BUILD YOUR OWN FINAL SCRATCH

[Max]

For those who don't have the cash for or don't like FinalScratch, I've written this how-to for setting up your own final scratch system for a fraction of the price. Total cost for 2 turntables: $160. Total cost for 1 turntable. $95.00

 

For 2 Turntables

 

You will need:

 

2 Final Scratch, MS Pinky, or Serato Scratch time-coded records.

 

1 Sound Card with two stereo inputs and two stereo outputs.

 

1 Copy of software. You can crack Traktor, but I would reccommend DJDecks because the latency is better. However, DJDecks is no longer crackable, so you'll have to buy it.

 

2 stero RCA splitters.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

For the time-coded records, you can use FS, MS Pinky, or Serato records. They cost about $15 a piece.

 

For the sound card, you'll need one that's relatively beefy but not necessarily expensive. It needs to have ASIO support. I would reccommend the Maya 44 USB, which can be bought for about $100.

 

 

As for DJDecks, it's $30 with free updates for 2 years.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

How to Set it All Up (Do this with one turntable and then repeat)

 

Plug the sound card into an open USB slot on your laptop and install it using the mfg software.

 

Install your software. (DJDecks or other)

 

Split the line coming out of your turntable. Plug one of the lines into the Phono In on your turntable, like you normally would. Run the other line into one of the Line In's on the soundcard.

 

Next, run a line from the corresponding Line Out on the soundcard, into the Line In on your turntable. It goes in Line, not Phono, and you should put it on the same channel as the turntable that you just hooked up.

 

You're all set. When the transform switch is set to Line, then it will cut music from your computer. When it's set on phono, you can use normal vinyl.

 

 

For 1 Turntable

 

You will need:

 

1 Final Scratch, MS Pinky, or Serato Scratch time-coded records.

 

1 Sound Card with one stereo input and one stereo output.

 

1 Copy of software. You can crack Traktor, but I would reccommend DJDecks because the latency is better. However, DJDecks is no longer crackable, so you'll have to buy it.

 

1 stero RCA splitter.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

For the time-coded records, you can use FS, MS Pinky, or Serato records. They cost about $15 a piece.

 

For the sound card, the cheapest option is a SoundBlaster Live External USB. This soundcard does not have ASIO support. So we'll hijack the drivers. Download These drivers to use instead of the SB Live's stock drivers.

 

 

As for DJDecks, it's $30 with free updates for 2 years.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

How to Set it All Up

 

Plug the sound card into an open USB slot on your laptop and install it using the mfg software.

 

Install your software. (DJDecks or other)

 

Split the line coming out of your turntable. Plug one of the lines into the Phono In on your turntable, like you normally would. Run the other line into one of the Line In's on the soundcard.

 

Next, run a line from the corresponding Line Out on the soundcard, into the Line In on your turntable. It goes in Line, not Phono, and you should put it on the same channel as the turntable that you just hooked up.

 

You're all set. When the transform switch is set to Line, then it will cut music from your computer. When it's set on phono, you can use normal vinyl.

[Steve]

Good post Max.

[Max]

thanks. I posted something similar a while back but i figured this deserved a DVKB thread of its own.

[Guest Vekked]

yo, sick post, I wanna do this, but I needa get a laptop that will run it easily that's under like... $1000 would be nice... and is the Maya 44 USB the best reasonably priced option for a soundcard?

 

basically I'ma get a setup specifically geared to run djdecks, and if it does that it'll do whatever else I want it to, and I want it to run it perfectly, but I don't want anything unnecessary, being that's the main thing I'll use it for, and other than that I'll just being typing stuff and playing music on it

 

but yea, hook me up with some answers, hopefully I can ebay the laptop... there looked like some Dell laptops that seemed to fulfill the requirements pretty good, are they alright? I don't really care about battery life so much... djdecks is the priority in picking my setup

 

so yea, hit me!

 

thanks,

 

pz!

[Max]

Make sure you get 1 gig of ram to handle to ASIO drivers. And yes, the Maya 44 is hands down the cheapest option for this setup.

[Vet]

Ok, couple questions then...

 

#1 Is Serato software cracked....or crackable?

 

#2 I have a M-audio 2496 soundcard...is that useable?

 

#3 If you split your Left/Right on the turntable...when you play vinyl won't you only get one side of your channel?

 

#4 Would it make more sense to run a splitter from one of the turntable channels so you don't lose part of the stereo signal from your vinyL?

 

#5 How good are these other programs like traktor...and the other ones you mentioned.

 

Dope post tho, I'm gonna look into doing this.....

[BigTim]

Has anybody done this successfully? I've been thinking about serato but this seems too good to be true. I mean it looks like it would work just fine but is there any deals with latency or any of that kind of stuff?

[Max]

Nope...with the proper drivers and good software, your latency will be less than 1ms

[Max]

its exactly the same thing as FS, you just aren't using stanton products. I think the DJDecks website even has demonstration videos.

[Max]

Ok, couple questions then...

 

#1 Is Serato software cracked....or crackable?

 

#2 I have a M-audio 2496 soundcard...is that useable?

 

#3 If you split your Left/Right on the turntable...when you play vinyl won't you only get one side of your channel?

 

#4 Would it make more sense to run a splitter from one of the turntable channels so you don't lose part of the stereo signal from your vinyL?

 

#5 How good are these other programs like traktor...and the other ones you mentioned.

 

Dope post tho, I'm gonna look into doing this.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

#1: Non-crackable because the Serato system requires special hardware.

 

#2: That card does have ASIO support. If it has 2 stereo inputs and 2 stereo outputs, then it will work. However, if you occupy all of your ins and out with the setup, then how will you connect your computer to an amp or computer speakers?

