Forums/Software/Serato Scratch Live

Ripping in iTunes and setting up Serato (SL3)

Capitan
posted this on December 29, 2011 06:45

A fairly long post but I would really appreciate your help with this :) As Pulse will know, I'm such a slow, considered purchaser, I've only just got round to getting Serato SL3, 2 Dicers and finally a 17" MacBook Pro! To be fair, the MacBook was a Christmas present from the wife and the rest I bought with Christmas money - I've had a very good year this year :) I'll be using a DJM800 and 2 CDJ400's with this gear. I'm 50 years old now so I want to do this right, once and never again! At present I'm unlikely to be playing out much so this is for my own gratification at home and the odd gig here or there. Firstly, iTunes. Everything will be ripped from CD's and, eventually, vinyl. I haven't started ripping anything yet and want to know if the settings I have chosen are the best to use. I've set the rip rate at 320kbps and AAC. Do I need to set it for MP3? Can I use any other setting with my equipment? Will it make any difference? Next, I've set the sample rate at 44.100KHz. Is this correct or should I set it to auto? The channels I've set to auto. Would the stereo setting make any difference? I've ticked the VBR encoding box. Is this best? I haven't ticked either the High Efficiency Encoding or Optimize for voice boxes. In truth, I don't know what these would do anyway. Should I use them? Should I use Error Correction when ripping? In terms of "tagging"' I am at a loss. All I'm really interested in is Artist, Song title, BPM'S, Year, Genre and Comments (to put in highest chart position). Will iTunes do all this automatically? All these fields are now showing on the page, but will they automatically show up in Serato and on my CDJ's or do I have to do something else? Does iTunes find the BPM'S? On an old version of it, it appeared to do so on many tracks or was this because it was embedded on the CD I was ripping? A long post I know, but at my time of life I want to get this right first time. Thanks in advance for reading this and pointing me in the right direction :) Capitan.
 

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Capitan
How do you post on here without it coming out like a wall of writing as above? I paragraphed it all but to no avail! Pulse/Gavin can you sort it for me?
December 29, 2011 06:48
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oakstream
Silver

Hi Capitan!

I'll try to answer your questions... I'm using iTines to rip my CD's to AIFF Lossless for best audio quality and tagging options.

I have attached my answers in a pdf if the text ends up like PGP... ;)

 

Firstly, iTunes. Everything will be ripped from CD's and, eventually, vinyl. I haven't started ripping anything yet and want to know if the settings I have chosen are the best to use. I've set the rip rate at 320kbps and AAC. Do I need to set it for MP3? Can I use any other setting with my equipment? Will it make any difference?

 

Next, I've set the sample rate at 44.100KHz. Is this correct or should I set it to auto? I have mine set to auto and it ends up in 44,1KHz.

 

The channels I've set to auto. Would the stereo setting make any difference? I have mine set to auto and it ends up in stereo.

 

I've ticked the VBR encoding box. Is this best? No, you should use CBR or preferably AIFF Lossless.

 

I haven't ticked either the High Efficiency Encoding or Optimize for voice boxes. In truth, I don't know what these would do anyway. Should I use them? Don't know, It's not used in AIFF ripping.

 

Should I use Error Correction when ripping? Only if your CD's are in bad condition.

 

In terms of "tagging"' I am at a loss. All I'm really interested in is Artist, Song title, BPM'S, Year, Genre and Comments (to put in highest chart position). Will iTunes do all this automatically? Not all, if the CD is in the database it will add artist, song etc. If it's not you'll need to write it manually. You also have to add comments by yourself. iTunes does not analyze BPM, take a look at Mixed In Key instead (www.mixedinkey.com) it can write Key and BPM info to the tags.

 

All these fields are now showing on the page, but will they automatically show up in Serato and on my CDJ's or do I have to do something else? You have to analyze the files in Serato Scratch Live.

 

Does iTunes find the BPM'S? No, see my answer above.

 

 

I hope this helps!

 

Cheers mate!

December 29, 2011 07:24
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Capitan
Thanks for your time and help oakstream :). At the age of 50, my big system club days are over so I think 320kbps should be fine for my needs. In addition, I want to get all my tracks on the laptop only. What confuses me is which way to go. MP3 or Apple Lossless (AAC?). Bear in mind I have CDJ400's and want to be able to burn and use CD's or a USB stick they can cope with if necessary. Which is the best format for Serato use? I have got these iTunes settings in mind for MP3: 320kbps VBR: off sample rate: auto channels: auto stereo mode: joint stereo smart encoding: on filter frequencies below 10hz: off Are these the best settings or should I go AAC instead?
December 31, 2011 10:14
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Pulse
Pioneer DJ

If you're not planning on using AIFF, then set it for MP3 at 320k and use STEREO, not joint-stereo or auto.  No sense in using the filtering and turn off the smart encoding.  Never use VBR!

December 31, 2011 15:14
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Capitan

Thanks Pulse :)

 

Just so I'm clear, the settings should be:

 

MP3 - 320kbps

VBR - Off

Sample Rate - Auto

Channels - Auto

Stereo Mode - Stereo

Smart Encoding - Off

Frequency Filter - Off

January 02, 2012 15:51
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Pulse
Pioneer DJ

Looks good to me -- you could set your sample rate and channels manually, but it's all good.

January 02, 2012 19:40
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