Serato Updates Scratch Live To Version 1.8
Serato has updated Scratch Live to version 1.8. This official release, after a beta perion, introduces many new features including the ability to prepare your sets without Scratch LIVE hardware connected, needle dropping in Relative mode, auto-looping, MIDI input, AAC file support, new TTM 57SL effects and much more.
New Features:
• MIDI Input – Scratch LIVE now supports MIDI input, so that you can control cues, loops and more with a MIDI controller.
• Off-line player – You can now play tracks without hardware connected. Set up crates, cue points, make loops etc from the comfort of your lounge chair.
• Auto-looping – Create automatic loops in time with the music on the fly
• Needle Dropping in Relative Mode – The drop to absolute position option brings needle dropping to relative mode for the best of both worlds.
• Needle drop to cue points – The drop to cue points option lets you use the minute markers on your control vinyl to jump to cue points.
• AAC support – AAC files are now supported in Scratch LIVE.
• Check for Updates – Opens a web page notifying you of updates to your Scratch LIVE software with one button press.
• New TTM 57SL effects – HP Echo and HP Hold Echo (Bass cut versions of the existing effects), phaser, flanger and a bit crusher.
• Relocate lost files – Move stuff around on your drive, without messing up your library.
• Autobackup – Once a week your Scratch LIVE folder is automatically backed up.
• Tabbed setup screen – A redesign of the setup screen with options under separate tabs.
The Details…
MIDI:
MIDI is set up using the MIDI button at the top of the screen. Turning this on puts you in MIDI learn mode. When in MIDI learn mode, hovering over any UI control button, knob, or other parameter will display a pop-up box showing the MIDI assignment for that control. Clicking on the UI control will display a pop-up box showing MIDI assignment options. Touching a MIDI control will assign the midi control to the UI control. Note: The Scratch LIVE virtual decks are not assignable to MIDI control. Support for additional MIDI devices with platter control will be included in Scratch LIVE 1.8.1.
Off Line Player:
The off line player allows you to do more preparation without any hardware connected.
Keyboard Shortcuts:
The keyboard shortcuts are the same as for the left deck – remember you can click on the ? button for a full list of shortcuts.
File Support:
AAC files are now supported exactly like MP3, AIFF and WAV files. If you do not wish to include AAC files in your song library, turn off the option ‘import AAC files’ on the library tab of the setup screen.
Relative Mode Options:
There are two new options in the vinyl control tab on the setup screen which affect relative mode:
— drop to absolute position: Means that you can needle drop to the absolute position in relative mode. When the needle is lifted off the record for more that 0.5 seconds and moved to a different groove, The playhead will jump to the absolute position. This means you can now skip around the track with the needle but still use cues and loops.
— drop to cue points: Means that you can needle drop to cue points in relative mode. Repositioning the needle to within any of the first 5 minutes on the control vinyl will jump to those corresponding cue points. In other words, moving the needle to within the first minute will perform a needle drop to the first cue point. Moving it to within the second minute will needle drop to the second cue point and so on. If no cue points exist for a track, the first minute will also restart the track.
— restart track on vinyl lead-in: Bringing the needle to the lead in before the first minute will restart the track. This option is always on. Note that if drop to absolute position is on, the vinyl offset setting is considered to be the start of the track.
Autolooping:
5 auto-loop buttons are available on screen at any one time. They range from 1/8 to 32 beats. The user can select the autoloop range with the < and > buttons. Pressing auto-loop for n bars will create a loop start point from the nearest beat to the playhead (within reason), and set a loop endpoint n bars in the future. Pressing auto-loop 1 while auto-loop 1 is active will deactivate the loop.
Pressing a different auto-loop button while looping is active will extend the endpoint of the current loop to the appropriate new auto-loop length. As the auto-loop buttons require the track bpm to be set to work, if no track bpm is set, the auto-loop buttons are greyed out. You can also save an auto-loop to the next available slot. When using an auto-loop, a save button is visible where the lock loop button normally is.
