to fall in sync. If more drastic measures are needed to beat-match a song transition, Serato's pitch-shift keys, auto-tempo controls, and key lock should come in handy.

For better or worse, the Serato Itch software uses the VCI-300 hardware as a glorified copy-protection dongle, leaving the software crippled without the controller being attached to your computer. The upshot of this system is that there are no passwords to manage, and you can install the software on as many computers as you like without the hassle of online registration. The downside, of course, is that the software can't be used with any random MIDI controller, and you can't practice your mixes without having the VCI-300 hardware attached to your computer.

Weighing around 11 pounds, the VCI-300 is sturdy enough to withstand the abuse of a working DJ, and about 100 times lighter than your old record crates.

Performance
Most laptop DJ rigs are a kludge of audio cards, MIDI controllers, and DJ software that you can only pray will cooperate. With so many components depending on each other, and a general lack of communication between manufacturers, a random software or firmware update may be enough to bring a digital DJ rig to its knees. The appeal of the Vestax VCI-300 is that the hardware and software comprise a relatively closed system that has been engineered to work seamlessly together--providing exceptional stability at the expense of third-party interoperability. For many DJ's, the promise of dependability and plug-and-play simplicity are more important than keeping up with the latest components and software plug-ins.

Another advantage of the closed system between Vestax and Serato is that the hardware and software aren't required to communicate strictly using an open standard, such as MIDI. For instance, the VCI-300's jog wheels and faders communicate with Serato Itch using a protocol that enables thousands of small increments, instead of the maximum 127 control messages allowed by MIDI. This higher resolution results in more nuanced control and improved jog-wheel tracking, which leads us to the question everybody asked us during testing, "Can you really scratch with this thing?"

Yes, the VCI-300 is one of the first USB-connected DJ controllers we've used that may satisfy music's most fickle faction: scratch DJs. Hardware features, such as platter torque adjustment, light-friction faders, low-latency controls, accurate platter turns, and a crossfader slope adjustment, show Vestax's pedigree in catering to the scratch DJ market, while Serato throws in brake-speed adjustment, instant doubles, and crossfade slope reverse to seal the deal. It might not be enough to make a veteran battle DJ trade in her record crates, but it should sway some of the scratch-happy DJs who've already made the leap to CD decks.

We couldn't find fault with the sound quality from the VCI-300, although the lack of balanced outputs may be a deal-breaker for some DJs. The EQ errs on the side of subtlety, trim controls offer plenty of headroom, and an autogain setting within the Itch software takes some of the headache out of level-matching between songs.

We think the VCI-300 is a great system for DJs who want a minimum of technology (and its inherent headaches) getting between them and their music. It's priced a little on the high side, but the increased reliability and high-resolution controls will be worth every penny for demanding DJs.

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