The VCI-300 lowdown

Read Ean Golden’s full review here

There have been a few rumors and many questions floating around about the new Vestax VCI-300 controller. We held off reporting anything official until we got our own facts but now we have some good news for you from the Vestax distributor and Vestax Japan:

$ 6-700 estimated street price (in the U.S.)

Compatibility: Compatible with other software via our translator

On shelves: The VCI-300 is on sale in Japan and can be found online. It should be in the US market soon.

Serato Itch details: Yes, this controller was obviously designed and labeled to control the Serato Itch program. The controller is “officially supported” for Itch which means that they can only guarantee that it will work perfectly (out of the box) with the Serato program. All other dj software companies will have to design and support their own midi templates for the VCI-300 if they choose to. Yes, Serato is communicating with the VCI-300 via a form of closed communication but the VCI-300 with also send MIDI.

What that means to you: Yes, you can purchase this product and map it out yourself to any program that supports midi learn. All of the controls are sending out midi signals that can be re-mapped to other software HOWEVER the VCI-300 has high resolution jog wheels and pitch faders that are NOT compatible with most dj software including Traktor. We have however created a patch that converts that data into information that is compatible with Traktor. Download that patch here
Our opinion: This product was not designed as an upgrade to the VCI-100 but rather as a Serato Itch interface. The only real difference is slightly larger jog wheels and a built in sound card. If your using other software, your best bet is to buy a VCI-100 and a good sound card for the same price and use the mappings you find around the net and here on dj tech tools.