Friday 9 May 2008

What the Fluck is Serato?

This is Serato:


While looking over Westwood's shoulder at a gig last year, I first saw Serato at work. I'd heard Jazzy Jeff going on about it for a while (knowing he's somewhat of a purist, I thought it was worth having a look at). If the slightly vague video above didn't help explain how it works, here is my take:

- A filter box is attached to the mixer which converts the unique tone produced by the control record/ CD (bare with me) into code which the computer relates to its music library (i.e i-Tunes).



- You play the the control record/ CD on your turntable as usual, but every movement you make relates to the computers music library in real time, reacting exactly as it would if it were pressed onto the vinyl/ CD (still with me?)

- Your entire music collection is stored on your PC. You just turn up at the club, plug in your filter and PC, and your entire music collection is available to you. No more carrying record boxes!

- It's awseome.

Well... it should be. I've read lots of criticism of the sound quality, and my limited field research has backed up some of these claims. Sometimes it can be a bit tinny, but that could be down to bad audio conversion by the user.

Having said that as a 17 year old trying to scratch on an old belt-drive piece of shit, this is the stuff of dreams.

Serato ScratchLive

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