Vestax

(Originally written by Tom54/translated from Audiofanzine FR) - How long have you been using it? Nearly 3 years and I haven't had a single problem. I take them with me to events quite frequently and they are very reliable. Even though I don't have a flightcase I haven't had a problem. They are really sturdy except for the housing's black paint (white plastic with black paint covering). - Which feature do you like the most / the least? They have a very powerful output level. Their plate has an unbeatable responsiveness. The +/-10% pitch and the +/-50% superpitch (a small fader near the pitch) allows you to easily synchronize every song. They also have a small joystick allowing +/-2,4,6,8% in one direction and +/- 50% in the other direction so that you can synchronize records without touching the plate, but I personally don't use this feature. The red digit display has a typical 80's look but it is clearly readable in every environment and it shows precise values since the pitch is digital (I use Mixvibes and the percentage given by the turntables always matches the value given by the software). I only miss a pitch lock button. The tone arm is very easy to adjust and it is perfect for scratching. You can get really crazy with my M44-7 without having needle drops. It seems to me that my scratch records wear out more slowly than with Technics turntables. Perhaps due to the straight tone arm. You can see that the needle doesn't move sideways when you move the vinyl record. The arm remains stable without oscillations. All cables can be removed except for the power cable. - Did you try any other models before buying it? For a long time I used only Technics turntables. I bought these as a complement to my MK2 after having tested the PDX2000 a friend lent me. I thought I would use them only for scratching but they became my main turntables. I have compared them with many others and I always found them much better. The Numark TTX seem not to be very reliable (I know people who have problems with their tone arm, their pitch...). Their key lock function is great but it requires a line input so that you have to use a preamp with integrated RIAA. And in my opinion RIAA doesn't sound good, it sort of gives a digital quality to the vinyls. The Technics MK2 is not even comparable, even though I've always loved their timeless look. I still believe they are the nicest looking DJ turntables, and to me the beauty of a tool/instrument is important!!!! Their successors (MK3, M5G...) cannot compete with good modern turntables because Technics has not been working on new technology for years. I also tested low-range products but there is no sense in comparing them...(Numark TT1650, Stanton whatever...) - How would you rate its value for money? You can surely find a good price on the internet. - Based on your experience, would you buy this product again? Yes, I wouldn't hesitate it. Perhaps not the same model but I'm sure I would buy a Vestax product in the same range. The PDX 3000 seems to be very interesting. Vestax is not the most famous brand for turntables and I guess it has to do with their looks. But their technology is marvelous, and after all this time I can honestly say that they are very sturdy and reliable.

The Vestax VCI is a 2 Channel DJ control that also has a digital mixer on it. This control has everything needed to be a gigging DJ for any style of venue. If you are a “true scratching” DJ than this console will fit you perfectly. It has two turntable style platters that feel great. Pretty much everything you could as for in a unit like this is available in the VCI 380. There are 2 x 8 banks of trigger pads that can be used as a slicer, looping functions, or even FX functions. I mainly only used the pads for FX triggers and maybe some hot cue’s, but for the most part FX functions so I could quickly and easily just throw FX sounds in on any mix at any time. The pads are touch sensitive as well, I was able to hold the pads down and that would let me modify the FX parameters easily. Setting up this unit was pretty simple and didn’t take much effort being that I am pretty seasoned in setting up DJ controllers and digital mixers. But even the “newbie” should not have any issues setting it up because the manual is well written and easy to read through. There are mic inputs that are balanced on this unit and RCA line inputs. The bit depth is 24 bit and there are AD/DA converters. You can use this unit on either a Mac or a PC but if you are on a PC you will need to at at least be running Windows 7, I have tried with previous versions of Windows and it didn’t work properly and had many driver issues. I am not sure if they have fixed this issue or not with a driver update. But on the actual box it even said that minimum requirements are Windows 7 on a PC. Also 2GB of RAM is needed as well. The Mac requirements are not bad. You just need to be running OS X 10.6 or higher.

