Serato DJ Pro General Discussion

Talk about Serato DJ Pro, expansion packs and supported hardware

Corrupt Files problem

djryanl 6:28 PM - 10 December, 2014
Hi all, I really need help with two issues, that kinda tie into each other....

1- I recently had some issues with my local hard drive on my main MBP. It was performing poorly, slowing down on transfer of files, and the smart status was coming up with errors. I also noticed many of my tracks were coming up as corrupt in Serato. Last weekend I bought a 1tb Samsung SSD drive. I did a time machine of my data, and transferred everything onto the new drive. When I opened SErato, the tracks were still coming up as corrupt, which I expected since I hadn’t re analyzed them yet. I just finished doing all the reanalyzing, but they are still coming up as corrupt. I have a spare laptop that I decided I would setup for a test, as well as to have for backup. I copied all the same music files to this new Windows laptop, followed the instructions to copy the Serato crates etc, and did a new analyze, and there are no corrupt files. Does this make sense??? Most forums I read blame the files for being corrupt, but in this case, the files are proven to not be corrupt on the newly setup backup laptop. Could it be because of the time machine keeping data from the old HD that had issues? My last test I was thinking of doing was to delete the entire music library from my Mac and then copy the files from the windows laptop (with no corrupt files) to a new location on the Mac Hard drive and redo the analyzing. Essentially doing a manual restore of the files, instead of using time machine. This is a very time consuming process as I have nearly 20k files and the analyzing takes roughly 48hrs to finish, so I thought I would run this by you guys first.

2- I mentioned setting up a second laptop. I installed the 14 day trial version, but wondered if I can have a second copy of Serato DJ as backup, or do I have to buy a second license?? Doesn’t seem right, as professional DJ’s have to have a backup. My Serato DJ email is info@djryanlabelle.com for you to verify my license that came with my Vestax VCI 380. I actually have a second controller I keep as backup, which came with Serato DJ intro,which I installed after the trial ran out, but it doesn’t connect when putting the Numark controller in Midi mode. This worked fine with the full Serato DJ, but the trial is up.

PLEASE HELP!
Mike Butler 8:58 PM - 10 December, 2014
I'm pretty sure you get two installs of the software on one licence. Certainly that's the case the effects and I think it goes for the main software too

Mike
deejdave 3:37 AM - 11 December, 2014
You are speaking of two different animals here;

Your Vestax VCI-380 is a Serato DJ enabled device which means it natively supports Serato DJ. When you initially purchased the controller the license fee was paid but applies to THAT specific device only. The license/activation is actually built into the firmware of the controller and applies to the controller it is built into only.

The second controller you speak of (Numark) is Serato DJ Upgrade ready which means it natively supports Serato DJ Intro. You also have the option of using SDJ Intro controllers that support Serato DJ (full) by purchasing a separate Serato DJ upgrade. The good news is this upgrade is NOT controller specific nor is it built into the controllers thus can be used with as many (supported) controllers as you wish and does NOT expire. This license is similar to the expansions in that you can only activate it on two machines as Mike Butler suggested above.

Quote:
My Serato DJ email is info@djryanlabelle.com for you to verify my license that came with my Vestax VCI 380.


You may remember you never actually purchased or obtained a license for the VCI-380. There is no need to at least as the 380 is a Serato DJ enabled device meaning NO obtaining of any separate license/activation is needed as it is built into the controller.


Using your e-mail to download the software Serato offers is NOT the same as obtaining license. Keep in mind ANYONE can register with Serato with theri e-mail and download ANY of Serato's DJ software FREE of charge. In order to use online (virtual decks on screen etc) one MUST own the necessary hardware.

I tried wording this a few ways. Hopefully one of the makes sense to you.

To put it bluntly you can use you VCI-380 with Serato DJ (full) as is. In order to use you Numark controller you MUST purchase a separate Serato DJ upgrade store.serato.com being your 14 day FREE trial has expired.
djryanl 9:39 PM - 11 December, 2014
Hi guys, I got to the bottom of the licensing issues...and yes, your 100% accurate deejdave!

