Just out of interest what is your OS and
MacBook model?

I would say 2008 macbook and mountain lion...

Mid 2012 i7 MBP, Mavericks. Don't rush into conclusions, I've clocked my time in this place. As I said, I'm not going to log in any crash report, I've long exhausted that part during the last 2 years. Serato team should put their sh*t together, every couple updates they're f*cking up DVS performance and I've had enough.

In all honesty the beta was a lot more stable than the final build.

I'm getting stutters every now n then.
This happend a long time ago on other versions and it's back again.

Did you have any luck with 1.9.3? 1.9.5 was bugging out. Going back to 1.9.3 seems to be running stable.

i ran 1.9.5 on the sierra , just to try it out , tryed it for 5hrs on my ns7II switched back to maverick and 1.9.1 because my left platter went bonkers and my pad lights disappeared..I was just being nosey . never really had no serato problem till i upgrade.. guess its a case of if it aint broke don't fix it

damn you shouldnt have any issues with those specs, your computer isnt even old.

Yeah serato DJ is buggy its well established (serato we love you but lets call a spade a spade).

The truth is, its best to find an OS and a version of serato that works, and dont update either unless you need to.

I made the mistake of updating my old macbook every time a new OS came out. It just got slower and i kept running into performance issues.

The only comforting thing is that I see you guys have issues with 1.9.5 too...Though, I'm not happy we're on this boat together.

From 1.6.2 all the way up to 1.8.5 I was struggling with the DVS part of SDJ, then everything started working as expected, and I was happy again. Then 1.9 dropped and all the sh*t crawled back. 1.9.1 was sort of stable (FX triggering was buggy) but 1.9.5 is like 5 steps back, this has to be the worst update in years.

I still cannot believe that SDJ has performance issues on the DVS part. Its like a different company developed it and they still have no idea how to make it work with DVS. I've been a very strong supporter of the switch from SSL to SDJ but now I'm super frustrated! Last Saturday was the first time in years I had to call off a gig because I wasn't comfortable with SDJ and it's stability and that was the crossing line for me.

Something sounds a little fishy there.......

And what's that, besides SDJ f*cking up things?

what is stopping you from using SSL?

Actually, I've been a victim of all the bells and whistles in SDJ, so I abandoned SSL as being "too old". I've never been so wrong in my life, lol

What sounds fishy is this....


Why couldn't you simply go back to SSL rather than drop the gig? That's what I would have done.

Sticker Sync issues alone are enough to keep me away from SDJ on my turntables. The only reason I even have SDJ is because I'm forced to for a controller install gig I do every couple of months.

Stability-wise it's nowhere near SSL either. I'm SSL, Yosemite, and Mid-2012 MBP until the wheels fall off. SSL has always had that "it just works" quality about it. Can't say the same for SDJ. Very thankful I went with a 61 and dicers and have a 56/SL3 back up over a s9/57mk II. I'd hate to be stuck with the mess some of you guys are dealing with it. The constant problems reminds me of my Torq and Toshiba Satellite days *shivers*

Exactly !

So you want us to believe that you dropped the gig and MONEY instead of going back to SSL or a previous version of SDJ that worked ?

I feel his pain though. I bought a Pioneer DJM-S9 so have to use Serato DJ and have had issues with the mixer and Serato since day one. I bought my mixer November 2nd of 2015 and luckily it was part of the early Black Friday deals so it was eligible for return all the way through January 31st of 2016 at Guitar Center. It was glitching heavy with audio artifacts and buzzing sound just showing up randomly as well as garbled sound from bad DVS read that even continued when switched to internal mode... so it wasn't the needles and loss of the left side control deck and sometimes both decks. Unplugging and replugging in the USB cable or turning off and back on the mixer would automatically fix this so I had a few gigs where I'd do just that unplug the USB and plug it back in as I shouted out someone's birthday or something on the microphone. Crap like that stresses DJs out. The worst is when you hop on forums and tell people and they al first assume it's just you have a bad laptop because it;s not a MAC... come on now... I have tons of others that replied to my posts stating their MAC's all had the same type of problems. I retuned the first mixer and the second one did perform slightly better but still also had the same problems (maybe a few of the updates helped and had nothing to do with the mixer)

I'm sure there were a ton of returns on that mixer that may not have been Pioneer's fault as at this point I feel it actually is more of an issue with Serato than anything else. I run an ASUS ROG i7 laptop with 12GB of RAM a 960M Geforce Video Card and a 1 terabyte drive that is nowhere near full. I can still run Serato SL on my Serato SL1 Box and then plug that into the mixer but then you lose a ton of functionality that comes with paying for a $2000 mixer also sometime after 1.8.1 on SL I actually noticed a little degradation of sound quality and DVS tracking control.

