cheapest place 2 buy serato 2

[ritaheed]

ave seen it on ebay for £319 but unsure weither to get it from there with warranty issues....

seen it on dv247 and other places for £369 but maybe someone' seen it cheaper??

also on some of the websites selling serato it doesnt say if its the 1st or 2nd edition so am a right to think it will only be the 1st edition

cheers

[DannyBlack]

This is by a mate of mine. Might find it useful matey.

Heres a way to build your own TCV (timecode vinyl) setup, the same as serato, final scratch, reflex, torq, ms pinky etc, but for bout 150 euro, obviously excluding the price of a half decent laptop.

What you need before hand:
Laptop
regular turntables/CD decks
Regular mixer

Now, serato (as an example) is made up of 3 parts. the Timecode vinyl (TCV), the serato box thing, and software. You could buy them all in a nice little package for around 600 euro, or...

You can order 2 serato control vinyls off ebay for about 40 euro including delivery

http://i3.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/9c/72/c4f1_1_sbol.JPG

You can use a program like virtual DJ ( http://www.virtualdj.com/ )as your software. Or Traktor, PM me and I will tell you where to get that from.
http://www.virtualdj.com/images/vdj_icon.jpg

Its supports TCV, including serato, its years old and rock solid, just in the setup select "external mixer" and you will basically have 2 decks and your music library on the screen, same as the serato software.
Lastly is the serato box. While most people think its a specialised peice of equipment that makes it all work, its not really, its just a soundcard. Bit different from a regular soundcard, found in a pc or laptop though. they usually have 2 input channels (line in) and 2 output (speakers). You will need a soundcard with 4 inputs (for the feed from the decks) and 4 outputs (to connect to the line-in of the mixer on chan. 1 and 2) You'll also need ASIO support in the soundcard, which can let you bring down the latency to as low as 2 or 3ms. The most popular soundcard for this is the Maya 44, which can be gotten for under 100 euro online.

http://www.thomann.de/ie/esi_maya_44_usb.htm

http://images4.thomann.de/pics/prod/111455.jpg

Last thing you need are 4 x Phono Y-Splitters, and 2 RCA cables, which can be got in any local audio/tv shop.

How to setup:
Connect the Maya44 usb to your laptop.
Run Virtual DJ, select "External mixer"
Enable TCV and select serato as the type.
In the setup, map the input of deck A to the first and second input lines of the MAYA 44 (stereo)
Map the outputs of deck A to Output lines 1 and 2 (stereo)
Map the outputs of deck B to Output lines 3 and 4 (stereo)

To wire it up:
Connect the y splitters the the phono cables coming from the decks, so now you have 2 stereo output connectors for each deck.
Take Deck 1 and connect one set of the cables to the phono in of your mixer (channel 1)
Take the other set of cables from deck 1 and connect them to inputs 1 and 2 or the maya 44

Take Deck 2 and connect one set of the cables to the phono in of your mixer (channel 2)
Take the other set of cables from deck 1 and connect them to inputs 3 and 4 or the maya 44

Last thing is then to connect the rca cables to link the output from the soundcard to your Line-in's on your mixer. Connect output 1 and 2 of the maya to channel 1 line in of your mixer, and output 3 and 4 of the maya to channel 2 line in of your mixer.

Start spinnin!

To use regular vinyl, switch to phono in on the mixer, to use tcv, switch to cd/line in, same as you would with serato etc...

By the way, this is a cheap way of doing it, not a poor quality way. Your using serato vinyl, virtual DJ which is a pretty established product and receives regular updates, i believe carl cox uses it, and maya soundcard, which is an top quality make of studio quality sound cards, theres nothing cheap about it, except the price.

[Jay Pace]

Problem with that method is that you can't record your mix, like you can with other setups. There's no record in function. Pain in the arse if you want to record you mix when you're on the move...

And on balance rita I'd go with traktor skratch. Needs a slightly beefier setup than serato, but the software clinches it. Ableton integration? VST support?

Hell yeah.

[DannyBlack]

Good point, is there no way of opening sound forge or cool edit in the background and recording it in the back ground??

[Jay Pace]

You might be able to if you sent the signal through a spare input on your soundcard, but you'd need to get a new soundcard with more ins and outs.
Plus there might be problems, as simultaneous output and recording taxes the arse off your computer.

