November 21st, 2009 – After contacting my local Apple stores last week and none of the staff knowing anything about the Vestax Spin, a product exclusive to them, I bought it off of the Apple Canada website. Today was the estimated arrival date and it came right on time (despite what the UPS site said).
Since it’ll take me a couple days to get a full hardware/software review up (hopefully I’ll have it done by Monday or Tuesday), I figured I’d create a little “unboxing” post since it’s all the rage these days. Without further ado, here are the sexy pictures :
Apple stuff is always boxed within a box. Just means more for me to recycle.
The software is in the pouch, and there’s an extra 1/4″ to mini adapter for your headphones taped to the polystyrene.
Behold…the Vestax Spin!
Looking good!
Looks pretty nice from this angle too.
Here are a 1st generation iPod Shuffle and a 3rd generation iPod Nano for size reference.
The Spin next to a Korg NanoPad for size reference.
In front of a MacbookPro for size and colour reference.
Ooo…artsy filters!
So far the Spin looks like good value for the money ($250 USD/$280 CAD). Although it’s made of plastic, it seems pretty solid. One nitpick is that the white plastic that the “brushed aluminum look” is stickered onto, makes the fake metal look even more so. Other than that, the housing has a good fit and finish.
The knobs and EQ faders have a quality feel although I think that the linear faders for each deck and the crossfader are a little too light in action. Sure, you want light faders when you’re performing controllerist techniques, but I don’t think many will even attempt it on the Spin. It would have been nice if they had more weight, and were a little stiffer. I’m not sure how hard it is to open up the Spin and customize it with new faders, but at that point, you might want to move up to a VCI-100.
When you push the buttons, you can feel the click which helps when you’re mixing in loud environments. Interestingly, loading the decks is accomplished with a directional pad. Oldschool gamers will feel right at home. There’s a microphone for injecting your own voice into the mix as well.
One of the things that makes the Vestax Spin so attractive for someone new to DJing is that it bundles the controller and the soundcard together. One of the questions that a lot of people who want to get into DJing ask about DJ controllers is how they connect it to their speakers.
Controllers like the VCI-100 require the use of a separate soundcard and while Vestax’s VCI-300 has one built in, it costs about 3 times as much as the Spin. The strength in having a turnkey solution for digital DJing cannot be denied even for seasoned professionals. After all, many pros who use DJ controllers do so because they are easier to carry around than their analog set up.
Being a turnkey setup, the Vestax Spin also has another trick up its sleeve: it’s bundled with Djay, a DJ software title. I’ll review Djay when I get to the more in depth hardware/software post sometime in the next few of days. From what I’ve seen so far though, it’s pretty easy to set it up and get started.
According to Vestax, this controller is also fully MIDI compliant, so I’m sure someone will have a nice Traktor set up for it shortly. This also means that you don’t need to to use the Spin with an Apple computer (although you’ll have to set it up with your Windows or Linux software manually). Djay looks like pretty good software to just get your mix on, but for those out there that want to get crazy, you could use other DJ apps like Traktor and combine the Spin with other MIDI controllers for lots of creative possibilities. In a slight aside, the next version of Mixxx will support cue-points and plug-in effects which will make it a great free alternative to Traktor for all your mixing needs as well (it also has MIDI learning which will make it easier to map the Spin).
One last thing I want to touch on quickly is the unfriendly reception the Vestax Spin is getting from some “professional” DJs. Their displeasure generally seems to be aimed towards the young upstarts who, with the cheaper cost of entry the Vestax Spin allows, may undercut the business. My opinion is that while products like the Spin may allow people to try out DJing without making a big investment, that does not mean they’ll be a good DJ. If they end up being good, then they will weed out the weaker “established” DJ’s. It makes everyone elevate their game and that’s a good thing. After all, it’s about the music.
A Vimeo video is embedded below, and for those of you who prefer Youtube, you can click here for the video.
UPDATE : Full review is done. View it here!
20 Comments, Comment or Ping
DJSD
The Djay software is very impressive indeed. It even has a sampler! Something that Traktor still doesnt. The key lock works great, they have BPM detection, quantize mode, effects etc. The main gripe is that the GUI only shows you one thing at a time .. so either you can see the cue point view or the effects view .. not both.
As for Mixxx, indeed 1.8 will be awesome, though I am not so hopeful that the effect plugin stuff will make it in:
http://mixxx.org/wiki/doku.php/1.8.0_to_do_list
But as you can see plenty of other cool stuff is there!
