Sorry mate, if you don't want to beatmatch manually, you should have just stuck with Ableton.

Not really sure what you were expecting Scratch Live to add to your Ableton experience? Surely there are TONS of clip launch options in Ableton? Launch modes, follow actions, all sorts!

Thanks for your answer phatbob.
Well mate, you're partially wrong!
;-)

Having an hybrid system would be just a very efficient combination for Ableton djays.
Ableton adds a world of options to traditional djing, but still lacks of some very basic "old-school" features.
For example, during a gig, you may want to:
- simply stop your flow, voice over it, and reboot it manually like you would do with vinyls
- scratch over some transitions from time to time
- change dramatically the tempo
- add a last tune on a fly which you didn't have time to properly warp
- loop on the fly
- insert some cue points and retrigger them immediately after
- etc.
All of these things can not be achieved with a normal Ableton setup.

Plus, don't forget the totally lack of file browsing AND playlist management in Ableton.
Swapping playlists (like the Serato playlists) with other djays is also a very great tool, which doesn't exist in the Ableton world.
Not to mention going on a gig and simply connect yourself to a very common Serato setup.

Basically it's not only about clip launching, but about filling up the gap between a strict grid management and a more analog vinyl feel.
On the contrary, why should I be "forced" to beatmatch manually within the Bridge, especially given the fact that the tracks are already beatgrided?
Isn't like doing twice the same thing, is it?
Why should I spend extra time beatmatching manually something that could theoretically immediately be synced up?

Bottom line: I didn't buy Serato to "start over" with Serato.
I bought it for the Bridge.
I wanted to get to my mixes a couple of extras candies and enlarge the spectrum of options available.

I believe Rane has a very interesting market out there. I won't mind paying 100-200 USD to have a perfect hybrid system (the Bridge), once I'd be sure to give to my gigs that extra missing touch.

From my understanding and your answer though, looks like the Bridge is still on a very first phase. Maybe the marketing departments at Rane and Ableton were testing the reactions around.

I believe a full year passed from its launch, and seeing that there have been no further improvements makes me hope I didn't throw away 900 USD. ;-)
Respect,

Second time I've said this to someone this week... Says a lot about how limited the Bridge actually is...

You should look at Traktor Scratch. Send midi clock to Ableton, sample decks, WAYYY advanced fx, vinyl control... It will suit what you want far more than Scratch Live. And that's me talking as a Serato fanboy. But your needs are your needs!

WOW bwoy you just killed me!
I even have a license for Traktor somewhere, maybe to be updated...
I never considered Traktor because I was just into Ableton and because almost all of the djays i know on this side of the globe (the caribbean) go with Serato...

The bridge looked like the perfect solution...
I'm honestly a bit disappointed though... :-(

But thanks for the insights, maybe I should return the box back to the dealer and change plan... I will dig into it.
Thanks again, bless

I'm reading around...
What about ITCH and the Bridge? Is that been done?
Can I run it through the SL-4?
Thanks

OK, I have spent a couple of days playing around and i still think Serato and Ableton are a great combination.

As an Ableton Dj, there's still a couple of easy issues that I would like to underline (don't know if this is the right place):

1) I would like to have a keyboard shortcut to show and hide the Ableton Bridge panel;

2) I would like to have a keyboard shortcut to SYNC ableton to deck 1 or 2 - it's rally terrible to do it with the mouse...

3) If I'm playing a tune on Deck 1, synced with Ableton, and I load in the same deck another track, the latter will immediately start playing, BUT the Sync will be lost so I will have to re-trigger it manually (with the mouse... horrible!).
I would like that, when a new track is loaded and start playing, if the Sync to Ableton was formerly selected, it should remain selected also with the new track. Hope it makes sense.

Please let me know if I should address these comments/suggestions on a different topic/forum, thanks.

