Ableton Live Vinyl Scratch
- I run Traktor Scratch Pro and Ableton Live 8.2 on a Macbook Pro 13'. Everything is running smoothly but I really had to add a lot of RAM. 6GB RAM is working good for me. I use decks 1 and 2 for vinyl control and 3 and 4 for triggering loops, one shot sounds.
- How to avoid crackles and audio dropouts. Live Versions: 8 - 10 Operating System: All If the CPU load is too high and audio can't be buffered within the chosen buffer rate, then this may result in crackles, dropouts (gaps in playback) or glitches during playback.
- Jan 31, 2003 btw.: Every recording on vinyl needs a digital delay line in the recording pass because of input signal dependent automatic groove width adjustment which is essential if you want to cut more then 5 minutes on a record. ) These two effects are what Live 'Vinyl Distortion' can provide. On a real record there are two more things going on.
- Background Our video on recording vinyl into Live (above) shows how to record audio from vinyl using an audio interface and Push 2. This tutorial will show you the additional steps necessary to connect your turntable and set the recording level.
- Emulate vinyl record scratching in Ableton Live. Emulate vinyl record scratching with this free.
The art form of scratching has been around for several decades and first came to prominence shortly after the birth of turntablism in the mid 1970s. With the emergence of digital DJing however, it seemed like scratching would die a quick death. Luckily this wasn't the case as many jog wheels on today’s DJ Controllers are more than capable of producing that vinyl scratch sound. So where do Ableton DJs fit in? Well if you have one of these aforementioned DJ controllers or indeed a turntable itself, then you can easily incorporate scratching into your Live sets. In fact for beginners, Ableton possesses a unique advantage over solely using a jogwheel or turntable type setup. Let's take a closer look.
Emulate vinyl record scratching in Ableton Live. Emulate vinyl record scratching with this free Ableton Live Pack. Vinyl Scratch.
Now we aren’t going to get into the ins and outs of scratching, but if you are a relative novice who wants to add professional sounding scratches to your sets then you may very well find this trick useful.
Mastering scratching take a lot of practice, most notably the ability to coordinate your ‘record’ hand (which does the scratching) and your mixer hand (which uses the crossfader to cut the audio in and out to tighten up your sound. Using the crossfader creatively also adds more rhythmical patterns to your scratches. If mastering this seems too daunting to start with, there is a workaround in the form of Ableton’s clip automation. By using a dummy clip in Live, you can draw volume envelopes beforehand to automatically act as the crossfader while you scratch live. Now before traditional turntablists shout insults at me, I’m not advocating this should replace the skill involved in using the crossfader. However it is a great way to achieve great sounding scratches by solely using your record hand, leaving your other hand free for adding FX, finger drumming or even waving at the crowd.
Setup
Firstly it is important to be set properly for scratching. On my controller I will have my hot cue set to the start of a clean isolated sound, usually a vocal accapella. It is also a good idea to set the other cue buttons on your controller to the start of other suitable sounds so you can switch between scratch sounds on the fly. (I use the Reloop Beatpad as its jogwheels excellently replicate the sound of vinyl manipulation when touched. Also its integration with DJay and Spotify means that I now have access to 20 million songs.)
In Ableton, along with my normal audio /MIDI tracks in my set, I like to create a separate track to host the live scratch sound. To route the audio from your scratching source to this track in Live you will need an audio interface with at least two inputs. Connect the outputs of your turntable/controller to these inputs and configure the I/O settings as shown below and record enable the track. You should now hear your scratch audio coming through to Live.
Vinyl Scratch Deviantart
You will then need to route this audio to another track on which the ‘crossfader’ clip can be placed. Duplicate the track and set the new track to receive the audio from the original track. Set ‘Monitor’ to ‘In’ on the new track and ‘Monitor to ‘Off’ on the original. Next place a clip with no audio on the new track and set the loop to four bars.
Launch the clip and start to scratch. The audio won’t be affected as the clip’s volume envelope hasn’t been touched yet. We will soon change that. In the clip’s Clip View click the envelope button. From the Envelope pane choose Mixer and Volume from the relevant drop-down menus. We will start off by drawing in a simple pattern. Use the pen tool (the keyboard shortcut is B) to cut out the volume every 1/8th note. Launch the clip again and scratch in time with the beat (a forward scratch every 1/4 note is a good starting point) The audio will now drop out every time you move the jogwheel back to the start position as it would if you were to use the crossfader to cut out the sound in this way.
Next duplicate the clip but on this version cut out the volume every 1/16 note on the clip. Launch the clip and start to scratch, this time with a forward scratch every 1/8 note. You should be left with a very quick, tight scratch sound.
