Reloop Elite / Serato recording issue

[mrblast]

I'm currently set up with a laptop, serato, reloop elite and 2 x reloop rp8000 mk2s.

Laptop is connected to elite via USB.

Everything works fine in terms of playing music but I cannot record anything, it appears that there is no signal coming back into Serato and so it cannot record.

When I set up serato to record the record db meter remains completely flat even though music is playing through the virtual decks and out throught the elite to the speakers.

Ive been fucking around with this ages and cannot get it sorted. 

I've ticked the "use laptop speakers" box in serato.

I've set playback device as reloop elite and realtek speakers - it made no difference

I've switched recording and input devices between realtek speakers, line in (Elite).

I donwloaded the virtual cable and messed around with that for a bit.

 

Its proper fucking me off as I need to be able to record from Serato, ideally straight into a DAW.

Cant find anything online to help.

Any ideas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mrblast]

Fixed this now. Apparently the Elite has a utility menu that is accessible via holding down some buttons and tuning the mixer on. Had to then set the recording output as USB. Odd that this wasnt the default but good job it's sorted as I was about to launch the fucking thing at the wife.

[mrblast]

Well I have turned my set up on for the first time since I last posted and Serato is now fucked. Any files play completely distorted and echoey. Really struggling to fix this ffs.

[TBearOne8III]

I dont use serato, im on traktor.  but i can imagine that they are similar. does it still play distorted if you are in internal mode?  It could be your computer.  my traktor used to glitch intermittently.  i ended up optimizing my laptop for music production. that helped but it still glitched.  in the end it was a Dell bloatware that was causing the glitch.  I have a Dell laptop.  after i removed that program everything has been fine.  

[mrblast]

Thanks, but shouldnt be the laptop as I bought a new specialist music laptop from 3XS with no bloatwear.

I actually sorted the sound issue but I'm now having problems trying to record from Serato (via the Reloop Elite) into my DAW (Acid Pro). The only way I can find to do this by setting Serato to play out through the laptops internal speakers but when it does this there is a slight delay between that and the sound playing from the speakers connected to the mixer.

 

Maybe it's just ACID Pro being shit. Will give the Ableton demo a try this weekend...

[Deft]

Given that I guess everything is flowing back and forth using the soundcard in your Reloop Elite and USB, it should be a matter of choosing the Elite soundcard output that corresponds to or mirrors your master output.

The only thing that can get wonky, depending on the soundcard, is whether it's happy running / sharing the soundcard outputs between different pieces of software at the same time. I think this is a problem that perhaps doesn't exist as much as it used to.

The one thing that fucked me over with Serato, which I was kicking myself over when I figured it out - there was a mismatch between the default sample rate for different applications. Something like 48Khz for standard Windows audio, 44.1Khz for something else. Hence it kept getting upset and locking the outputs. I can't for the life of me remember where all these settings were, with Windows 10 being particularly annoying in its menus, but once I'd stuck them all at the same value everything was good.

[mrblast]

So I managed to get Ableton to record from Serato.

However, if I put a beat into Ableton on one track and then try to record some cuts via Serato over the top in a separate track, Ableton records both the beat and the cuts in that new track, rather than just the cuts.

I managed to fiddle with the settings and record just the cuts from Serato but at the expense of being able to hear the beat playing.

Similarly, I tried to set up the inputs in ABleton so that decks 1 and 2 record in separate tracks/channels but they seem to be both assigned to 5/6 which is the same channel in Ableton so they dont record separately.

The Reloop Elite manual is shite, hardly gives any detail on anything. 

15 years ago all you had to do was connect your mixer to the line in on the computer and then ACID pro would record the input in a separate track. Fuck me this is hard work.

Would an audio interface help?

Is there an idiot's guide to setting everything up anywhere? I feel so fucking dumb with all this.

 

 

 

[Deft]

The wonderful world of computer audio.

I just had a poke around in the Elite manual. It looks like you should be able to achieve what you want.

I always found actually sketching out the signal flow sometimes helped me figure out annoying routing issues.

So, if you are trying to multi-track in Ableton there are a few things to consider.

Ableton is sending audio out (your beat) basically into your mixer via USB (because it's also your soundcard). Presumably you can choose the audio output from Ableton to go into a channel of your mixer. So you can get your beat playing on channel 1 or 2 on your mixer from Ableton.

Serato is taking in a timecode signal and then spitting out your scratching on the other mixer channel. So all things being well you have a beat playing from Ableton on 1 channel and your turntable movement coming from Serato on the other.

The thing then is that your crossfader / linefader movement is used by your mixer to change the volume of the audio coming from Serato and Ableton. Now most of the time people just accept this / don't think too hard about it. But it's important in terms of audio routing. All the positions of your crossfaders / linefaders are used to provide a master output "mix" of your mixer channels (which gets sent to your speakers, and usually a "record out" too - note this is shorthand for recording, not a vinyl record!). This is called a "Post-Fader" mix - i.e. it incorporates the positions of your faders so it is "post" (as opposed to a pre-fader mix which wouldn't). This master output or record output mix is a stereo channel pair. The problem with this is it means your beat and scratching are now mixed together. You can send this into Ableton but it's not particularly helpful in a multi-track sense, as you can't then independently modify the scratching after you have recorded it. You want the scratching "acapella" in its own channel. I know you know this, but I'm going a long-winded slightly patronising route to make it 100% clear.

Now, looking at your manual, page 18 it seems to suggest you can modify what gets sent to your OUT 1+2, OUT 3+4, OUT 5+6 (i.e. your 3 stereo pairs).

One of these pairs should already be set as "PHONO Control Tone" - as this is your real physical turntable / control vinyl mixer input being "outputed" to Serato.

So I think you need to set up your recording channel in Ableton to reflect one of your other output pairs - and then make sure you modify this via your mixer setup utility to send the Post-Fader Deck that you use for scratching (i.e. either channel 1 or 2).

The manual isn't amazingly clear but I hope this is what it means - the fact it has Post Fader options looks like you should be able to get it working. This should mean that only your scratching is recorded, but you can still hear the beat audio from Ableton on the other channel.

The only thing you might need to do is "mute" the scratching recording channel in Ableton depending on how you are doing the routing - though it should be bloody obvious as you'll get loads of feedback if it's setup wrong (I think).

 

[mrblast]

Mate. What a helpful post, very good of you to take the time to post all that. I will have a look at everything later today and see if I can get things sorted. Thanks again for that, much appreciated.