Riquo I have the exact same problem and don't use The Bridge live for that purpose. Sync 1 and 2 should not be deactivated whenever a new track is dropped in, or at least it should have a keyboard/ TTM57 shortcut

Same problem here and the same reason I don't use it out live. I would totally agree with phatbob about getting traktor. From how it seems that is the best match for u. I own and audio 8 dj with traktor and its a great software and even better when midi to ableton and with ableton latest updates the midi sync is a lot tighter.

thanks much clickclickw00t and Caliber for your inputs.

wow i feel very frustrated to have spent 900 USD for a box which is already collecting dust...
i should have searched better before buying, but i believe i got a bit too much excited about the "bridge" thang LOL, and thought i could make it work...

something that annoys me also is the complete lack of support to this thread.
not even an answer from a serato guy...
real pity, at least some hope could have helped i guess...

I'm slowly starting to experiment with the Bridge. My Macbook is rather old (2,4 ghz intel core2 duo, 4 gb RAM) so I don't trust it to run the Bridge out (I do have a brand new 17" mbp too, so I might have a go out live with that one later...). I agree, shortcuts would be most helpful, also remember that the panel tab button and sync buttons can be midi mapped.

riquo, I'm trying to recreate what you are doing in your example 3.
Are you saying a regular sound file is playing on deck 1 while Ableton Bridge is synced on another channel? Then you load another track on deck 1 and you loose the sync in Ableton Bridge? Remember SSL don't have internal sync for the decks. If you wanted to sync the next soundfile on deck, you would have to do this manually (ie turn off the sync button first.)
Does that make any sense?

ya WarpNote man, serato does not have sync...
so why the bridge, i would say?
why the beatgrids?

it just makes no sense to me, and unfortunately i could not got this information simply browsing around the bridge's advertisements in both ableton and serato websites...
on the contrary, i thought that would be possible.

anyway, it's like forcing a ferrari to run only on the first 3 gears...

why - as an ableton dj - would i ever want a bridge which does not sync?

the potential of the bridge is enormous, but the sync limitation - again, from an ableton dj perspective - is simply absurd.

Well you got to remember where SSL is coming from, ie a DVS soultion.
Generally SSL DJ's enjoy beatmatching their tunes by ear live, simple pleasures I know, but still. Before I start making any more comments, I'm gonna play around with the Bridge this coming week...

trust me WarpNote i exactly know what you mean!
a Serato user doesn't need sync at all, i agree! ;-)

my points are all based starting from an ableton user point of view.
one of the greatest thing when djing with ableton is the smooth transitions you could achieve in your mixes since you can underlay textures in-between the songs... textures which will blend magically everything together, like an invisible glue.

unfortunately, ableton has massive limitations in transport control though...
only an ableton user knows how many tricks we need to elaborate in order to achieve a good tempo transition, or to stop the flow and start again...

with the bridge i had the impression of a win-win situation, adding the "real thing" to a software which is amazing, but which is still not a "real" live-dj software...

bottom line i hope the serato users here could forgive me if i use the word "sync" in their forums!

let's just hope that the bridge engineers will give some more options to the ableton users, that's all I hope for.
onelove

There is no doubt that the bridge offers more to Serato useres than visaversa. But if you are ableton users all your tracks would probably already be warped and ready to go with the bridge which is awsome.

ops did sometng wrong with the quotes there. Bear with me.

I'm in exactly the same position as DjRiquo.

Long time Ableton user. Wanted to bring some scratching and other stuff into my Ableton DJ sets. Thought "The Bridge" meant Serato was the best choice.

I went out and bought an SL3. I found this thread after trying to figure things out. It now seems that with the midi clock sync with Traktor, that would have been a better choice. Now I have to see how much I can get on the return of my SL3.

I don't care much about autosynch. what still kills the bridge for me is the non-existent interaction between the ableton view and scratch live's file system.

Ever noticed that how in ableton live you can find an .als file on the library and drag it over your grid? and all the the clips from that session are added?

Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to organize your als sessions with SL's file system? assign bpm, name, comments to them? and then just quickly look them up and load them on Scratch Live?

Then djing with the bridge could go something like this:
- playing a song on Deck A
- load an .als file on Deck B, with a little set of a few clips
- mix into the session on Deck B and do all kinds of ableton magic. scratch some with deck A.
- load song on Deck A, mix into that. then mix some more songs, oblivious of Ableton, and then go back into it.

