Serato Scratch Live using in a club, would you?

[crazydave]

i've seen DJ Yoda use it in Brighton...


worked for me

[legba]

I've talked to a fair few Dj's and mates who are using serato in live club situations now. From what I've seen it's the way to go for sure.

[thc]

plus the bass quality on digital formats jus doesnt compare to dubplates, imo

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.

With the kind of music Pete Tong plays, bass isn't nearly as important as it is in Dubstep. I would only use Dubstep, Grime, Garage, & DnB DJs as a judge.

[product]

no dnb djs i've seen have ever cut dubplates. they all use either cds, or full release/promo vinyl. not that quality doesn't matter, but i've never noticed a large sacrifice of quality. they may have data cds with wavs or something on em though, they may not be playing mp3s.

and how does the bass not compare vinyl vs digital? wasn't the bass made digitally? i know there's analog synths and stuff, but i make bass purely on a digital level. if anything i'd see a loss in quality from the original project file to the vinyl.

[bossi]

to cut things short: its the most stable system so far an it sounds quite ok. its quite practical and you get the vinyl feel. our djs use it all the time. we use pc but it shall be even more reliable on os x. off topic again: product, yr attached clip is sum pain in the ass, even with having 6mbit...

[darkmatter]

Woody, Vadim, Plasticman, Marky, DJ Craze... the list goes on.

If they use it, it's gotta be good.

If you need stability you want a mac really.

My housemates got it running on a little mini mac and it runs like a dream, so on a high powered mac it'll be very fucking stable. So much fun for multi genre mashups, can literally draw for anything.

[daphter]

imo serato is a step towards the future, agree that dubplates are always gonna be the best for sonic quality but if you dont have that option and the alternative is cdj's (for exclusives or whatever) then a ssl setup has got to be the better alternative, so much more usable in that u can see what is coming up drops, breakdowns etc, more of a vinyl feel in that way,

one of my first questions when seeing a demo was can you toggle the waveform view from the zoomed-in 'beat match/ juggle' view you usually see, which u can for example have the whole tune's waveform shown horizontally accross the top left (or right) of the screen, theres also the new rane mixer which has controllers so you dont have to use the laptop mouse to select tunes, havent got my own ssl setup yet but have tried it out enough to see the positives,

irony of living in auckland (where the serato guys are based) i played a set at our radio station party the other week where the hip hop dj's playing before and after me where both using serato, so in order to spin vinyl i had to stuff about pluggin and unplugging the rca's (pretty sure you can spin normal vinyls with it too, just has to go through the setup)

www.serato.com and www.rane.com both have good info as does the forum mentioned earlier in the thread

[darkmatter]

imo serato is a step towards the future, agree that dubplates are always gonna be the best for sonic quality

disagree, a 320kbps MP3 will reproduce frequencies above 16k better than a dubplate and wouldn't wear out, and a lossless digital format will be better than vinyl hands down.

so in order to spin vinyl i had to stuff about pluggin and unplugging the rca's (pretty sure you can spin normal vinyls with it too, just has to go through the setup)

musta been setup weird, all you normally need to do is flick the input from "line" to "phono"

[robotic]

gonna toss in my two pence since i've been endorsing serato for a minute. first off, there's no flac support at this time... according to serato they're working on this tho. secondly, no, it isn't perfect, computers crash (even macs!), and needles, tonearms, rca cables and mixers can be dodgy and you or the club owner might not ever notice it, cuz with dubz/vinyl some sound will still come out even if the hardware isn't perfect (ok, in bad cases aforementioned hardware won't work for that either). which brings me to the third point, that of quality: the best quality (optimal sound in the club) can be achieved by ripping properly mastered dubplates or vinyls on a perfectly functioning turntable rig to wav and playing them from cd or serato - since the rig @ the club will likely never be perfect. those dodgy needles or rca cables ARE affecting the sound of your vinyls and dubplates, usually not making them sound better, whether you or anyone else can hear it or not. this tells us that playing 320k or 256k mp3s is also ok and usually can't be sonically distinguished from playing vinyl on a club system. that said, i still try to play wavs only, simply because mp3 is a compression and, by the definition of the word, something is taken away from the source material which imo is always less than ideal. yes, cutting to dub/vinyl will likely do that as well in some marginal way, but there's a reason why mastering engineers get 60 quid an hour - they do good work, and often improve overall sonic balance (thus maximizing impact on a blanced club rig) beyond what the producer can do himself. however, sometimes they also do shitty work and then yer better off just playing the source. my last point is that setup isn't terrible complicated, and you can mix vinyl wif serato without having to re-plug a thing. only takes me about three minute to set everything up, a bit longer if i have to do it while somebody is already playin (plug in the chan not currently being used by the dj at first, wait for the mix, then plug in the other).

