The DS1 is a breakthrough interface for users of Serato NoiseMap™—the system used to control a Serato-based digital music library when you’re using a turntable or CD player. This article walks through a number of Frequently Asked Questions about the Denon DJ DS1.
Hardware Setup
Frequently Asked Questions
Hardware Setup and Software Download
Hardware Setup Example:
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DS1 Drivers:
Rane sixty-eight for serato scratch live. operator’s manual. 2.0.1 sixty-eight two computers, two usb ports, four decks and a range of effects.
The DS1 is class compliant (plug and play) for Mac OS X. Drivers are only required for Windows. Windows drivers are located at this link.
Serato DJ Software:
- Download the Serato DJ Software: http://serato.com/dj/downloads
- Unzip the Serato Software package and extract them to your desktop.
- Run the Serato DJ Setup file.
- Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the software installation.
Note: Serato DJ 1.7.6 or higher is required for DS1 compatibility.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the DS1 come with a full version of Serato DJ and Serato DVS expansion pack?
Yes, it comes with both. Serato will unlock as long as the DS1 is connected to the computer.
Please note: In order to use different hardware with Serato DJ, you may need to purchase additional licenses from Serato. Please see the link here for more info: https://serato.com/dj/pricing
What are supported operating systems?
Any OS that supports Serato DJ 1.7.6 or later. The latest Serato DJ system requirements can be found here.
Where can I download the software?
Serato DJ can be downloaded directly from the Serato DJ website. Serato will unlock as long as the DS1 is connected to the computer.
Please note: In order to use different hardware with Serato DJ, you may need to purchase additional licenses from Serato. Please see the link here for more info: https://serato.com/dj/pricing
Can I use this unit with Serato Scratch Live?
This unit is only supported for use with Serato DJ version 1.7.6 and higher.
Do you require a mixer for the DS1?
Yes. You will need a mixer (any brand) with 2+ channels.
What are the dimensions and weight?
Dimensions: (width x depth x height)
• 4.7” x 3.0” x0.9”
• 11.9 cm x 7.7 cm x 2.3 cm
Weight:
• 0.55lbs.
• 0.25 kg
The blue LED on my unit is blinking, why?
If the LED is blinking, the unit is connected but it cannot recognize the drivers (Windows). Reinstall the drivers, which can be downloaded from this link.
If the LED is on, the unit is working and drivers are recognized as normal.
In Serato DJ, what is the difference between ABS, REL, and INT?
ABS stands for 'absolute' where the vinyl mimics real vinyl. Dropping the needle at the start of a record will cue the beginning of the track. Lift the needle and move it half way down the vinyl and you will go to mid-way through the track, just like real vinyl.
REL stands for 'relative' where the position you drop the needle on the record will cue to the relative position you are at in the track. Basically, you can drop the needle anywhere and it will start the track from the beginning, lift the needle and drop it half way down the vinyl and it will play from the same place in the song you lifted it from.
INT stands for 'internal' where all track control is performed by keyboard shortcuts or midi input. The control vinyl does nothing.
When I connect my vinyl turntables to my DS1, I hear a consistent hum. How do I fix this?
It is very important that when you connect your turntables to your DS1, you're connected correctly from your DJ mixer. Follow the following steps to correctly setup vinyl turntables with the DS1 and Serato.
- Connect your vinyl turntables LEFT and RIGHTRCA's to the LEFT and RIGHTINPUTS on your DS1.
- From your DS1, set your PHONO|CD switch to PHONO.
- Ground your turntables by either using your DJ mixers GND or DS1's GND.
- From your DJ mixer, connect the LEFT and RIGHTLINEINPUTS to your DS1's LEFT and RIGHTOUTPUTS. **Do not connect from your DJ mixers PHONOINPUTS.
- That's it!
Can I record directly in Serato DJ with the DS1?
No, not currently. There is no Aux Input featured inside the interface and the audio is mixed externally in a DJ mixer, not in the Serato DJ software. Because the final mix does not come through Serato or the DS1, the mix will need to be routed back into the computer before it can be recorded.