A huge issue he talked about here of songs disappearing is a big problem. I recently discovered that it wasn't that the songs were gone, they are there, It's that the search function is not working properly. I actually discovered this at a fashion show where they asked for a song for the runway portion and for the life of me I could not find it for almost an hour right up until it was almost time to start the runway show. I was sweating bullets for about an hour as I was trying to play music while also frantically searching find this song between songs. I finally found it some sort of library glitch that would only let me search for songs by artist name and no longer lets me search songs by song title... I found it by just scrolling the entire folder where I had originally placed the song. that's when i discovered none of my songs were letting me find them by song title as you can imagine that makes doing a big gig a huge pain as you cannot find songs anywhere near as fast especially when you type in certain artists that have huge song catalogs.

After 2 years of rigorous SDJ use, switching back to SSL ain't that easy anymore.

Problem 1: most of my tracks now have more than 5 cue points

Problem 2: I'm using FX that are only available to SDJ- especially the echo out

Problem 3: I'm utilizing PnT

Problem 4: I'm using a DDJ-SP1 and no matter what I cannot mirror it to SSL 100%

Problem 5: I'm also utilizing key shifts as of lately

See, I was not rocking SDJ just because its the new kid in the block, I honestly utilize all new features. So, I could not go back to SSL for just one gig, its either this way or the other. So goes also for my set structure.

one gig you couldnt go back, cmon now. none of those problems are large enough to not warrant going back to ssl for a gig. well maybe you couldnt, but thats ridiculous

I'm sorry I just don't get it, none of those features/ reasons appeared to be a dealbreaker when it comes to making money $$$. And according to your title those features/ reasons are not a dealbreaker because you are "switching back to SSL" right ?

Try partitioning your hard drive so you can run SSL too. That way if problems occur with SDJ, you can always run SSL instead.

What is the need for this? You can run SSL on Mavericks just as well as SDJ. They both use the same Serato database. I am assuming I am missing something?

Guys, focus back on the topic. What I did last Saturday and if I canceled a gig or not is not contributing to the technical problems we have with the updates of SDJ. I've only mentioned it as part of my rant. End of this part.

Now, I can run SSL parallel with SDJ without any partition, the HDD is not a problem. Also the library is backwards compatible. The problem is the updates stacking on top of each other. I've jumped to SDJ because the new features are brilliant, from PnT to key shifting. But I still need the DVS part to be rock solid, and it's not. That's why I'm forced to go back to SSL. If I was to use an older version of SDJ, because the newest ones are not working, I can also go back to SSL where I know its 100% trustworthy.

There are still too many open holes in SDJ and I have no idea what is working or not and I'm not interested anymore in finding out during a gig. I'm just fed up with this endless user field testing.

serato.com

As a professional dj I dont have the luxury of testing in the field and finding issues at live gigs. I also don't have the luxury of using serato as a scapegoat for my failures because I NEVER rely on serato's "Quality control". I am my own "Quality control" so all testing of serato is done at home over long periods of time in order to see the light of day.

Serato should never be blindly trusted because the issues are real but with extensive testing high levels of stability and reliability can be obtained.

Now I understand everyone will not agree with this but I does work if you're willing to change your prospective.

??? How exactly is extensive testing going to fix SDJ's poor DVS performace? By magic? Or is there a secret timer somewhere inside it and if I clock enough hours back home it will start working as expected? Lol.

Mind me the schooling about preparation habits, I've long paid my dues on that part. As I've paid for SDJ too, which currently I cannot use because it sucks. Again.

Instead of throwing random inspirational quotes and other generic "advice", you could suggest some workaround for 1.9.5 (if you've found any) or move on to the next thread. This is a legit rant but I'm not in appetite for catfights.

BTW, my extensive testing back home drove me to the decision to drop SDJ. Obviously.

This is right way to do things. Using new version after long period of testing at studio. After being sure that it works 100% then use it on gig.

The dvs isn't broken, stickerlock works, tracking is great. When spinning it works like u were using real wax.

Haven't took 1.9.5 to luve gig yet cauze still testing going on. Using 1.9.4 on gigs, 0 problems as allways. 0 problems since 1.8.5 version :)

Like i allways say, 90% of these problems are user related. And 100% those who have problems yel about it, maybe 10% who have 0 problems mention about how great it works. That is how it is :D

I'm really happy about you Tommy Deem, but I highly doubt we're talking about the same type of usage. I'm using SDJ for turntablism and it doesn't deliver, again. The same way all versions between 1.6.5 and 1.7.5 didn't, until Serato run a private beta testing round focused only on DVS (thumbs up to them for doing that). I know that because I was invited in that beta testing.

Now it's the time to do another such beta version, because SDJ doesn't work again. I'm being very vocal about it cause I thought we were past that point almost 2 years ago. Unfortunately we're not, and until someone gets the message through we're stuck again with an underperforming version which grows in the wrong direction.

I run only with tt's so i cant see the problem when i don't have issues with sdj. What problems u have with the software??

I would say that I do pretty much same things that u do, so don't put urself above others :D

The goal of extensive testing is NOT to fix serato, the goal is to maintain your reputation as a professional dj who does not have frequent issues while preforming at live events.

