Traktor to Serato Blues

[wildweaselmi 1]

I moved from Traktor Scratch Pro to Serato Scratch Live simply because it works with Mac OS X far better (far less CPU utilization and the response times are much better in Serato)

Now for some negative feedback on Serato versus Traktor. Serato comes with RANE Sl1 or SL3 and Traktor comes with Audio DJ 4 or Audio DJ 8. With Serator and the RANE SL-1, SL-3, MP-4 or TTM 57SL are the only items you can plug in to make Serato work. Serato won't even come up if you do no have this hardware plugged in. Traktor launches and loads and plays regardless of what you have plugged in (I used Traktor for awhile with an M-Audio sound card).

No big deal, I got over that, but now the worry is backup or failover. If my SL-1 dies, then what is my backup. Before it was an old m-audio sound card but that won't work with Serato.

Another issue. With the RANE SL-1 plugged in, Serato is the ONLY program that will feed music to it. Meaning no playing from iTunes, MegaSeg, Traktor, Virtual DJ, kjams, nothing else. If I do a wedding I prefer to use MegaSeg because its pretty simple to use and a no brainer. With Serato, its more hands on for the full 6-8 hours. Also if you have software issues with Serato, no backup exists.

So I feel currently that moving from the Audio 8 DJ Sound Card to the RANE SL-1 or SL-3 was a HUGE step backward instead of forward.

[wildweaselmi 1]

For some reason, Serato Scratch Live has been going into a (not responding) state which causes my system to slow down to a crawl.

Any ideas what's going on?

From what I have read and seen with my own two eyes is that Serato is heavily used but I am wondering why at the moment.

[rev.dennis 3]

Main reason for Serato Scratch Live going into a (not responding) state is it can't find the music library/database. Normally this is because we have our large amount of music and video's on external drives.

So first make sure if you are using an external drive that you are not relying on bus power only (if it has the ability to add a power supply, plug it in).

You can also try this:

1. Completely quit SSL.

2. Click on the 'Start' menu in the lower left corner of your desktop (XP).

3. Click on your 'My Music' folder (XP) or 'Music' folder (Vista).

4. Open the ScratchLIVE folder.

5. Rename the databaseV2 file to something like "corruptdatabaseV2".

Now open your external drive (if your using one).

6. Open up the _ScratchLIVE_ folder.

7. Rename the databaseV2 file in there as well.

Now re-open SSL.

If done correctly, you should see your tags getting re-written at the bottom of the screen.

[wildweaselmi 1]

I plugged a power supply into my bus powered LACIE little big disk QUADRA drives and no more issues at the moment.

If I keep getting the (not responding) I will repost here. Not doing the database rename as you suggest on my Macbook Pro unless it happens again.

[wildweaselmi 1]

The addition of the power to the external drives has corrected my issue.

Now my complaint in regards to Serato Scratch Live is how slow it is.

HARDWARE

2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

Mac OS X Version 10.5.8

RANE SL-1

SOFTWARE

Serator Scratch Live Version 1.9.1 (19136)

Very Slow to open and Close Serato.

Times:

OPEN Serato Scratch Live = 1.5 full minutes (which includes loading iTunes)

CLOSE Serato Scratch Live = 1 full minute.