Support Tip Of October 2011

Basic system adjustments for using Scratch Live, ITCH and Serato DJ Intro

Here are a few things you can do to your computer to help avoid USB dropouts and other performance issues when using Scratch Live and ITCH:

* Switch off Bluetooth
* Switch off wireless network and unplug any wired network connections
* Switch off screen saver and set sleep mode to 'never'. Make sure your hard drive doesn't have a sleep mode enabled
* Close down any other software, including antivirus software or the like
* Ensure you have ample room left on your hard drive (this is approximately a minimum of 10% of your hard drive capacity - both internal and external)
* Calibrate your USB buffer setting. Start with the USB buffer slider at the hard right position, and slowly move it as far to the left as you can before you notice any audio interruptions or loss of performance. Ideally you will want the lowest buffer setting possible

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Sept. Support Tip Of The Month

SP-6 Sample Player

Feel like you aren't making the most of the SP-6 Sample Player? Here are a couple of little tips and tricks that will help you speed up and improve your Sample Player skills, making it a valuable addition to your DJ tools.

Keyboard Shortcuts - don't like using your mouse when DJing? Use the computer keyboard shortcuts to both load or trigger your sample slots.

* Press Z, X, C, V, B or N respectively to trigger the sample slots. (Note : If the 'Playback Keys Use Shift' option is on you will also need to press Shift).
* Press Control + Alt + Z, X, C, V, B or N respectively to load the sample slots.

Want to load up several sample slots in one go? Highlight the files you want to load in your library and drag and drop them onto the first sample slot. This will load the highlighted files to the sample slots from left to right in one go!

Want to free up a deck so you can scratch or play a third song? Load the song that is playing on one of your virtual decks to a sample slot. Providing you have the 'Instant Doubles' option turned on in the setup screen this will 'instant double' the track to the sample slot where it will continue playing. Now you have freed up the virtual deck and you can load a new song. (Note : Make sure the sample player audio output is coming through).

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Tips & Tricks Of The Month

Corrupt files

Corrupt files in your Scratch Live / ITCH library can be the cause of many problems such as crashes, freezes and playback issues. They can affect the performance and stability of Scratch Live / ITCH even if they are not being played. You should make a point of regularly checking that your library is free from corrupt files. To do this:

Make sure that you have analyzed your entire library:

* Start Scratch Live / ITCH with your hardware disconnected.
* Click 'Analyze Files'. This can take a while, depending on the size of your library and whether your files have been previously analyzed.

Once your library has been analyzed, you can now check to see if it contains any corrupt files:

* Open your "All" crate.
* Click on the box at the top of the first column in the main library view. This will sort all your tracks by the status icon.
* Any corrupt files will have a lightning bolt icon or broken iTunes icon in this status column.

We recommend you remove all of these files from your library. To do this, highlight your corrupt files and press Command + Del (Mac) or Ctrl + Del (PC). Make a note of the files that have been deleted. You can then re-encode, re-download, or re-rip these and then, re-import these files into your library.

NOTE: It is a good idea to delete corrupted files from your hard drive as well as your Scratch Live / ITCH library so you don't accidentally re-import them. To do this in Scratch Live / ITCH, select the corrupt file and press Command + Shift + Del (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + Del (PC).

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Support Tips For June

Support Tip:

Tool Tips & Keyboard Shortcuts

Not quite sure what that button does or how a feature works in ScratchLIVE or ITCH? The Tool Tips provide a handy way to learn the various features of Scratch Live or ITCH. Click the ? icon next to the Setup button at the top of the screen to enable Tool Tips, then simply move your mouse over a button, object or area to display the relevant tool tip.

Holding the mouse over the ? button with Tool Tips turned on will show you a list of all the keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts can be extremely handy in live performances, allowing you to quickly utilize almost any function without having to use your mouse.

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SUPPORT TIP OF THE MONTH

Anti-Trainspotting Mode

Anti-Trainspotting Mode, sometimes known as Stealth Mode, is an easy way to hide this information for any tracks loaded to the virtual decks.

Simply click on the BPM field of one of your decks, type in 'am', then press enter. The artist info and track name on both decks will immediately disappear until you enter 'am' in the BPM field again, or if you restart Scratch Live or ITCH.

Note: Beatgrids must be disabled to use Anti-Trainspotting mode.

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SUPPORT TIP OF THE MONTH

Ctrl + Click Functionality

Did you know that you can hold the ctrl (control) key and mouse click to reset the position of knobs and sliders in Scratch Live and ITCH? We call this ctrl + click functionality.

If you ctrl + click on knobs or sliders, this will reset them back to their default positions. For knobs this is the 12 o'clock position, and for sliders this is the center position.

In Scratch Live, you can also MIDI assign ctrl + click functionality. To do this; enter MIDI assign mode, ctrl + click on the slider or knob and assign this to a button on your MIDI controller. Pressing this button will now reset the position of the knob or slider.

Mac users can also use the command key for the same functionality.

TIP: You can ctrl + click on a track's waveform to toggle between the standard and tri-band waveform view. You may find the tri-band waveform view useful if you wish to view each frequency band independently.

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