Day 1:Lines on cross fader started to disappear
Day 5: Bottom half of lines on crossfader completely gone
Day 10:VSM4 settings figured out 100%, find out mousepad is 100% useless, a laptop from 1995 has a better trackpad on it.
Day 11:After a day of diagnosing and resarch, find out output on VMS4 just requires a 75% increase on amplifier gains to reach levels of industrial standard. (Overall output decreased by ~3-6db).
Day 20: First gig using VMS4 (Halloween), zero problems.
Day 28: First round of competition, can't hear my cue in headphones because of a Eon Monitor providing 98db towards me. Sound guy confirms my setup produces lowest output out of the 7 other DJs competing that night.
Day 37: 3rd Gig, Venue has RGB lights on DJ, dimness of VSM4 lights, creates issues seeing what lights are actually on VMS4, again monitor causes issues cuing music in headphones (ADJ sent HP-500s basically to shut me up these produced less DB then my Sonys, but are much more comfy).
Day 59: 4th Gig Wedding, jog wheel gives erratic readings throughout the night. Cue Channel 3 requires to be pushed multiple times before working, vinyl/keylock follows suit later that evening.
Day 60: 5th Gig New Years Eve. Right three buttons lower buttons (Cue/Play/Pause) sink below case. Using VDJ I was able to use channel A/B while I worked on the buttons. Something everyone should try at 11:30pm on NYE. Took about 5-6 minutes.
Stashes VSM4 away, speaks with support, 2-4 week turn around $25 to ship + shipping back + labor + parts to "maybe" fix it.
Fast forward to last night Feb 15th, small bar gig, using VMS4 first time since NYE in a gig. Channel 2 plays at about -10db LOWER than the rest, even cloning the deck, I can reverse crossfader same results. Buttons continuously get stuck under the case, other buttons require multiple hits to work.
I'd bet for me to get this unit fixed, it would be about $100 round trip and I'd still be far below industry standard.
Channel 2 ouput now has just ruined it for me. I was so close to purchasing a 4.1
Oct 2011- Feb 2012, 6 gigs (36 hours of gig time approx.) and I have a mixer ready to be replaced. Beware.
BTW this particular store had FOUR VMS4 that were non-functional, one on clearance that made mine look like a jewel. The pitch fader lines had faded on this one. The jog wheels didn't spun off center, really really bad. I guess it was 'fully functional' but it had seen better days. No VMS4.1 on the shelf but they did have 1 VMS2 there.