#Serato scratch live control cd software

#Serato scratch live control cd software

You just add a computer to the chain, and instead of playing directly off the record, the software allows you to assign a digital file to the 'record' that's spinning on each turntable. The setup is essentially the same as it ever was. You're still using a turntable, you're still using a needle.' And so DJs want to stick to that equipment but play songs that are actually stored on the computer and that's what Serato allows you to do. There are ways to mix within a computer, but there's an artistry to the craft of playing on vinyl records or even CD turntables that are made to emulate vinyl records. ' a DJ to continue to play on the physical format that they're used to. Getting a program like Scratch Live right is like threading a needle:

But A-Trak has decades of experience with this sort of thing, so once we were done asking him about what vinyl means to him, and why he doesn't use it in shows any more, we got him to take a step back and explain the basics of how Serato works. He spent four years as Kanye West's touring DJ, and helped demonstrate that vinyl emulation software could offer hip-hop shows the flexibility of vinyl with the convenience and sturdiness of developing digital formats.įor the uninitiated (like yours truly), the whole idea of scratching an mp3 on a computer using what's essentially a joystick in the shape of an actual turntable is a little bit baffling. He was the first DJ outside of New Zealand to test Serato's software. Born in 1982, by the time he was 20 years old software companies were already starting to introduce programs that would (theoretically) allow DJs to manipulate mp3s the way they had always messed around with records. Macklovitch's youth is important for reasons beyond the fact that it made him a prodigy as a DJ. He began his musical career with as close a relationship to vinyl as you can get: from the age of 12 he was a turntablist, a DJ who spins, mixes and manipulates vinyl records to produce new sounds. Macklovitch's career has overlapped the transition from vinyl to digital DJing at every turn. And there's almost no one in the world better equipped to tell that story than Alain Macklovitch, the Montreal-born, Brooklyn-based DJ, producer and record label owner better known as A-Trak. The story of Serato (and other vinyl emulation programs, like Traktor) is the story of how the leading edge of innovation always has to contend with both the practical limits of technology and the emotional and physical pull of tradition. But in the last decade, while younger audiences - especially indie rock fans - have started buying new music on vinyl, those DJs have largely traded in their crates of records for digital files they play through vinyl emulation software like Scratch Live, made by the New Zealand-based company Serato. One key group that helped vinyl stay alive once the public began to abandon it in favor of the CD was DJs who would spin vinyl in clubs and on the radio. This week we talked to a bunch of people about how vinyl has managed to survive, despite the fact that, technologically speaking, the format is something of an antique. Alain Macklovitch, demonstrates how Serato's Scratch Live software imitates playing music from records.