The introduction of the Dicer may have heralded a new marriage of turntables and controllers, but as with all new marriages, there is a lot to be fully explored. The current rash of YouTube videos featuring the Dicer have only begun to skim the surface of the technical and creative possibilities. While mapping my own Dicers in Traktor Pro, I discovered a whole slew of LED color options, as well as the possibility to control the LED intensity. In this article we have a short video and matching color table that will demonstrate how to map your DJ software to various color outputs on the dicer or other multi-LED controllers.
A RAINBOW OF POSSIBILITIES
Mapping different LED colors is straight-forward. Â After following our LED programming article, you should be familiar with the process. The only little twist at the end here is that the MIDI range needs to be tweaked to allow the color of your choosing to be displayed. The below table explains the range and the color.
Red: 0-15
Pink: 16-31
Rose: 32-47
Dark Orange: 48-63
Light Orange: 64-79
Yellow: 80-95
Lime: 96-111
Green: 112-127
How does the Dicer display different colors? It has two LED under each button, and changing the MIDI range tells it how much of each color to ‘turn on’. Mixing the two LED intensities changes the color.
A side note here is that, as BradCee mentions in the LED programming article, when mapping Hotcue State, the behavior is not as predictable with the Controller Range of MIN=0 and MAX=1. Depending on what type of cue is set (Load, Grid, Cue, Fade In/Out or Loop), the behavior is different, with some requiring the blend to be checked and others no blend.
NOT THE BRIGHTEST CANDLE…
Changing the intensity of the LED is as easy as lowering the MAX number from the above list.  Another possibility is to increase the MIN number so that the button is visible even with the output control ‘off’. Apart from the latter, I don’t really see the benefit of this, but I mention it as it exists.
The VMS4 MIDI controller is another entry into the newest rage for digital DJs: 4 channel controllers. The VMS4, however, offers a twist to the usual formula by serving double duty as a 4 channel analogue mixer. At a price of only $499- many DJs have asked, “am I missing something? That sounds like a great deal.” DJ TechTools investigates to find out if the first controller from American Audio is too good to be true.
Reviewed: AMERICAN DJ VMS4 Price: $499 Communication: MIDI over USB (requires power supply)Â /Â (Mac and Windows) Available: Available now Ships with: Virtual DJ LE (2 Decks)Â – Upgradable to Pro for $199 Weight: Approx. 19 pounds Key Feature: Built in sound card and Analogue mixer
THE GOOD
A great value at $499- your going to get a lot of functionality for your money with this controller if you already own Traktor Pro or Scratch Pro. The switchable analogue/midi channels enable mixing computer outputs with traditional analogue inputs like CD players or iPods. Touch sensitive jog wheels and touch strips have some interesting mapping potential for Traktor users. The steel chassis feels and looks more professional than the price suggests.
THE BAD
The VMS4 ships with Virtual DJ LE, so you will need to spend another $200 to get a decent piece of software. The outputs of the mixer in digital and analogue mode are noticeably lower than other mixers and sound cards. At almost 20 pounds, this is not exactly the most portable controller available on the market. The jog wheels don’t support scratching and pitch bending at the same time unless you use a protective rubber ring around the wheels which detracts a lot from its curb appeal.
THE BOTTOM LINE
If DJ TechTools or another group comes out with a stellar Traktor Pro mapping this could be a great winter toy for those that can’t quite plop down $999 for the Native Instruments S4. If you want an all in one controller/software combo that works really well out of the box- this is not quite it. The Virtual Dj LE software leaves much to be desired and there are no great mappings for Traktor Pro available yet.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
The 4-deck controller is no lightweight. Built out of an all-metal chassis, it weighs in at nearly 20 pounds. Thankfully there are 4 thick rubber bumpers on the corners, which keep it from knocking up the surroundings during transport. As shown in the photo above, the VMS4 is quite a bit longer than a 15″ laptop, taking it outside of the easily portable size range but still packable with a specialized bag or road case. A few specific notes on the various controls:
Line Faders: 45mm and average quality with a less than smooth resistance
Cross Faders: Comparable to most MIDI-controllers in this price range
Jog Wheels: Surprisingly smooth and pleasant to use with the 1200’s style rivets but the lack of pitch bending in scratch mode will annoy some
Knobs: Rubberized for a good grip but the LED marking system is not ideal for all conditions
Pitch Faders:Â 60mm and comparable to most MIDI-controllers in this price range
Buttons: These are silicon rubber with a “cliquey” tactile switch that are fairly squishy and not the most enjoyable to press
Front Panel Controls: Very extensive with full cross-fader assignment and mixer options
Mouse Pad: Like most built-in mouse pads, this one is more annoying than useful, it also won’t do MIDI, HID only for now.
GREAT FOR THE MOBILE DJ?
It’s no surprise here that this unit is going to be a hit with mobile DJs since American Audio’s business appears to be primarily aimed at that market. There are some really good features that will be ideal for that group:
Balanced XLR outputs
Full 4-channel analogue mixer for blending CD’s and vinyl with a computer output.
Dual XLR MIC inputs with 3 band EQ for each MIC
Appropriate size and professional appearance for the standard wedding gig.
I was concerned that the power supply is un-grounded, as some mobile DJs have reported ground problems when running powered speakers straight out of all-in-one controller like the VCI-300.