I've given this a 7/10 for features because the mixer doesn't have many. But if you take into account that it's a scratch mixer (i.e. a mixer that doesn't need many features to suit the DJ), it really deserves a 9 or 10. Here's what I like about the features... 1. The crossfader (PCV) - Sharp cut-in time - Nice, substantial feel - It has that classic click sound, so you'll actually hear your clicks when you're trying to bust out your thousand-click flares - Adjustable rotary curve, so you can change from sharp cut-in for scratching to a long fade for mixing - Reverse/hamster switch - Tested at 2,000,000 cycles. Magnetic crossfaders (like on the Rane TTM56) apparently go to 15,000,000 and Penny & Giles (like on the Stanton SA-5) to 4,000,000 or something similar; however many million the company quotes, no fader is indestructible, and the reality is that you shouldn't have to worry about it - all of these mixers have longlasting crossfaders that won't bleed or break in a hurry. If you're a scratch-head, you'll probably have to get used to replacing a fader once every year or two. 2. The upfaders The same high quality as the crossfader. These are the same PCV faders that are built to last and respond, but you can't change the upfaders to reverse or alter the cut-in time with the flick of a switch. It is possible to do it, but you have to get inside the mixer. For me, I haven't bothered to change the cut-in time on the upfaders because I'm fine with the standard curve. 3. Effects send/return system This is a system that you'll see on the left side of the mixer that enables you to plug in an external FX box and... affect. Most scratch DJs aren't very concerned with effects, so this is a basic system (no wet/dry control) but it will work properly. If you're hung up about effects, you're probably not a hip-hop DJ or you should check out the Rane TTM56 for its Flex FX system. 4. Master/cue select Nice little touch that allows you to choose between monitoring the sound that's coming out of the speakers (master) and the sound selected according to where your crossfader monitor pan is (cue). 5. Overall look and feel This has to be the sexiest scratch mixer out there - it's just the classic look. Some people say that looks don't matter: those people have ugly mixers. Personally, I enjoy using a beautiful mixer everyday. Also, the mixer feels great - extremely solid and tactile. This fits in nicely with my vinyl habit - one of the main reasons I enjoy playing vinyl so much is because of the sexiness and tactility of it, so it's nice to have a mixer that compliments that. What it lacks... 1. A third band of EQ (this mixer allows you to adjust the treble and bass, but there's no midrange), which isn't really an issue for me as a hip-hop DJ, but might be if you're into EQ mixing or kills. 2. Upfader contour selection and reverse. Again, not an issue for me personally, but this is the second thing that a lot of other scratch mixers have that the 05 lacks. Price paid AU$800 in Australia UTILIZATION Lay-out is crucial on scratch mixers. Basically you want to be able to move the crossfader freely and you don't want to be bumping against lots of cluttered switches that you probably won't use. The 05 delivers. The only criticism I have about the interface is that the rotary knobs are a little close, which can be annoying if you like to grab the rotaries really quickly and do your big, dramatic twists. Vestax makes a well-built product. But no mixer is indestructible, so customer service is another important consideration and so far I've had only good experiences with Vestax. The fact that this mixer is or has been the choice of DJs like Qbert, Mixmaster Mike, Cut Chemist, Shortkut, Yogafrog, and D-Styles is a good testament to the quality of this mixer. Hey, the 05 was even used by Qbert at the final performance of the Invisble Skratch Piklz - there's a compliment. The PMC 05 has basically been the pioneer model of scratch mixers. It doesn't have all the features that some other models do, but it has a solid reputation in the hip-hop community as a classic mixer. SOUNDS I'm not a sound expert, but I've got absolutely no problems with the sound on this mixer. It sounds warm and real to me, that's all I really ask. From what I hear from people who actually know what they're talking about when it comes to sound, this mixer does the job. I've got no doubt that there are battle mixers with better sound, but I'm a hip-hop DJ - I'm nerdy about my music, not about my sound. This mixer is used on big, booming soundsystems across the globe without any issues, and it sounds great to me (curse the day that I ever feel the need to get a fat, 10-band EQ club mixer). OVERALL OPINION I love this mixer a lot. When I change mixers in the future, it'll probably be to another Vestax even though I was initially aspiring to a Rane TTM56. You can definitely spend more money and get extra features, but if you're a hip-hop DJ, the bells and whistles that some mixers offer are basically irrelevant. But yeah, this mixer definitely does it for me. I just like having a mixer that I know will serve me well and will feel good to use. The third EQ band is the only thing that this lacks for me, but even then I don't really mess with the EQs anyway. Further down the track I might want a mixer with a wider EQ range or better FX capabilities, but for the forseeable future I'm going to love scratching and rocking parties on the 05. Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: Unknown ( 8-, 2004)

This is a basic 2 channel house mixer - its got PGM vs. Master LED VU Meter, Split Cue, a 3rd Aux (Cueable) input, and EQ Kill Switches as well. The faders and xfader are replacable. Nothing real fancy in the build itself. Its very short (3U) and rack mountable. Its the bastard stepchild of the PMC mixers as far as looks. More details under "Quality" 325.00 UTILIZATION The interface is sweet and simple. Everything is spaced apart and intuitive. The manual is pretty thin, but not really required. Hooking things up was a breeze as well. The EQs are big fat knobs and have just the best feel to them, great for the House DJ. Also, above each EQ is the kill switch, which is not actually a switch, but a mini fader. The did this so you wouldn't hear any hidden "click" when cutting out frequencies. The cuts are super low (like -85db) too on both eq and kill. The xfader doesn't have an adjustable curve, but I like how its set, and I find myself using it more often than usual for House/Prog stuff. SOUNDS Sounds great to me, of course I'm coming from a cheap Numark mixer. I expect the same quality to come from other Vestax's (such as the 275) OVERALL OPINION Despite the lower marks above (I'm being as fair as possible - I'm fairly new to DJing myself) - I love this thing for sure. Again, the eq knobs and kill switches are awesome and just downright fun to play with - I feel like a kid whenever I get on it. These things are being phased out for a newer model (the PMC 250), so you can find them around for alot cheaper than originally priced (something like $750!) I recommend it. Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: Unknown (January 0-, 2002)

