Gonna buy Serato Scratch!!!

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:53 am

Cheers, wilxon - you're a gent!!!

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:04 am

You're still trying to figure out which way to go too eh patch?
Mixvibes looks cool, but I still got all the usual questions. Will it open and play nice with ableton etc. so I can record onto audio tracks in Live?....

It doesn't explain very well on the site about how it attaches to your computer, but it says it goes directly into your soundcardm no adapter needed. Yet it mentions something about 'connections' and never explains it. I'm confused but intrigued. Great price too.

Wait a minute, shit... Is that pc only?!!!

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:29 am

glitchrock-buddha wrote:You're still trying to figure out which way to go too eh patch?
Mixvibes looks cool, but I still got all the usual questions. Will it open and play nice with ableton etc. so I can record onto audio tracks in Live?....

It doesn't explain very well on the site about how it attaches to your computer, but it says it goes directly into your soundcardm no adapter needed. Yet it mentions something about 'connections' and never explains it. I'm confused but intrigued. Great price too.

Wait a minute, shit... Is that pc only?!!!

Want to buy a good laptop???

Transienta · Post by **Transienta** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:32 am

Hi Patch

Based on my experiences I would advise strongly against Mixvibes. I've owned it and my main issue was that I never got the pitch tracking to work properly. It just fluctuated wildly, I couldn't hold a mix for more than 20 sec even using two copies fo the same track set at quartz locked 0. Now this was using thier vinyl generation 1, which they don't even support anymore (so you have to upgrade to version 2).

Documentation was ridiculously vague. Support is virtually non-existent. You're welcome to post on their forum (you MUST register with your license to access them) and they or a kind user MIGHT help you, but too often, I've seen enquiries either ignored or flamed. As far as they're concerned your setup is to be blamed, not the software. To be honest, they're plain rude.

Also, a lot of the selling points they list are either incorrect or simply "best case lab results. 1 ms latency? yes if you have the a really high end sound card (=RME or motu) and that's just counting internal latency as far as I can gather and doesn't really compare to the 7ms Serato lists. VSTs? Sure, if you really dig crashes. Midi implementation is weak, confusing and you have to script it. Video is still buggy AFAIK. Users not using phono pre-amps seem to have more problems than those who do. (I was using the line out of my TTS so I had no need for pre-amps, but still had problems).

Updates are slow and more often than not add buggy features rather than fix existing ones. It's been hinted that the development team is more or less one person.

At the end I just trashed it (I didn't even bother to sell that piece of ***) I just couldn't deal with the delayed bugfixes and the lousy support.

Still, it MIGHT work for you. I don't know. But I would trust Serato more.

You could also check out djdecks (www.djdecks.be, also a one man development team). It has worked better for me, although it does have some pitch tracking issues (not perfect but far less serious than the ones I had with mixvibes, I can flange a whole track without any problems). The developer is responsive and really helpful. and it only costs about 30 euros, can be used with Serato, FS, virtualdj and mspinky vinyl. There's a demo version you could try for 30 min at a time.

Good luck to you whatever you decide on, but do try out the different offerings to see what fits you most.

Best
Yoshi

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:12 am

Thanks, Yoshi - you've given me a lot to think about. Can you tell me the specs of the machine you used it on, and which Audio Interface/Soundcard you used?

I've not checked the min. specs on mixvibes yet, and the machine you tried it on will give me a good benchmark for what my machine may perform like...

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:35 am

Hi Patch,

I can match turnkey but unable to beat it, i have gone out to a different suppier and waiting for an answer.

Serato Scratch Live = £439.99 + £5.99 delivery.

Have you considered the Rane TTM57SL mixer.

A very good scratch mixer with serato built in, turnkey have not added it to their product list yet.

The best online price i can find for this is £999

For Ableton users we can do this for less.

DigitalReaction = £929 + 5.99 P&P

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:36 am

sorry, i forgot link

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

Transienta · Post by **Transienta** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:37 am

Sure, I've tried it on both a desktop Pentium 4 2,8 ghz 2048 MB Ram and a mobile Pentium 4 M 2,00 Ghz with 512 Mb Ram to the same effect. Soundcards used were Maya 44 USB and Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2Z Pro (with Kx drivers).

Yoshi

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:49 am

Oh crap - that's similar to my laptop specs (except I've only got 1mb ram). The only difference is that I'll be using an MOTU Ultralite.

I wonder if that'll have much of an impact on the performance of mixvibes???

wilxon · Post by **wilxon** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:51 am

wilxon wrote:
Have you considered the Rane TTM57SL mixer.

A very good scratch mixer with serato built in, turnkey have not added it to their product list yet.

The best online price i can find for this is £999

For Ableton users we can do this for less.

DigitalReaction = £929 + 5.99 P&P

Mixer in stock ready for Next day delivery.

Transienta · Post by **Transienta** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:14 am

Difficult to say. Mixvibes doesn't have a demo for trying out vinyl control and they don't retail in stores as far as I know.

I think sound card has a great impact on latency and stability but not so much on vinyl pitch tracking. I'm not sure tough. You could always try and see if Djdecks is for you. All you need is a pair of Timecode vinyls or CDs.

Yoshi.

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:43 am

Thanks for all your input, yoshi - I think I *might* give mixvibes a try. The price is definitely right, and I think I can get away with the pitch tracking as I am only going to be using the decks for scratching. All my mixing/arranging/recording will still be done in Live. Although - I still like the idea of Serato. The Serato interface looks like something I could *definitely* use for beat juggling...

Decisions, decisions...

marqs · Post by **marqs** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:50 am

Serato Scratch Live is the KING!

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 11:58 am

marqs do you use Serato with Live??? I'd love for somebody to try recording the scratched output from Serato into a Liveset and let me know how it went...

marqs · Post by **marqs** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:10 pm

Yes I own Serato Scratch Live.

Patch wrote:marqs do you use Serato with Live??? I'd love for somebody to try recording the scratched output from Serato into a Liveset and let me know how it went...

What do you mean by that? What exactly you plan to do?