No no there must be something wrong. Eskei83, JJeff and others only have the magic version of SDJ that works like it should :D

I'm just here for the drama.

kebzer, I'm going to guess you might have a hardware problem with your laptop. We have the same setup and mine works. Awhile ago, I ran the Apple Diagnostic Tool and discovered I had bad RAM. Replaced it and I stopped getting kernal panic random resets. Who knows what other issues it caused that I didn't notice. At this point, you might want to consider installing a different hard drive, install the oldest OSX your computer will accept (guessing Mountain Lion), install SDJ 1.8.1, and upgrade to the next version up if it's running stable. Good luck.

HighTopFade, thanks for the tips. Maybe its time for me to upgrade some parts on my MBP, although I know other DJs with newer laptops and still exactly the same problems. Anyway, I need to find a solution no matter what.

Tommy Deem, sometimes its better to just move on to the next thread. You'll be surprised by the number of well established turntablists that have retreated back to SSL. I know them personally and some of them are even endorsed by Serato. I'm not gonna go into details, but nevertheless those you mention are not turntablists, so their user experience is irrelevant to me. And yes, I put myself higher than the average joe, because I'm not an average user. I don't find it necessary to explain myself on that.

As I said, please move to some other thread, as you have nothing useful to contribute to this one.

pdidy, do me a favor and move on to some other thread too. Enough with the fanboyism.

I just told you serato does have issues and you should never put you blind trust in them so it pretty obvious im not a fanboy as you claim.

But it sound like you're pissed because I pointed out your personal failures, dont take it personal because many people have made the same mistake......

I made a mistake? Dude, go find yourself something else to do instead of trying to turn threads into personal shit. You're hanging in here so much you're starting to believe this is some sort of actual real life interaction, lol.

Keep the discussion technical or leave this thread.

I hear you.
I also was tempted by some of the new features, so I did give SDJ 1.9.1 a chance (as feedback seemed positive for the last SDJ version, and generally favourable as well), and after 15-20hrs at home, it seemed to run completely fine...
But boy was that wrong.
Cos as luck has it, I then had a crash in a live situation on the first gig I took it to (on a festival of 70k people...)... whereas SSL crashed once in 9 years of regular live usage...
So back to SSL I went.

And I do agree, once you switch your system, you should do some testing and not blindly run with it. Especially NOT as a professional, NOR in a live situation. Ever.
But, the ball is in Serato's park with every release, and they've been dropping it on a regular, with SDJ overall, as well as the last versions specifically for windows users.
But seeing how stable SSL was for everyone, and how unstable SDJ is for a LOT of users, this clearly hints at some core issues that really need to be solved if Serato wants to keep its' (DVS) user base imo.
c.

alec.tron, word on that.

Well, I've actually took SDJ live several times, but I decided to drop the gig last week because I didn't felt comfortable with 1.9.5 and I didn't had enough time to switch back to SSL/ older versions of SDJ. See, I've been lured by all the bells & whistles of SDJ (since 1.6.5) and eventually got stuck between a pile of new features that are not backwards transferable.

This has been the first time I've experienced such a deadend and to be honest it's been a moment of truth for me, as I 've cornered myself in an extremely complicated workflow that eventually backfired. I know now that I shouldn't have allowed that. I jumped on the "new features" train and got derailed. That's why I decided to drop SDJ altogether and revert back to SSL.

2017 will be a keep it basic year for me. Unless something remarkable happens and SDJ finally starts working as supposed to...

Forgot to add in the above the obvious inability of SDJ to deliver all these "new" features in a stable & trustworthy way, lol.

Honestly though, I really wish they make SDJ work. I'm not a fan of the SSL workflow, only of its legendary stability and superb quality on scratching/turntablism.

I'm new to serato, I've always played Vinyl, I started using SDJ last year and it seemed ok, I done a few gigs with out any problems, I can't tell you what version it was. Since then my kids deleted all my library ( no back up). So I didn't play again till my 50th birthday party 2 days ago. I put a fresh build on the mac the latest OS and down loaded Serato latest version and nothing worked the tracks were jumping without using any controller it kepted making a hissing noise when using the DVS. I couldn't play any of the tracks that I had down loaded. In the end I just played vinyl.
Had a great party. I could afford to do this as I don't work professionally anymore and it was my party. I would hate to have to rely on something so buggy if I was still gigging as the original OP said sort your shit out.

I would call this user error and failure to backup. Alot of mistakes made due to inexperience, this would have only been a minor inconvenience to an experience user and quickly fixed.

@kebzer
same here, SDJ is a joke.. VERY UNRELIABLE software - i am trying every single version with hope (since 1.6.0) maybe this is it, finally all gonna work the way it supposed to -like SSL,

nope, example from yesterday..

4 hours practice at home before gig - no issues at all,
2nd hour at the venue - lagging and dropouts DVS, VERY embarrassing situation WHAT am I supposed to say - grab a mic and announced it's not me it's SERATO ???

not KOOL !

Uhm there's obv something different in your setup at home vs the venue. Same equipment? Is their stuff well maintained? What's the power like there? Good ground? Do you get static shocked a ton?