in general, by using serato or something like it ur adding more components/variables to your setup and so in turn more can go wrong, which it will. that said, serato works much better (always has) than the competing products, so if you're a veteran on the decks and ur not fond of using cdjs for whatever reason, then serato is the way to go. if yer just getting into djing, just get some cdjs and get used to that.... will save u from carrying an expensive laptop with you everywhere. and i think everything else has been said already.

personally, i'll keep on using serato, i'll keep on buying the vinyls for that precious mastering bonus (and to support, of course!), and one day i might have nuff fluff to get all dubz cut all the time - cuz let's be honest, there's nothing cooler than havin a bag o rekkidz that only u have and no one else, and a dubz folder on your lappy just isn't as impressive!

[geiom]

I really don't think that -

"the big people use the digital/laptop systems so they must be good" argument means anything really - pete fucking tong and "the ibiza dJ's" for instance I have seen mentioned here ?????

does famous (and rich) equal good taste and quality music ?

my 2 pence

K

[dave]

I really don't think that -

"the big people use the digital/laptop systems so they must be good" argument means anything really - pete fucking tong and "the ibiza dJ's" for instance I have seen mentioned here ?????

does famous (and rich) equal good taste and quality music ?

my 2 pence

K

it depends if a dj is sponsored or not.

if a dj is sponsored, given free stuff and paid then yeah sure, their opinion doesn't mean much.

if a dj isn't sponsored and they buy it in a shop, and like using it enough to promote it using their good name then i think that says a lot.

[daphter]

so in order to spin vinyl i had to stuff about pluggin and unplugging the rca's (pretty sure you can spin normal vinyls with it too, just has to go through the setup)

musta been setup weird, all you normally need to do is flick the input from "line" to "phono"

my last point is that setup isn't terrible complicated, and you can mix vinyl wif serato without having to re-plug a thing. only takes me about three minute to set everything up, a bit longer if i have to do it while somebody is already playin (plug in the chan not currently being used by the dj at first, wait for the mix, then plug in the other).

Cool, clears that up, in that particular instance I had to set-up as robotic stated above, just in reverse: Serato>>Vinyl Only (No Lappy),, 1st time doing it just a bit of a brainteaser..

imo serato is a step towards the future, agree that dubplates are always gonna be the best for sonic quality

disagree, a 320kbps MP3 will reproduce frequencies above 16k better than a dubplate and wouldn't wear out, and a lossless digital format will be better than vinyl hands down.

Guess Im more referring to the 'warmth' of vinyl, admit Im as yet not that clued up on the sonic differnces b/t mass-pressed vinyl and dubplate, "always" perhaps not the best choice of words, at some point its gonna come down to personal preference as others have stated those intangibles and benefit of having the physical dubplate/vinyl/artwork, supporting the scene/ industry etc to consider, some of those benefits could be offset by more download sales and the bigger % to the producer that a more direct sales approach provides, a lossless format or .wav at least would be a better trade-off than a 320kbps mp3, although handy for transfer they do seem to lack in the upper freqs, and how about thier replication of the all-important 'bass-weight' robotic also makes a good point about mastering as a step in the process that could be missing from a 320 dub..

