Hello,

Well about 2 weeks ago I decided to go down the digital route after seeing a couple of friends using serato scracth live.

For those that don't know anything about this program here is a quick overview. Scratch Live alows you to bring together your computer and your normal cd players/turntables. This alows you to mix/scracth using your current system but with the ease of all your audio files coming from your pc (xp or vista) or Mac.

When you first recieve the program you have to go to the website and download the lastest version of the program from the scratchlive website. This does not take long if you have a broadband connection. Once you have installed the program and plugged in the scratch live usb interface you can start running the program. I do need to say at this point you DO need a fast processer if to run this program!!!! I am running it on my HP Vista lappy.

One of the best points to this program is the way it interfaces with itunes. When you start up the program (and select the option) you will find all your itunes playlists appear. So you can burn in all your songs via itunes, tital them and select which playlist or create playlists and they will automatically update in serato. Once you have finished putting in all your tracks via itunes you then have to go in and build the overviews and add the bpms to each file which takes time but no longer then pcdj does at this point (and pcdj doesn't interface with itunes).

After all this is done you are ready to start playing. The serato scratch live usb interface has two inputs so you can plug your cd players/decks into it and then 4 outputs. 2 of the outputs are for your computer outs and go into channels 1 and 2 on your mixer and then 2 through outputs (incase you want to play normal audio cds) to plug into channels 3 and 4. You also get a Microphone in and out this allows you to record your mic and sample it or scratch it etc. The USB interface is powered via your computer but you can also power via a 9VDC plug.

The program comes with 2 control cds/vinyl which you need to control the program. Each cd/vinyl basically contains a control signal (which sounds like your computer connecting to the internet on an old dial up connection). I have only used the cd's so far so that is all i can really talk about. Firstally turn off your master tempo button on your cd player as this screws up serato!!!!! Master tempo is yet to be added onto serato but will be added in the near future so I hear. Once you have your cds in your cd player you can load a file into your 1st deck on serato and away you go. You will see that the screen is nicely laid out and not cluttered. You will also see that in the centre of the 2 players you get a audio display of each track. Firstly you get a tempo display that once lined up means your tracks are running at the same bpm (but not it sink). You then get a small full display of the track which allows you to see the track. The Main waveform display provides a close up view of the track as it is playing including colour coding to show different frequencys of the sound. Finally you get a beat matching display that shows the postion of the beats in the track.

The control cd's allow you to play the track, cue the track, scratch the track etc. You can also switch to an internal mode where you can control it via keys on your laptop (but why would you want to do that). Each track can have upto 5 cue points and 9 loop points.

I have found this program is fantastic and also helps with the clients as it does not look like your checking your emails all night as you are still playing the songs on your cd player (or if you want to be fancy on your turntables).

If anyone has any questions then please feel free to ask. Sorry for any spelling or grammer errors and I hope it wasn't to pointless This is my 1st time reviewing anything.

Gav

A great review!
Interesting.

What sort of prices are we looking at for investment, suppliers, etc?

You can buy them from some shops for around £380 but you can go to ebay and get an imported one for 300 pounds.