My main concern now is my corrupt files issue

I’ve done some more testing and I’m pretty sure I’m going to be stuck re encoding my 25gb of files. I took a folder with 30 tracks that were ALL coming up as corrupt and re encoded them in iTunes, and then re analyzed them in Serato and they were fixed. What sucks the most is that all other software’s have no issues with these files. iTunes, Traktor, etc. I’m almost tempted to just stop using Serato and go with Traktor as I’ve done in the past when encounter issues with Serato.

But because I'm a techy, I'd like to solve this....so for the re-encoding part, It’s a super easy task to do with iTunes, except the function to have iTunes not change the file name or folder structure, only applies when your importing new music into a playlist (or your library). When you do a batch re encoding, it automatically does what ITunes likes to do, it creates the files in the ITunes manner (folder with Artist name, track name as the file within FOR EACH FILE). This won’t work for me as I want to be abel to keep the exact file names as they are so that playlists in iTunes (which I use for dinner music) don’t get messed up, as well as my crates in Serato…which wouldn’t be able to relocate if the file name changes.
Serato
Geoff.B 4:30 AM - 16 December, 2014
Quote:
I took a folder with 30 tracks that were ALL coming up as corrupt and re encoded them in iTunes, and then re analyzed them in Serato and they were fixed. What sucks the most is that all other software’s have no issues with these files. iTunes, Traktor, etc.


Hi djryanl, what format are these files, and what version of Serato DJ are you using?
djryanl 4:38 PM - 16 December, 2014
Quote:
Quote:
I took a folder with 30 tracks that were ALL coming up as corrupt and re encoded them in iTunes, and then re analyzed them in Serato and they were fixed. What sucks the most is that all other software’s have no issues with these files. iTunes, Traktor, etc.


Hi djryanl, what format are these files, and what version of Serato DJ are you using?


Hi Geoff,

They are all MP3's. I'm using the newest release of Serato DJ 1.7.2. Another major thing I realized is that when I copied over my full music library to the second laptop, I didn't actually analyze them, I just did the 'relocate' function. I analyzed a couple of the folders on the this second laptop, and they too are corrupt in Serato, which means that I have no idea when these files became corrupt, nor whether or not I still have a backup of them from prior to them becoming corrupt.

As I said before, I would prefer just figuring out how to re-encode but with a software that will keep the file names the same and simply overwrite the existing file. The perfect software seemed to be Xact, but it won't work with MP3's......Grrrrrrrr! They I found Amok, but can't figure it out for the life of me.
Serato
Geoff.B 8:52 PM - 16 December, 2014
Quote:
I analyzed a couple of the folders on the this second laptop, and they too are corrupt in Serato, which means that I have no idea when these files became corrupt, nor whether or not I still have a backup of them from prior to them becoming corrupt.


Would you mind finding a track that is showing corrupt, and finding your backup of that track and uploading both files here?
djryanl 10:42 PM - 16 December, 2014
I'm assuming you want me to find a backup of the file that doesn't come up corrupt? At this point, I will have to go through all my time machine backups to see when they went corrupt...? As I mentioned before, the backup laptop files are also corrupt (unlike I first thought).
Serato
Geoff.B 2:45 AM - 17 December, 2014
Quote:
I'm assuming you want me to find a backup of the file that doesn't come up corrupt? At this point, I will have to go through all my time machine backups to see when they went corrupt...? As I mentioned before, the backup laptop files are also corrupt (unlike I first thought).


Oh, sorry I misread what you said. For some reason I read that you do have some of those files backed up. Well, how about uploading a couple of the corrupt files here at least and we can take a look at it.
djryanl 5:59 PM - 17 December, 2014
Here you go Geoff. Anxiously waiting for your comments as I have gigs this coming weekend, and would like to resolve this.

www.wetransfer.com
djryanl 4:10 PM - 23 December, 2014
Any update on this Geoff???
Serato, Support
Matt P 12:40 AM - 31 December, 2014
Hi djryanl,

Its best if you continue with our private email thread. As Geoff is just helping out on his free time.
As I have been working with you closely, it would be more effective to continue with what we've started as far as troubleshooting.

Regards

Matt P