Early this year I obtained a VCI-300 by Vestax. It isn’t an MK-II, but I haven’t noticed much lacking with this thing. I have to say, it is outstanding. I’ve used previous midi-based DJ controllers, and they always seem to be lacking. Most of the time they are clunky and hard to use, but this thing is quite the opposite of that. It is very easy to use and have a very intuitive layout. The buttons and nobs are placed very nicely and hardly get in the way during mixing. The design is lightweight and portable… it would easily fit into a backpack with a laptop. I’ve used it with the bundled software (Seranto Itch) but more commonly use it with Traktor and Virtual-DJ. Most software I’ve tried this with, has native compatablity with minimal feature loss. A couple down sides is that you pretty much lose the smooth scratching ability that you get with Itch… I can’t really find any other software that compares in that area with this thing. I wasn’t too concerned with that though, cause I have a turntable and prefer that analog scratching feel anyway. The crossfader is extremely responsive and has controls on the front of the VCI to control the curve. When I want to play around with some scratching I’ll open itch but, without the added effects unit, the software feels like just that… playing. It lacks the needs I felt needed to make an interesting mix. In vDJ this thing rocks though. I’ve made many mixes on this thing and haven’t really had to customize anything from the default native functionality the software gave me. There are no buttons to control effects, so I use a midi keyboard for that. I’d have to say though, if you are looking for a unit to dj two decks, with a soundcard built in, this thing blows away much of the competition that price level. You do need to clean this thing every once in awhile, but it wasn’t that hard to take it apart and put it back together; there are many tutorials online that walk you through the steps. Overall I am very satisfied with this and wouldn’t replace it. (accept maybe with something that has more of a vinyl feel… this is definitely not vinyl and shouldn’t be compared to it at all) Expect a good solid unit with “what you see is what you get” features. If you are looking for 4 turntables though, look somewhere else… I had many problems using this in that manor and had a hard time even once I got something usable. This thing is a party starter for sure though, and I am extremely satisfied overall.
