Serato Scratch Live using in a club, would you?

dj $hy · Post by **dj $hy** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:11 am

Easy ppl,

I have a question I need some advice on.

I'm thinking about buying Serato Scratch Live but I dont know if its good enough to play out with...

For those that dont know its a bit of kit that links to you computer and emulates all your tunes on pc onto a timecoded peice of plastic. Thus playing your wav's/MP3's/MP4's like it was on plastic.

The amount of dubs DJ's in dubstep get these days means you need to be rolling it to aford to cut every good dub you get which is why I'm asking this question, spend £450 now n nothing more or keep cutting and have an endless dept to transition....

I know Plastican uses it adn uses it in clubs adn more and mroe I'm meeting DJ's the not only use it but swear by it adn I just wanted to get a more general opp from you guys.

Thaks in advance for your comments

Peace,
Shy

dopedragon · Post by **dopedragon** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:19 am

there was a thread about this in the production forum recently.

basically, it very stable. plenty of big name hiphop djs use it here in the states, which is pretty much a testament to how well it can stand up to some rigorous standards (atrak, jazzy jeff, beat junkies, revolution to name a few).

ive heard it out at several clubs and messed around a bit myself. been saving up for it myself. performance can be tweaked depending on your laptop.

great support/community forums here.

and no, im not gettin paid to say this

dj $hy · Post by **dj $hy** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:25 am

Thanks bro, knew it had to be gd as the states guys are all on it, plus some of our own DJ's are using it so I guess its good enough for the job!

Just interested in ppl's expirence with it.

Thanks man, I may well walk home from London with it under my arm

wedge · Post by **wedge** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:47 am

The thing is though it's all very well saying they're the dogs bolloxs etc (which im sure they are in your home/studio) but there's just too many variables that can go wrong with products such as this in a club/rave.

for a start you need a reasonably good PC laptop, and as most of u know im sure..pc's are about as stable as an ikea wardrobe! what would u do if mid set an error msg popped up 'this program has performed an ilegle opperation and will shut down, sorry for the inconveniance!!) sorry for the inconveniance my arse!!

also PC's only work well when its cold, clubs are very hot and very damp/humid with sweat..pc's fuck up in these kind of conditions. i saw Plastic man last week at Ruffneck in Bristol..it was well hot in there and mid set his pc just turned itself off mid set. not good. also i've seen him before at Level in brizol and there was a problem with the needles. they were workin fine before but i guess the conection wasnt strong enough for the laptop to pick up on or somet. also it seems to take a while for them to be set up after the guy on before. alot of faffing around .

i dunno.. it just seems to me that there are too many variables that can go wrong too easyly. they just seem a bit too volitile and not safe enough for me.. but then despite the odd misshap they seem to work well for man plastic so whatever flicks ur switch i spose.. they just my opinions on the matter.

with the money ur payin for the laptop (if u aint got one that is) combined with the final scratch thing..thats a fair amount of $$$. i play alot of cd's especialy on the show because i cant afford dubs.. and if i had more faith in the final scratch idea then i'd convert today... but i dont.

anyway hope thats helpful..Brapp!

p.s. not slatin u plastic..ur big bruv.

sumone · Post by **sumone** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:58 am

to get a notebook stable depends most on the user in front of it ;p

but yes, needles are most times the biggest prob, just bring a own set!

and ofcoz always have a few vinyls for any worst case scenarios in your bag.

walsh · Post by **walsh** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:20 am

I think this shit is heavy for home use but......

I have seen it fuck up and leave a club in silence for about 10
mins...

plus you have to set it up ect which from what I have seen
takes a while...

plus it will kill the record shops who feed the scene

plus they dont sound as good

plus we have transition, a cutting house who understands what
effect we want our tunes to make!!

plus it looks weird seeing a dj walking in with a laptop and not a
pro box or whatever.

gotc · Post by **gotc** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:35 am

A friend of mine uses it and he says that some mixers block the Serato signal from coming in. So that's a downer.

But I'd like to get me one too. You can be much more creative during a set. Loop certain breaks, throw in some accapella's, accelerate or slow down other music genre's without it sounding too goofy. And if you travel to another country you don't have to bring a heavy recordcase that might be shipped to another location.

metalboxproducts · Post by **metalboxproducts** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:41 am

I'm not to convinced about the instability issues you guys have. The reason i say this is because i know for a fact Richie Hawtin (PlastikMan) uses it every night without any proplems. This guy does six hour sets so he needs something very reliable. The guys not used records for years.
I would say do a bit of resurch and come to you own conclusion.

dj $hy · Post by **dj $hy** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:59 am

Walsh,

I agree the pc thing kinda gets me worried but I'm an IT support specialist so I'm 98% sure a laptop I dedicate to JUST having as my virtual record box will be fine.

The thing you need to check is which version. I have a mate who bought the final scratch version and it did just what you said all the time. He now has Serato and its never happened since.

