And the timecode says, ‘on this specific part of the song, the record is going ‘forward, backwards, forward, backwards’, and it sounds like a real scratch.” If you scratch a record, which just means that you’re moving a record back and forth, you’re moving the time code back and forth and that time code gets sent to the computer. “The timecode that gets sent to the computer says, ‘I’m playing at pitch plus two percent.’ And the gets that information and produces the music accordingly. If you increase or decrease the pitch on the turntable, which is what you do when you mix records, that information gets transferred as well,” said A-Trak, the world renowned DJ, in an interview with NPR. “Everything that you do on a record is reflected the same way as if it were a real record. These parameters are then applied to the playback of the song loaded into the virtual turntable within the program, allowing you to control that song with the record. This information is sent through the soundcard interface/mixer to the laptop, usually via USB, and lets the software know the location of the needle and the velocity of the record. These pieces of vinyl contain no music, but instead have a repeating sine wave with an embedded timecode, which is read by the turntable’s needle. There are several of these that work specifically with Serato, often as well as other programs, such as the Rane SL4, which has four inputs, and so allowing up to four turntables or CD decks in any combination. You will also need at least one direct drive turntable, with cartridges, shell heads, slip mats, an interface and digital records.Īn interface is often used to easily transmit the signal from the turntable to both the mixer and the laptop. Serato is the most common brand you will likely encounter, as it was at the forefront of digital vinyl DJing over a decade ago, and continues to hold that position with Serato DJ. While these days there are several options, with many leading programs offering differing functionality to one another, for the sake of this article we will focus on Serato. A happy solution is the laptop and turntable setup.įirst of all you will need a reliable laptop and a DJ software program. However, while most audience members probably don’t care what format the DJ is playing their music on, there are a certain amount of skills associated with playing through a turntable that can’t be exactly reproduced in other ways. The truth is that if you are going to be a working DJ, you will often be required to play for extended periods of time, and besides the inconvenience of physically carting around all that wax, you will also be limited to playing only those records.

How to record on serato dj 1.7