Gizmo

My recollection of events from yesterday are vague, let alone 15 years ago. But let me be quite clear for the court — those screenshots are not mine. I see a tech house crate. I have never had a tech house crate in my life. And something called “Party Shuffle”? God lord man. Probably lifted them from the Serato site. I’m actually quite deliberate in my choices when showing tracks. I’ve often included Easter egg mentions from people I know in my videos, some of which frequent these chambers. Hell, I got my local cafe a mention in the Fantastical app promo vid. Didn’t even get a free coffee for that one.

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/m/lot-details/index/catalog/70/lot/15116?url=%2Fm%2Fview-auctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F70%2F%3Fpage%3D1%26items%3D1000%26mc_cid%3D944872bc47%26mc_eid%3D4121e2b551 Well this caught my eye. Literally sold some free shit I gave away to visitors at BPM one year. Points for keeping it, and more points for actually selling it on.

They're not discontinued. They simply don't need to attract any more business for them. It's not like DJ companies don't know where to go when they want a turntable made.

It has a lid. Thank god you decided to add this feature over the weekend, specifically due to my suggestion. Now if you don't mind I'll be headed over the comments section of DJ Worx to start drama over someone failing to credit me. Off-off, to the internet! HANDY HINT: I find that gaffer tape is perfect for permanent engagement of the caps lock key. I'm always forgetting and come across as throughly reasonable as a result.

It has a lid.

I'll make sure that you get a special credit when it's made. "Symatic was of no help whatsoever".

I've got the next big thing in portablism coming to the Worxlab this weekend, and need a few people to form a focus group. It's short notice, but if anyone has a few hours on Saturday afternoon, your input will be most welcome. And I have the Rane stuff set up for a dabble too. Drop me a line at 7ps@djworx.com for more details.

I doubt it's anything sinister — I think it's simple economics. I'm hearing different things, but the common thread is continuity of supply for the relatively low quantities being ordered. As DJs we might love them, but I doubt that Shure can order the quantities of parts to make them viable anymore. It could also be that the tooling needs renewing, which is a hugely expensive cost to recoup in a stinking market. Compared to the rest of their business, carts are just the smallest of blips on their balance sheet, and probably not worth them continuing with.

Forgive me if I don't snap the tone arms off my turntables and write an Ortofon obituary based on some hyperbole-heavy PR. I need hands on, and deep thought about the implications, before writing gushing literary praise. Just think about this for a second — the success of Phase is dependent on the key players allowing the Phase generated timecode to work with their software. But if Phase impacts on their future hardware sales, how long do you think they'll allow it to work with their software?

I ended up selling it. Got it working as best I could, but it would have needed more time that I'm prepared to give.

https://djworx.com/random-idea-jog-wheel-360-mode/ DJ Player implemented it.

Serato DJ has to run on something, and it's not the Seventy Two. I'm working on the basis that it's all bollocks until there's a press release from Rane.

I don't think it'll come in gold though. This may be an issue for you.

An update — using standard connectors, I've non-destructively added a pair of RCAs, and have been able to cut some audio. It sounds awful, but I have at least proved that the head can be addressed externally and will cut. Now it's a matter of hooking up an amp to get decent volume, and looking into limiters, RIAA etc. But I'm happy to have got this far.

Got a link?

I've now proved that audio (albeit quietly) comes through the cutting head with my iPhone and a hacked RCA cable. Now to find a suitable way to push audio properly through it to actually cut a record with audio. Small steps.

Confirmed — VRX-2000 is missing a whole preamp/EQ board. Toshi sent me through some info, including pictures of the innards. http://djworx.com/vrx2000.zip I'd say the chances of me finding a spare board are nil. So now it's a matter of working out how I can talk to the cutting head directly from an external source, if at all.

I will not stop until it works. After that, I have an idea that could be really cool, but I'm not attached to keeping it. But work it will dammit.

I dropped a cheeky £250 on them. No real surprise that they didn't even respond. Getting noise from the cutting head might actually be a plus. I get no noise at all. Try playing some audio into it and see if you can hear that. Toshi has confirmed that I'm missing a rather important part, and is suggesting that I add an RCA input and use an external source to feed the cutter directly. Early days, but I'm confident of getting it running.

I'll definitely share it, no matter what form it's in. I suspect it'll be in electronic form, and is coming from Toshi himself.

Mine just arrived in on-brand orange. The package is so nice — it's like one of those nice cakes that you don't want to cut into. Seems a shame to actually use them at all.

UPDATE: All being well, I'll have every kind of VRX schematics and service manuals soon, direct from the source.

Had that confirmed this week too. A lot of Vestax production runs were like that, and I imagine that the VRX is no different. Ta very much on doing the photos. Any starting point is useful. Hopefully, ours were made at the same time, and are at least similar. Obviously, you can throw questions at me too about yours too.

Have you tried and bypass the circuitry and use a standered amplifier? Just connect the terninals to the output speakers of a amplifier, Turn the amp up slowly and listen to to the cutting head. You should be able to hear sound coming out of it. Its a good test to see if the cutting head is actually working. Once you have that working. Then atleast you now the main heart of the lathe works. Yeah I'm thinking that passing audio directly to the head is a good test.

I have the Vestax VRX-2000, but have hit a brick wall with restoring it. https://djworx.com/help-me-fix-my-vestax-vrx-2000-vinyl-cutter/