DIY Serato Tutorial (For around 200 quid)

[DannyBlack]

This article has been written by a bloke i know. There have been a few of us that have tried it and so far with great success. Its all done for around €150-200 so in sterlin its gonna work out way cheaper. Any questions send them on.
All credit to Dos- the guy is a brain with arms and legs.


High Quality, Low Cost Timecode Vinyl (TCV) Setup

This is a tutorial to put together your own tcv system for 150 - 200 euro.

NOTE: If your playing live on a weekly basis, or not 100% confident of doing this, then just go and buy regular serato. You get a nice little manual and everyone comes in a tidy little box, however if you want it for at home and the odd gig, and are short on cash, read on...

No warranty, expressed or impled is given with this tutorial. I can accept no responsibility for loss or damage as a result of following this tutorial.

Pre-requirements

This tutorial assumes you already have the following:

* A Laptop, with a USB 2.0 port, running a clean installation of Windows XP SP2 with at least 1GB of RAM and at least 1.3GHz processor. (A lesser system may work, but it is possible it may cause speed/latency issues)
* Turntables with PHONO outputs (thats the norm)
* A Mixer with PHONO & CD/LINE Inputs
* Amp, speakers etc...
* A basic knowledge of how your mixer etc is already wired up. You will also need some basic technical knowledge, which im sure, as a DJ, you already have. You will most likely be able to follow this and get it working without that knowledge, but if you bring your gear to a club, set it up, and your music plays backwards, you need to know how to quickly figure out where the problem is and fix it. (FYI: if the music plays backwards,your left and right connectors on the maya-44 inputs are reversed)



Requirements

You will need to purchase the following if you do not already own them

* A soundcard that supports ASIO on at least 4 input and 4 output channels.eg: The maya 44 USB
* Two serato control records (Available on www.htfr.com and www.thomann.de among other sites)
* 4 x Stereo RCA Leads (I purchased them here, but you can get them in any audio shop, quality/price is up to you)
* 4 x Phono Splitters. Available on www.maplin.co.uk (Part No: QN25C)
* A copy of DJDecks, available for 38 euro from djdecks.be (get the shareware version until your happy everything works)



Optional:

Phono pre-amps. If you want to use these to increase the quality of the timecode signal, you will also need 2 extra RCA wires. The system works without these, but getting some may be a good idea, espically if you are playing live. If you go with a sound card with built in Phono Pre-amps, you wont need this(eg: Torq Connectiv)
Personally, i bought a behringer mini-beat 800. Offically, its a BPM detector,but it has two built in stereo RIAA phono pre-amps, and its about 50 quid,so its actually the cheapest option for pre-amps. Also, remember, your just amplifying the timecode control signal, not the actual audio, so you dont need the absolute best on the market.



Theory

Firstly, it helps to understand how TCV works. There are several on the market. Serato, Final Scratch, Ms Pinky, Traktor Scratch. Torq, Numark Virtual Vinyl, etc etc... and they all work in the same way.

The Vinyl

The record contains a 1200Hz tone. Modulated onto this tone are timecodes. A timecode is simply a tiny bit of data, eg: a number. This would be stored on the vinyl as audio, as the wavelength of a single peice of audio.The timecode contains data that allows the computer to know where the needle is on the record. As the record moves, more timecodes are sent to the computer(at 0 pitch, its about 600 a second). With this information, the computer can work out where the record is, what direction its moving in, and how fast. eg:if it receives timecode #123 then receives timecode #124, it knows the record is moving forward, it would also know that timecode #123 is exactly, say, 31seconds from the start of the record, so it knows what part of the mp3 file to play, it also knows the time between timecode #123 and #124, so it knows how fast to play the mp3 file. Thats it in a nutshell really.

The Box

The Box, sometimes called the Scratch Amp among other things, is NOT a special new invention, it is just a soundcard, similar to the type already in your computer.Whats different about it is it supports ASIO which allows high speed sending and receiving of audio data to software applications with very little delay(latency), and it has more inputs and outputs than a regular soundcard, thats all.

The Software

The software plays your mp3s and, reading the timecode from the records, adjusts the speed and direction of the mp3 to match what you are doing with the vinyl,the serato scratch software does this, but there is loads of other softwares out there that can do it too.



* Hardware SetupFirstly, plug the Maya 44 USB into an empty USB slot on your PC. Install the drivers as described in the manual.
* Install DJ Decks.
* Install The DJ Decks Serato / (SSL2) plugin (free) from their website
* (Optional but highly recommended) Install the Seratoskin for DJ Decks, also available from the website.
* Setup the MAYA 44, Your Mixer and Decks as described below

