In my opinion, I tried to separate things and keep them simple,
when the mic is connected through the VCI, you will have issues with latency,
so I decided to run everything through a separate mixer,

I used the mackie 402-VLZ3, with this mixer I can run the sound from the VCI and microphone through separate channels, this way I can control each source, applied the correct amount of gain and equalization and also put less stress on the MAC and the VCI.

I have never had a problem doing things this way.

my 2 cents

DJ CheLe

+1 with the above post

the real workaround solution is plug the VCI into another mixer. Now it doesn't have to be full blown DJ mixer. You can get a cheap less than $100 mixer and use that to isolate your Mic and plug in the VCI into a free channel and adjust accordingly from there.

It's interesting. I Routed my mic through my mackie board back into the Aux in on the VCI and I am getting the exact same distortion issue. The reason I routed it back was so I could ultimately record my mix inside the VCI for podcasting. So frustrating. I'm 2 days away from sending it all back to PSSL and get my money back on the VCI and the VFX...super lame. Wish there was a real answer besides the work around of an additional piece of gear.

by the way, no difference in 1.3 or 1.5 beta.

Hi Phil Anthony.

First up can you please give me your laptop specs? (MCPU, RAM, hard drive, any other USB devices used, any USB hub used/if so is it powered)?

Secondly can you please make sure you are doing everything in this article:
www.serato.com

What USB buffer latency are you running at in ITCH?
If you lower it or raise it do you notice a difference? (Press 'apply' to make these changes work).

If you remove the VFX, is there a change?

Matt,

I was running at 1 with regard to my buffer setting. I have had VCI/VFX both running direct to the computer and through a powered USB hub. By the way, I did everything suggested in the article.

It does happen with the VFX both unplugged and plugged in. Usually starts off like everything is fine then the mic function will degrade after about 15 mins of running itch. This isn't always the case - still totally unpredictable.

System Specs

Macbook Pro - 2yrs old
2.6ghz 4 gigs of ram
10.5.8 OSX
Firewire 800 500gb external Lacie drive

I will play more with the buffer settings tonight and see if I can isolate the problem to a certain setting. Based on the above info is there anything else you need from me at this point?

Phil

OK. First things first.

You will need to make sure the VCI-300 is in no way connected to an external USB hub.
It will need to go directly into the Macbooks 'good' USB port (check the article to find the good one). This is always needed.

Test with this new setup with the USB latency and see how you get on.
I'd make sure you are testing with no other USB or Firewire devices connected too just to eliminate any other conflicts for now. (When you are working fine, you can add things one at a time until everything is perfect.)


Do you also have any kind of file back system, or scanning system?
Do you have any sleep or screen saver modes you haven't deactivated yet?

Yeah man, everything is deactivated. I play everything off my external firewire drive so there is no way to not use the external hard drive. I ran everything direct tonight from the good USB, no hub, and messed around with the latency. Unfortunately the mic is now consistently f'd after about 10 or 15 minutes no matter what the settings are.

Going to send this unit back and give another VCI a try. Can't handle the unpredictability and I have too many gigs coming up that I need to depend on this thing.

To summarize, I have done everything in the article and everything you have suggested besides playing off the internal drive and the mic issues are there.

Phil,

just my opinion,

I always keep things simple,
the less elements the better
I have been doing this for the past 6 months and I have not had any issues at all,
I have played 6 hours sets with VCI and MAC, and no problems at all,

I used to run from an external hard drive, run mic from VCI and I used to have issues,

Since 6 months ago, I run all my music (60 GB) from the MAC hard drive and the mic from a separate mixer, I set my latency at 10 and Voila! 6 hour sets with no problems,

Vestax VCI-300 and MAC are a beast!

P.D. I am not running VFX-1 until the final release comes out, then I will give it a try and make sure it is solid before I use it in a gig.

my 2 cents

DJ CheLe

Hi Phil.

The reason why I keep suggesting to test without the external drive, is that it may be causing the issue by drawing too much USB bandwidth.

The simplest solution and test is to remove it for the time being.
Putting a few tracks on your internal hard drive to test as suggested is much easier than any other test.

If you can do that, and then test using other USB ports then we can gauge what the issue is.

Cheers.

Will try to test tonight or sat without external. One other thing that I noticed is that even when the Mic does work, there is a significant audio dip in the music that is playing when one talks on the mic over music from the VCI. I would say the audio dip on the master is a good quarter.

Anyone know if this is by design or just another flaw with the Mic? Either way, it makes the VCI mic completely worthless if you wanted to have a vocalist or another musician join you unless of course they are mic's post VCI. One more check in the poor design box.

Cool.


With the dip can you please check a few things:

Your channel gains are set so the audio on each channel is one red and just faintly touching the 2nd red.
The master volume is set to no more than 3o'clock (aiming directly to the right).
The 'Overdrive' is set to zero in the Setup > Mixer screen.
In the MIC/AUX screen, the TRIM, EQ HI, EQ MID and EQ LOW are all reset (Ctrl+click to reset).

Does that still happen when you are set like this?

will check this evening and let you know.

Cheers.

Followed all your suggestions. The dip is still totally obvious. At this point I think I have a defective unit. Your thoughts?

Is your Headphone Overdrive also set to off?

The audio is mixed in the software, so I don't think it will be the unit...