We've put together a guide to walk you through an easy method of recording your mixes using a free software called Audacity. See the guide below:
Further Technical Support
Whether you are a customer or dealer, if you already own a Denon DJ product, or if you just have pre-sales questions, the Denon DJ technical support team is available to help!
Serato Scratch Live Calibration Software
Visit the link below to connect with any of the following support options: online community support, phone support, email support.
Test System Specs
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (DirectX 9.0c)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP, 2166 MHz (13 x 167) 3000+
Motherboard / Chipset: ASRock K7S8X v3 / SiS 748
Memory: 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter: RADEON 9200 SE
Disk Drive: Maxtor 6Y120L0 (120 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133)
Turntables: Technics SL1210mk2
Cartridges: Shure m35x, Shure m44-7
Introduction
Serato Audio Research, an audio software specialist out of New Zealand, already have the highly regarded Pitch 'n Time and Scratch Studio plug-ins under their belt. They turn their attention to the competitive dj market, in conjunction with Rane, to bring us Serato Scratch Live - a means of manipulating digital audio files on a PC or Mac by using control signal vinyl or cds. So where do Rane fit in? They provide the hardware interface and handle the distribution of the finished product. With two such highly respected companies in their fields, the expectations are naturally high. Can they create a meaningful collaboration and live up to their reputations? Or is it destined to crash and burn as the meeting of hardware and software often can?
Scratch Live was originally released in April 2004 and was the obvious competitor to Stanton's Finalscratch system. However, more of these style of products have appeared since then and there are now a handful jostling for position. As we all know, more choice is good for the consumer, so Skratchworx welcomes every new entry to the market with open arms. Scratch Live, like Finalscratch, is hardware dependant - meaning you can not use the software with any old soundcard you have lying around. One reason for this is to ensure the software product can not be pirated, which is an unfortunate reality of software that runs natively on a PC or Mac. Another more positive outcome of having dedicated hardware means they should retain maximum control over communication with the software to ensure high levels of compatibility and reliability.
The Package
Everything comes in a rather fetching 12' box, and includes the hardware interface + USB cable (known as the SL 1), software disc, 4 stereo RCA cables (for the output and thru connections) plus 2 copies each of the control vinyl and control cd. The printed paper manual is a welcome sight, but a .pdf is also included for those who love to stare at a computer monitor to read manuals (not me!). The software has obviously been revised since it's initial launch, so it's worth heading over to the Scratch Live forums to keep an eye on updates and to trouble-shoot any problems you might have - as they may well be known already.
As you may have guessed, the interface operates via the USB 1.1 (full Speed) protocol and has two sets of RCA inputs as well as a 1/4' mic input. On the other side of the box there are the RCA line outputs, plus thru outputs for all the respective inputs as well as a mic gain control. The thru outputs mean you can effectively bypass the box if you want to use normal vinyl or cds during your set. However, if you want to use the thru connections when your computer is switched off, you will need to purchase an external power supply. So although the facility is there, it's not nearly as smart as the Digiscratch box included with Alcatech's Digiscratch package - which doesn't use up extra channels on your mixer and has the rather ingenious disconnect mode, allowing the use of phono pre-amps and virtual routing totally away from the computer. The box itself is typical Rane hardware, industrial strength black casing with white markings. Like most Rane gear, you get the impression it could take a knock or two.
Installation and Set-Up
There's not really a whole lot to do in order to get up and running. The hardware connections you need to make are fairly obvious, and the software and driver installation was pain-free. The supplied manual is excellently written, extremely clear and concise. As with any of these control signal style programs, you need to calibrate the software to get the best out of it. In Scratch Live this is done via the Setup screen. The aim of the game is to get those pretty lines clear and as circular as possible. You select the audio input level depending on whether you are using turntables or cd players, and then adjust the L/R and P/A balances if needed to get to a clear circle. Unfortunately you can't assign different audio input levels for each virtual deck, meaning if you are using a turntable and a cd player in combination you will have to use a separate phono pre-amp. The threshold is estimated based on the background noise of your system when not playing the control signal, and is a good indicator of grounding or other noise problems. The calibration screen also has a % 'readable signal' indicator, which gives you a good idea of how well your control signal is being interpreted.
