First time playing

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Contents

First time playing out with SSL

Before the gig

  1. Read the manual.
  2. use iTunes to organise your music into playlists (house/hiphop/95-105bpm/whatever you like) before you buy Serato SL - it has the ability to read these & so this will save you time later on. If you don't like iTunes, you can download the latest Scratch Live Version (you just have to give an email address, e.g. you need to have an account to the SSL forum). You don't need to own the hardware. After installing you can import your audio files, build overviews, set cue points and more using the internal player and you can organise your library into crates.
  3. buy a power supply for the interface box so that the laptop does not always need to be turned on (in case of emergency or in case other DJs will be using vinyl or CDs before or after your set) it is centre pin positive, 9V with minimum 300 mA and i think it is a type N plug
  4. have back up vinyl or CDs in case of emergency. if you are using CDs then you can copy the control CD onto a new disc and fill up the rest of the disc with music so you don't even have to load a new CD.
  5. test everything at home before your first gig to make sure that you are familiar with all of the cabling and set up procedures.

At the club

  1. be meticuluous with your connections. grounding/earthing is very important as is a good stereo signal---if you can't get a good green circle in setup then your turntable may be dead on one channel or mono across both channels. this could be a faulty cable/phono plugs (replace), bad connection at the headshell mount (clean with a cotton bud & solvent), or faulty cartridge (replace).
  2. clean your needles regularly (with a stylus brush!). they can gather a lot of dust as you are playing the same piece of vinyl constantly. dusty needles can cause bad tracking & serious problems such as dropouts. if you have missed some dust and the track playing is dropping out due to a dusty needle (big emergency!) you can switch to INTERNAL mode which will allow you lift the needle off the record & clean it. you can leave that tune in INTERNAL mode and simply mix out of it but if you need control of the record again for scratching, pitching, spinbacks or whatever you can drop the needle back on to the record and switch to RELATIVE mode (which ignores the position of the needle on the record). don't forget to switch back to ABSOLUTE mode before you put the next track on.
  3. if you are recording from vinyl or other analogue sources you should try and keep the start gap (before the music starts) identical. this will allow you to use stickers to mark the control vinyl for all tracks. it will also allow you to drop an instrumental mix on top of a vocal mix (and vice versa) without the crowd noticing. to do this, simply drag the instrumental track & drop it onto the vocal mix that is already playing on one of the virtual decks - if the recording is accurate it will drop straight in as if you had beatmatched the two tracks perfectly on vinyl and switched the cross fader.
  4. use RELATIVE mode for skip proof scratching but don't forget to swap back if you want traditional control of the record (for needle dropping etc). if i have a record that is jumping when scratching I always start in ABSOLUTE mode, find the sample, switch to RELATIVE, do the scratch and switch back to ABSOLUTE while the record is playing.
  5. make sure that your laptop is placed where it will be safe & cool as overheating can cause problems.
  6. don't worry if the laptop freezes - you will still be able to mix with the tunes that are already loaded. if it freezes and does not unfreeze within a minute or two simply mix into a regular vinyl record (or CD) and then close Scratch Live (try ctrl/alt/del and use the task manager if necessary). if this does not clear the problem then you may need to re-start your laptop. if you DO NOT have a power supply connected to your Scratch Live interface then you MUST make sure that you connect the Turntable(s) or CD player(s) directly to the mixer before powering down. don't forget to route them through the interface again before switching back to SSL.

that's all i can think of for now. thanks to all the other Serato Scratch Live Forum members for their input - beeZwax

Links

Acknowledgements

Credits for this article go out to:

  • beeZwax


Todo

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