I saw something where a guy was complaining about the massive deadzones in the middle and on the ends of the VL12 pitch fader. Is there an LED light near the center to tell you when you’re in that big center deadzone, you know, that turns off when you’re out of the deadzone? I don’t mean a light that turns on if you turn on quartz lock independent of pitch fader position.
iirc the light only goes on if you hit the reset button
Little indents, lights that come on at 0, nothing at all. It’s seems to have been a design question for every manufacturer for ages, both on turntables, CDJ-like media players and all-in-one controllers.
Personally I don’t really care. If I use it, I play it by ear, I don’t look at the fader when operating it. I can always cheat by looking at the deck display (or on the deck display of the computer) if I have a reason to make sure it’s at 0.
Back in the old days it was slightly more important, as a record would only be at true key when at zero, anything off would change the key. For that reason a wider dead zone would be a bonus I think, as it is easier to quickly set the turntable to 0, even when you are not exactly spot on.
I do agree that if there is a light, it should always light up as soon as you are in the dead zone (without having to hit reset) and go out when you leave the dead zone. Anything else would sort of defeat the purpose of the light.
How are you supposed to know when you’re out of the deadzone with an analog record and no DVS on the VL12?
Last time I checked, that is what the strobe ring is for 
While the SL1200 had 4 rings (the shiny dots) for (off the top of my head) + 2 semitones (6%), +1 semitone (3,33%), 0 (zero) and - 1 semitone (3,33%), the VL1200 has only one. While I haven’t played with one extensively yet (just at trade shows), I am assuming that the ring will only show 0 (zero) pitch at 33 and 45rpm.
Shoot me if I am wrong, but this is my two cents worth.
It’s a single row, so it’s only going to be accurate for either 33 or 45 rpm at zero, even if that.
Looking at the manual, there’s some vague talk about the platter rotation being “out of phase” and seeing the single set of marks moving, otherwise they appear stationary. Out of phase with what, though?
Out of phase with the 33 or 45 rpm at either 50 or 60Hz I am guessing.
For complicated routines where I am going through 8 or 9 records in a 7 minute period, I memorize the fader positions. This way I only need to beatmatch the first record by ear and just increase or decrease the fader positions slightly to match, so a large dead zone can be a pretty big hindrance. Luckily I have never come across a pair of VL12’s in the field.
That is a high tempo indeed. Something that certainly wasn’t common back in the day 
(Yep, I am old).
Are you doing actual vinyl or DVS-like?
I do both DVS and real vinyl in my hip hop and breakbeat sets.