Seriously - troubleshooting 101

@ Kezber

These are my specs:

Mid 2012 15" Macbook Pro
2.6ghz Intel i7
16gb DDR3 Ram
Nvidia GT650 1GB GPU
OSX 10.9.5

I'm running 1.9.5 flawlessly. Doesn't make sense.

To add, that's with PNT DJ always enabled plus ME when I'm doing video.

I use this setup daily at home and every weekend at the club or other events.

@MeeHow: typical situation with SDJ. If I am to replicate 100% the conditions I have back home in order for SDJ to work, then I can also stay back home, as these conditions will never happen. Most probably the humidity levels didn't match, lol.

@DJ POM: I cannot express my frustration with SDJ enough. This kind of shit never happened with SSL, even back in the days of versions before 2.0. Forget this bullshit circulating this forum about user experience and other crap. Unless you're trying to work with some dodgy controller, a typical DVS setup (sound card+fresh laptop) should work right out of the box, no questions asked.

@popnwave: This could be the source of problems, but it should have appeared from the beginning, not during the 2nd hour, unless something dramatic happened inside the venue (power spike, power loss etc). I guess if that happened, MeeHow would have noticed.

@Quartz: we have a very big difference in our setups. You got the 15" MBP, I have the 13". Unfortunately, they're not the same machines (I wish I had the 15" - it would have solved other problems too). Indeed it doesn't make any sense, that's my problem.

What are the specs on your 13"?

Ha, if it ain't broke...

@quartz: i7, mid 2012

i switched back, things i notice

the key lock clearly not as good as pnt

the auto gain works better in ssl

buffers can be set lower in ssl

sound is different in ssl and sdj

i played with sdj a couple times with no problems other than the jerky wavforms thing.

i'd wouldn't upgrade sdj if its working without saving the version that worked, which is easy to do.

This wasn't fixed until 1.9.4

@ Kebzer

If you have an i7 and at least 8gb of ram, it should boss SDJ any version.

Not sure why you're having issues.

@Goodkat: +1

@Quartz: I have 8gb RAM. I know that my MBP is good enough for SDJ. But it never worked as expected. I can do normal mixes but it crumbles when I go full turntablist mode.

i used 1.95, i still get them. ive never not gotten some movement out of sdj, but it seemed about the same on average

Sdj is not working, how brutal statement. I would agree that it isn't working if this would be problem with major of dj's.

Still u haven't told us how it isn't working, u just say that it dosen't.

I even tried sdj with my last resort macbook. Mid 2010 and it just works. So i can't believe that this is software issue. Bern using SDJ with DVS for 4y and all that time with 0 problems. Ok once i had dirty needle but it's not serato fault xD

@Tommy Deem: do us all a favor and move on to some other thread.

I can assure everyone I'm no technophobe, I know what I'm doing. There was nothing to sort out it simply didn't work. As I said I've used it a year ago and worked fine. All the same kit, I might video the problem and post tomorrow. If someone can give me a fix I'll take it. Failing that I'm going to reload every thing fresh again. Don't get me wrong I haven't come here to knock it, I love the system when it's working. I just think this day an age the software needs to be more robust. especially as ppl's big days like weddings can be ruined when it goes wrong. We need to give feedback both good and bad to improve the product.

@kebzer I will after u state something usefull information instead of that, "it's just not working"
it's hard to give u any troubleshoot any than "yeah it works" :D

Instead of putting urself above others, put some usefull info about ur issues with SDJ then there might be chance to solve ur broken SDJ.

So U DO us an favor and tell us what is the problems. 3rd time asking, 3rd time u don't give anything. Smells like empty thread.

Sorry guy's I got ready for my party last min dot.com and thought, I had installed the latest update but I hadn't, I've just done that and it pop up with a message that I also needed a firmware update, done that. The system seems to have stabilized on the laptop but I need to do a full sound check to see if its sorted the noise problem.
Sorry to the OP for jumping in on your thread, What I will say is that it is supposed to be plug and play so I would have expected the software to have informed me that updates were available.
I hope you get it sorted soon.

I have a lower spec mac than probably anybody here and even im flawless....

MacBook Air
13-inch, Mid 2011
Processor 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5

And I use or own pretty much everything like Scratchlive, serato dj, Itch, intro, Rane 62, rane 61, Rane 57, S9, sl1, sl3, DDJ-SZ, DDJ-SX2, DDJ-SR, VCI300, 1200's, 1210's, CDJ's.

I think my success has a lot to do with staying knowledgeable and very strict and extensive computer management and testing. Nothing is left to chance....Nothing !

I was going to add, I have another production software installed on my Macbook but I don't surf the internet and have a bunch of other stuff on the system.

It's possible there could be something wrong with the unit. I have a late 2011 15" as well that had the motherboard replaced back in summer because the gpu fried on it.

I ran flawlessly but then started having flaky video issues as time went on until it failed.

