When you’re a DJ company, and you just happen to have a DMC champion working for you, it makes sense to put those skills to good use to promote your newest gear right? And that’s exactly what American Audio asked Edgar Bernal aka DJ Etronik to do with their VMS5 controller.
Before the comments section gets to work, I’ll preempt this by saying that this is a £299 controller. And yes, you can get a much better vinyl emulation from using turntables. But this is a £299 controller, and not about vinyl emulation — this is very much about providing as complete a DJ experience as you can from for a lump of hardware that doesn’t cost a lot of money. Ergo, it’s a £299 controller, and for me it’s performing incredibly well for the money. If you want vinyl like feel, get some turntables and put vinyl on them.
If however you fancy dipping your toe in the DJ pool, or just want a portable backup, the VMS5 looks to be a very cost effective option. Skills however are not included.
My biggest issue is if I am in a club and a DJ starts doing all that then i’d have to walk off the dance floor as I just can’t dance to it. I think it’s great DJ’s can do all these tricks (I can’t scratch for toffee) but when it comes down to it being a DJ is surely about making a dance floor bounce. But then that could just be me and how I DJ and me getting my old man syndrome on :) – Having said that it’s great to see that it doesn’t matter what equipment you use, if you are good enough, practice enough you should be able to use anything to do what you do best,
You’re right, it’s not for dancing to. It’s to showcase the controller (and the skills of the DJ). It wouldn’t be a very exciting product demo if he just mixed one track into another, would it? This type of “performance DJing” is commonplace at exhibitions such as BPM (because it draws a crowd to the stand) or DJ competitions like DMC. I suspect a club set from Etronik would be very different.
as a scratch dj myself i think he wasnt good, way too sloppy.. if you’re gonna scratch in a club do it clean with pauses in between.. like a bass player knows when to stop the notes in a funky solo
You should look for DJ Godfather or DJ Assault for example.They both makes tricks and scratch while keep the dance floor “bounce”
I dig it
I wonder why so many promotional videos focus on scratching / “turntablism”.
How many end users will actually work their $399 controller like this?
How many rather just do a-b mixing with some fx?
I think the industry has been headed in the wrong direction for quite some time.
Especially Native Instruments (among others) heavily promotes their gear like this.
But no one buys a D2 – because no one understands the true benefits of that controller.
Make tutorials, show the amazing workflow, let people know that you can be a creative DJ without jog wheels, show the real benefits of the gear.
Inspire people.
No one is impressed or will buy a controller because some turntablism god is scratching on some cheap ass plastic wheels.
Scratching on controllers was possible on the same level since the very first all in one (Vestax VCI-100).
We’ve been saying the same thing for years.
Watching a DJ just mix is utterly boring. A scratch demo however is more attention grabbing, and is a true test of how well a jog wheel performs. This is after all one of the first questions asked when a new controller comes out.
But with each new promo comes a new wave of boredom. The industry needs to change the way it interacts via video. They also need to think outside the box and realise that a promo video doesn’t have to be a literal demonstration of features.
Well…you’d end up with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkGCSSZlluo
So everything except scratching is boring and lacking skills?
Don’t think so.
People do what they want to do. There’s plenty of gear already out that caters to what you are talking about. NI S8, S5… Novation ETC.. And here you come expecting all gear to cater to your particular style.
Talking about the £299 controller, the tiny buttons are so cramped northside of the wheels… oO
Did they still use the exact same case to fit bigger wheels ? Features seems ok, built fabrication not that bad, aesthetics is getting a little better but ergonomic is still not there.
They need to take advice from people that could really use it not from people that imagine how other could use it.