Custom Nonagon mappings for the new Vestax VCI-400.

By Nonagon

It’s been a little more than two months since we posted demo videos of my Ableton Live / Max for Live template for the Vestax VCI-400. The videos were picked up by the folks at Vestax headquarters, who graciously invited me to last month’s NAMM show in Anaheim, Calif. to give in-person controller demos at their booth. Now, after a few rounds of tweaks, some new additions and some documentation, the template and all of its associated Max for Live patches and Live preset racks are available to download.

Features of the template include:

• Five audio channels: four mapped to the default channel strips on the VCI-400 and one mapped to the “Master” section.
• Four real-time clip choppers, providing VCI-400 LED feedback on the playback position of four active audio clips, and allowing tempo-quantized cutting of playback position within clips in response to button presses.
• Four pattern recorders, each of which can record and play back user interactions with the clip choppers.
• Tempo and transport synced LED metronome.
• Jog wheels assigned to audio effects. Jog wheel behavior is fully configurable: touch / release controls effect on / off, while jog wheel motion controls effect parameter with configurable response scaling.
• Master VU meter displays the output level of the master bus.
• 10+ “smart” effects racks in each of the two audio buses:
  • Reverse
  • Beat Repeat (incremental)
  • Stutter (tempo-synced volume gate)
  • Redux (bit reduction)
  • Flanger
  • HP, LP, and BP filters
  • Reverb
  • Granular distortion
  • Volume gate
  • Frequency shifter
  • Fade to grey w/ decay pass through
• Reverb and delay sends on all five channels.
• Tape-style delay implementation with hardware control of feedback, cutoff frequency, and resonance.

Download the Live Set with Documentation

And if you missed it the first time around, here’s the original version of the template in action.