Playing your first track
Before launching the Scratch LIVE software, close all other pro- grams on your Mac or PC.
When you first run Scratch LIVE, your library contains only the
You can also import by dragging files and folders directly from Windows Explorer (PC version) or Finder (Mac version) into the Scratch LIVE library (see pic below).
Scratch LIVE supports importing M3U playlists.
Loading tracks
Click on the ✽ All… icon to show all the tracks in your library. To load a track on to one of the decks, drag the track from the track list on to either deck. You can drag the same track on to both decks.
Tip: Use the keyboard shortcut shift to load the high- lighted track on to the left deck, and shift to load the high- lighted track on to the right deck.
Supported file types
Scratch LIVE supports fixed and variable bit rate .MP3, Ogg Vorbis, .AIFF, and .WAV file types. iTunes™ library and iTunes playlists can be automatically imported in the setup screen by clicking read iTunes library (see page
Using tool tips
Click on the ? icon to enable tool tips (right of the Scratch LIVE logo). Tool tips provide a handy way to learn the various features of Scratch LIVE. Move the mouse over a section of the screen to bring up a
Tool tips are available in several languages. Scratch LIVE will display the tool tips in the language that your computer is set to. If your language is not available, the tool tips will be displayed in English.
Tip: Holding the mouse over the ? button with tool tips turned on will show you a list of all keyboard shortcuts.
Preparing your files
Build overviews
If you run Scratch LIVE with the hardware interface discon- nected, you will notice a button labeled build overviews on the main screen. Click this to automatically build the overviews for all the tracks in your library. The track name (and location) are shown in the bar immediately below the button. Below this are three more bars. The first bar shows track reading progress, the second bar shows overview building, and the third bar shows track writing progress. This process prepares the overviews of all your tracks, and alerts you to any corrupt files you might have. These are indicated by Status Icons, shown on page
Set auto BPM
If this option is checked, building overviews will include the estimated tempos of your files. If ScratchLIVE is confident that the auto BPM estimate for a file is accurate, it will be written to an ID3 tag in the file. The auto BPM function will not be applied if the track already contains BPM information. If you know your files BPM will fall within a certain range, use the range dropdown to avoid double or half value BPMs being calculated. Note: As auto BPM is part of the overview building process, files in your library with overviews already built will not be processed by clicking the build overviews button. To rebuild overviews and use auto gain or auto BPM on those files drag them onto thebuild overviews button.
Reset track gain
If you want to reset any track gain tags to 0 dB, drag them onto this button to reset them to 0. To regenerate new values as you build overviews, see Set auto gain on page
Virtual Deck
Virtual Deck shows everything about the speed and position of a track. The circular progress bar around the edge is a visual representation of the position within the song, and can be set to flash to warn you that the track is nearing its end. The time and remaining time are displayed in minutes and seconds. You can also choose to display the
playback speed as a percent- age pitch shift, or the pitched BPM (BPM with pitch ad- justment multiplier applied). If the track has no BPM information, percentage pitch shift will be displayed.