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COLOUR CODES NOT SAVING & LIBRARY UPDATE ISSUES
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COLOUR CODES NOT SAVING & LIBRARY UPDATE ISSUES

Product
Scratch Live
Version
-
Hardware
Ortofon | Serato S-120
Computer
-
OS
Platform
-
Mr Deeks 12:23 PM - 23 February, 2009
Laptop (SSL 1.8) - XP (used only for playouts 24/7)
Home PC (SSL 1.8) - Vista (used for preparing library)
External HDD - WD 250gig USB powered (used to save library and playouts 24/7)

PROBLEM #1
Colour codes are not saving when songs are organised on my home pc and then the EX HDD is plugged into the Laptop for live playouts..cant figer why and is really annoying when you spend hours coding your library to find out its not saved when im using the laptop.

PROBLEM #2
When new songs are added to my library i like to organise the songs within my crates by the date added for specific genres so its easy to select the new stuff fast, however i now find SSL reading all the tags on the EX HDD from some crates in the library, thus the added date is now thrown out and is always the date im playing, i.e if i play on the 23rd and load up the EX HDD the date shown in the added coloum will be the 23rd, making this method useless and EXTREMELY annoying when your selecting fast.

NEED HELP REALLY FAST GUYS!!!

Thanks DJ MD
Rane, Support
Chad S. 4:30 PM - 23 February, 2009
How much room do you have on your HD? Internal and external?

Are you going from PC to MAC?

Have you built overviews on all of the music?

Do you see the bad / corrupt icon next to any? How about a lock?

Sounds as if the databaseV2 file has gone corrupt and doesn't retain info.

All of this can be caused by not properly ejecting the HD. There are other causes, but make sure that you do properly eject your HD.
Mr Deeks 5:54 PM - 23 February, 2009
External HDD..with over 100 gig still free

Using a PC with Vista and Laptop with XP

All over overviews are built as new songs are added

No corrupt signes or locks..these get deleted

External HDD is always safely removed from the PC & laptop using the built in windows eject method...i know this already as ive seen other not disconnect their HDD's safely.

How do i work edit or work with this V2 file so it retians the necessary info, i know im not going get my dates back but i need to correct this problem as im constantly adding to my library.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 7:35 PM - 23 February, 2009
In your scratchlive folder there is a "DatabaseV2" file. We want to rename that DatabaseV2broken. When Scratchlive opens it will not see a databaseV2 folder and make a new one. Since your overviews are built and bad files removed, this should solve the problem.

It is located on the drive you store your music on. So if everything is external, rename the one there.
Mr Deeks 8:29 PM - 23 February, 2009
Ive also noticed that there is three folders on my External HDD that say:
_scratchlive_backup
_scratchlive_
.scratchlivebackup

ive renamed the the one that has been most recently accessed and am now waiting for SSL to read all the tags...will update you in a moment.
Mr Deeks 11:59 AM - 24 February, 2009
So far so good, it seems to be keeping the dates and on SSL load up it just loads the crates and not taking for ages reading all the tags as it was doing before. Ive not tested the colour coding function will do later.

Thanks for the help so far.

DJ MD
Rane, Support
Chad S. 5:55 PM - 24 February, 2009
good deal man, post back here if you have any problems.
Mr Deeks 7:43 PM - 16 February, 2010
Hey Chad

Once again the color thing is playing up, i have previously been using 1.9.1 and have recently upgraded to 1.9.2. It is saving my color tags this time however not displaying them until i choose to play the track? Any suggestions?

Also any reason why my attached Western Digital HDD takes so long to be recognized by the SL? Its like a 20-30sec delay until it reads my crates.

Help please
Cheers
Rane, Support
Chad S. 10:19 PM - 16 February, 2010
almost exactly a year later. lol.

Try rescanning the ID3 tags in Scratch Live.

How much free space is on your external HD?

What is the total size of the HD?
Mr Deeks 3:47 PM - 1 March, 2010
Sori for the delay in replying, tried rescaning still no joy!

I dont really want to delete the database file as all my music is in date added order.