The other main 'performance' controls are those of the USB audio buffer size and the maximum screen updates per second sliders. I had these at the lowest and highest values respectively, but you may need to adjust these if your system starts to struggle - but more on the performance later.
Main Software Interface
Serato Scratch Live Versions
I think one of Scratch Live's strongest points is it's simplicity, there are no overwhelming amount of settings, and it is reasonably light in terms of features. As such, the main program window is clean and you could probably guess what all the controls and icons do. The whole program only really consists of two different screens - the setup screen which includes the calibration settings and the main program window. From here, certain areas can be made to appear temporarily via program buttons. The program must be run in a resolution of at least 1024x768, and overall the elements of the interface are fixed in position in relation to one another.
At the top there are program reverse and master gain controls, and below these are the two virtual decks. When a track is first dragged onto one of the players - a track overview is built up, which gives the layout of the waveforms and frequency content. Scratch Live will attempt to do this as quickly as possible, but it takes up extra processing power. If resources are thin on the ground you can choose to have Serato to not build them automatically, so they only appear as the track is played. Once they have been built, they are saved into the actual audio file so will never have to be created from scratch again. Things getting stuffed into existing audio files makes me a bit nervous, and might confuse some other programs. For example, Sony Soundforge v8.0 throws up an error reading embedded information once files have been used in Serato, but happily ignores it. Hopefully it won't cause any real problems with other software or hardware, and you can always make your files read-only if you are more paranoid than me. The virtual deck shows the track name, artist, length and BPM tags - if available.
Again, there are 3 modes available for each player; absolute, relative and internal. Depending what mode you are in, you will have some extra options appear on the player. Absolute is the true vinyl emulation mode, skips and all! The extra controls for relative mode include those for moving around the audio file, as needle dropping is not possible. Dragging around the white play marker works just as well though. Internal mode has a pitch slider and pitch bend buttons, and I suppose is a last resort if all else fails. Maybe there are some crazy folks out there who prefer this mode though! Both relative and internal mode also have a 'censor' button. This is the same feature as 'dump' on the Denon DN-S5000 - whereby audio is reversed whilst play position progresses as normal. Good as an effect in it's own right or for protecting the poor minds of children who could otherwise be bombarded with swear words. Each mode can also share 5 cue points, but they have quite a neat visual twist. Wherever you set a cue point, the stripe on the virtual deck points at 12 O'clock - and you can choose a colour for every marker. But what it also does is that within each revolution in either direction the stripe loses a fifth of it's colour - meaning you can visually see how close you are to your cue point. A very smart way to visually reference where samples are, though not quite as useful if your cue points are within 5 revolutions of each other. I think multiple colour changing stripes could be quite confusing though!
Each virtual deck also has a gain control, and this software gain is saved with the file like the track overviews. Potentially it's a handy way of normalising track volumes by hand, but this is something I would already have done beforehand when preparing the files - and would instinctively use the gains on my mixer instead anyway. The final area of interest is that between the virtual decks. This has the main track overview, a larger zoomed in version, and a tempo and beat-matching display. I think the whole track overview is a bit small, it's a shame you can't resize it. It can be quite hard to really spot where track breakdowns or major changes occur. The tempo and beat-matching display give visual representations of transients and their spacing. The idea is that you can visually make sure they are aligned and then you should be in business. Not something I find immensely useful, but it seemed to corroborate what I was doing by ear. It's not too instrusive but would be nice to have the option to use the space for the whole track overview instead.
