There are various ways to bridge the gap between vinyl records and computers, as we saw last week. You can cut records with digital timecode. You can build controller hardware that simulates the resistance of a motor, or mechanically control digital media using the turntable platter. And then there are the brute force methods, like strapping mice to turntables.

Squarely in the brute-force camp, our friend Ean Golden at DJ Tech Tools has added 7" records to the wheels on Vestax’s VCI-100 USB controller. If you want to do the same violence to your VCI-100 (I love how abused Ean’s VCI is looking, especially with those custom arcade buttons), Ean has a tutorial:

Add Records to your VCI-100 Jog Wheels [djtechtools.com]

The VCI still doesn’t feel like a turntable; I think it’s best thought of as something new and digital. And you do lose access to some of the controls. But I love that it’s customized in this way. Maybe I’ll add hubcaps to mine.

Finding the perfect controller for DJing, laptop music, and so on has tended to mean either buying an off-the-shelf solution, or building one from scratch. But a growing number of users is choosing a third way: find a nearly-perfect controller and mod it to perfection.

DJ Tech Tools, a new blog from three DJs that has grown out of stories for Remix Magazine, has a great story on adding arcade buttons to a Vestax VCI-100 controller. And yes, that’s “arcade” as in gaming — those fantastic, tactile buttons found on vintage game cabinets.

Tutorial on adding arcade buttons to a VCI-100 [djtechtools.com]

Here are a couple of examples of the results:
Sonic Boooom! VCI-100 Vs. Street Fighter
A great VCI MOD rolls off the line!

Speaking of whimsical DJ toys, djtechtools points to DJ Nu-Mark, who has replaced turntables with a “pair of learning toys meant for teething toddlers.” djtechtools can’t seem to find more details, so I turn that to the ever-knowledgeable CDM readership. And Mark, if you’re out there, give a holler. Not totally sold on his DJ name, though it is a big leap better than “DJ Bear-In-Jer.” But the set looks fantastic. (Via.) The video, with Jurassic 5 in 2006:

Sure, there are other ways of acheiving the same result (there usually are), but there’s something wonderfully material about seeing it done on a turntable, and the results sound really unique. PS: said it before, but will say it again, Scratchworx is an awesome DJ web publishing powerhouse.

And if you just can’t get enough Theremin cover tunes:

Heck, even White Castle is getting in on the act. You know, they used to say doing commercial music took away some of the integrity of the music. No way, man. Sometimes you gotta sing about the Sliders. And if you do, you might as well get paid:

Via Metafilter, thanks to Andrew Cordani.

And, yeah, I still think the Crazy cover was the best Theremin video yet.

Imagine a mixer interface applied to a real instrument, and you’ve got the Vestax Faderboard, a “keyboard-like sampling / modular instrument that operates exclusively on faders.” shing02 (Shingo Annen), the designer of the Faderboard, writes in to talk about his creation and let us know videos of this unusual instrument are now available on YouTube. Here’s the first of the series:

Vestax Faderboard Demo [YouTube playlist, via shing02]
Faderboard Overview [e22.com, shing02's site]
Vestax Faderboard Technical Specs [Vestax Product Page]
e22.com
shing02 on MySpace

Some additional details from Shingo:

there are internal sound banks (tones and drums kits) that I selected from a chip that’s the same as KORG EM-1. (it was co-developed by Vestax and Korg)

mostly, like in the video, I play long sampled tones in C that I mic’ed from analog synths and organs.

Shingo says he’s largely a producer/MC, but does play “more free jazz style in a trio called Kosmic Renaissance.” (Sounds and video of the band at MySpace.)

Old news (2003), but interesting nonetheless; I’d somehow never come across this instrument. Other examples of playing via faders? Send them in!

The new Vestax VCI-100 is “a highly professional MIDI controller” that was on display at the NAMM show. While many of us delight in exposing highly cheesy marketing verbiage, I do have to say that in the process of trying to nudge it to get a better photo, I discovered that the VCI-100 is much heavier than expected. Its body is built entirely of metal, conveying a sense at least that it is built like a tank.

The VCI-100 works plug & play with Mac OS X and Windows XP SP2 via USB 2.0, through which it can also be powered (although as usual, the included power adapter is recommended for greatest stability).

Each of the two platters responds either to touching the metal top or the acrylic rim, so they can be programmed, for example, for scratching and pitch bending. The response curve of the crossfader is adjustable within the unit.

The VCI-100 will be bundled with Native Instrument’s Traktor 3 LE and additional MIDI maps are said to be forthcoming. It is scheduled to ship in May for a street price of $499.

