BINARY SCRATCH
Apr 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By DJ Solomon
The digital realm has slowly enveloped the DJ world in the past five years, and the digital DJ is here to stay. However, turntablists — who rely heavily on specific techniques of vinyl manipulation such as scratching and beat juggling — have been more hesitant to make the switch. They often argue that these new systems don't have the same vinyl feel or can't do the same tricks. Enter the Serato Scratch Live 1.5 software. It not only allows the most scrutinizing turntablist to easily manipulate the controller records in the same fashion as standard vinyl, but it also adds a new arsenal of features that take the art of turntablism to a new level. With the addition of the Rane TTM 57SL mixer (available this spring), Serato and Rane are blazing a trail into uncharted territory of DJ hardware and software integration.
The TTM 57SL is Rane's next-generation battle mixer. Based on the TTM 56 (which has eclipsed the Vestax PMC-07Pro as the turntablist mixer of choice), the 57SL provides an excellent pedigree to integrate a set of controller buttons and joysticks, bridging the gap between hardware and software. Possibly the biggest complaint from DJs about DJ software is that their focus has shifted from the mixer and turntables to the computer screen. DJs will spend a whole set staring at the screen rather than the turntables, mixer, records and crowd. One of the overall goals of the 57SL, as a computer control surface, is to bring the DJ's focus back to the mixer/turntable setup and allow DJs to access virtually all the necessary controls from the mixer.
MY THREE MODES
The features contained within Relative mode are the most impressive suite of features Scratch Live has to offer. There are three modes: Absolute, Relative and Internal. Absolute is the closest to record emulation: The digital track starts at the beginning of the record and is played in sync with the timecode on record. Internal mode plays regardless of the timecode and offers a set of controls to manipulate the song independent of record control, which is accessible directly from the mixer via programmable buttons. Finally, Relative mode allows the user to maintain forward and backward movement of the record but disregards needle position.
Contained within Relative mode are Scratch Live's “hot cues,” which allow the user to jump to any point in the track on the fly at the push of a button. Each track can contain as many as five hot cues triggered by 10 numbered keys, but now they can also be triggered by the programmable keys on the TTM 57SL. Additionally, Scratch Live now allows the user to jump directly to the first hot cue when a song is loaded into the deck, allowing instantaneous cueing to any point in a song.
The 57SL's programmable controls allow the user to create, edit and control as many as nine lockable loops within the track directly from the mixer. The turntablist ramifications of that feature are almost unthinkable; to be able to maintain total vinyl control while looping any section of a track instantaneously using only one turntable was previously impossible. The act of looping the break of a song (going back and forth with doubles of a record) is the foundation on which turntablism was built. So for a DJ to actively loop any portion of a song at the push of a button right next to the fader almost seems like cheating. Every old funk record that has the perfect 8- or 16-bar break now becomes the ultimate transition record or remixable instrumental.
ROCKING DOUBLES
In the hip-hop/turntablist DJ world, the DJ has always bought two copies of every hot record they want creative control over. They may manipulate the song using an instrumental as an intro and outro into the vocal or repeating a phrase by juggling two of the same record back and forth. That's an expensive habit, unless you are working in the digital realm where you may copy a track and manipulate it in the same fashion as its vinyl counterpart. Scratch Live has made that possible with a feature called “instant doubles.” When one track is playing, the DJ can mount the copy of the original song to the other deck by simply pushing one of the TTM 57SL controller buttons. That feature alone would suffice for the most scrutinizing of turntablists, but it gets better. When mapped, the new copy of the current song automatically plays at the exact location of the original track, making the doubles instantly.
Over time, cue burn (the wearing of vinyl records from repetitive back-and-forth motion) renders records unusable because the sonic quality diminishes to the point that the record is no longer audible. It's common for a pair of records to become so worn from continual back-and-forth wear that the sound turns into just a bunch of hiss. When rocking virtual doubles, the only accumulation of cue burn occurs on the controller records, which are easily replaceable for a nominal fee.
MORE FOR THE SKEPTICS
The biggest reason that a turntablist would hesitate to convert to a digital DJ system is that the feel is not the same or as accurate as analog vinyl. Turntablists are worried that they won't be able to emulate the repertoire of skills that they've developed on turntables using analog vinyl. While there are currently no computer-based digital DJ systems that offer zero-latency, Scratch Live has such low latency that it's nearly impossible to feel the difference between digital files and real records. Vinyl purists are shocked to experience Scratch Live's virtual accuracy.
The bottom line is that Scratch Live allows even the most scrutinizing turntablists to re-create all of their specialized scratches and juggles using their computer, controller records, soundcard and standard turntable setup. But more importantly, it cuts down on the time between tracks, which allows DJs to spend less time getting from one song to the next and more time taking their performance above and beyond any set previously played on standard vinyl records.
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