Serato Scratch Live 2 – Bridge ready public beta

By Paul Dakeyne

February 12, 2010 | Posted in DJ

Showing it’s keen to maintain the recent Ableton/Bridge momentum, Serato has announced a public beta download of Scratch Live, version 2.0. Wisely, the company has recommended that for any live performance, DJs stick with the current, stable version 1.9.2 which suggests that most beta testing will be confined to home studio/deck set-ups (unless your name’s Bertie Big Balls!).

I’ve been a Traktor user for a few years now, but have recently been trying out Scratch Live (1.9.2), in full DVS mode, here at my home studio and, I have to say, I am enjoying the change of ‘digital’ scenery’. It’s a bit of a Coke vs Pepsi, PC vs Mac vibe, but it does look like Serato is really catching up on a few Traktor USPs.

The primary attribute of version 2 appears to be the inclusion of the new ‘Bridge’ feature – the much anticipated two way communication protocol between Scratch and Ableton Live. Once I’m comfortable with Serato as a DJ companion, I’ll be eagerly checking Bridge out, but I suspect that someone, somewhere may already be doing that right now.

Further updates in Scratch Live 2 include an upping in the amount of decks available for performance to four and the built-in DJ effects getting something called a ‘super knob’ for improved, live tweaking.

A new selection of four display modes is provided, with a range of screen layouts, each having a relevance to a particular ‘style’ of DJ performance, plus a new ‘album art’ browse function to further expedite this enhancement. The DJs crate system gets a Vs2 improvement too with the inclusion of ‘smart crates’, which are fueled by accessing keywords from the user’s music library

So, hands up then, I’m still on an early journey with Serato Scratch Live in its current 1.9.2 guise, but it’s only gonna be a matter of days before that public beta version 2.0 download button gets a darn good clicking – as the man who calls himself Tong says, “We continue..”

About Paul Dakeyne

Paul Dakeyne has written 592 post in this blog.

Paul Dakeyne is a DJ/Producer who has dedicated the past two decades of his life to dance music production and DJ'ing. For six years, he toured globally for the world famous Ministry of Sound and has played DJ sets for the likes of U2 and for the legendary, Kraftwerk, Although remixing around 250 records in his career, as an artist in his own right, Paul landed one of dance music's seminal crossover moments with his "18 Strings' monster hit by Tinman - scoring a UK top ten in 1994. He also co-wrote and produced the music for BBC's Watchdog and Crimewatch when they were both revamped in 2001 and '06 respectively. His other career highlights have included an A&R stint for Mercury Records, lecturing in 'DJ culture and music technology' and creating mash-up mixes for Radio 1's, Chris Moyles. Paul joined the DV group in 2003 leading to his role as blog and feature author here at the DV Mag.

• View all posts by Paul Dakeyne →
• Blog

Tags: ableton live, beta, serato scratch, The Bridge, version 2

No Comments