More at www.vestax.com

Ed.: After a long string of not-quite-perfect DJ-style controllers, followed by M-Audio’s recent Xponent, which has ample controls but seems needlessly expensive, especially if you’re not planning on using this software, the VCI-100 seems to be the most promising controller coming out. I think it could be a hit not only with DJs but visualists and laptop musicians, too… hopefully we can get specs on weight soon. -PK

VCI-100 Product Page

Previously:
Vestax DJ MIDI Controller with Jog Wheels

The perfect computer DJ controller remains elusive. Serious turntablist DJs, of course, will want decks. But what if you’re scratching homebrew Reaktor instruments, or jogging through video for a VJ set (which, sorry, isn’t really subtle enough to require a full deck), or just adding scratch to a laptop set?

Our own Adrian Anders notes the new Vestax VCI-100 in comments:

Vestax VCI-100 Product Page

Here’s what it looks like on paper (or, erm, website pixels anyway):

1. Jog wheel “constructed with a high-resolution pulse sensor; touch sensor and acrylic platter mechanism”. Have to actually try that out to know what that feels like. Jog wheels have built-in “sensor LED.”
2. Hardware-adjustable crossfader controls
3. USB MIDI connection, bus-powered
4. 90 assignable parameters
5. Plug and play (class-compliant)
6. Bundled with Traktor LE

The controller layout is a little unusual in that there’s a loop/sampler section at top left and generic “effects” controls at upper right. I’m guessing some folks will like that, and others won’t.

Pricing, availability — no official word. Hopefully we’ll hear more at NAMM.

Updated: DJDeals is showing March 2007 availability and US$499 price (lower, unlisted price available):
DJDeals VCI-100

I’d want to test it first, obviously, and I’d take reseller availability dates with a grain of salt, but that gives us a ballpark.

NAMM Hands-on:

More on the VCI-100 from Josh Jancourtz on the floor of the Winter NAMM show:
NAMM: Vestax VCI-100, Heavy Metal MIDI Controller for the DJ

Turntables can slice, chop, juggle, scratch, and make all manner of noise. They can work as MIDI controllers for other instruments, control vibrating chairs, and run interactive art installations. The one thing they can’t do: play musical notes like a flute or piano. And in a daring move to solve something no one had previously seen as a problem, Vestax is building a turntable to do just that. Via a row of buttons and a fader or foot pedal. I think.

Controller One [Vestax.co.jp -- mostly Japanese, but an English diagram reproduced below]

Here’s how it works (as near as I can tell):

Sound: A standard audio record is the sound source; apparently the idea is you use a single-note album (note C) and then bend it up or down. “Voice, strings, sine wave” are among the ideas in the diagram, but — uh — is Vestax going to sell an enitre record of a sine wave?

Individual notes: In one of the worst keyboard interfaces ever, you use a series of buttons to choose pitches.

Octaves and Glissando: The fader can be switched to adjust either octaves for the buttons or bend between notes. You can also use a foot pedal for pitch bend.

Confusion, thy name is Controller One. This appears to be a direct drive machine, so you can . . . scratch . . . your . . . one note. Is everyone else as baffled by this as I am? It’s like the world’s worst sampler: you’ve got a single playback source, buttons and faders for controlling pitch, and apparently no way of controlling volume or expression. The greatest thing about a turntable is, well, the turntable — the ability to scratch this tactile, rotating disc. Yet the primary interface here appears to be a cheap row of buttons.

This makes a little more sense if you look at it a different way: since it’s a standard turntable, you could presumably repitch any record (found sounds, voice, whatever) using the buttons and foot pedal, so you could play any record according to musical pitch just by modulating speed. If you’re good with your feet, you could repitch with the foot pedal while scratching with your hands. Now that’s cool — totally bizarre, but cool. If you can in fact control this with MIDI, I can even envision a chorus of these turntables, directed by laptop, singing in surreal harmony.

I may be missing something major here, though, so I’m going to go talk to Vestax and try to find out what the heck this is. It’s a real product; it’s in the new products section of the Japanese Website. In the meantime, you can puzzle over this diagram. Now if I could just brush up my Japanese, I could get a gig in Tokyo as a copy editor, but you get the idea.

Oh, by the way, you don’t actually need to fly to Tokyo to buy a new Controller One to do what I’m describing — you could just use a control record and software and get the same effect. Remap pitch in the software (especially if you’re using something like Ms. Pinky and Max/MSP, for you fellow avant-garde interactive geeks out there) and assign speed to a MIDI controller. Done.

More commentary on this news item:

DJDeals.com has a photo of the unit on display. They hopefully suggest that “This will certainly move the dj and turntablist further towards acceptance as a true musician as it allows the turntable to become a true musical instrument rather than just a tool for playback.” Except, of course, this still is a playback tool — just with a really complex pitch control.

GearJunkies is on top of things as always, though their Babelfish translation doesn’t help a whole lot.