Anyone use Serato?

D

DanielR

Active Member
I am ordering Serato tomorrow and should hopefully have it delivered by Friday. I have a gig Saturday night and I'm hoping to be up and running with it so I can use it.

I've downloaded version 174, imported all the music I need for the night and all overviews are built.

I have a Toshiba Equim A200 - 196 , 1024 MB RAM , Intel Pentium Dual Core Proccessor 1.73 GHz. Vista 32bit.

I've read the tweaks and tips about background programs etc etc.

I'm going to be using 2x Technics 1210's and a basic 2 channel Numark mixer.

Are there anymore tips that will help me get up and running quickly as I'm not going to have a lot of time to play with it before the gig.?

Thanks.
 
I use Serato mate and have done for a while now, i assume you know this already but ensure all your music files are MP3's as Serato doesn't recognize WMA or any other file types, it can on occasions freeze up but only very occasionally, then you will have to shut Serato down and restart it, make sure you queue your tunes in plenty of time, the beat matching is handy but it's actually not always accurate especially if your playing say a house record then a breakbeat type record it's almost impossible to match the beats then, asides from that seen as you have read up on it i can't think of anything else to say, i definitely recommend it though, if you need any more info let me know.
 
Cheers. Yeah everything is mp3. My main concerns are the set up of my laptop to devote all it's power to running Serato to prevent dropouts. I guess I'll just need to see how it goes and take some vinyl for back up.

That's if it gets delivered before Saturday. Ordered it today.

Do you use a cooling pad Jonny?
 
DanielR said:
Cheers. Yeah everything is mp3. My main concerns are the set up of my laptop to devote all it's power to running Serato to prevent dropouts. I guess I'll just need to see how it goes and take some vinyl for back up.

That's if it gets delivered before Saturday. Ordered it today.

Do you use a cooling pad Jonny?
Click to expand...

No don't use a cooling pad and have had no problem with overheating or that as of yet,another slightly annoying thing is when your scrolling for music if you scroll too fast you sometimes accidentally click out of the folder where your music is although maybe that's just me,also i haven't done this yet but im gonna get around to downloading a program so all my MP3's are the same volume as some can be louder than orthers,and it can be a bit annoying when your mixing especially with the pro mixer we have.
 
My Serato was delivered today. What a piece of kit. Was up and running in 20 minutes and it's brilliant. Can't wait to play out with it tomorrow night.
 
DanielR said:
My Serato was delivered today. What a piece of kit. Was up and running in 20 minutes and it's brilliant. Can't wait to play out with it tomorrow night.
Click to expand...


It's a serious piece of kit, im using it now, you'll get used to it in no time, enjoy.:)
 
No one got/considerd Traktor Scratch? Seems to have more features but is very cpu heavy , my mac powerbook only just scrapes in the minimum requirements so been holding off.
 
MiniMarc said:
No one got/considerd Traktor Scratch? Seems to have more features but is very cpu heavy , my mac powerbook only just scrapes in the minimum requirements so been holding off.
Click to expand...

I was sold on Serato after seeing someone using it, never even looked in to Traktor. If it's CPU heavy then I doubt my laptop would run it anyway.

I'm really happy with Serato though.
 
Im on the brink of getting one of em , I like the skill of using turntables but cant afford records so its perfect for me . With Traktor if u get it before end of the month u get a free copy of Traktor Studio as well which adds virtual channels as well as the timecoded control ones . But Serato is tried n tested n rock solid . hhhhhhhmmmmmmmm
 
Last night went off without a hitch. Played for 4 and a half hours and Serato was brilliant. Great fun to use. Although I did keep going to take the record off the deck after mixing, and found myself trying to read the grooves in the control record a couple of times.:lol:

I'd definatly recommend it to anyone that wants to go digital and still have the feel of mixing with vinyl.
 
DanielR said:
Last night went off without a hitch. Played for 4 and a half hours and Serato was brilliant. Great fun to use. Although I did keep going to take the record off the deck after mixing, and found myself trying to read the grooves in the control record a couple of times.:lol:

I'd definatly recommend it to anyone that wants to go digital and still have the feel of mixing with vinyl.
Click to expand...


Good stuff, did you play in a club or a party? What style do you play?
 
Played at a Sports Bar in Kilmarnock. Was fairly busy. I started off playing disco , Carrie Lucas, First Choice, Double Exposure, Salsoul Orchestra, Loletta Holloway etc then some 80's stuff like D:Train , Shannon etc. Then on to up to date house, tech-house, techno and breaks. I simply wouldn't have had the vinyl to do a set like that.
 
Jonny68 said:
No don't use a cooling pad and have had no problem with overheating or that as of yet...........

................also i haven't done this yet but im gonna get around to downloading a program so all my MP3's are the same volume as some can be louder than orthers,and it can be a bit annoying when your mixing especially with the pro mixer we have.
Click to expand...
I always use a cooling pad, some gigs can turn out to be hot and sweaty. I prefer to be prepared in advance. I have experienced the laptop mouse starting to get sluggish near the end of a gig for this reason. Started using the cooling pad in the same gig and never have that anymore. Also, most laptops have the fan intake for cooling the processor underneath the laptop (why do manufacturers do this!!). It acts like a vacuum cleaner, can easily pick up dirt in various gigs which starts blocking the intake and can cause overheating. Sitting on a cooling plate minimises this. I clean my laptop fan intake with a vacuum cleaner every month. ;)

Get mp3Trim Pro - batch process a folder of mp3s, the program trims silence from the start and end of mp3s. But, more importantly, it will show in the report it produces if you have faulty headers in your mp3. Load faulty files into an editor like Soundforge and save it back out, that fixes the faulty headers. I also have the program set to strip the mp3 tags to get rid of all the crap in the tags.

Get mp3Gain - again batch process folders. Settings are personal taste. I use 96db setting for tunes pre 1990 as the recording techniques were not as developed. For tunes after 1990 I tend to use 94db. Gives a more even volume level between old and new.

Get Tag & Rename - I re-write the tags from corrected filenames.

All my mp3s for over 5 years have gone through these processes before being loaded onto my gig laptop to be used in Traktor, PCDJ VJ, Abelton Live, etc.

Been DJing exclusively with mp3s since 1998, any questions just ask.

Apologies for the long post.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top