Why is the VMS4 only 371.66?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Why is the VMS4 only 371.66?

Last year around this time I remember reading this and thinking that the American Audio VMS4 would be my next big purchase hands down. Then all of these other big 4-Channel controllers started coming out and I started saving money for other stuff, and I forgot about it.

Now I see that it is on [ame=“Amazon.com”]Amazon.com: American Audio VMS4 Digital DJ Turntable: Musical Instruments@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EQ6RPOJ9L.@@AMEPARAM@@51EQ6RPOJ9L[/ame]for so almost a third of what I thought it’s competitors were. Is it really that bad?

Does anyone have insight into this controller and if it is not even worth it’s current low, low price tag?

2

Guitar Center had it on sale for $350. Its great unit, I got to see it demo’d by DjEtronik who works for ADJ and I thought it was pretty cool…

3

It’s $370 because american audio doesn’t make very good quality gear and it only comes with virtual dj le so you need to spend $200 on software to get it useable. then the whole thing is still sub par quality and the sound quality is meh.

4

yeah, thats what happens when companies make a terrible product

5

looks nive, but I hear about many many problems it has

6

Ive heard about many problems with it,

7

lots of people here seem to say to stay away from the vms4 and there’s problems with it but i’m not sure what they are. from what i can gleem…

  • bloody heavy - about 9kg
  • only one zone on the jogs - so can’t scratch and jog at the same time
  • xfader has a massive lag at each end
  • line faders - not very nice feel
  • squishy buttons - not very tactile
  • odd use of red leds instead of line markings means u cant usually see what pots the pots are on
  • quiet audio + not very clean
  • sometimes wrong/false midi messages sent out by pots
  • some firmware issues for the jog wheels
  • some issues with audio+midi on windows pc - maybe to do with asio

hell… even my tiny icon idj sends out different messages for the jogs with scratch enabled - depending on whether i use the outside or touch and move the top.

all in all it’s not looking exactly like an awesome controller :smiley:

even if cheap, unless the audio was good enough, you’ve just got a bloody heavy controller that it probably too heavy to take with u.

8

well my 2 cents: I have one, I saw one used at guitar center and talked them down to $260 on it, mainly utilizing a lot of the flaws described in this thread thus far, (and the fact it did not have a power cable)

As said, it is pretty damn heavy.

The jogs.. well.. jog pretty well, I’m not a scratch person, other then a bit of spinback and baby scratch which work fine. the one thing to know is that if you have everything set to vinyl (scratch) mode, the jogs pretty much have occasional issues recognizing a hand on the top to halt the track in progress, it’ll stop, but it may start up in a scond, or 5 seconds, with your hand still on the platter. (like I said, not a scratch dj, so dont really do that stuff.)

The crossfader is a valid issue, I fortunately had an innofader i bought for another mixer, which cleaned up the xfader problem awesomely.

did not notice much of an issue with the line faders once broken in a bit

the squishy buttons, are indeed squishy, not the best feel to them, however as I do most hotcues and FX with an x1/launchpad combo not so much of an impact for me.

I’m not sure about the “firmware issues” with the jogs, I updated the firmware when I got it to the latest one available, and have experienced no overall issues.

I did notice however, the factory power cable (when I did get one) caused some feedback/noise on the audio channels, my workaround was using a generic power adapter set to 3V. No more noise on the line, and as far as the audio being quiet, welll lets just say the neigbors house (300 m away) have commented on “what the hell that wubwub noise is coming from my house”

never noticed false messages being sent by the actual controls other then when you mess with a knob either in software or assigned to another controller, the original knob settings are ignored till you muddle with the vms 4’s knob again

All the audio issues (after power issue was resolved) were fixed by running the setup wizard in Traktor Pro 2, there is an option for the VMS 4 in the wizard, “traktor edition” it works, and the mapping is pretty much dead on. Of course I hated the default mapping, but changing that up worked fine without affecting the ASIO settings. Just make sure its set to “8 out” and all the channel selectors are set to USB unless you actually have external stuff like tables or cdjs connected.

if you can get a deal, and don’t mind the required “fiddling time” to get everything perfect, its not bad for an all in one unit. YMMV.

9

sounds like a lot of controller for 260$ anyway :slight_smile:

good to hear from someone who actually has one too - as opposed to people like me who really have no clue :stuck_out_tongue:

10

eh thats what I figured OP was looking for, not a bad piece of kit, but if you have to pick up software too the cost to benefits ratio goes down, because VDJ LE is (IMHO) quite a bit of rubbish compared to SSL or TP

11

Thanks for the response. I have no problem rolling up my sleeves and making something work. I also have no problem a little more weight lifting into my daily routine.

What is your experience with the “midi-log” feature where you can use it as an analog mixer? Have you used the mixer as an analog mixer? Does it function reasonably well with the sound coming from CDJ’s or something similar?

How’s the feel? I’m assuming the faders and what not have a solid feel and aren’t too loose or too stiff, is this true? are the buttons good?

12

as far as using it as a standalone mixer, I havent tried it. I have however flipped from USB to analog on the fly, mixed in cdj’s and flipped back out to USB without a hitch. the channel faders are pretty solid, not too loose but a bit firm until you break them in a bit mixing with the channels as opposed to the xfader, the buttons work fine, albeit “squishy” feeling, the only one a bit wonky is the shift into “vinyl” mode which occasionally seems to take a 2nd press to fully shift into that mode. though I rarely utilize vinyl mode.

13

Thanks for the info, I was going to get Traktor regardless, this would give me a nice option for a new controller, and a mixer that I can use with a cdj or turntable. Of course, now that I see you got one for under 300, Amazon’s price of 371.66 seem’s expensive. Thanks!

14

I have had TWO, even if they were free I would not have another one. If DJ’ing is a source of income, this is not the tool to have. It’s fine for home use where you don’t have a paying audience.

Check the forum before paying anything, most of the early adopters from the forum have now returned their units and bought something else.

My biggest complaint was the terrible audio quality and the fact that it would reset for no reason, the company blamed me and my computers … the same computers that run (without a problem I made add) the S4, MS-6000, SC-2000, Faderfox, EMU … you get the picture.

The concept was a good one … the delivery of it was shockingly poor (the fact that you have to leave the rubber bands on the jogs to get zones !!! .. that just looks crap and feels awful).

There are a lot of great machines out there, this isn’t one of them though. Try to get them down to $200 and then it’s okay … more than that choose a competitor.