Nov 27, 2019 So, One of the most recent grows to Omnisphere 2.6 Serial Number is a free program devoted iPad. That allows you to manage a few parts of the synthesizer. 
Same scratch with 16th note automation:
You can hear from the above examples that the second clip is a lot tighter and cleaner sounding.
Experimentation
In order to get the best sounding scratches in your live set, you will need to do some experimentation beforehand to see which envelope patterns work best with which type of scratches. For example, you could leave just the attack of every scratch so you get that stab scratch sound or perhaps let the sound last a bit longer to get a chirp scratch. You could also draw in combinations of scratches until you find the perfect fit. The world is your oyster.
Have a listen to your scratches without the dummy clip and try to determine which parts of the sound would be best left in and which would be chopped out. When finished you should have a list of clips that you can launch on the fly while scratching. Your crossfader hand has nothing else to do after all.
This is what a more advanced scratch sounds like with no automation:
This is what the same scratch sounds like with the automation as shown in the pic:
The possibilities are of course endless and with bit of practice and preparation, you can really use these ‘scratch’ dummy clips to add an extra dimension to your Live sets. As mentioned, it shouldn’t be used as replacement for the crossfader but could be thought of as a performance enhancement tool or learning aid to becoming a scratching master.
Related Videos
Scratch Live 2.5 (Legacy)
Note: Serato Scratch Live has been replaced with Serato DJ.
IMPORTANT: Please read this known issue before updating to Scratch Live 2.5
Serato Scratch Live 2.5 comes loaded with a bunch of key features including: Support for Serato Remote, free Loopmasters sample content, plug-and-play support for Pioneer CDJ-2000nexus and MIDI Output Lighting.
What's in Scratch Live 2.5?
Support for Serato Remote
Serato Scratch Live users have support to download and use Serato Remote - Serato’s first official App for iPad®.
Designed to compliment an existing Scratch Live setup, Serato Remote will connect seamlessly to your Serato laptop software and work with all supported Scratch Live hardware.
Serato Remote lets you see and perform all of your favorite Scratch Live functions without needing to touch your laptop. Control Cue Points, Loops and Samples. Load tracks and manipulate FX in ways that weren’t previously possible. See Serato’s famous Virtual Decks and Track Overviews so you can focus on the crowd and free yourself from your laptop.
Have control at your finger tips and enhance your Scratch Live performance. Serato Remote can be connected wirelessly freeing you to move around the stage or connected over USB for ultra low latency.
Designed with real world performance in mind, using big easy to hit buttons focusing on the most important performance features.
Serato Remote is available now and can be downloaded direct from the App Store℠ for USD 19.99.
To watch Rui from Serato use Serato Remote, and for more information visit serato.com/remote.
Apple, the Apple logo and iPad are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.
Pioneer CDJ-2000nexus plug-and-play support
With Scratch Live 2.5 you can throw away your control CDs and connect your Pioneer CDJ-2000nexus directly to your laptop.
Tightly mapped software controls give you low latency control over performance features in Scratch Live.
Control your Scratch Live library with your CDJ-2000nexus. See full color album artwork, waveform, cue/loop points and other important track information on the CDJ-2000nexus color display.
MIDI Output Lighting
Now supported with Scratch Live 2.5 MIDI Output Lighting enables the LEDs on your MIDI controller to light up when used with Scratch Live.
We've teamed up with our hardware partners to provide you with some presets for some of the coolest controllers out there.
You can also read this blog post for more information on how to use the presets.
Free Loopmasters Sample Content
Scratch Live 2.5 comes with FREE samples from Loopmasters. Get 24 of the best Beats, Hits, Loops and Sweeps, free to you when you download the Loopmasters sample content installer. Download the sample content from within the Scratch Live 2.5 download and the samples will install straight to your Serato library as a crate.
For more information on how to get the sample content have a read of this Loopmasters blog post.
Scratch Live 2.5 Bug Fixes
Alongside these key features Scratch Live 2.5 also includes bug fixes to continue the unparalleled level of stability and performance that Serato software is known for.
Some examples of the bug fixes are:
- Mixtape .als recordings now work with Ableton Live 9.
- Fixed a bug where the beatgrid lock wasn't being saved and loaded to/from the file; it was only being saved to the database.
- The Sixty-Eight record source is now correctly loaded from preferences.
- Fixed a bug where the CDJ-350 was sending both MIDI and HID messages which meant it could possibly fire two different Scratch Live events at the same time.
- Fixed a bug where the DJFX deck assignments wouldn't save to preferences if going from being 'on' initially, to 'off'.
Ableton Live 10 Download
For a full list of bug fixes see the Scratch Live 2.5 Release Notes
Ableton Live Free
Read the full Scratch Live 2.5 release notes.