Nov 21st, 2009
ALF
That looks like a really cool unit! At first I thought those were turntables for CDs but that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. I’m guessing it’s Mac only if it’s sold at the Apple store only?
Nov 21st, 2009
Sebastien Orban
Funny, each time something like that is out, seasonned professional diss it because… well, they’re afraid that untrained people will take over their job. It’s funny, because it show that their skill is maybe not as relevant as they want us to think it is !
For example, there’s cheap guitar everywhere, but do we complain ? No, it’s still as hard to learn, even if more people can try to master it.
Writting music, djing, and so on, it’s the same for me. If you’re unsecure with this, it’s maybe because you’re not up to the game…
Nice unboxing Sean ! I’m eager to read about your feeling about it when in use
Nov 21st, 2009
DU2X
thanks for the overview! I’ve been thinking about getting a vci-100se for a while ..but i have to say this is very tempting!
@ALF: … i think just the bundled software is mac exclusive.. the controller should be able to work on windows and linux with any program that accepts MIDI like Sean said..
@ORBAN: well said man..
because its so affordable and accessible to the masses im sure we’ll see some pretty cool and interesting stuff on youtube… i think theres already a video of someone using it at a club.. and someone over at the djtechtools forum said that they were successful in mapping it for Traktor.. very cool! can’t wait for the next review =)
Nov 21st, 2009
Jon
That’s an unnecessarily large box for that.
Nov 21st, 2009
mistervek
hey this was a helpful review. i am new to dj-ing and trying to get a dj controller. i really like music a lot and was wondering if this is good for a beginner? i have three choices first is the hercules rmx, vestax spin and the vci-100. I am really turning to the hercules rmx or the spin do to they have sound cards already in them. if anyone can has suggestions please let me know. another question i have is why doesnt every controller have a sound card and what do they do? i thought you just have to plug the controller to ur computer?
Nov 21st, 2009
chris
very impressive unit, the price alone is worth a standing ovation
I youtubed it and I sooooooo need to have one!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je94NuZrroM
Nov 22nd, 2009
Sean
@mistervek : I can’t really speak for the manufacturers, but I’d assume they don’t include soundcards because every DJ’s set up is slightly different. Some DJ’s need more ins and outs, while some don’t, so it’s difficult to design a product that will work for everyone. Selling the controller without a soundcard and letting the DJ choose what soundcard is a win-win for both the manufacturer, and the consumer. Products like the RMX or the Spin include sound cards because they are considered, at least by the manufactuers, entry level products for beginners. The assumption is that beginners don’t need as many options. The VCI-300 is a high end version of the same idea, but I understand there is latency with the included soundcard.
The difference between a soundcard and a controller is that the soundcard takes the digital sound information out of your computer and translates it into analog so that it can be played through your speakers. The controller doesn’t make any, or control any sound, directly; it controls the software that then manipulates the digital representation of that sound. The soundcard then plays that. That sounds a lot more confusing than it is. Basically, the DJ controller can’t make any sound without the soundcard. The soundcard only makes sound. I hope that helps!
Nov 27th, 2009
Jared
hey I see you have the korg minipad next to it. do you know if it is possible to use it in succession with the spin and record what you have made? The reason for my question is that I have a spin, but want to start making beats too.
Thanks
Jan 16th, 2010
Sean
@Jared: If you want to start making beats with tracks, my opinion would be to get a separate program to do that instead of using djay. However, if you wanted to, technically you could use the NanoPads to trigger cuepoints. You could record your set from the Spin, and then you could build a track that way. Creating a beat with that method is pretty difficult, and you would have to be perfect, because you would be recording the beat live. There are lots of other software programs out there that let you create beats easier.
Jan 16th, 2010
Jared Schwartzentruber
@Sean: Thank you for you response. I have been looking into other ways to make beats, and i concluded the best way is to get a korg kaossilator pro. Even so, i feel like professionals musicians like daft punk, deadmau5 and others use different hardware to make their beats. Do you know what different kinds of hardware/software they use?
Jan 19th, 2010
DU2X
@Jared: Its been said time and time again in many different ways that its not about what you use but how you use it. Wearing Jordans won’t make you a better basketball player, likewise using professional gear can’t always make you sound more professional. I don’t mean to sound rude, I just wanted to make sure that was clear first. If you’re starting out I would wait to buy gear until you’ve learned/gained more experience in making beats. This will save you time/money in the long run.