The External HDD is 250gig there is roughly 120gig free, again taking forever to load up my crates.

Any suggestions?
Rane, Support
Chad S. 6:50 PM - 1 March, 2010
Can you save a cue or loop point to those files?
Mr Deeks 7:51 PM - 1 March, 2010
Yes it saves the gain info and the colour code i set. I use my main office pc to organise my play list on the external HDD and then when i come to play out i plug that HDD to my laptop, and this is where:
A) the Western Digital HDD takes ages to load my crates
B) The colours are not appearing until i drag the song into the deck

I have noticed that SL likes to back up my V2 database to nearly three different drives on my main pc and then to the C drive & External on my laptop, could it be saving it on my main pc and then when i plug my HDD into the laptop another database is being used, im not sure how the tech side of this works, correct me if im wrong please.
Mr Deeks 3:29 PM - 15 March, 2010
Hi....to answer Chads question yes it does save the loops, but my colours are sill not appearing =(
Rane, Support
Chad S. 4:38 PM - 15 March, 2010
Sounds like you have music scattered all about. Try getting it in one location. That can cutback on saving issues.
Mr Deeks 9:06 AM - 16 March, 2010
Hi Chad, all my music is saved onto the external HDD this is where it gets played from time and time again.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 3:29 PM - 16 March, 2010
Just to be sure, you are talking about the grey dots next to the music in the library? The dots that when colored and the song is loaded, turns the virtual deck the color of the dot, correct?

It save cues and loops but not that?

Do they show up once loaded to the deck like you stated a month ago?
Mr Deeks 5:44 PM - 16 March, 2010
Hi Chad

Yes im talking about the grey dots that you can color code.

Yes it is saving all my loops but not the color initailly, when the song is loaded then the color is shown.

I use the colors for coding various tracks to play, i find it VERY useful and have been using this scheme since SL 1.3 first came out lol.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 6:34 PM - 16 March, 2010
I would hope rescanning the ID3 tags inside of Scratch Live would get them to pop up.

After you load them to a deck and they appear, can you close the program and still have those certain ones there?

Or does it clear itself out everytime?
Mr Deeks 7:31 PM - 16 March, 2010
No it doesnt.

After loading them to a deck playing a set then closing the program they are still are not appearing when the program is booted again. However the color still remains apart of the track data...it just doesnt show up on new tracks added to my library.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 7:51 PM - 16 March, 2010
Is this only happenning with newly added tracks?

Does Scratch Live read your itunes library?
Mr Deeks 9:00 PM - 16 March, 2010
Yes with new tracked add to my SL library

I dont use itunes.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 9:13 PM - 16 March, 2010
Where did these new tunes come from?
Mr Deeks 9:19 PM - 16 March, 2010
Various sources i.e DJ pools & DJ sites etc etc

Never usually a problem with the mp3's

I want to avoid deleting my V2 database as all my songs are date added order.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 9:38 PM - 16 March, 2010
well, I was guessing some of the id3 tags might be too full of info. I was going to suggest maybe stripping a few and seeing if that solves it. The down side is you lose any cues / loops or overviews you already have on those files.

You can also attach a couple of the files to this thread. I can put them in my Scratch Live and see if I get the same results.
Mr Deeks 9:43 PM - 16 March, 2010
Ok how do you strip a id3 tag?

I rarely use cues on my files the only data kept is bpm, gain & loops. I have a id3 tag editor which all my mp3s get run through where i edit the genre and other aspects of the file.

What should the average V2 database file size be?
Rane, Support
Chad S. 10:18 PM - 16 March, 2010
I use itunes to strip tags.


I put it in there and then click on it in the library. I right clcik and choose to "convert ID3 tag"

First convert it to "none". Then convert it to v2.3. Once done, put it back in Scratch Live and try adding the color.

It is a small file, usually measured in Kb
Mr Deeks 9:01 AM - 17 March, 2010
Ok as i dont own any Apply hardwear i dont use itunes. The softwear i use allows bulk editing of mp3s you can find it at www.mp3tag.de

When i last had a look at the V2 file it was like over 200megs! How can this be?!
Rane, Support
Chad S. 3:32 PM - 17 March, 2010
That does seem very large.