It's possible SSL didn't stress the system enough so it the issues didn't surface. SDJ requires more cpu power thus stressing the system further causing your issues to arise.

SDJ is not without flaws but it seems to work for turntablism as well (for many people at least, me included). I have been a long time SSL user before that (and vinyl before that and and and).

I'm presumably using a very similar MBP (i7, 2012, 8 GB RAM, SSD) on Yosemite. I've been using SDJ from 1.6x whatever up to version 1.92 (haven't tried never versions). Scratching, beat juggling works pretty good (no audible dropouts, 1ms latency, SL3 + Rane TTM56). I don't use video. PnT is off for scratching most of the time.

What kind of problems do you have exactly? I couldn't find a hint about the actual issues you're experiencing.

He is most likely troll...

@aleksey, my setup is not performing in par with SSL when scratching. All dynamics and pitch variations are completely squashed (like I'm playing with a constant speed on the record), I get multiple dropouts/glitches when I play with the very start of the sample, I get artifacts when I apply drags (even though my thresholds are all the way down) and I get the dreaded cue sticker slip, both ways, when juggling. PnT is deactivated, MBP is ok, vinyl distortion emulation is on.

Now the funny part is that I played today with a 57mk2 (with my MBP) and what a surprise, it was working much better than with my SL3 (still not SSL perfect though). Should I consider the SL3 rigged and the source of my problems? How come? BTW, I've already tested it with a different SL3 and an SL2 just to check that my sound card is not damaged. Its not. So, SDJ is not performing the same with an SL box? WTF?

@tommy deem: haven't I told you enough times already to get the f*ck out of my thread? Dude, get a life. Preferably away from my thread.

Kebzer how about this i've been using SDJ 1.9.3 version on everything with my late 2010 mac book pro no problems on none of the following
1-pioneer s9
2-rane 62
3-pioneer sx 2
4-pioneer sz
Today i use SDJ video for the first time in a year fucked up big time! to the point i switched back to SSL!

Also SSL sounds way better than SDJ!

What processor does your 2010 MacBook have?

@vernon: exactly this. I have no idea what is going on with SDJ, as nothing makes sense. Now, your case comes on top of mine. Your gear list indicates that it should be working. Well, I guess its not. As mine. And I'm not even using Serato Video (which I was planning to do).

I read all of this... and I don't even use SDJ. I'm still running SSL on a TTM 57.

The reason I took note of this thread was because of the dozens of other threads just like it.

Before 2015, the DJ Discussion forums were chocked full of rants and raves of SSL and how it was superior to any other DJ software (Traktor, VDJ, PCDJ, Atomix and the like). I've been on this forum nearly since day 1 (SSL v1.1) and I've read thousands of DJ's articles about Serato being the staple in professional DJing.

Now you scroll down under the Serato DJ General Discussion forums and find most of the articles addressing some sort of technical issues, fixes, workarounds, compatibility problems, and general annoyances with SDJ.
Maybe it's just that more people are using SDJ and there are vastly more controllers now than when Itch was introduced, but dang! When almost 50% of your forum is complaints about your latest product, something has gone haywire.

I remember a guy posting a trick to get his music to temporarily play backwards (to censor parts of a song) by making a custom reversing with for the RCA inputs. Low-and-behold, Serato integrates the useful Censor feature into the software. Now all we see is an over-abundance of features thrown in to cater to every 2-bit, wanna-be DJ on the block... and half of them don't work properly.

BTW... I only bought a Mac within the last two years (for video graphics). For the longest time, I was running SSL on a crappy old Dell with XP. Now it seems that you have to have a mega computer the even run the most basic functions on SDJ. Oh yeah, and keep up with the myriad of updates that go along with your hardware.

I'm running a 15" 2014 macbook pro w/o problems cpu is barely even 10% w/video but also running yosemite still shit's just very cpu friendly. Not sure about Sierra.

@DJ Reflex: amen dat! That's exactly how I feel right now. I really liked the direction of SDJ and the fact that it led the way in every single useful feature for DJs (I never jumped on the virtual decks train - that's for producers, not DJs). But now, it boomeranged back in our faces, as it is not usable anymore. You'll probably need a new MBP for every incremental update, so I guess my 2012 MBP is good only for up to 1.7.5

AFAIK, SSL used a different driver architecture compared to SDJ. And in regards to SDJ, SL2 and SL3 use a different driver architecture than the 57mk2 (the latter is a class compliant device that does not require any driver to be installed at all).

Although I understand your frustration, I doubt that the way you are using SDJ is so unique. Your claim, SDJ is broken or unstable by design, can not be hold IMHO. I'm using a very similar MBP and, as it seems, a very similar user profile and I don't have any of the problems you've described. I also don't see an unexpected high number of people complaining about SDJs performance in general, given that the number and professional level of users must have changed a lot since SDJ now targets all groups of DJs, from pro using top equipment to the beginner using the cheapest PC and controller.

