might anyone have experience with some unkosher behavior of their VCI’s crossfader? frequently when i push the crossfader all the way to the right, in traktor, the crossfader jumps to the mid-point and if that weren’t bad enough, it often then jumps about the VCI’s data send LED blipping for a while (leading me to believe it is a hardware issue not software) - all the while not touching it.
i will try and post a video of the odd behavior tomorrow but wanted to hear if anyone had any thoughts. it only occurs on the right side…
2 simultaneous streams of video, on the left is traktor and the right an overhead view of the VCI-100. under Traktor is a blown up and cropped version of the data send LED that is interesting to keep an eye on.
in watching the quick video, one will be able to see pretty quickly that when the crossfader is moved to the right all the way, it frequently pops back to the center. after moving the fader, data often continues to be sent even without any further manipulation, causing the crossfader to dance around in traktor. perhaps my unit’s crossfader is just bad?
Wow- thats very strange. You should certainly send it right back. Let us know if you have any problems and Dj TT will help with vestax. i have never seen that.
cheers for the response, i was afraid the crossfader was wacked - i’ll give vestax and djdeals (whom i purchased it from) a holler and link them off to my movie to see what they say. hopefully this sucker has a proper 1 year warranty, though even that is getting close. i’ll post any interesting developments.
I had a really similar problem back when I was using a BCD-2000. It just felt like the hardware was getting ‘overloaded’ or something, and it would read your movements, but very delayed, so the fader would keep moving after you moved it around.
I figure it’s a driver issue, at least in that case, who knows if this is the same.
What have you tried so far to resolve the issue, and when did it start happening?
I would agree with miyuru it can be a driver issue. I would definitely make sure its not hardware and just follow your common sense when your figuring if its a software issue, I will start with small ideas and move to big ideas.
This problem appeared when I didn’t set the soundcard in and outs right, perhaps you try the deckadance demo and see if you’ve got the same problem there, if not, you should change your settings in Traktor.
that is very odd. the first vci i got had a loose usb connector. meaning that when i took the usb cable from the computer and plugged it into the vci there was a little bit of play…
what this caused was something similar but with the gain / treble / bass / mids knobs…they would move around without me even moving the knobs and data was being sent when i wasnt doing anything.
try holding the usb plug in tightly and see if that could be a problem…
either way i would reccomend sending it back and getting a new vci
i don’t think this is a driver issue, all other faders/knobs/buttons/dials on the VCI work without incident. a driver would only be responsible for interpreting the data the hardware sends, massaging it into something the computer can more easily deal with. in the case of Mac OS X, the VCI-100 sends MIDI so no driver is required. i’ll double check, or move the VCI to another machine and see if the same problem occurs.
good idea on the USB cable recommendation - i’ll give that a shot and also fire up MIDI Monitor too to make sure it happens there as well and not just Traktor.
yeah, as we suspected, it is independent of Traktor. just plugging it into my MacBook Pro and tapping the crossfader to the right it immediately starts hiccuping data without Traktor running.
firing up MIDI Monitor, i see the erroneous data there as well. it looks like Traktor is just acting as it is instructed - the crossfader provides quite a lot of varying data. below is a screenshot of the MIDI Monitor output, at this point the crossfader was already at the extreme right and i just tapped it with my thumb pushing it to the right. you can see the resulting datastream is all over the place.
same story with a different cable, on a different machine or on a different machine with a different cable - all signs point to a whacked crossfader.
interesting, even if i change the curve of the cross fader to flat, making a virtual 3-position switch the right edge of the crossfader still hops around from value 127 (full-on) to 64 (mid).
if only i could point vestax to my forum post to explain my issue…
:0)
You should! Vestax has a lot of respect for this place and this would be a great way to explain and substantiate your issue. Send them the post, and tell them Ean sent you
wrote vestax with a brief description of the problem and pointed them to the this forum post. hopefully i can get the crossfader repaired - the whole issue is ironic since i was going to try and resell the unit anyways as i had ordered a VCI100 SE, never simple right…
looking at my tracking info from djdeals.com, i received the unit on the 16th of april of 2007, which is cutting it far too close with the warranty.
vestax customer service is hardly known to be the best in town and your warranty is somewhat defunct at this point :\ so i’m thinking you might need to purchase a new cross fader if thats possible…
i found a support email address via google linked off djdeals, vci-100 at vestax.jp, i’ll give that a try and also hit up vestax US customer service 800-994-4984 and if all of that fails i’ll just try and send it to a local service center http://www.vestax.com/v/info/support/service_center.html
I found the best way of dealing with Vestax is getting chummy with the service guys. They tend to be able have contacts with Vestax who can actually help solve your problem.
I personally have not had good dealings contacting Vestax direct, and going though the service guys yields results.
spot on bentosan, having never received a response from vestax directly, i started ringing local vestax service centers and settled on virtual sound technologies in pasadena. just shipped it off for repair and it sounds as though i may get a firmware update to boot.