a while back I was shown a photocopy of an image detail out of an a book (dont know the title) which showed the replication of a 30kHz wave on vinyl, that changed my perspective on analogue vs. digital formats in general (realise that there isnt much proof to people registering frequencies to that range but none the less.. )

Seems that at this time those of us playing the music dont really have to outright 'choose' a particular format but would more likely adjust to the given situation, just got sent the 320, bought the .wav/ flac off bleep, just picked up the white that day etc. and that the relative technologies are going to reflect these choices, serato scratch being a good example of a product that does this well

Would also be interesting to hear how those who have invested in the process of recording vinyl collections to HD as .wav's (or ?) have got on..

[dynamixuk]

im gettin it. well im gettin this


http://www.rane.com/ttm57sl.html


and i'll be using it where ever i go.
the stability of the program depends on the machine running serto TBH.

[geiom]

I really don't think that -

"the big people use the digital/laptop systems so they must be good" argument means anything really - pete fucking tong and "the ibiza dJ's" for instance I have seen mentioned here ?????

does famous (and rich) equal good taste and quality music ?

my 2 pence

K

it depends if a dj is sponsored or not.

if a dj is sponsored, given free stuff and paid then yeah sure, their opinion doesn't mean much.

if a dj isn't sponsored and they buy it in a shop, and like using it enough to promote it using their good name then i think that says a lot.

---------Its the "good name" bit I was getting at...!

but even then - big dj's who play a lot can get lazy and just want the simplest format..?

another thing i saw mentioned....
If you are going to buy the vinyl anyway and then record it into a computer surely it would just be easier to play the actual record ?

quality - of course vinyl can't do treble like digital can - but i think that's part of why it sounds good especially when you play it loud...

so its not a question of better of worse - its a taste thing ....

K

[the wiggle baron]

For me theres no contest, nothing better than buying vinyl. Something feels so genuine and worthwhile about the stuff. Feels proper, ya dig?

[robotic]

another thing i saw mentioned....
If you are going to buy the vinyl anyway and then record it into a computer surely it would just be easier to play the actual record ?

well it's easier if yer just playin vinyl. if yer packin the serato so you can play all yer freshest dubz in the first place, then it doesn't make sense to also carry a bunch of vinyl in addition to the other gear, when you could just have another folder on your hdd. also, i collect the vinyl, and have lost many due to wear and tear on the road and from being played so damn much. digitizing your vinyl saves ya from this... everything i buy stays in mint condition.

[digital]

"the big people use the digital/laptop systems so they must be good" argument means anything really - pete fucking tong and "the ibiza dJ's" for instance I have seen mentioned here ?????

does famous (and rich) equal good taste and quality music ?

No it doesn't, but for someone of Pete Tong's stature and experience of using vinyl for years to switch to using Serato must surely say something? Maybe it is a genre thing. I would say that it depends on each DJ's background with different genres and how they got into djing. I, for example, started out as a digital dj, and started using vinyl 6 months after, so using a computer feels more natural to me than straight vinyl, and I'm sure that this an increasing trend as the technology for bedroom and home dj's is more accessible for people than buying 2 turntables, a mixer and a load of vinyl.

I couldn't really give a shit about traditional forms of djing, if something makes my life easier, I'll use it.

[moldy]

Definitely gotta use a Mac for something like this. Far more solid.

[sick boy]

I can understand people who use Serato if they are doing certain gigs, or playing certain gigs, but I would never in a million years spin dubstep over a large system using Serato.

What I'm being made to understand about Dubstep is a lot of the appeal is about the "physicality" of it in the clubs, and you lose a nice big percentage of that physicality by spinning Mp3s.

[metalboxproducts]

I can understand people who use Serato if they are doing certain gigs, or playing certain gigs, but I would never in a million years spin dubstep over a large system using Serato.

What I'm being made to understand about Dubstep is a lot of the appeal is about the "physicality" of it in the clubs, and you lose a nice big percentage of that physicality by spinning Mp3s.

You can use wav. Well yopu can with ableton