My guess is that something with your MBP, its HW, the OS or drivers causes the problem. The only way to find the root cause would be to rule out every factor one by one. I would start with a fresh Yosemite installation and the most recent SDJ version. Start with a clean library and add just a few tracks to see how it performs.

If that does not work, try to have your MBP diagnosed for faulty components.

Good advise but the op clearly appears to be the "lead a horse to water but ....." type who actually believes he's unique. :)

I haven't moved to 1.9.5 yet but for the later half of 2015 I was crashing religiously. I would bring another DJ with me just in case I crashed. In fact NYE 2015 -> 2016 I crashed 35 minutes into the new year. Whole party was put on hold while SDJ started back up 35 minutes into the new year - very discouraging.

Proof: imgur.com

I never hated SDJ more than I did at that moment - total garbage with no error handling. I gave up on reporting crashes, the only solution was to recreate my database. I don't understand how there's no tool to fix it and I started to ignore serato support as it only fixed the issue at that moment, but 1 month later I'd be back at square one.

I finally decided to swap out my HDD and move to a 1TB SSD (Samsung 850 PRO) - I haven't crashed once. The weird thing is that HDD diagnostics were all reporting the drive as fine and no issue. The only assumption I have here is that parts of SDJ are expecting something to happen instantly and doesn't wait for the HDD to read fully. A race condition most likely causing most crashes.


TLDR: Serato crashed a lot, I changed my HDD to SSD, everything works fine.

I wish SDJ had a tool to fix "corrupt" databases, crates, etc. It's something I've considered making since it doesn't seem to be a priority for Serato. It would rule out the first step of troubleshooting issues from the Serato Support team .

LOL All these MAC dudes having problems. Us Windows guys stay winning.

The variables for all users would be mind boggling. Have you looked at the crappy library management that most people have? If you can make one that does your directory names/structure well, use it!

Have you read the forums?

Library management is a joke here. I have seen screenshots from peeps I though for sure would have a proper library and boy was I surprised. Corrupt icon everywhere. Missing files everywhere. Subcrates nested inside of subcrates inside of subcrates etc. Horrible tagging which generally signifies sketchy sources............ just to name a few examples.

@aleksey: thanks for the tips, although I still not understand how the 57mk2 could work better, unless indeed there is a considerable change in the built architecture between it and the SL boxes, even though both are USB2. As far as I am concerned, the class compliance is good only for the midi controls (the 57 still asked for drivers I when connected it), otherwise both are running ASIO drivers, as the SL boxes can also be used as normal USB soundcards.

@DJ Stoyvo: thanks for the tip, I was considering anyway to move on an SSD, maybe this could help things a bit. But as I said, I'm negatively surprised with the performance differences between the SL3 and the 57mk2 on the same setup, even if that makes sense commercially wise.

@deejdave: Indeed, libraries can cause serious problems, but mine is the same for more than a year now, as I'm not adding that frequent and still less than 50GB. All files properly analyzed with MIK 6/7, maybe this could cause a conflict but then I must be the first person with such a conflict, lol.

@pdidy: you also get the f*ck out of my thread. Enough already.

Yes, sure. Of course I don't have numbers but when SSL was out, the users were a relatively small population of DVS DJs. Due to the expensive equipment required for DVS, the number of "non-pro" users was small at that time. Today, SDJ targets more user groups including those who don't have much expertise in how to maintain a stable system. IMHO, this CAN explain the overall higher number of complaints. But, compared to the number of users, I'm not sure if the overall percentage of complaints has increased. But, in the end, we'll never know unless Serato releases the numbers ;-)

In my personal experience, SDJ was not as stable as SSL until 1.8x something. But since then I'm very happy with its performance (which does not mean SDJ doesn't have flaws ;-)

media.giphy.com

hey kebzer, you listening :)

hey pdidy, I'm still a better DJ than you though :-)

Right because you're the only DJ in the world to have completed a quadruple transforming orbiting flare :)

No, I'm obviously not the only one, but quadruples or not I'm still a better DJ. Now piss off.

Is IBTL still a thing in 2017? 😏

Nothing beats my delayed octuple flare transform laser crab twiddle scratch!

IBTL FTW ;-)

Sorry, could not resist. Back to topic?

Nice combo! You can also try the reverse variation @45rpm lolol

I tried the Triple Lindy once.
Watchwww.youtube.com

Kebzer go to the help section and find a solution to your problem. You are acting like a butt hurt kid now. The kind some of us who have been here awhile have seen far too often.

DJ Val, thanks for the advice but I've been around here long enough to earn my rant rights. Actually longer than most of you.

Anyway, time to let this thread fade into oblivion. Serato brass doesn't seem to have taken (official) notice, so my thread has nothing else to add.

My thanks to anybody who offered their insight, good or bad. I hope y'all have a great year, personal & musical.

I have also recently switched from SSL to SDJ and I am too having major problems, I also think I have no option but to go back to SSL and it was reliable for many years and I never once had a problem.
Please see my thread I posted today for more details

serato.com

Running a brand new high end system, DJM-S9, installed Windows 7, that partition is exclusively used for SeratoDJ, while sometimes its lags a hair loading tracks, ZERO crashes live.