KNOB LIGHTING
All of the black rubberized knobs are marked not by a white line but by RED LED backlighting. In theory, this is a very cool feature, and should help a lot in dark environments. In standard day/indoor light however it is actually worse than the usual white lines. The problem? In 90% of knob positions, only a small dot of red is visible making the position hard to recognize. There are 4 knobs marked with standard white lines side-by-side so it’s very apparent which method works better. To make things even more awkward, those knobs that are marked with white are actually endless encoders, the types of knobs you want with no marking!
Fortunately in dark lighting, the more common scenario, the red LED lines are more fully visible and start to work slightly better than traditional white marking.
VIRTUAL DJ LE
The controller ships with Virtual DJ software so you can start playing right out of the box. (the screen shot above was taken from my 15″ Macbook) The first thing you notice is the 8-bit VMS4 skin. This one to one representation of the hardware is not LO-FI in a good way but looks more like a bad GIF from the late 90’s. Just on visual presentation alone, it’s hard to take the software seriously with graphics this bad (at 13″, full screen looks better). Purchasing a 4-deck controller that ships with only 2 decks worth of software may also be a frustration but you can upgrade to the newer version of Virtual DJ for $200.
The included sampler has a loop mode and one-shot mode. If you want to just trigger a few air horns then they will work OK but with considerable latency. The loops are supposed to auto sync with playing tracks but even the supplied loops that come with the Virtual DJ software fail to sync up at all with basic electro.
Assuming that most of you will be looking to connect this to Traktor lets go ahead and see how it performs in that department.
TRAKTOR PRO
I did some basic mapping inside Traktor to test the controller and used FreshFluke’s 4 deck DVS mapping which is supplied by American Audio. I found the latter to be barely usable without an overlay and vinyl control, so instead focused on a few of the key points:
Jog Wheels: High resolution with a message sent when the top or side of the wheel is touched for scratch.
Pitch Faders: High resolution
Shift Button: Hard Wired, this changes the note values and turns the mouse pad into a X/Y controller
Touch Strips: Standard resolution 0-127 with a single message sent when touched.
Everything else is standard MIDI and worked without issues. One bonus is that all controls, including Crossfader assignment and even the MIC controls, are MIDI-assignable.
ANALOGUE MIXING
One of the VMS4’s strong points is their “MIDI-Log” feature. This means that you can switch all 4 channels from either providing MIDI control for internal mixing or route sound out the VMS4 for traditional analogue mixing. This would be most ideal for someone that needs to mix their computer output with a few analogue sources throughout the night.
As an analogue mixer the unit performs reasonably well, although I found it fairly easy to distort the outputs with very crunchy results when the low end was pushed particularly hard. As mentioned earlier, one noticeable shortcoming is that the outputs are quite a bit quieter than the average mixer or sound card (more below).
The cross fader is the one major drawback of using this controller as a traditional mixer. I noticed there is about 1/4″ of travel into the fader before it actually starts to activate. This would be a major problem if you wanted to use the VMS4 as a combo mixer/controller with a DVS system like Scratch Pro. While not as noticeable when set to a soft cross fader curve, in the hard cut setting it becomes un-usable for fast cuts and transforms. It’s worth noting that this was only apparent in analogue mode and not there when using the cross fader as a MIDI controller.
There are some reports on the web of analogue mixer bleed between channels. I personally did not encounter this issue but it has been a problem for some early adopters.
AUDIO QUALITY
I A/B’d the VMS4 audio outputs against the popular Audio 4 DJ (which has shown to be one of the stronger DJ sound cards in our roundup). The results were not exactly great. In order to get the levels even I had to boost the VMS4 outputs up by approximately 3 dB (see above photo), which adds a lot of noise to the channel. Once at an even level, the sound did have some thin characteristics. It was slightly lacking in low end and did not have as good of a stereo field as the Audio 4.
These tests were performed in our labs, which are equipped with the following DJ system.
Mains: 2 X Mackie SRM-450 + 1 X 18″ QSC sub
Monitors:Â 2 X Genelecs
SCRATCHING
Don’t buy this unit, or almost any controller for that matter, if you expect to do any serious scratching. The accuracy of the MIDI just does not support it. I had really poor results in attempting to scratch in a track with Virtual DJ and average results with Traktor Pro (comparable to the VCI-100)
SUMMARY
The value packed $499 controller from American Audio surprised us by performing above expectations. While not exactly Rane or Vestax quality, everything is solidly built and looks like it may stand the test of time. If you already own Traktor Pro, can’t rationalize spending $999 on the Native Instruments S4 or simply can’t wait to get your hands on a reasonably priced 4 deck controller, the VMS4 is a good value with 4 channels of controls and a built in sound card. I can’t see many people taking it to the club because of its weight and sound card shortcomings, but for home use and casual DJing it will be sufficient. The included software won’t take you very far, so take into consideration the extra $200 to be spent on software when doing price comparisons.
DJ TECHTOOLS MAPPING
If there are enough interested parties, we may create a mapping/overlay combo for Traktor Pro and the VMS4. Sign up bellow to express your interest and we will e-mail you more info if a DJ TechTools VMS4 mapping for Traktor Pro is created!
DJ TECHTOOLS
