DJing Discussion

Forum
 DJing Discussion
TIP/TUTORIAL: ScratchLIVE with Rapid Evolution, Camelot Key Codes (OSX)
This area is for discussion about DJing in general. Please remember the community rules when posting and try to be polite and inclusive.

TIP/TUTORIAL: ScratchLIVE with Rapid Evolution, Camelot Key Codes (OSX)

WarpNote 12:11 PM - 17 April, 2009
I've been using RE with Serato ScratchLive on and off for about 2 years. First year WinXP, Mac OSX 10.5. for the last 13 months. I finally have them working flawlessly together, I never loose my overviews, loops, cues, color dots, title, bpm, comments, grouping, genre, etc anymore.

I currently use SSL 1.9 Release Candidate 3 and RE 2.12.6


So thought I share my workflow here:
(This "10 step program" should also work with Serato ITCH)

1. Get the music. (CD, digitize vinyl, own remixes, online stores/record pools, etc...)

2. Place in correct folder on hard drive.

3. Correct id3 tags and convert to id3 v2.3.0 (VERY IMPORTANT)
This can be done in a number of applications, iTunes or Media Rage works well in OSX, for windows you might wanna try id3 tagit or similar, again, iTunes works too...
- Here is the Serato tutorial on how to do it in iTunes -> serato.com

4. Import your tracks to a SSL Crate.
(I'm using www.scratchtools.de to sync to my folders, it takes a bit of setting up, if you're not confident with unix/DOS command line, I recommend importing to SSL as usual)

5. Build SSL overviews/analyze, review tags, color dots etc...

6. Import same tracks into RE, now here come the important settings:
(these steps takes a little effort to set up, but you will only need to do it once.)
- Options -> General -> key format: key code
- Options -> Display -> Skin: serato harmony (substance)
This is not important at all, it just makes you feel good, he he...
- Options -> Audio -> detect start and end keys differently
Only if you want RE to do this (Start and end keys will then show up in SSL grouping field)
- Options -> Song -> tag reading/writing: -> preferred tag writer & reader: JID3 (important)
one of the steps to keep SSL overviews, cues & loops, color dots etc..
- Options -> Song -> tag reading/writing: -> write id3 v2.3 tags when possible (important)
again to keep SSL overviews, etc..
- Options -> Song -> tag reading/writing: -> use key codes instead of keys (important)
If turned on, SSL will show camelot key code in key field, if off, SSL will show regular key annotation.
- Options -> Song -> tag reading/writing: -> write tags to fields: -> group description & key "ON" (important), The rest of these tags "OFF"
(prevents messing up your tags)

7. Highlight tracks to be key detected in RE, Right/Ctrl click -> detect -> key
wait for keys to calculate, have a coffee, go for a walk, blah blah...

8. Highlight same tracks in RE, Right/Ctrl click -> tags -> write
wait for tags to finish writing to disk, confirmation dialog box will show...

9. Open SSL 1.9, Open "files" tab, drag track selection to "rescan ID3 tags" button.

10. You're DONE! :)

I haven't fully reviewed this process on windows, if someone has done it, please reply to show if it's successful, or needs more tweaks.

Best of luck, here's a link to more info about what RE can do -> www.mixshare.com

WarpNote
WarpNote 1:09 PM - 17 April, 2009
Also, remember to back up audio files before starting out....
Cid K 5:00 PM - 14 October, 2009
Noice, will try that tonight that was on my to do liste for quite some time now, happy to see that it works seemlessly with Itch/SSL
djbigboy 5:55 PM - 14 October, 2009
I had no idea what this software does, but it sounds interesting. It will make song suggestions based on key and bpm? hmmm....
Cid K 9:27 PM - 14 October, 2009
Well actaully it wont make any sugestions, but harmonic mixing will be alot more easier if you know what Keys your tracks has.
WarpNote 5:56 AM - 15 October, 2009
Actually it will, only based on key though.
Still, I would recommend having a good & deep look at mr Strom Carlson's post:
Harmonic Mixing 101: How to key songs and mix harmonically
-> serato.com
Jason (Dj K-oZ) 6:58 PM - 22 May, 2013
Just curious what if I had already brought all my tracks into SSL & built my crates? Do I have to delete all the crates? Then after removing the id tags bring all my music back into SSL and reanalyze everything? Or can I leave my music alone in the crates but after removing the id tags just reanalyze everything? Im wondering if I should do this before step 3 or can I just leave all my music alone in SSL do step 3 then just rescan tags? Please help..
WarpNote 7:53 PM - 22 May, 2013
I dont use Rapid Evolution anymore, I migrated to MIK (Mixed in Key), as it was faster and easier to use. You could also use keyfinder (search for it on this forum)

You can set MIK to just write the key and nothing else, no need to re-analyze, just mark all unkeyed tracks in your crate, drag to MIK. Then after MIK is done drag same songs in crates to the rescan id tags button (under "Files" tab).

I believe Keyfinder will work the same...
Jason (Dj K-oZ) 8:19 PM - 22 May, 2013
I know you just said you don't use rapid anymore I unfortunately can't afford to purchase MIK at this time. So maybe you can just give me a little incite from your previous experience. Basically I got a Rane TTM57SL & SSL I imported all my tracks analyzed them. Then I started trying to find the key but when I wrote the tags for ny music nothing about the key or BPM showed up in Serato after writing the tags. So I found your quick tutorial and didn't wipe out the old tags and convert them to ID3 V2.3 so I'm hoping that going through and using iTunes to convert the tags this will fix the problem then just rewrite the tags then rescan the tags in Serato. I was just wondering if you knew if I would have to completely reanalyze all my music in Serato then have to rescan all the keys in rapid then rewrite all the tags which had taken over a week to do the first time. if you don't know thanks anyways.
Kazound 9:52 PM - 3 January, 2014
This is just what I wanted to know! Thanks!