What's future look like for Serato

[nitred]

The guys at Serato were pretty confident (almost cocky) on the subject patents last year when the post below was entered.

Well.... On March 16, 2006 N2it's Mark-Jan Bastian was granted a US patent for the audio technology he invented. I'm curious as to how this will affect Serato users here in the US? Currently neither Serato or Rane (or anybody else ) hold any patent on simular technology. I have yet to hear anything from the guys at Rane. They usually reply via email pretty quick. Your thoughts.



August 10, 2005...

"Unfortunately it is true, we can't sell Scratch LIVE in The Netherlands. This is because N2IT (the inventor of the first version of Final Scratch) holds a patent which could be interpreted to include the Scratch LIVE technology (although it is technically distinct). The same patent application was submitted all over the world and was declined in every country except The Netherlands.

If we sold Scratch LIVE or encouraged its use in your country we may be exposed to legal action, and the expense of defending ourselves would not be worth the benefit." AJ-Scratch Live Moderator

[JohnDP]

maybe the cost vs benefit thing is not worth the penny in the Netherlands but it is in the US, so they may defend themselves there and solve the problem.

[DSA.audio]

all the kids i know out here, that are the real techie type, use DJdecks instead of serator/FS/ableton for DJing...


http://www.djdecks.be/

the programmers are supposedly very good at updating according to user requests... $47 for two years of upgrades...

Features

Decks
-Play mp3, wma, ogg, flac and wav files in up to 3 decks as well as Audio CD's
-Change pitch with 4 different ranges from +/-8% to +/-100%
-Change volume, play and pause (instant-start) with low latency (up to 2ms with ASIO, up to 10ms with DirectSound)
-Edit ID3v2 tags for mp3's and the ogg vorbis tag for ogg files
-Fast and accurate automatic BPM detection
-Pre-Listening :
Through Soundcard rear-out,
Through Left/Right splitter or
Through Second Soundcard
-Mix on an external mixer :
Player 1 to Front Out, Player 2 to Rear Out or
Player 1 to Soundcard 1, Player 2 to Soundcard 2
-DirectSound or ASIO output
-Spectrum analyzer, stereo VU Meter
-Configurable song break and startup speed for turntable-like effects

Effects (on each deck)
-3-band equalizer with on the fly changeable frequencies
-Echo/Sampler/Looping
Create echo effect, high pass and low pass filter available on echoed sound
Echo/Loop time configurable up to 8 beats
Volume of buffer and source both configurable
Easy looping with shortcut keys
-Flanger
Automatic or Manual
Configurable Strength
-Compressor/Normalizer
-Gapper effect
-Filter effect
-Automatic 0dB limiter to prevent clipping
-Tempo Control: Change speed without changing pitch, or change pitch without changing speed
-Load up to 2 custom VST effects simultaneously on each deck

Mixer
-Crossfader with 4 different fade-curves, and configurable slope
-Spectrum Analyzer, stereo VU meter
-Limiter to prevent clipping
-Output samplerate up to 96kHz/16-bit for DirectSound and 96kHz/32-bit for ASIO
-VST effect possible on main output as well

External Hardware Supported
-External analog mixer supported
-DMC1 and DAC2 mp3 controllers supported (beta)
-Behringer BCD-2000
-Hercules DJ Console (Regular, Mk2, Control MP3)
-EKS XP10
-FinalScratch, VirtualDJ, SSL and MsPinky digital vinyl records to control your music
-Any MIDI controller

Other
-Record your mix in mp3, wave or ogg format
-Create your own skins with djdecks' advanced skinning system
-Separate BPM Analyzer to batch analyze your complete music library

Playlist/Music Browser
-Easily navigate through your music directories
-Shows all songs based on id3v1, id3v2 and ogg tag information (title, bpm, length, ...)
-Sort your music in crates
-Search for music by typing part of title, artist, album, comment field
-Give each song a specific color for easy sorting
-Browse directories or files by album art
-Save playlist in winamp playlist format, or to html
-Open winamp playlists
-Drag&Drop songs from windows explorer
-Shows .cue + .mp3 files (as extracted with EAC for example) as directory

[nitred]

Good point JDP. The US market is considerably more lucritive than that in NL. I just hope it doesn't get dumped on the customers users to pick up the tab.