[rhythmtech]

Good point, is there no way of opening sound forge or cool edit in the background and recording it in the back ground??

there is. soundforge can record the outgoing signal from a soundcard.

[Jay Pace]

yeah, but there are two outgoing signals from the soundcard in this instance. You'd need to route the output from the mixer back through a spare pair of inputs, and make sure your system can cope with the load.

So basically you'd need a 4 out 6 in soundcard as a minimum to run it, and it would have to support full duplex I think. (if full duplex is the ability to record whilst playing, which I think it is)

[DannyBlack]

So to sum up- a reet pain in the 'arris!

[stjohn]

not really...

i-river to record out on the mixer would work!!

surely the serato soundcards dont support recording using ASIO do they?

[TechMouse]

yeah, but there are two outgoing signals from the soundcard in this instance. You'd need to route the output from the mixer back through a spare pair of inputs, and make sure your system can cope with the load.

So basically you'd need a 4 out 6 in soundcard as a minimum to run it, and it would have to support full duplex I think. (if full duplex is the ability to record whilst playing, which I think it is)
I don't buy that Jay.

If you can hear it on your PC speakers then you can record it, you just need to set the input right.

[DVNT]

£369 is a lot cheaper than I've seen Serato.

[ritaheed]

£369 is a lot cheaper than I've seen Serato.

found it for £299 with £6 delivery - took me the best part of 3 days to find tht tho.....

its on ebay for £310 but ive heard stories about warrenty issues so not chancing it

[Jay Pace]

I don't buy that Jay.

If you can hear it on your PC speakers then you can record it, you just need to set the input right.

Why?

To record a mix your computer has to digitise an incoming analog signal, which requires an AD converter and processor speed enough to covert the signal into the required format (16/44100)

If you are recording a mix you are sending four signals out of your computer through a soundcard (2 stereo signals) which are then being mixed through an analog mixer, the output of which is essentially a new audio signal. To record a mix you have to route the output of your mixer through an AD converter and tell your computer to encode it and make a digital file from the incoming signal.

Same goes for video. You can buy a TV card for your computer for $50, but that doesn't mean you can record telly at great quality. you will need a video card to capture each frame at your required resolution in realtime, and that usually takes an additional graphics card or ferocious processor to accommodate.

Having had a dig about looks like most soundcards are full duplex now so its a little irrelevant, but basically you can't record what you can hear unless you soundcard supports that feature.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/273883

[TechMouse]

To record a mix your computer has to digitise an incoming analog signal, which requires an AD converter and processor speed enough to covert the signal into the required format (16/44100)

If you are recording a mix you are sending four signals out of your computer through a soundcard (2 stereo signals) which are then being mixed through an analog mixer, the output of which is essentially a new audio signal. To record a mix you have to route the output of your mixer through an AD converter and tell your computer to encode it and make a digital file from the incoming signal.
Ah, of course... I'm forgetting that you don't mix in the box with * Scratch.

If you were mixing with Ableton, for example, you could just load up SoundForge and hit record as you play.

[DannyBlack]

feck, im meant to record a promo set for a night this weekend on serato, theres no way of doing it?

[Jay Pace]

I seem to remember buying finalscratch at the time because the equivalent version of serato didn't have a record input I could use. Which is a pain in the barse.

Best check your gadget, think the later version got a line-in, not sure if the earlier one did though.

[DannyBlack]

hmmmm... will check. Cheers Jay.

[DVNT]

Ah, of course... I'm forgetting that you don't mix in the box with * Scratch.

If you were mixing with Ableton, for example, you could just load up SoundForge and hit record as you play.
Or you could press record within Ableton.

[TechMouse]

Or you could press record within Ableton.
That wouldn't record the sound though, would it?

It would record the set you play, MIDI messages and such - which isn't the same thing.

[ritaheed]

nobody got serato to try it out?

[Jay Pace]

The original Serato box only had 2 inputs, both of which were required to do the mixing on, so you couldn't record it back. You would need to send the input signal through your soundcard (assuming you have one)

If you don't have another soundcard with spare inputs you can't record your mix onto your laptop as you play it.