Serato Scratch Live Latest Version
File Management & Organisation
Scratch Live works via a virtual crate system, with files available in as many crates as you want. You can either drag directly from Windows Explorer or use the Import button to bring up an in-built file browser. You can then drag files or folders over to whatever crates you want. This works fine, but shows a full directory path from left to right - so if you need to navigate through a lot of folders you then need to scroll back and forth which feels a little clumsy at first. Scratch Live will also apparently automatically import iTunes libraries and playlists, though I have no idea how well this works as you are more likely to find me sticking a knife in my eye than using an iPod or iTunes. You can then choose from a list of tags to display in the track information display area, and adjust their column width and positioning to suit. You can also directly edit tags from within this area simply by double-clicking on the info you want to change. Clicking any of the column headings will sort that column numerically / alphabetically. You can use the browse option to filter your tracks by genre, BPM, Artist or Album, and is quick and easy way of finding tracks if your crates are deep. If you still can't find that rip of a rare funk 45 you desperately need then there is a search tool included.
There is a 'review' tab that lists the tracks you have played and a 'prepare' tab which is a virtual 'ready to play' section, so you can get the next few tracks you want queued up if you get a spare minute to yourself mid set. Good news for us true goobers is that Scratch Live now supports Ogg Vorbis as well as MP3, WAV and AIFF. There is also an option to display album art if you have included them in your MP3's. Alternatively you can now just tag all your MP3's with your favourite family photos and enjoy them whilst you mix and scratch!
Vinyl Control & Performance
The Scratch Live vinyl has one side of 10 mins control signal and a track/crate select section, whereas the other side is just 15 mins of control signal. If you run out of signal then the players switch to internal mode. Worst case scenario and you still need control of those 20min epic progressive house anthems, you can drop the needle back on the vinyl and click into relative mode. The vinyl itself is perhaps a little on the heavy side in comparison to a lot of scratch vinyl I seem to use, or maybe it's just not very warped so hasn't got a 'slippery' side!
So, the million dollar question we have all been waiting for, what's the sound and tracking like? Everyone knows I am hard to please, but this really is impressive. No doubt someone will disagree with me, but I really think it is pretty much indistinguishable from normal vinyl. Yes, it's not real vinyl - and if you really want to show that it's not, you can do silly things like putting 10Khz sine waves through it and move the vinyl as slow as humanly possible (yes, I did do that). But for 99.9% of the sounds and techniques that your average scratch dj is going to use, I really can't see anyone complaining. I definitely think this is the best scratch reproduction I have heard so far on a digital system. The actual tracking has been 100% accurate the whole time I have used it so far. No funny slips, no strange garbled digital noises or other symptoms that you usually get on these systems. The only comment I'd make is that if you move the USB buffer size up you do feel the latency on things like chirps where they just aren't hitting in the same way your co-ordination usually does. I had no problems running my system at the lowest buffer size and CPU usage never went above 30%. Memory use was also quite light considering the size of the tracks I was using. So, providing your system is upto the job and you get your calibration right, the tracking and sound is amazing.
Final Thoughts
Serato Scratch Live Calibration Chart
Scratch Live makes something which isn't a trivial task seem easy. It works so well to the point of being transparent - a good idea perfectly executed. Part of the attraction of Scratch Live is that they have kept the software simple and have resisted the temptation to stuff the program full of extras and endless options. Personally, I hope the software doesn't start adding things like virtual mixers, samplers, MP3 encoding etc. At the moment it's core strength is the effortless way it integrates into a typical dj setup, with no headaches and practically no learning curve.
Part of me is a little disappointed that the SL 1 box hasn't got another input for live set recording, though this might not be possible using the USB 1.1 protocol. Although I am not doubting the quality of the box, it does feel a little like a large hardware dongle at times. However, Serato have recently announced that v1.5 will include the ability to record straight into Scratch Live via the SL-1- meaning users will be able to capture audio directly. It is a step in the right direction, but some ASIO drivers would be very welcome - and overall it doesn't feel as useful or slick as the RME Digiscratch box. But, given the stability and quality of the software and hardware you definitely won't feel short-changed if you decide to splash the cash. Probably the first bit of review kit I've contemplated stealing (Sorry Mark!).
Serato Scratch Live 2.4
Rating - 90%
Big thanks to Sennheiser UK for the demo unit.