 

#3: No. You're splitting one stereo signal into two stereo signals. Not a single stereo signal into left and right.

 

#4: That's exactly what you're doing. One stereo line goes into Phono on the mixer, the other goes into the souncard and back out to the Line input on the same channel of the mixer.

 

#5: Traktor is the program that FS uses. The creator of DJDecks did some comparison studies and determined that you can actually get lower latency levels with DJDecks than you can with Traktor.

 

Hope that helps.

[BigTim]

That is awesome. I just saved about 300 bucks . Thanks so much man.

[Max]

Sure. Glad I could help.

[Dub-Se7en]

good post. i've been doing some testing with DJD and am most impressed with it. the sound is as good as both fs and ssl.

 

also, if you like this software, cough up. adion, the programmer, is a sound guy who deserves the cash for it....

[Deft]

You might need phono pre-amps and you will need a good card with good drivers to get it useable for scratching.

You need an ASIO buffer size of 256 samples or less IMO for realistic scratching.

[Max]

Yeah the phono preamps depend on the card. If you have TTX's or Stanton 150's then you won't need em. You can find some good drivers here: http://kxproject.lugosoft.com/ Those are the ASIO drivers you can use to override the stock SoundBlaser drivers.

[Vet]

Ok, couple questions then...

 

#1 Is Serato software cracked....or crackable?

 

#2 I have a M-audio 2496 soundcard...is that useable?

 

#3 If you split your Left/Right on the turntable...when you play vinyl won't you only get one side of your channel?

 

#4 Would it make more sense to run a splitter from one of the turntable channels so you don't lose part of the stereo signal from your vinyL?

 

#5 How good are these other programs like traktor...and the other ones you mentioned.

 

Dope post tho, I'm gonna look into doing this.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

#1: Non-crackable because the Serato system requires special hardware.

 

#2: That card does have ASIO support. If it has 2 stereo inputs and 2 stereo outputs, then it will work. However, if you occupy all of your ins and out with the setup, then how will you connect your computer to an amp or computer speakers?

 

#3: No. You're splitting one stereo signal into two stereo signals. Not a single stereo signal into left and right.

 

#4: That's exactly what you're doing. One stereo line goes into Phono on the mixer, the other goes into the souncard and back out to the Line input on the same channel of the mixer.

 

#5: Traktor is the program that FS uses. The creator of DJDecks did some comparison studies and determined that you can actually get lower latency levels with DJDecks than you can with Traktor.

 

Hope that helps.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Ok....so if I were to ...say.....use a dual set of rca's coming out of the output on my M-audio 2496...one back to the mixer and one set to a set of speakers/amp then will that fuck up the signal chain or is it reasonable to run it that way??

 

Also I heard the latency levels are like....6ms for serato and FS....how is traktor & dj decks in comparison?

[Max]

DJDecks' latency levels are as good or better than FS and Serato.

 

Given your current soundcard, your only option is to use an external amp. If your card has two stereo ins and two stereo outs, then all four are going to be occupied by the configuration, leaving nowhere to plug speakers directly into the computer. If you don't mind using your mixer to control your sound output, then just run the master out from your mixer into your speakers or receiver/amp; then all of the music playing from your computer will travel through the mixer first. I'm pretty sure it should work fine with any audio program on your computer (i.e. you wouldn't have to use djdecks for all audio).

[gasface]

use spdif out on the 2496, thats what i do.. then you have 2 free sets of r/l rca

[homecounties]

'Nope...with the proper drivers and good software, your latency will be less than 1ms'

 

'DJDecks' latency levels are as good or better than FS and Serato.'

 

Both not really true, no digital system has latency this low (total system latency) Stanton deliberately mislead with their figures for FS2 latency, this best latency at the moment is Serato where you can down to about 7ms TOTAL latency which in my opinion is not noticable at all.

 

And serato has recently been cracked, it is by far the best interface/software but you might as well bite the bullet and buy the whole system as the Rane box is built like a tank, and the whole thing really isn't that expensive.

[Vet]

Ok, just so I'm CLEAR on this....(sorry for the hassle)

 

You said you need ONE stereo splitter....so is this a single female L/R that SPLITS into TWO sets of stereo rca'a??? This then goes into your input on the soundcard and then into your phono jacks like they would normally?

 

...THEN you run a seperate set of rca's OUT of the line out on the soundcard INTO your line in???

 

Sorry...just wasn't that clear now that I'm reading it again.

[Deft]

Serato has been cracked? How? Considering the custom interface it would be a hell of a job for a cracker to emulate that and also use an existing soundcard - assuming Serato uses custom drivers.

I'd like to see it, if it's real.

[Max]

yeah I don't believe it. And I also don't believe that Serato is necessarily that much better. Just ask Chee. His SSL kept fucking up while we were on skype the other day because it was eating up his usb buffer. In any event, you can check the stats and videos on the DJDecks site, the latency levels are low.

[Chee]

Nah Max, that USB problem got solved.

 

It was an issue with my power management settings, which I sorted out with the guys at Serato. I still stand by my SSL, but yeah, you need to have all the technical PC issues sorted and optimised.

[Max]

To HomeCounties:

 

I posted this guide for those of us who are strapped for cash and want a budget setup to cut up music from their computers. If you don't like the idea, then buy something else for a lot more. It's an easy, cost-effective configuration with results comparable to or better than FS. To anyone who's a firm believer in FS or Serato and has the cash lying around for it, I'd encourage you to purchase it. If not, this guide will provide a comparable solution with less strain on your wallet. Why even bother knocking it?

[MrDee]

i've just ordered 2 final scratch records

and look forward to doing this when they

arrive mucho thanks