Interesting software DSA. It looks like they have this setup as an open source project.

[Groovejunk]

Here in the Netherlands we're desperatly seeking a way to get our hands on SSL. Most kids out here buy it in Belgium or Germany. I'm using FS myself from version 2 (when it hit the market) and it's running fine. However FS is not that fast with updates now Apple has a new core on their Intel machines... That's what I think the hardest part. We CAN get new Apple machines here in Holland, but it's a pain in the but to get SSL here.

If I had to do it all over again I knew for shure it weren't FS i was choosing. (Is this correct english?)

Meanwhile allmost every kid with a low budget OR bedroom dj is searching for alternatives. DJ decks (Belgium) for instance. Numark is also comming with a sort of "dj decks". This way it's easier to get the music they want to play and practice.

[DSA.audio]

If I had to do it all over again, I know for sure it wouldn't be FS i chose.

(Is this correct english?
***edit*** this is one way to "get 'er dun" .... but your word choice was fine, we all understand what you were saying well enough...)

Meanwhile allmost every kid with a low budget OR bedroom dj is searching for alternatives. DJ decks (Belgium) for instance. Numark is also comming with a sort of "dj decks". This way it's easier to get the music they want to play and practice.

what are your thoughts on DJ decks... ALOT of the kids in Denver LOVE it...

[Groovejunk]

Haha, thanks for the correction! ;) I knew it was wrong..

Most kids love DJ decks here, specs for the machine to use are good. Souncard they have to buy (including pre-amp) are not that ridiculously expensive and I think that's the most important reason for the k,ids to buy it and / or try digital DJ-ing.

Disadvantage of DJdecks is that it isn't running on Mac OSX while SSL and FS can do both.

SSL / FS is nice when you're on the road alot. In the mean while it's nice to test if you want to go digital with DJ decks.

A little offtopic : If I have the time I will shoot some pics of my Scratchamp with my custom colored labels. (makes it easier to plug in on location)

[tubby]

I've been using djdecks for the last 3 weeks, and I must say I couldn't see anything so far that would encourage me to spend 3 times that price for serato. (including buying soundcard and TCV's). vinyl control seems very accurate, easy to use thoughj I don't scratch so cannot comment on it's responsiveness there.
I did lose 1 day trying to get it sorted after install,. worked day 1 after 20 minutes to setup, couldn't get it working the next day at all, uninstalled, reinstalled from scratch and no issues since. I suspect that was the soundcard drivers though, and not the software. The ability to work with any soundcard is probably the main cause of errors (ie soundcard install issues)
works with any of the timecode vinyls, cd timecode is free to download from the site, fantastic support and updates.

[DSA.audio]

like I said, i have heard nothing but praise for this program...

I think I may go digital later this year.... and at this point DJDecks seems like a real option....

[darrylfunk]

anyone seen the new m audio torq software.
it looked interesting in a demo i had.

[Derek]

M-audio's Connectiv (with the Torq software) looks nice. Comes with vinyl and cds along with the interface - basically everything serato and fs2 has in the box - for about 200 bucks less.

Also interfaces seamlessly with Ableton.

Anybody else seen it or tried it?

[Special.K]

I was at an expo last month and they couldn't get the MAUDIO Conectiv to work properly for me so I can’t really comment too much but it did look very plastic and I could see the use in those mix knobs “they were very touchy”!

BUT the NUMARK X2 hybrid turntable was a hoot, but I think I would get confused as to wether I was playing a cd or vinyl on which turntable & when???

And I think I need one of those Akai MPC1000 thingies:rolleyes: , Plus a Alesis Micron synth;) , oh yeh and a KP2 Kaoss pad:D ….. :eek: THIS IS WHY I SHOULDN’T GO TO EXPO’S…..