That said, since a lot of electrionic music is programmed and many software vendors have demos, I would play around with demos first.
However, I get curious about the types of gear musicians use too, here are some deadmau5 clips that might help:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPeUM3Fqx6w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cRt9QeItEg
There are tons of threads dedicated to gear discussion for various artists that a quick google search would yield.
Jan 19th, 2010
Mannik
Hi, thanks for writing this review. I am fairly new to DJing, i have previously been using ableton Live for about 6 months without a controller. I want to make the move onto some hardware and didn’t really like the apc40. I cannot decide between the Vestax spin with maybe traktor or the reloop digital jockey 2 interface edition or maybe even the VCI-100.
I can’t find much information on the reloop but it looks to me the best product. There seems to be many VCI-100 fans around.
Could you shed some light on this please?
Jan 25th, 2010
Sean
@Mannik: Thanks for stopping by! I’m not too familiar with the Reloop Digital Jockey 2, as I don’t think it’s sold in North America. That being said, it seems to be quite a bit more expensive compared to the American pricing for the Vestax Spin and the VCI-100. However, since the Spin is not sold in Europe currently, I’m not sure what it’s price would be there.
The good thing about the Reloop though, is that it has a built in soundcard, just like the Spin. This makes it a lot easier to deal with than the VCI-100 which requires a separate soundcard. However, having a separate soundcard allows you to have more choices, and you could get something nice like NI’s Audio4Dj which sounds a lot better than many built-in soundcards.
One thing to consider is that Vestax is releasing a special version of the Spin for Traktor (right now the Spin comes bundled with a Mac-only dj program called “djay”) called the Typhoon. It’s pretty ugly though, since they’ve basically applied a tacky carbon fibre sticker on the front and painted the faders red. It’s the exactly same as the Spin but sold with a lite version of Traktor.
After playing with the Spin for a couple months, I can say that it’s a lot of fun and having the jog wheel is more tactile than using something like an APC40 to DJ. That being said, I’m not gigging with it, and if I was, I’d probably spend more money to have a more rugged device. The VCI-100 is much sturdier, and would likely be what I would get in the Spin’s place. I would also either get an Echo or NI soundcard to supplement it.
It really depends on how much money you have to spend as DJ controllers can get pretty pricey. You might also want to consider the VCI-300 which comes with Serato’s Itch, or even something like the new Numark N7 which has a real piece of vinyl and slipmats.
Lately, I’ve been building up a turntable set up with control vinyl. I’m interested in the Ms Pinky system, plugged into Ableton Live using Max. You can scratch clips which is pretty much what I’ve always wanted to do. Hope that helps!
Jan 25th, 2010
Mannik
Thanks so much for the help, exactly what I needed to know. Might go for the VCI-100. Ableton is a great program but if you are not the producer or don’t have the midi tracks then its difficult to be creative on the go. Maybe in a couple of years time Ableton will develop cue points and then will be a great DJing solution.
Thanks again,
Mannik
Jan 26th, 2010
DU2X
@Mannik: Ableton and Serato just teamed up and annouced a new application called “The Bridge” which is basically a fusion of Live and Scratch/Itch. Definitely worth checking out if you’re looking for a djing solution with Ableton.
http://www.ableton.com/thebridge
Jan 26th, 2010
@DU2X
Thanks, just checked it out and it looks pretty good. Will definitely check it out when I move onto larger hardware.
Jan 27th, 2010
dj girl
I love my Spin, bought it 3 weeks ago. The boxed controller was not functioning properly (was losing connection to the laptop and eventually stopped connecting altogether) so I had to return it for repair right away. Got a new one back and all is good now. Just a few notes:
1) the USB connection in the controller is in the back of unit making it impossible to butt it against the laptop. Would love to see this moved to the side.
2) if you happen to make EQ adjustments directly on your laptop using djay 3, it’s good to remember that it overrides the controller functions. So when you go back to touch any of the EQ slides or gain on the controller, the settings jump in djay 3 to adjust to those of the controller, often resulting in dramatic changes in audio. So don’t do it with a live track, only when pre-cueing.
Overall, Spin was money so well spent for an ex oldschool dj girl like me who always wanted one of those old-fashioned, massive mixer/2xturntable units but never had the space or money for it. I still have ways to go exploring all the functions & abilities of Spin so I’ve got lots of groovy nights ahead of me
Jun 20th, 2010
Sean
@DJ Girl: Good points…I’ve also encountered the same things.
Jun 21st, 2010
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