Serato Software Feature Suggestions

What features would you like to see in Serato software?

3D Tracks - Multiple versons in 1 file

KMXE 9:52 AM - 4 May, 2007
I'm one of those patient DJ's that will spend time editing tracks to suit my needs. One of these things that i do is line up main / acapella / instrumental versions of tracks so switching between them at any time will be smooth. So the start of the 1st verse on 1 track (say main version) is exactly at the same time as the start of the 1st verse on another track (say instrumental).

This takes quite a bit of time, and can be annoying.

What about a special file type that includes all versions of the a track, all lined up (including a video track) against the same timeline, so that when you switch (say from Main to Acapella) then it seems like you've dropped the instrumental side of the track and are left with the vocals.

Why 3D? Well, this file would have Amplitude, length, and multiple versions.

An idea spawned from another section of this forum - thought id post it here to see if other DJs are doing something similar.
gregdaynes 5:10 PM - 4 May, 2007
I really like that idea, but i worry that files size would be too large. Especially for people who only use .wav files.
DJ_X_Trodinaire 7:04 PM - 4 May, 2007
looks like the 8-track is coming back! haha

thats how they did it back then.
Inofaith 7:58 PM - 4 May, 2007
DVD's have it, but normal video files don't.... and switching camera angles or audio tracks on DVD's is really slow.

but yeah there are WAV formats which can be 6 channel (5.1 surround) IN ONE FILE!
would be great... but then.. wouldnt you just prepare a complete mix on a 4 track file of 1 hour and switch and fade between the perfectley lined up songs???

that would be too easy and you could just use ableton live for that right?
nik39 7:12 PM - 15 October, 2007
Bump.
KMXE 11:14 PM - 15 October, 2007
Bump
Psyko Logical 8:38 PM - 19 October, 2007
Great idea.
sweetL 6:49 PM - 20 October, 2007
great idea... but what you're looking at here is changing how mp3 works.

ultimately they have engineered a .wl.mp3 format which i would guess revolves around them having a particular element in the file which normal mp3 players presume is the end of the file, and that scratchlive knows to ignore. you cant dual-stream a file.

so, to acheive what you're talking about, we're talking about an internally multi-split file...

which im not convinced will work with mp3... and even if it did, the overheads would be costly, because youd have to load the whole huge mp3 into memory before you could present a 'which version would you like' option. this presents speed issues, and also presents usability issues. dont even get me started on how youd tag it and build an overview for it.

hmm... what IF it was an archive file? like a .mp3.stack.zip file or something? that could work...but then again, costly on resources.

upshot: never gonna happen.
nik39 7:59 PM - 20 October, 2007
Quote:
great idea... but what you're looking at here is changing how mp3 works.

It should only work in SSL, so you dont really have to worry about the mp3 format, as you could just tell SSLs database to combine certain songs to one virtual 3d-track.

Revise the upshot.
sweetL 11:58 PM - 20 October, 2007
hmm... good point... consider my upshot revised!
nik39 1:54 PM - 21 October, 2007
:)
Serato
Ronan 12:12 AM - 8 November, 2007
AAC supports multiple tracks, upto about 40 I think.

How could such a system cope with the compression applied to the vocals and instrumental together (on the clean/dirty version)? you might notice some strange volume changes when switching between versions...
KMXE 12:37 AM - 8 November, 2007
Quote:
AAC supports multiple tracks, upto about 40 I think.

How could such a system cope with the compression applied to the vocals and instrumental together (on the clean/dirty version)? you might notice some strange volume changes when switching between versions...


i think it would be up to the user to make sure the volume levels are equal before loading them up.