SeratoDJ is not as stable as SSL. I feel your pain. Its huge and there is so much crap code just look at the size 200megs vs 58megs. Serato isn't listening to it base. Serato DJ needs a LIGHT mode, no crap like locker and video etc. New mixers should be seperate from the main EXE. MOST dj's need basic functionality imho.

A lot more variables, and as always if you don't know how to setup your laptop (Apple or Windows) you will always be vulnerable to crashes.

If you are crashing that much, guess what time it is? REFORMAT time. Mac OS is not more stable the Windows.

Ha, I still have my old Inspiron 6400, over 6 years old, WINDOWS XP. 30k in music NEVER EVER had a crash or a hangup with ttm57.

They are software developers for a reason. SDJ will never be "lite" that's what Serato Intro is for. They will always add more features and try to progress but it's way over loaded as it is imo. The more features added less stable it's gonna be but they don't understand that logic🙄

Wait... why would you roll back to Win7 at this point? Have you even tried to this "high end system" using an OS that can actually make use of it?

The only benefit to 7 at this point is IF you are on older hardware and can't handle the overhead. Win10 is leaps and bounds better than 7 these days on anything in the last 2 years.

This why I don't pay attention to 98% of what gets posted in here.

They do understand the logic...
And SDJ Intro is not the 'Lite' version that's been requested here.

But, maintaining 2 product versions (= different code-base repos, bug databases, forking, etc) is a lot more work than maintaining one, and so far the pressure/moaning from us, the user base, wasn't enough to warrant splitting SDJ up into 2 professional packages, i.e. one performant one that runs as reliable and on low-end systems as SSL, and one with all the bells and whistles...

I know I would go for the former as well as I do not like to take a high end laptop into a club/festival... I'd rather take an old/2nd hand business laptop, and not have video & CPU heavy effects at all (as I never use them).
Which is why, on top of it's stability, SSL is the current best option for me still as well.

c.

dont take anything tecniq says seriously. hes our village idiot

Says a DJ who got his name from two candy bars🙄

Loaded up El Capitan with an 09 17 that worked perfect doing video with ME and SSL.
Upped to the latest SDJ for the sake of larger BPM fonts and wow I got issues.

For some reason now when I open SSL, it can't find my SL2 and won't open.
Anybody know whats up?

If its just a matter of removing SDJ or reloading Snow?
Annoyed to say the least.

Rick, SSL doesn't work on EL Capitan. You'll have to go back to Snow.

Maybe try this serato.com before downgrading.

Thanks for the assist guys, I will try this tonight.
Its gonna work or I'm gonna have to reload.

I submitted a ticket;

Hi, I have an 09 17" MBP that has been flawless using ME for years. I recently wanted to upgrade my drive. This became an issue for supported OS and I was on Snow. I've been using SSL and ME without issues. I've stayed on SSL because if was working fine and SDJ required Maverick or higher. So I ended up with El Capitan to do my clone which I have yet to do. In the meanwhile I installed the latest SDJ and had extreme cpu issues. I've been told the latest ME was much better and tried the demo with the same poor results although the CPU usage was better, video hangs are regular. My question is now I went back to SSL and it will not open not finding my SL2. It seems that the SDJ install has caused some kind of issue. I would like to get SSL working again and need to know if I can and how to go about it. The only interest I had in SDJ was larger BPM fonts on the decks to be honest.

The reply was not quite I expected based on what I learned last night.

"In order to troubleshoot this with you, I will need your computer's system report and a list of any USB devices you have connected."

While this may be protocol, its odd they didn't reply the way Robb did stating it wouldn't work on El Capitan.

Robb was giving you the Cliffs Notes version.

Well this has turned into quite the ass ache.
Followed the procedure to the letter both simple and with sip disabled, in terminal I am blocked saying it can only be run from a recovery cd which I do not have.

Hate to say it, but losing faith fast here.

How a program so simple and operational can be jacked like this is crazy.
I find it hard to believe that its not something connected to the SDJ install or drivers that got installed.
Even when I open SSL, my deck screens appear like they do in SDJ, not the way they were in SSL. So its more than just hardware being detected.
If I had to guess this code was written to kill SSL forcing people to use SDJ keyed to the timing of an OS change so its use would stop.
There is more to this than SSL just not being supported in El Capitan imo.

El Capitan razed the audio users bad.. it literally took more than 6 months for many of the hardware folks to get us working Serato DJ devices, a lot of that was put behind us with macOS Sierra. SSL stuff is just lucky to work, if at all these days on the newer OSes.

I am weary of going past Yosemite personally. My mid 2012 is getting long in the tooth and there is nothing El Cap or Sierra offer than will enhance my Serato experience without taxing rig.

Best bet if you have any other Apple devices around is to download a copy from the store on it and install it on a USB drive. Or worst case, the older versions of OS X are usually available (Lion - Yosemite) to any user who's downloaded it from the App Store. A friend or fellow DJ can step up, give you the image and you could dump that on an external drive or USB and boot up from there.