Ok, its easiest to describe the wiring configuration by starting with what comes out of the record needle, and following it through everything, until itgets to the speaker. So, with that in mind...
* Start with the LEFT channel of DECK 1. This will need to be split, as the needle can be picking up two types of signal, an audio signal (regular vinyl),this needs to go directly to the PHONO in on the mixer, and a TIMECODE signal,this needs to go to the PC.
* Connect a splitter cable to the LEFT channel of DECK 1
* Connect one of the split cables to the LEFT PHONO input of the MIXER onPGM1
* Connect the other end of the split cable to INPUT #1 of the MAYA 44
* Do the same with the RIGHT channel of DECK 1. Connect a splitter to the cable coming from the deck as before and connect one side of the splitter to the RIGHT PHONO input of the MIXER in PGM1 and the other end of the split cable to INPUT #2 of the MAYA 44
* Now, with DECK 2, do the same, split both channels using two splitter cables and connect the LEFT channel to the LEFT PHONO input of the MIXER on PGM2and to INPUT #3 of the MAYA 44, and the RIGHT channel to the RIGHT PHONO input of the MIXER on PGM2 and INPUT#4 of the MAYA 44
* Once thats done, the all you need to do is connect the outputs of the MAYA44 to the CD/LINE in's of the mixer, to do this:
* Connect an RCA Cable to OUTPUT #1 & #2 of the MAYA 44 and connect theother ends of the cable to CD/LINE inputs of PGM1 on the MIXER
* Connect an RCA Cable to OUTPUT #3 & #4 of the MAYA 44 and connect theother ends of the cable to CD/LINE inputs of PGM2 on the MIXER
* Connect up your EARTH wires from your turntables to your MIXER
* Connect your MASTER output to your AMP as usual.


(Ill draw up an image soon and post it of the wiring configuration)



Once thats done, Run DJDecks. Click Menu/Tools and set the following options:

Input/Output tab:

Output Driver: Maya 44 ASIO
Output Mode: 2
ASIO Outputs 1 : 0/1
ASIO Outputs 2: 2/3

Sample Rate: 44100
Streaming ASIO = Checked

Click ASIO Control Panel and increase the gain of the inputs to about 95% onthe left-most tab.

Leave the Inputs as they are
Check Apply RIAA Correction

Go to visuals and select the skin DJCE - Large (for 1280 x800 laptop screens)or Just DJCE for other screens.

Under Vinyl Control, you will need to follow the instructions for calibration.Load a track into the each of the two decks, place a serato vinyl on each of the physical turntables, put the needle at the start of the record and hit calibrate.You may need to do this a few times, if you have wired the setup backwards (eg:Right connected to Left)

At this point it should be working. Load a track, switch the mixer channel to CD/LINE and use the serato vinyl to control it. Simple. To play a regular vinyl, switch the mixer to PHONO.


This works flawlessly for me, and i cant see any reason why it wont for you either. If you encounter a problem, diagnose it by ensuring, step by step that each part of the setup is working. eg:

* Is the timecode signal heard when you switch your mixer channel to phono?
* Open DJ decks, is the wave form appearing along the top when you load atrack? if it isnt, the USB soundcard isnt detected, try a different port.
* If thats OK, open the settings and go to Vinyl Control, do you see some information at the bottom when the timecode is playing, eg: codes looked upper second? Click Show Analysis, you should see a waveform of the timecode.
* If all thats working, is the signal too low? Did you check RIAA pre-ampon the Input/output tab of the settings window? Did you turn up the gain in the software by clicking ASIO control panel? If thats still not working, maybe you need pre-amps (see below). Id recommend them for playing live in a club.





Preamp connection

If you decide to use pre-amps to pre-amplify the timecode before it reaches the PC, you will need to place the Pre-amps in between the deck and the input on the maya 44. do this by connecting one of the split cables connectors tothe preamp input, and then the preamp input to the maya 44. Ensure you insert the preamp after the cable is split with the splitter, otherwise you will be pre-amping the phono signal of regular records, then your mixer will pre-amp them again (on the PHONO in) resulting in a signal thats far too strong, and could possibly damage your equipment.

http://www.republikmusic.net

[DannyBlack]

no-one havin any of this at all?

[SlimboyPhatt]

well cant you get serato for £250 now anyway.

It's surely gonna be much more stable.

TBH I havent had anything to do with Serato until now, but tonight im gonna be using my mates setup.

Quite looking forward to it, especialy to see if it can handle scratching.

[DannyBlack]

i was dubious about using it for ages, then i used my mates at an all nighter a couple of weeks back, and it is savage! love it.

[SlimboyPhatt]

i was dubious about using it for ages, then i used my mates at an all nighter a couple of weeks back, and it is savage! love it.

Seconded!!! Its ****in amazing.

Defo one to get!

[eyeswithoutaface]

haha jesus christ

i think the man hours/effort gone into this would make up the £250 hehe

buy serato instead mate

[RDR]

THanks!!!

gonna give this a go :)

[DannyBlack]

Did you give it a stab in the end Christopher?

[djfilthmonger]

im getting this together now for chrimbo, so ill let u know how i get on. i have used serato . its abit expensive , i priced this at just over 100 euro. in theory its the same thing as serato .

[JamieBall]

If you don't scratch it's fine. I mean PROPERLY scratch. That's kinda the main string to serato's bow. Aside from it being freakin' awesome of course.

SERATO FTW... Even the interface makes me wanna do a sex piss !

[djfilthmonger]

question about this. will serato software work with the maya 44 USB?

[stjohn]

id say serato needs the original hardware. im not sure. maybe traktor might work tho??

[Milesy]

Just buy serato.... its worth it for the MIDI support, features and stability IMHO :)

I used Final Scratch for years and became frustrated with it. Traktor try and too many bells and whistles.

[stjohn]

hoyo danny... do u know how to set this up well? a friend of mine is trying it and has a couple of Qs.. or if your mate was available maybe?

cheers..

[DannyBlack]

east guv, send on the Q's and i'll get em answered for ya.

[stjohn]

cheers man

[stjohn]

qs: will it work on mac (running OS X)?

cheers boss



;)

[stjohn]

blimp

[Jay Pace]

http://www.gumtree.com/london/63/33491563.html

60 quid. not bad.