Does your tagger allow you to strip tags?

If not, download itunes for free from the net and give my recommendation a shot.
Mr Deeks 9:05 PM - 17 March, 2010
When u say tags you mean elemets of info that are stored on the mp3 like date year album cover track numer etc etc?
Rane, Support
Chad S. 9:33 PM - 17 March, 2010
Yes, the ID3 tag is where that is stored.

Sometimes it has too much info and won't save certain settings. Or something else is in front of it and thats why it takes loading it to the deck to recall the tag info from Scratch Live. Both can be combatted by stripping and remaking the ID3 tag.
Mr Deeks 9:47 PM - 17 March, 2010
Well then all my ID3 tags should be super skinny!

I strip away all the useless info such as Album Cover pictures track number album etc etc. What usually remains is genre/year/artist & song title.

Cant understand why my V2 is so big then? The size of this is prob also responsible for the slow loading time of my songs from the ext HDD.
Rane, Support
Chad S. 10:35 PM - 17 March, 2010
My recommendation has been to try stripping a few tags. Meaning completely eliminate any ID3 tag for the song. Then add a new one. I have provided the steps above to do this through itunes.
Mr Deeks 10:53 PM - 17 March, 2010
Does itunes edit tags in bulk form?
Mr Deeks 9:38 AM - 18 March, 2010
Chad i was going through my SL backup files, why is it i have two folders on my ext HDD _ScratchLIVE_ & _ScratchLIVE_Backup. Both of which have very different last accessed dates?

Also with in both of these folders there was a file labeled "V2 broken" prob from the last time i had to rebuild my library however that one file was like 160megs so i temporarily cut and moved them to a different location and tried to load SL...it loaded ok but took ages as it does and my colors on the tracks still didnt appear until i loaded them into the deck!? Grrrrrrr!
Rane, Support
Chad S. 4:12 PM - 18 March, 2010
The _ScratchLIVE_ folder gets accessed every time you use the program.

The _ScratchLIVEBackup_ folder gets accessed once per week if you check the "backup" option when it appears as you close the program.
Mr Deeks 4:30 PM - 18 March, 2010
Why does it then try to create new folders on nearly all my different hard drives?
Rane, Support
Chad S. 5:28 PM - 18 March, 2010
If the music is stored on a drive, that is where it backs up the information.
Mr Deeks 5:59 PM - 18 March, 2010
It backs up the info on Ext HDD however other times it prompts me to save to alternative drives where the music is not even stored?

I'm extremely confused about this whole situation?

And my V2 File is still 70megs in size after stripping away again the id3 tags!
Rane, Support
Chad S. 7:13 PM - 18 March, 2010
How many files did you strip the tags on?

Do they now retain and display your color info?
Mr Deeks 10:15 PM - 18 March, 2010
Over a 1000, like i said most of my files are well organised and was already stripped showing id3 v2.3

The songs still kept their info, however what i did notice is that when i backed up the library to a local HDD on the laptop and not my Ext HDD the colors seem to appear the next time i loaded SL...weird?!
Mr Deeks 4:55 PM - 4 April, 2010
Hi this issue has not been resolved! I have now resorted to moving my music to the Laptop HDD and no longer using my External HDD, also i have had to streamline my music library as it took a VERY long time to load my crates from the External HDD.

I would like to know if anyone else had reported this problem with crates taking a very long time to load from External HDD's storing over 250gig of music.

Also the Color codes are still playing up & not always saving, along with the library being backed up to drives where the music is not even stored on, i still cant understand this?

Thanks
MD
Rane, Support
Chad S. 6:54 PM - 5 April, 2010
Try rescanning the ID3 tags again.

Still happening on files that you stripped the ID3 tag to none and then added v2.3 too?

If your computer is hooked into networks, it will ask too backup there as well. Make sure you turn off any internet / wireless or network connection when using Scratch Live.
1:21 AM, 2 Aug 2010
This help request has been closed due to inactivity.