Serato DJ Pro General Discussion

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 Serato DJ Pro General Discussion
S4 Jogs VS. VCI-300 Jogs - My review.
Talk about Serato DJ Pro, expansion packs and supported hardware

S4 Jogs VS. VCI-300 Jogs - My review.

haze324 10:29 AM - 11 November, 2010
S4 vs VCI-300

Got my S4 in last night. Was able to mess around a bit with it and this morning updated S4 to the latest update and calibrated my jogs. Tested the jogs out this morning and here's my take:

- The VCI-300 wheels are bigger and easier to grab. I think they are easier to use. The crossfader on the S4 is MUCH more of a natural feel with the jogs up top.

- Pitch bending feels better with the S4. Larger nice rubber sides like a CDJ

- Response. Honestly I think they are just about the same. I like that I have to slightly push down the S4 and since they are out of they are out of the way I won’t accidently stop a track. The response is the same. Fwd, Backword, start, stop.

- VCI-300 has an advantage though. It’s the ability to adjust tension on the jogs. I found myself pulling back to much on scratches and the song would drift backwords ½ a second on the S4 with no tension. On a spinning platter either TT or NS7 the spinning platter is always moving forward so that tension causes super tight movements. The ablity to tighten the jogs on the VCI provide this. The S4 has just as fast response time, but have no tension so I have to adjust my movements a bit. It releases on point when I do. This will be a learning curve.

- The Itch waveforms are great for seeing where the right part of the scratch sound is.

It’s close. I would say the platters on the VCI-300 are better for scratching, but the placement of the S4 crossfader has a more natural feel. They are both really good - Much better than anything else on the market. If you know how to scratch you can do wonders on both.
djcerla 10:35 AM - 11 November, 2010
Quote:
I won’t accidently stop a track.


Interestingly, this was the main complaint on Engadget otherwise enthusiastic review.

PS was there a need for another S4 thread? There is a S4 thread for everything S4, please post there to avoid KLH's wrath.
haze324 10:37 AM - 11 November, 2010
gotcha. If anyone can or wants to merge this over there.

I think many of the questions on this forum have been surrounding the jogs. Wanted to give an impartial review and not just lump into a bunch of talk of us bullshitting half the time.
djcerla 11:20 AM - 11 November, 2010
and you've done a great job, only in the wrong thread :)
DJdaveZ 11:25 AM - 11 November, 2010
lol... a great job indeed...
and it's ok.. people post a lot of garbage.. like mr. buyers remorse today.. but any good thread is a good thread... wherever it ends up being posted.
kraal 5:51 PM - 11 November, 2010
thanks cause that is the question that really matters i think.... the think the placement of the jogs separates the crampness for scratching if the vci-300 were wider it would be more ideal
haze324 6:23 PM - 11 November, 2010
yeah to honest, neither are perfect and both are pretty damn good. If the the jogs were a little heavier on the S4 or if there was more separation in the VCI it would super close.

I do however like the crossfader and especially the volume faders much more on the S4.
kraal 6:27 PM - 11 November, 2010
haze so next question is sound quality between the 2 programs... not really out put but there was something qbert did that showed he liked to sound quality on traktor better than serato -- is there a difference in the actual scratching sound?
Rebelguy 6:51 PM - 11 November, 2010
Quote:
haze so next question is sound quality between the 2 programs... not really out put but there was something qbert did that showed he liked to sound quality on traktor better than serato -- is there a difference in the actual scratching sound?


I thought Q-bert just mentioned the problems with the Scratchlive 1khz vinyl tone when you do slow scratching. Not sure that would be a factor with either one of these units.
haze324 7:08 PM - 11 November, 2010
im not playing on good enough speakers right now to tell the difference. I have TSP and used with 1200's and Xone 42 and thought it sounded the best of all my equipment and the NS7 was a close second. With the S4 I've only played on some small M-Audio speakers I'll get a chance to play on a decent system Yamaha system tomorrow.

Something i thought was neatly done is that when not sync'd the jogs and BPM's work just like timecode TT's. The bpm is set at zero and it and fluctuates pitch bend, scratch, etc. and then sets once you play. Also the pitch fader can move .01 increments.

It feels set up like a mini timecode set up.
kraal 11:27 PM - 11 November, 2010
Quote:
Quote:


haze so next question is sound quality between the 2 programs... not really out put but there was something qbert did that showed he liked to sound quality on traktor better than serato -- is there a difference in the actual scratching sound?


I thought Q-bert just mentioned the problems with the Scratchlive 1khz vinyl tone when you do slow scratching. Not sure that would be a factor with either one of these units.

i would think the sound engine would have play into it but i really dont know