Check For Updates:
There is now a ‘check for updates’ button on the setup screen. It sits below the version number on the bottom left of the setup screen. Pressing the button opens a page in your web browser. This web page will notify you if there are any updates available for your Scratch LIVE software.
New TTM 57SL effects:
The new effects come with the new v3 firmware. To update your mixer to get the new effects, with your TTM 57SL connected, go to the hardware tab on the setup screen, and click update. The v3 firmware should be fully compatible with 1.7.4 (The new effects just aren’t selectable in 1.7.4).
Version 3 Features:
• Phaser:
— Is a pre-fader effect
— P1 Controls the design frequency
— P1 second function taps the bpm as per the filter effects
— P2 Controls the feedback
— P2 second function controls the phaser depth
• Flanger:
— Is a pre-fader effect
— P1 controls the base delay. This is in ms.
— P1 second function taps the bpm. The bpm affects the LFO sweep rate
— P2 controls feedback which provides fullness to the flanger effect
— P2 second function controls the depth which represents the peak delay change.
• Desecrator:
— Is a pre-fader effect
— P1 controls the drive.
— P2 controls the down sampler.
— P2 second function controls the bit depth
• HP Echo:
— The standard Echo, with a high pass filter added to remove the bass
• HP Hold Echo:
— The standard Hold Echo, with a high pass filter added to remove the bass
• LFO syncing – A single tap of the bpm button resyncs the LFO.
Relocate Lost Files:
There is a new button in the library tab of the setup screen, called “relocate lost files”.
If you drag a folder onto this button, it will go through that folder (and all the folders within that folder) looking for files that match with tracks Scratch LIVE has marked as missing. This means you can move stuff all over your harddrive, and then drag your music folder(s) onto this button and all the missing files will be automatically fixed.
Auto-Backup:
For every drive containing the ScratchLIVE folder, Auto-Backup will backup this folder every week, on ScratchLIVE startup. The ScratchLIVE folder is backed up to a folder called ScratchLIVEBackup, found in the same place as the ScratchLIVE folder. Auto-Backup will only keep ONE backup at a time, i.e. it will always back up to the same folder.
Miscellaneous changes:
• Fixed dropouts for some people that could be caused by the ‘auto-fill overviews’ option. As this problem only affects certain users, feedback is appreciated as to whether it has fixed the problem for you. Note: A side effect of the fix is that Auto-gain is now no longer calculated on the fly when loaded to a deck, however the Overview Builder and Offline player still calculate auto-gain.
• Turning off ‘read iTunes library’ now no longer causes the library to rescan all tags.
• Fixed bug where renaming a track in iTunes would cause two song entries to appear in the library when ‘read iTunes library’ is on.
• Fixed mac issue where drag and drop of files onto an area that doesn’t accept files would cause mouse clicks to stop working.
• Fixed when stopping recording, not revealing the recording in the recorded crate
• Added support for the deck level meters when recording channels A or B with the TTM 57SL
Known issues:
• Windows Vista: If you put your laptop to sleep with Scratch LIVE running, on wake the off-line player produces no audio, and turntable input and audio output does not work.
Workaround: Do not put your laptop to sleep with Scratch LIVE running.
• Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard): If you put your laptop to sleep with Scratch LIVE running and the hardware connected, on wake turntable input and audio output does not work.
Workaround: Disconnect your Scratch LIVE hardware before putting your laptop to sleep.
Running more than one version of Scratch LIVE:
Installing this version will by default overwrite any previous version you had installed, however it is easy to have more than one version of Scratch LIVE installed if you wish.
Backing up your data:
Before you make any changes to your Scratch LIVE setup, including installing a new version, as a general rule we highly recommend that you backup your data including your music. The easiest way to backup your data is to simply copy your Scratch LIVE folder to another location on the drive.
• For the drive that contains “My documents”, just copy the ScratchLIVE folder which is in My Docmuments\My music\ to another location onto this drive.
• To back up database and crates of an external drive, copy the hidden .ScratchLIVE folder (which is in the root of the drive) to another location on this drive
The Serato Scratch Live 1.8 Update is free to registered users. More information on Serato Scratch Live 1.8.