Wonderful scratch mixer with some basic extras , not covered with features but its a professional scratch mixer and damn does it work well for that 400$ UTILIZATION Good layout. very heavy and solid mixer compared to some i have seen feels like it will last a long time. SOUNDS Wonderful sound quality much better than previous mixers i have had very clear and adjustable. OVERALL OPINION I love this mixer just the feel of the overall thing is a pleasure to mix with smooth faders and great layout this is by far the best mixer ive had! Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: yukmouth (January 0-, 2005)

The Vestax PMC-05 Pro IV is a 2 channel mixer that supports MIDI. This was my “road warrior” mixer for a while because it was built very tough. I didn’t have any case for it when I was using it a lot and it got banged around many times but it always kept working. Nothing ever happen to it aside from a few scratched on the exterior of it that didn’t affect the performance of it at all. UTILIZATION Setting up this mixer is very simple, you can use it on a Mac as long as you are running a newer version of OS X and on a PC I know you need to have at least VISTA to get best performance out of it, but it will work with Windows XP but it seemed a little glitchy to me in XP. SOUNDS This mixer does have on board EQ (3band) but no effects. There really weren’t many features that made me love this mixer but it worked great and never failed to deliver. You pay for quality with a mixer like this. All of the knobs, buttons, and sliders are very well made and after heavy use they will not wear out at all! OVERALL OPINION I have battled with this mixer about 5 times and never have I been disappointed with using it. I have really put a lot of use to the cross fader and normally on mixer my cross fader will really wear out after a lot of battles. But this cross fader is still holding up strong. The mixer is now my main battle mixer, I do not battle all of time but when I do I take my PM5 – 05 and let it handle my aggressive mixing. The audio output is also very good with this mixer. I would not buy this again if I wasn’t a battling DJ mainly because of the price and lack of features.

The Vestax Typhoon is a DJ controller that has a built in soundcard. It has somewhat of a different style of look with all of the knobs and sliders being red. Most people feel like that wouldn’t bet that big of an issue but to me it just didn’t look great. But the look didn’t affect the performance at all; this controller has all of the needed functions to run a set easily. Setting this controller up with any software was not difficult at all, though manual does not really cover setting it up in other software applications. It does come with Virtual DJ “limited edition” software. This software will work with audio and video mixing. I have used it in Serato before without any issues or concerns. There are 4 DJ effects on this unit and it would have been nice to have a few more. You can quickly access and add your filters with this unit by just pushing one button and then using your job wheel to change the parameters of your filter. Also, beat matching with this unit was very easy. Even if you are a “scratching” DJ you can easily scratch with this interface and it will be very clean. I really enjoyed throwing in effects to the mixes with this interface; it was very quick and easy to do. The audio output to the headphone jack was very good and loud making it easy to monitor the next track before playing it. Everything with this unit was simple to operate and worked well. The only issue I ran into was using it on a Windows computer. Sometimes it would have an unexpected crash, and an unexpected crash is never good! So I was too afraid to try to use this live in too many sets. After having this unit and using it for about 6 weeks, I experienced about 5 crashes. That was 5 crashed too many for me! I am not sure if it was a Windows compatibility problem or if it was a software issue with Virtual DJ.

The Vestax VCI-300 MKII is a controller that comes with ITCH from Serato. I really liked the feel of this controller and it felt like a really high end controller. It was not cheaply made and all of the buttons and knobs/sliders feel like some of the old vinyl mixers/platters that I use to use (the real expensive ones). There is a built in interface that outputs high quality audio. There is 1 stereo input, 2 stereo outputs and Mic input. Setting up the VCI-300 MKII was very simple and was no different than any other software/hardware set up that I have done before. Using this controller was very easy because it worked great with the software. It was easy to select and edit the audio files in the software library. There are controls right on the interface/mixer of this unit that let me easily navigate through my files in Serato’s ITCH. There is also an emergency thru switch that let me run musk through it directly from my iPod in case something went horribly wrong. Which any DJ that works via through a computer knows that sometimes things happen especially if you are on a Windows pc. So this function was a must have! All you have to do is go on the back of the unit and hit the switch then it will work right from the iPod or MP3 player. Everything with this unit is mad to last a long time and it really fit my style at the time. I am very satisfied with this unit and still use it sometimes. If I could go back again I would have no problem purchasing the VCI-300 MKII at full price!