Thing I was worried about was the quality of your tracks as they are MP3's (altho check the artists who use it) http://www.scratchlive.net/ and select DJs using Scratch Live

Pkus cant I just take my tracks to transition n get them to master them? Anyone know the cost of just mastering them

Sadly we do have to embrace the digital age cos whatever way you look at it, its coming!!!

tootsi dj · Post by **tootsi dj** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:11 am

I use serato and never had no problems with it, apart from when i brought my psp charger instead of my laptop one and run out of battery half way through my show

, but i'd bring a couple of back up records just incase something did happen in a club

metalboxproducts · Post by **metalboxproducts** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:32 am

Tootsi Dj wrote:I use serato and never had no problems with it, apart from when i brought my psp charger instead of my laptop one and run out of battery half way through my show , but i'd bring a couple of back up records just incase something did happen in a club

Love it

digital · Post by **digital** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:34 am

Its all about Macs, I'm about to buy Serato to use with my macbook after serious recommendations from dj's in Ibiza. Pete Tong swears by Serato and his mac. Macs just run better than pc's as from personal experience. I aint ever had 'your computer has performed an illegal operation' or similar with mac, or the other random crashes that pc's bring.

Like MetalBox, I'm not sure about some of the problems that it can bring, as surely using standard vinyl/turntables has its own problems as seen recently at fwd with dodgy needles and decks.

dj phonetic · Post by **dj phonetic** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:35 am

it is like an elektronic drum, it just does not look, feels or sounds the same as a real one...

I do just not enjoy looking at a dj when he uses something like his serato.

coldcut also use his laptop...

digital · Post by **digital** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:39 am

DJ $hy wrote:
Sadly we do have to embrace the digital age cos whatever way you look at it, its coming!!!

Yes, yes it is.

darkside · Post by **darkside** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:07 pm

Used it live last night at RED STAR BAR -worked smoothly.

Chef's also merked my Serato at FWD & DMZ, just be sure to use .WAV files -works very well!

Whistla · Post by **Whistla** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:11 pm

DJ $hy wrote:Pkus cant I just take my tracks to transition n get them to master them? Anyone know the cost of just mastering them

Sadly we do have to embrace the digital age cos whatever way you look at it, its coming!!!

transition mastering (for cd, which is what u wud want) is £60 per hour (if the tracks are all done in the same studio u might be able to get 4 tracks dun in an hour, if you are getting stuff mastered from diff producers, meaning dif studios, this ratio will prob go down to 3 tracks per hour. So basically if you decide to get the dubs mastered to cd/digital you wud be spending the same as buying dubplates anyway!!!

embracing the digital age doesnt mean you need to compromise on what you do, if you are gonna be releasing vinyl (which you are

) what message does it say to the record buyer?? "yeh buy my record mate, i play on serato scratch, but i want you to buy my vinyl" imo if you wanna promote the record shops etc you gotta play vinyl an dubs (jus my opinion)
plus the bass quality on digital formats jus doesnt compare to dubplates, imo

dj $hy · Post by **dj $hy** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:26 pm

yeah but I dont just mean my stuff tho, I'm on about the 10-12 dubs I get per week.....I wanna rep the freshest dubstep but without spare 100's in the bank n free time to go cutting its hard

I earn gd money, but its spent on mortgage n other bits (dont live at home sadly), I cant aford to spend hundreds a month on dubs.

And after hearing the likes of Pete Tong n alike playing it you have to question just how much we may know. I'm sure all these big boys who use it have a had a equal thought about quality and tehy still use it so imo I'd say its ok to use. Stability is a concern still tho but I have to say I'm nearly in store buying!

ppl been saying its no gd but how many dj's do you see in clubs using CD's? I memba a few months back the headliner who played after me (Big name DJ) JUST used CD's...And he owns a huge label...So you gotta ask if ppl are just ignorant (not offence intended) to a new era? I mean I KNOW its not AS gd as getting it cut, thats a given but how much different can it be if HUGE artist like the ones on the scratch site use it?

Personally I'm sold but its interesting seeing ppl views

thinking · Post by **thinking** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:34 pm

if sound quality is the only issue here we should all be busting the nuts of our local club owners - I dunno about you lot but there aren't many clubs around here where the rig is so good that I could tell dubplates from CD/Serato in a blind test.

I'd say go for it $hy man, nuff people use it including loadsa world-class turntablists - if it's good enough for them then I don't think your average beatmatching DJ is gonna have any probs.

That said I cut dubplates lol, I just hate PCs what can I say?

hookup · Post by **hookup** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:45 pm

saving up for SSL and a 15" Macbook right now!

Does anyone know how recording your sets works with SSL? Can you feed your mixer output back into your laptop and record your set using the SSL software or do you need to run another program in the background?

Serato Scratch Live using in a club, would you?

Serato Scratch Live using in a club, would you?

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