What do i need ???

[Rich-M]

Hi All

Im thinking of going the way of digital vinyl with serato scratch.
I want to still be able to use my 1200's with proper records but would like to be able to mix the newer stuff aswell using my mp3 collection.

Ive used tractor to mix digitally with my dennon mc3000 digital mixer but ive sold that now as couldnt plug my decks into it.
I have an 2012 apple mac or macbook air (which ever is best for this kind of set up) to plug in so im ok computer wise.

I wont be doing gigs or playing anywhere im too old for that. just for home use

My budget is around £600 ish but the cheaper the better

What i want is the digital vinyl and proper records at the same time. ive a few questions i need answers to please.

1. do i need to buy a new mixer to go digital. my mixer is a beringer dx626
2. how much will the set up cost (thinking of selling my spare set of 1210's to fund the digital part of my setup.)
3. is it easy to set up and get going
4. is it worth it going the digital route

any help or info would be great ive looked on the serato web site and youtube but its all a little confusing

ive seen this ???? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Native-In...ion_Digital_Vinyl_Systems&hash=item43b9b05835

or this ??? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rane-Sera...ion_Digital_Vinyl_Systems&hash=item41711fcef0


Cheers
Rich

 

[djperkins]

Yoooooooooooo Richy baby

yes...all of it...no...yes...

Yer mixer will only limit you if the number of open channels is fewer than u require, most if not all have the option to have line and phono connected but only one open at any one time, you don't need to buy a different model to use a digital setup mate.
I reckon talkin to Benny D and/or Jigs will give you all the relevant info on which serato to buy and whether to go new or 2nd hand mate...they both Mac daddies as well.
After the big job of recording all your vinyl (I would deffo use wav and not Mp3..huge difference in quality, u only want to do it once and u can always bump them down to mp3 later)...your vinyl can be cleaned, as u go, and then much can be kept on the shelf, digital is real quick to pull and play tracks...much quicker than taking the disc out etc...I know u know this...just sayin to make a point.
Serato/Traktor....Coke/Pepsi prob.
Reet would prob like to hear about your spare decks fella, I would drop him a pm

 

[siman91]

Yoooooooooooo Richy baby

yes...all of it...no...yes...

Yer mixer will only limit you if the number of open channels is fewer than u require, most if not all have the option to have line and phono connected but only one open at any one time, you don't need to buy a different model to use a digital setup mate.
I reckon talkin to Benny D and/or Jigs will give you all the relevant info on which serato to buy and whether to go new or 2nd hand mate...they both Mac daddies as well.
After the big job of recording all your vinyl (I would deffo use wav and not Mp3..huge difference in quality, u only want to do it once and u can always bump them down to mp3 later)...your vinyl can be cleaned, as u go, and then much can be kept on the shelf, digital is real quick to pull and play tracks...much quicker than taking the disc out etc...I know u know this...just sayin to make a point.
Serato/Traktor....Coke/Pepsi prob.
Reet would prob like to hear about your spare decks fella, I would drop him a pm

Very interesting post as thinking the same for myself simply for most of the reasons you have mention DJP. I have 2 reasons for stalling (in fact 3 but one is that I want to spend circa £4k on a new camera!) first I don't fully understand the set up and 2nd, buying a screen and computer for the decks. I have circa 2000 of my own records recorded to mp3 and Wav after being cleaned on my Loricraft and trimmed and balanced on Adobe Audition. My main issue is that I have circa 3000 records in the garage of which about 1000 are recorded but otherwise sit there.

The main downsides of digital are 2 fold, 1 it cheapens the music and 2nd it does not give the feel or pleasure of using vinyl so will not give them up yet.

I assume I can go digital fairly easily as I only want simple usage ie manual mixing with no effects. I currently have 3x 1200's and 2x cdj 800's mkII's into an Allen & Heath S2. I also would only want to use digital part time so assume I can simply play through the digital set up without unplugging if I want analogue. I also would want to use the time code vinyl but also the cdj's digitally, again easy to set up?

S

 

[Rich-M]

cheers for the replies still clear as mud to what i need

Ive pm'd reetlad about my decks see if he wants them

im gunna have a morning at the disc in bradford for a few demo's of set ups etc

ill report back if my brains not fried

 

[Jiglo]

If your mixer has phono and line ins for each channel (and you only need 2 channels, so that pretty much covers just about any decent mixer made in the last 2 decades), then you're sorted with your mixer for Scratch Live. So just to clarify, yes, your mixer is fine/fit for the purpose.

I think SL2's can be picked up for £350 new and SL1 boxes seem to be holding their value second hand, so might not be worth pursuing one unless you can find one really cheap. The advantage with SL1 over SL2,3 & 4 is that you can plug it in and leave it plugged into your mixer without your computer attached and still play your records just by flicking the switches on you mixer to Phono, and then obviously back to Line if you want to play a digital track. With SL 2,3 & 4 you have to click Thru in the Scratch Live software - when you switch to regular vinyl. Just seems better to me to be able to play records without your computer attached. That said I sold my SL1 box after upgrading to SL2.

SL1 is usb 1.1 though and possibly prone to the occasional drop out of sound when playing mp3, wavs, flac or whatever and also the sound isn't quite as good as the 3 newer versions.

Depending on your budget and how you want to use it then, SL2,3 & 4 would be most people's best bets and with your mac, you don't have to wait too long for it to boot up and be ready to play. Both your macs should easily be able to run the software without a hitch. That said, if you do buy an S1 box on ebay and don't take to it, or want to upgrade then you should be able to sell it for what you paid for it. I sold mine to a mate of Benny's for 180, but i just had a quick look at the prices on ebay and they're looking like £250 for one.

If you're serious about buying Scratch Live, then don't waste another minute and get over to the Serato website to download the Scratch Live software and start analyzing your music for playing in the software, that way when you do buy it you're almost road ready (after a few simple performance tweaks).

It's piss easy to get going. You can either let Serato read your iTunes music, or just drag and drop any music, or collection of music into the software and let it analyse them. Depending on the speed of your mac, you could analyze a large collection of say 20,000 tunes in anything from 3 hours to 3 days (which is why I suggest downloading the software now and getting started with the analyzing). After that it's just plug and play. You just connect the box, open the software (doesn't have to be in that order) and drop a tune onto one of the decks. Put a Scratch Live vinyl on the turntable, drop the stylus and it'll play the tune through your mixer and out of your speakers. Simples!

If aren't selling your vinyl, then why rip it? Just play it! That's what I do. The only time it might become an issue for home use (which is what you said you're using it for) is if you're shit at keeping check of your records. There's no point wasting your time ripping vinyl otherwise. The only people that need to do that is people using a digital controller, (or dicers to fuck about with the tunes) as it offers little benefit to pure vinyl emulation.

Is it worth going the digital route? Well only you can answer that.