VCI-400 vs S4
VCI-400 or a S4.
Have some one here on this forum try both of them and can tell which one is best?
What i like on VCI-400 its the sound out ports. And the mic inport a very good also.
V.S
I hate to be that guy but this has been discussed already, basically if you need scratch capability you need the S4, otherwise the VCI400 outclasses it in pretty much all areas.
Perhaps. But I haven’t seen any thorough account of how good or bad the VCIs jogs are - have you tried it, or got a linky?
It’s a fact that S4’s jogs use HID and the VCI uses MIDI, but in principle there shouldn’t be much of a difference because of the protocol - my understanding is that MIDI should have the bandwidth to send enough jog turn messages to be very accurate, given that the sample rate of the jog wheel is high enough, and given that the software’s implementation of MIDI jog control doesn’t suck. (7-bit vs. 14-bit etc. doesn’t matter in the case of jogs, since they only send single-bit control messages about the rotation, not parameter ranges like faders or knobs.)
Case in point, the VCI-100 1.4 - with the added resolution of the firmware upgrade, the jogs are actually very accurate for a controller, but the trick is that the jog acceleration has to be turned off in Traktor mappings to get a true 1:1 feel. Set up like that, they are very good, much closer to CDJ standards. Unfortunately I’ve never got my hands on an S4 so I can’t say how they compare, but obviously NI have all necessary settings right for the S4 out of the box, so there’s no possibility of a bad mapping screwing up the jog feel.
If the VCI-400 has equal or better jog resolution compared to the VCI-100 1.4, I’d be much more worried about the resolution of the pitch faders - there are reports from people in the VCI-400 thread that they only seem to work at 7-bit resolution in Traktor, and that’s not good at all.
Where’s the VCi 400 post gone? Can’t find it…
I had an S4 the day they came out - hated it and sold it pretty quick, but lots of people on here love them.
I’ve just ordered a 400 and can’t wait for it to turn up - it looks perfect - if you read the Digital Dj Tips review, Phil reckons they’re the best jogs around - whether they map great to traktor is another thing but for what I need they’ll be fine.
I had a VCI 100 with 1.4 firmware and they were good and I had a VCI 300 and in Itch they were amazing - ok in Traktor as well.
But if you want to scratch get some turntables 
Nicky, please report back on the jogs and pitch faders when you get it. My angle to this is more that I’m looking for the perfect CDJ replacement, so not for much scratching, but great jog response is always worth having.
Will do mate, won’t be here till 3rd Jan because of holidays though
The jogs on the 400 are perfectly responsive for most purposes. You probably wouldn’t win a DMC competition with them but you wouldn’t on the S4 either. If you scratch what the hell are doing with a controller?
I’m not a scratch dj. I play house, techno and dubstep. I have no store in my area that sells them. So i can not try both. I have a vci-100 and 2x CDJ-900 and DJM-700. I will sell everything and buy either a s4 or VCI-400
Reloop Jockey 3 has a higher quality and better than the jog wheel VCI400
how do you know that?
Because VCI400, Jockey3 and DDJ-T1 i have at home
there is no info about jog wheel resolution of vci400 (only that it’s high resolution hehe…
reloop jockey 3 master edition has 4096 positions per turn on wheel - which is a high res standard right now i guess.
so you tested it with same latency on both controlers?
i used it in my tests as a solo controler with other sound card to make tests acurate. with latency <3ms vci-400 was very acurate = tested with traktor s4 and i could not tell the difference = how can you tell? don’t be offended - i’m just trying to get as much fair info on the subject as i can - i used tractor pro 2.1.2 on 64bit windos7 ultimate with partition for tractor only.
You are running TP2? How do you rate the Reloop overall? In comparison to the 400? I like the build quality of both but particularly the fact Reloop is a standalone mixer if need be.
So finally the first post for me. I´ve got the VCI-400 and i´ve been playing around with it for a while now. I can only compare it to the VCI-100, but I haven´t seen a part of the controller that I didn´t like.
It has a perfect build quality, the interaction with Traktor Pro 2 works perfectly and the soundcard has a great output. The only thing that could be a problem for you, is the missing standalone feature for the mixer. But beside that, i can totally recommend this great piece of hardware to you.
The upcoming mapping of DJTT will make this badboy even more awesome.
Thanks for your input. Was your experience pretty much plug and play or did you have to do some intensive mapping with the 400? I assume you already had TP2. I love the look, design, feature set of the 400 compared to the S4. I have played a bit with the S4 at a local chain retailer and it just seems to plastic to me. I like a solid build and the Vestax products (well 100 and 400) seem to offer that.
I know the DJTT special edition’s will sell out in no time, but I will be one potentially trying.
As I know it is not a stand-alone mixer, could you further talk about the inputs that are available in back on the 400? They have their own gain knobs in back but that is it, correct? So in case of emergency laptop crisis or switch off between DJ’s, these would come in handy?
i played a short ~1h set on a vci-400 yesterday. i have an s4 at home.
i strongly prefer the jogs on the s4. other than that, the vci-400 is really nice. perhaps another minor gripe with the vci-400 would be that the buttons on the bottom of the unit (i.e., play, cue, …) have a different feel that the buttons in the performance section.
I downloaded the mapping from the vestax site, plugged in the controller and it was good to go. It´s not the best one, but it´s ok to beginn with. But I´ve heard that there are a few problems for the windows users. Perhaps those problems will be solved with the next few firmware updates.
The VCI has 2 line inputs and 2 microphone inputs at the back. Both have 2 knobs each.
I don´t think the Inputs will work as a emergency alternative. As far as I know they can only be used as a Live Input in Traktor. For Example adding a CDJ or an iPad to your set.