The Vestax VCI-400 is a great piece of software for every DJ out there. What I like most about it is the innovative feature to bundled DJ software to any DJ which is extremely helpful in your mixing work. This piece of software is an a completely different league regarding dj controllers. Some others great feature provided by this product are customizing control assignments, the VCI-400 and its ergonomic 4-channel lay out provides perfect control for mixing, resampling , such as cueing, pitch control, looping, FX control, track browsing/loading, triggering samples and scratching. Another aspect of this product is the compatibility with many softwares like Traktor Pro 2, MixVibes, TORQ 2 and many others. The sounds and quality of it is managed by 24-bit / 48 kHz resolution , combines a dual-core digital processor with an analog type of sounds to get the most of it. It has some highly responsive multi-mode transport section triggers layers of controls instantly which allows creating some nice drum patters with a touch of syncopation , one other quality of this software is the large aluminum Filter knobs which look pretty pro. My opinion about the value of price is decent, the product without a doubt, isn't a joke , it's made for pro work, the product costs around $899 so keep that in mind, if you're searching for a great pro platform this is best choice regarding quality and price. Precision and quality of sounds is pretty much perfect, I would rate 9.5/10 , this platform is very handy in mixing. Knowing what I know, if my budget would allow me to buy this pro software that takes the mixing process to a whole new level, which allows creativity to grow even further, without a doubt I would go for this product and I would make the same choice.

The Vestax PDX-2000 MKII Pro is a high quality, and well built direct drive turntable. It features an improved tonearm height adjustment system, bright stylus light, and featuring the Anti Skipping Tonearm System (ASTS) technology, which makes the tonearm almost unskippable partially due to its straight tonearm, instead of the S-shaped tonearm found on other models. It has a great feel to it, the platter has a good resistance for things like scratching and beatmatching. These are GREAT turntables for Vinyl control in DJ programs, as they give a great feel and plenty of responsiveness. The tonearm gives a good sound and is well built. The tables are made of thick, durable plastic, but aren't to heavy. I've had no problem with the tables sliding around while I use them. The tonearm also has a special spring resistance system that makes for minimal wear on records.The direct-drive DC motor is stabilized by a high speed 32-bit CPU that increases the reaction time up to 1/100 seconds and a stabilized-torque, ultra-pitch slider along with a fine-pitch slider provides easy, accurate beat-matching and mixing. The light on the cartridge makes the vinyl grooves easy to see in dark places. These are getting harder to come by, and I got a GREAT deal on these at a garage sale for 400 bucks for a pair! I would pay 400 bucks apiece for theses used. These are really awesome turntables and have the perfect response time for all kinds of applications. I would definitely take these to a gig and perform with them. They also make GREAT backup tables if you are maybe playing a gig where you suspect things might get crazy and someone might throw beer on your decks, or if you were doing something like a high school dance and didn't want to break out the super nice shiny decks. These are a little ugly, but makeup in quality. I would HIGHLY recommend these to a Intermediate DJ who doesn't have a big budget, as they are older, but GREAT models.

The Vestax Spin is a decent entry level controller with a built in sound card/audio interface designed for amateur or mobile DJ's. The inclueded Djay software is very simple to use and is ideal for teh budding amateur or a small mobile GIG. The product is lightweight and roughly the same size as a 15 inch Laptop. It has a silver chassis with 2 metal touch-sensative jog-platters, Loop, Cue, And Fx controls for 2 decks which seamlessly synchronize with the included software. I personally am a progressive house/electro College DJ who organizes campus events as well as events for the greater Philadelphia area. I have been DJ'ing for a few years. I acquired this unit through the Vestax corporation, but it can also simply be purchased at any apple store location. The unit retails for between $250-$300. I acquired this unit as an entry-level controller. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/jakerosenbaum">https://soundcloud.com/jakerosenbaum</a> Simplicity of use and seamless software integration It is somewhat limiting in the effects it provides and lacks waveform software. It's plastic design is somewhat inferior to that of metal The unit is strategically designed for simple use. It is appealing to look at, The majority of the unit is composed high quality plastic faders and knobs This unit is great as a mobile alternative or as an entry level controller. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This things has all the features needed to scratch, nothing more nothing less Price paid 250? UTILIZATION This thing is a piece of cake i got it repaired once, the power suppy inside it got fried. i dunno what happend SOUNDS Everything is perfect on this thing. except, no master for the headphones, also my finger sometimes snags, the headphone switch right by the fader OVERALL OPINION Ya this thing is great, i just gotta get some new faders Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: wasteman ( 7-, 2005)