After doing tons of reading I am narrowing my choice down to what controller I need.
Its come down to the Vci-100 and the vci-300.
My Dj Style is R’n’B with some Funky House now and again, I have used serato and thought it was very good for replacing my 100’s of records i was carrying etc, but I don’t play 4 night per week and more so i want an all in one unit.
I looked at the torq and the hercules, but they just did not grab me, the VCI-100 seems great, but then the need to hook up a sound card as well as the unit has really put me off, as my use will not be in the house but on the Pro side of things in venue’s holding over 500 people per night.
My other thoughts are that of traktor, I have used Serato and I have also used VirtualDj5, and they are both fine for my needs, but I got hold of a version of traktor to have a look at and It really is not as easy to pick up as the other two.
Is there anyone else here who plays out regular with a vci-100?Who also plays hip-hop/r’n’b?
If the price here in the UK for a vci-100 and a decent sound card is same as a vci-300 then it would push me to the vci-300.
Yeah i had the same problem as you on deciding which to buy and i bought the vci 300 which is awesome…itch is so easy to use and very very responsive and also having the built in soundcard is an advantage,hopefully soon i will be using traktor with the unit when i get a good solid tsi built,i also heard NI are releasing an offical traktor tsi for the 300 which should be sweet
do you need effects? the vestax vci 100 and 300 are both very good, however the 300 has no controls for effects (and itch doesnt have any effects built in) so if this is something you will want/need then its not gona be the one for you (which is what made my decision when i was facing the same choice a few months ago).
other things to consider is that the vci 100 has no soundcard built in but the 300 does. however the 300 is about £200 more expensive so you are paying for it.
Do you play out with yours in clubs?Any probs with the on-board sound?
As for effects, I dont really use any for my style, i beat match using my ears and i cut a little bit and quickmix, very old-skool i know
sorry i should clarify, i chose the vci 100 in the end cos i needed effects. which meant i bought a seperate sound card. i spent quite a lot and got a native instruments audio 8 dj (~£300) but you can get something ample for your needs for a lot cheaper. in fact you could go for the audio4 dj if you arent planning on mixing on more than 2 decks.
i havent had any gigs yet, hopefully getting one in the summer at my mates event when ive graduated from university.
if you want an all in one unit (no seperate sound card), arent bothered by effects and will generally be doing just a straight up mix then the vci 300 might well be for you.
however it wont really allow you much potential for any future expansion of your sets, such as more decks, effects etc. the vci 100 is highly versatile and this very site offers an upgrade kit to get even more from it. i personally feel that although the vci 300 is a quality bit of kit, its quite limiting.
also could you just clarify what you meant here? the need to hook up a seperate sound card has no bearing on it being used in a professional context. or am i missing what you are getting at?
Sorry I meant that I didnt really want to spend £200 on a soundcard when my style needs dont really call for effects etc, and allot of set ups i see here are for studio guys or guys not actually on the road gigging, and i saw tons of posts about how do i cue on my headphones etc etc.
having a seperate sound card doesnt really make a massive impact in terms of portability for a gig. and seperate or integrated sound card has no bearing on effects. headphone cueing will work as long as you have a soundcard with enough outputs.
the price difference between a vci 100 and a 300 is around £200 iirc and in that £200 you get a soundcard and higher resolution jog wheels and higher resolution pitch faders. (i would say thats the most significant features, but anyone feel free to correct me)
my personal thoughts are having the soundcard built in is neither here nor there but if you are beatmatching completely manually then you will definitely benefit from the higher resolution on the aforementioned components. so i would be inclined to go for the vci 300 in your situation.
It’s where I’m leaning too(the 300), esp after having used Serato before and looking at traktor and playing with it here i really don’t get a feel for it, maybe if it was VDJ5 then yeah, i know the files are around for VDJ5 and the vci-100.
Has anyone here done a r’n’b/hip-hop mix?I could not find one here, it all seems to be house.d’n’b etc.
If you are doing your beatmatching manually then yes, the higher resolution faders and jog wheels will come in handy, very much so. Sooner than (hopefully) later DJTT will release an update for the VCI-100 to allow it to transmit data with 14-bit MIDI resolution, so that’s something that can sway your opinion.
The thing with the VCI-100 and Traktor is that the entire thing can be coded to do whatever you want within the software. It doesn’t need to control effects. Maybe you want more advanced loop control, or all of your cue points at the push of a button. Just something to think about.
Also, I’m a huge fan of having a modular set up, especially with an external sound card. Mainly, if something happens to my VCI-100 I can still DJ. If something happens to my Audio8 I can get a cheap sound card to hold me over. Just a thought.
Some great replys there guys, And my mind was 70% VCI-300 and i am now more settled on it than before, so it’s looking like the 300, but I see none in the UK at the moment..lol…I will wait and get the 300 with itch.
I got my vci 300 for £530 from a shop on ebay,i was gonna buy it from america and asked for there best price..they replied $750 and they have a warehouse in milton keynes if i wanna buy it over the phone with my debit card..so i did,a day later there it is.Other than this company only HTFR records have them and the cheeky b*stards have just put them upto £650.
Id personally grab the VCI-100 and wait for the firmware upgrade - once it finally hits you will be glad you did. Short term pain… Long term gain. Infact… were aiming to make improvments that the VCI-300 doesnt have - so its not just a game of “catch up” with the VCI-300 its a game of conquor the VCI-300
Well i have been reading…reading…and reading…and nearly bought a vci-100le in black…i kinda chose it then went down the good sound card root, and it looked like a £130ish sound card, so when i was looking at £369 for the unit and then £130ish for good sound card, and the worry i had with mixing manually and jog wheels playing up if not on foam and then will i be able to use it like a cdj etc, i have now placed an order for the VCI-300, but big shout to all here who gave good replys and posted some great stuff on the vci-100…top notch stuff chaps!!
I did want to give my .02 regarding the soundcard issue that seemed to be your biggest concern.
The VCI-300 soundcard is not that good, plus it’s USB.
You mention you are looking for the professional solution to play for large crowds. IMO, a VCI-100 + solid firewire soundcard like a Firebox, FA-66 or AudioFire is the best choice.
Well after getting bogged down as UK has hardly no stock then I have placed an order for a Black VCI-100…I have said yes…then no…then maybe…then what if…lol…Black one on the way, it will prob arrive tuesday, I shall wait on the sound card and see if i can live with it first.
I actually saw a video from Ean this morning thats not actually on this site, it wa s demo of how to use the vci-100 and showed him mixing and using the jog dials etc, and it kinda made my mind up a bit better.