For me that would be the perfect combination. Ableton live is awesome but it's rigid as hell when it comes to DJing. Having it integrated with SL the way i describe would free you up to use it more flexibly, without needing to have ONE huge, painstakingly planned ableton set. Go into ableton only when you want to, only if the situation calls for it. It would be just like regular DJing only you can, from time to time, seamlessly play songs over which you have absolute control.

Anyway, i've had this request for a long time, but i don't think it is ever going to happen. I've never had a Serato guy comment on it or anything. The Bridge doesn't seem to have a lot of priority compared to other serato products. It's been a while since the bridge came out and there's only been minimal changes applied to it since it's release.

Just map the the sync ,and browser buttons to a controller. When it comes to sync for me anyway, start in scratch live first. then hit sync , then launch clip in ableton.

He basically wants to slave the SSL deck to a Ableton master sync...

Or go with Ms Pinky then, traktor would be good also.

With the bridge project being scrapped, I guess there is no more use for this forum. Can't believe Serato is doing this

The bridge is not getting scrapped, only the mixtape feature... You can still control Ableton Live inside of Scratch Live! :D

Only for six one and sixty two mixers

and its not in stone yet...

Yes we need sync 1&2 shortcuts or they need to stay on even when u drop a new song!!!! Has anyone fix this problem or found a solution! I'm even using the apc40 and can't do it :(

Bridge newbie,

I just started to experiment with this bridge thing. However I think I must be doing something wrong. I don't think my sync function is operating correctly so If anyone out there can lend some advice to my dilemma I'd appreciate it.

While in the serato window frame I play a track on deck 1 using serato. I have ableton open and showing the clips below the decks. On deck two I load a launch a clip from ableton. In order for me to match the tempo I must ride it manually with the pitch control. No problem. However in learning about this sync feature I tried to use it and it does not seem to work. The problem that occurs is the second I hit the sync button, the ableton clip that is playing on the deck drops out completely. Like I ejected the template. I repeat again except this time I hit the "int" tap next to the sync tabs on ableton and once again I get a complete clip drop off. What is the "int" feature for and any idea of why the clips totally just eject off the deck playing and drop off?

Im using turntables and rane ttm57sl. Macbook pro with 8 gigs of ram. Running ableton suite 8

any help is appreciated. Thanks

You are not supposed to have the Ableton clip thing on the players when you sync, it's playing in an internal player when syncing :)

The int button is for using this internat player without syncing it :)

So pretty much, if you want to sync it to deck 1, don load it anywhere, just press sync 1 and it should do so... in the bottom right of the ableton view you should have buttons to control where the sound should output, L,R,A,M it depends a bit on wich hardware you are using :)

So I'm curious ..

Ultimately what kind of setups have you guys gone with in order to do what you want to achieve between Ableton, Scratch or Traktor ..etc?

Still there are so many of us in the same boat. Have you guys come up with any creative solutions to create your ideal DJ setup?

Always running 3 decks when I play with the bridge so that ableton can have its own deck all the time has been the best thing I have done with the bridge. Also I use CDJ2000's in HID so getting the BPM on the deck is really nice also.

This is an excellent idea !!

ive recently got ableton 9 to use the bridge when synching it only works with certain tracks when it does not work it makes a buzzing sounds as if the clip is playing really fast. also the sych doesn't stay in once you load a new track the synch goes out.

im using a akai mpd 26 as the midi controller to launch clips ect. but so far the bridge seems to be more hassle than its worth would traktor be better for mixing whilst launching clips and being more creative than the bridge?

Its not really a bug but just the way the bridge works. You cant change the track when ableton is linked to that track.


I see how the trakor can look attractive. But once you get the bridge down put, and know all of it's idiosyncrasies, you will see how power of a tool it can be.

ok thanks

seems like the sync turning back on automatically when loading a new song would just be natural.

optional behavior

is it a feature suggestion?