VCI-300 Reviewed
The Vestax VCI-100 made quite a splash in the digital DJ market, selling a significant number of units and raising the bar for DJ MIDI controllers. The most significant difference between the VCI-100 and its larger cousin, the VCI-300, is more conceptual than physical. The VCI-100 is a multipurpose MIDI controller designed to interface with a broad range of DJ software by offering a generic palette of controls that could suit many purposes. The VCI-300 adopts an entirely different approach. It has been designed specifically to control one piece of software, the Itch program from one of the leaders in the DVS world: Serato. The goal, as explained to me several months back, was to eliminate the disconnect between hardware and software design so that all the important controls in the software are found in a logical place on the physical mixer. The end result would be a cleaner marriage between the virtual and analog world and a much easier setup for the user. Anyone can plug in a VCI-300 and have it work right out of the box with the supplied Itch software — no MIDI mapping or tedious software setup required.
