ADJ VMS5 DJ Controller

Ok, So not exactly new but still a recent addition to my play-out system and worth a review!

I have two MC6000 MK1's but one was being a little temperamental so decided to have a new Mixer!
Having purchased a VMS4 and sold it almost straight away to an 'Old Git' not very far from me I wasn't really expecting much from this sub £300 pound upgrade.

Full Specs :- http://www.americandj.eu/en/vms5.html
First thing to say it's huge! compared to the MC6000 which nicely nestled into my flightcase the VMS is somewhat of a problem, It has no brackets to bolt it in so needs to wedged into place.

That apart this is a very Solid mixer, The sound card is excellent and the Mic inputs do not seem to be as 'Hot' as the Denon or earlier VMS
The Buttons are a little strangely laid out but this maybe due to the fact I am used to the Denon layout.
The Large platters make cueing easy and the different colours on the unit make functions fairly simple to understand.
Not too keen on the switches on the front of the unit as they are a little fiddly but plenty of input options available on the rear.
Do take the time to read the user manual as there are a couple of set up options!!
I use VDJ8 software and this unit works well with it once you download the ASIO driver from ADJ.

All in all a good workhorse with plenty of features and exceptionally good value for money.

Interesting. :) Your cast off controller is still going strong ( tempting fate, I knpw ) and once adjusted to my idiosyncracies by a couple of technocrats, does everything I want.
However, I've seen the 5, and desperately want one, as I knpw some of the improvements make it far more user friendly to fumble fingered Old Gits. :D
Must catch up with you using it some time. I know of other folk on here with the 5, and they seem happy enough with it. Glad you're getting on with it OK.

(Mind you, if the urge to get a Denon umpteen thousand, or whatever they are now becomes irresistible, I'll take the VMS 5 off you for a nominal sum ):D:D

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Originally Posted by Excalibur

Interesting. :) Your cast off controller is still going strong ( tempting fate, I knpw ) and once adjusted to my idiosyncracies by a couple of technocrats, does everything I want.
However, I've seen the 5, and desperately want one, as I knpw some of the improvements make it far more user friendly to fumble fingered Old Gits. :D
Must catch up with you using it some time. I know of other folk on here with the 5, and they seem happy enough with it. Glad you're getting on with it OK.

(Mind you, if the urge to get a Denon umpteen thousand, or whatever they are now becomes irresistible, I'll take the VMS 5 off you for a nominal sum ):D:D

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Make sure you have the new Asio driver installed on your PC and I may just leave it for you to have a play at 'H41'. :beer1:

I absolutely love my VMS5, it literally does everything I need, and is rock solid, it's vastly underpriced in my opinion.

I only have two issues with mine:

1. Buttons are starting to bug me - you have to hit them square on otherwise they don't click. There's been a few times when I have thought I've hit a button and nothing has happened and I've had to reposition my finger and try again.

2. The Sound card outputs are impossibly hot and to get the Mic channels to the same level you have to drive the inputs to clipping. I've ended up setting VDJ 8 autogain to -8 db and then I run the VMS with the gains on the Midilog channels set to 9 o'clock. I've then had to add a small resistor network between the Mic Input and my Mic to prevent it from clipping. I STILL have to run the Mic channels wide open to get them to same levels as VDJ. I've also found the Mic inputs noisy because the Mic gain controls are on the output from the pre-amp, not the input, meaning the pre-amps pick up a lot of line noise.

Unfortunately the Mic input issue seems to be a common problem on these controllers, but it is annoying as it's one of the main things that sets the VMS5 apart from the Pioneer and Denon equivalents.

It's still :Censored: heavy too.

Julian

I had occasion to look inside a VMS 4.1 the other day (a friend had blown it up by plugging the wrong adapter into it - and boy had it blown up!). I'll just say that I won't be buying a controller from ADJ unless they really improve their designs.

My 2nd hand MC6000 mk1 is still going great - but has the same issue as the VMS when it comes to the hotness of the music channels when using VDJ. I've now set my controller mapping to automatically lower the master output level to 50%. With the channel faders at 75% it's still easy to get a full 0dB out of the controller when peaking at 0 on the deck channel in VDJ. The upside is though, I don't have to push the mic channels into clipping to get them to compete level wise :)