First off, thanks for your patience. We all want things to happen fast but sometimes it takes a little extra time to make good things happen. This is certainly a good thing, and its because of all the emails you guys sent to distributors and the community of dj tech tools this special edition vci-100 is happening for real.
The web store for pre-orders is getting the final touches and will be up on Friday morning. In the mean time here is the information you have all been waiting for:
1) The Dj Tech Tools/Ean Golden edition will be exactly the same as the now discontinued black Japan Version. Black with white/blue LEDS and all of the improvements mentioned before in past articles. Contrary to some rumors all the black vci-100s are sold out in Japan and after this short run being made now for Dj Tech Tools there will not be any others for quite a while.
2) This is a limited edition one time run of 100 pieces put together by hand in japan with all custom firmware and plates. None of those 100 are spoken for as of today so on Friday its first come first serve.
3) They will be shipped to America from Japan by may 15th and then dj tech tools will ship them to you directly by may 30th. That is worst case scenario, there is a chance that they will be ready sooner. Paying for all of them upfront will help move up the priority and help Vestax get them out sooner.
4) The price, not including shipping will be $549.00 USD. We will ship world wide.
6) This midi controller will work with all software and is also compatible with past TKS files. However, for the functions to work as listed you will need a copy of Traktor 3.2 and above which is not included in the price.
7) What makes this version Special? Well besides the obvious aesthetic improvements this model will be shipping with a completely unique firmware. Many of the knobs, buttons, and faders are all sending out completely unique midi values that you will not find on any other unit. This allows you control traktor in ways that would require very advanced midi tranlation programming. With the custom firmware and the matching TKS, everything works seamlessly.
8 ) For Example, the faders can enter “Reverse FX fader mode” . Turn the fader down and it engages an effect, move the fader further and the effect blends into the wet effect. Then turn the fader all the way down and it freezes or reverses the effect depending on which one you have selected. In order to do this each fader has to send out 5 different midi messages, many of which have been custom designed for this function. No other midi controller will ship with this kind of performance.
9) If you already have a black or silver VCI-100. You can also get in on the action with the upgrade kit that will be available in about 4 weeks depending on how the design contest goes. Since these 100 units are shipping with a completely unique firmware, then all other units need to go through a cross platform connector software that will emulate the firmware changes for users with 1.1 and 1.2 firmware. The price should be $70 or less which will include plates, TKS and the converter program.
10) The Ean Golden edition has its own special firmware (you could call it firmware 1.3) but you can easily switch back to firmware 1.2 directly on the unit so it will work perfectly with the standard TKS files or other presets that may have been created for other VCI-100s.
We realize that May is a little bit off but here is the honest truth of the mater. Silver vci-100s are readily available and could be shipped with black plates very quickly but I wanted to make this release very special and so all the buttons and parts needed for the black vci-100 will have to be manufactured just for this special release and that takes time. Many thanks to Vestax Japan for making that happen, its a big deal and we appreciate their patience and support of Dj Tech Tools and Controllerism! I cant tell you how much fun it is to actually play with this layout, now that the firmware is done I can use all of the functions and they rock! Here is a sneak peak in the mean time:
Here I have updated the right corner so that you dont need to have foot switches to engage all the cool “under the hood” tricks and features.
The Loop section has also been improved to display which loops are active and easily shorten each loop. Here is also a full view of the controls so you can see how everything will work.
