The team at Serato has been working with pioneer to fully integrate their CDJ-400 Dj player with Scratch live. This means full control over Scratch live’s features by a CDJ-400 through a USB connection. Currently any CD player can be used to control scratch live with a control CD but allowing direct digital control offers the following benefits according to a press release sent to us yesterday.
The relationship provides instant control of Scratch LIVE from the transport and function buttons of the Pioneer CDJ-400. Song information is also sent from Scratch LIVE to the Pioneer CDJ-400. The DJ can now view song, artist and album names as well as BPM and time positions on the CDJ-400’s display.
When using Scratch LIVE with the CDJ-400, the USB connection is totally dedicated to control. Any movement or touch of the CDJ jog wheel is communicated directly to the Scratch LIVE Virtual Deck.
“The best results are achieved with co-engineered hardware and software in our experience,” reports Serato General Manager, Sam Gribben, “There’s no set up required for the customer and we can deliver the tightest performance possible on gear that really works”.
The CDJ-400 was the first cd player in the pioneer line that supports MIDI output making it compatible with most dj software. This combination however, chose not to use MIDI, instead relying on the HID format we explained in this article.
Scratch LIVE 1.8.2 recognizes the Pioneer CDJ-400 controls using the robustness of the HID protocol. Serato Audio Research found that MIDI alone is not responsive or robust enough when predicting platter movements from performance DJs.
All you need to do is install the latest:
Serato Scratch LIVE 1.8.2 software
Pioneer CDJ-400 1.3 firmware.
The upgrades are provided by both companies at no charge for existing owners.
Its going to be interesting to see what these 2 cook up in the future. if they team up for more than just this project some big things could come out of that combo in the coming years.