I have the original Snow disc, that is tomorrows project.
The weirdest part of this is how we have a program, SSL that is coded to search for an interface, that has nothing to do with drivers or an operating system, yet that program is blocked from seeing the device.
If the software didn't open, I'd be inclined to say its an OS conflict, but its not.
And again, seeing the screens on the cdj's appear as SDJ and not SSL is beyond the realm of hardware not detected.

It just pisses me off that I held off when SDJ went to Maverick required and I purposely made the decision to stay with what worked so well, to this bullshit all because I needed to clone a drive and the Acronis software I bought wouldn't support Snow.
I'd use SDJ if it actually worked, but since they decided they wanted to be Virtual DJ, all this shit is wonky like never before.

Thanks for the offer, tomorrow is the day I reload with a fresh head.
At least I will have my new drive loaded even if it is the hard way.

Is it that hard to believe that an app could open yet not function properly on an unsupported operating system?

While you are welcome to your opinions this is not a conspiracy to get users away from SSL. The 2009 MacBook Pro comes with a Core2Duo processor which current SDJ versions no longer support. You are also using an OS that SSL does not support. Being fair does this sound like a reliable combination?

Damn, you just proved him right, haha!!

I imagine you're thinking of KitKat.

Mr. Goodkat is from the movie Lucky Number Slevin.

He's thinking of me. Goodbar and kit Kat combined but as mentioned he is wrong by default anyways.

*Mr. goodbar rather......

at least he finally got an s9 and quit bitchin

serato.com

You're mad cause I made fun of your DJ name...So you stalk my old post way to beat a dead horse...🙄

no, my name has been the same for 10 yrs here at serato, its not even a good joke. 2 candy bars? like even if it was mr m&ms why would i care?

you repeatedly just say the dumbest shit on the forum and basically everyone make fun of you.


here is your latest fail

serato.com

Nice to know you're keeping an eye on me dad😂

you realize literally no one else fails on this board on a regular basis as much as you. i see you trying, but damn, you're not just bricking the shot, you're shooting an airballs over the basketball into the 12th row

but whatever

i say use ssl til you cant. #ssl4life

Feelin like a bit of a dope, but can somebody explain how I get back to an open support ticket?
I keep getting emails from support referencing my ticket number and that its been updated.
I click on the header and support here and not finding a path back to open tickets.
I hover over all of the topics and find nothing pointing at the ticket area.
Tx

Meanwhile, I've rolled back to Snow, fully updated, then updated at the Mac store to the latest Yosemite and now the latest ME 3 and 2.7 SSL are working flawlessly.
So pretty happy all in all, when something works I stick with it.

Welcome back to the stable side. :) I try every new version of SDJ and my problems, logged since the beginning, still aren't fixed. SSL 2.5 is flawless. Unless you are using a newer controller or mixer, there isn't a reason not to stick with old faithful which works better, sounds better and looks (waveforms) better.

It will be hard to get SDJ to be right in the short term. Think about how much different hardware needs to be supported now vs back in SSL days. That's a large issue. It's turning into a big bloated mess of code that's super difficult to manage I suspect.

My setup is:
2012 MBP 13" non-retina
8GB RAM
256 SSD
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

DJM-900nxs
CDJ-900s
SL3

SSL 2.5
Bridge activated for beat grids
Rane drivers from SDJ 1.7.8 bundle

There is literally zero benefit to running SDJ for me on my setup. I have SDJ 1.7.8 (the most stable of the releases imo) for when I have to play on a DDJ-SX2 in a pinch. It's bareable but still highly flawed.

If anyone is curious why I'm running such an old computer and old OS, just ask. Happy to explain. I'd be totally fine getting the newest and greatest of everything but that would actually put me in a worse position. I keep latest computers and OS's relegated to my work laptop needs not my DJ laptop needs.

You're absolutely right, its always been about a simple controlled environment that kept things stable and tight, precisely what Serato was built on reputation wise.

Another thing about SSL I was informed of the other day was that the sound is better than SDJ. He noticed the sound quality and he is an audio remixer.
He bought the Pitch 'n Time pack and noticed his sound was then the same quality as it was in SSL and he is a long time SSL user and well known on this forum.

The more these programs try to do and support the more wonky things seem to get.
I read many dj forums and cringe thinking about what its like to mix in fear and that shit ain't happening anymore. Sometimes a step backwards is the right one, at least for me it was.

I'm using a pair of CDJ 850K's in HID which Jay Brannan told me were the same perfected guts of the 1000's, with a DJM 5k and an RMX 1000 so no sound effects are done with plug ins running the latest streamlined ME 3.1 and I have no reason to upgrade anything for the next decade.

Same here.
I really disliked how SDJ degraded sound if not on 0.0% pitch... as I wanted to support Serato, and since there was a sale on, I grabbed Pitch'n'Time around xmas, and that indeed gave SDJ back its' halfway decent sound which I was used to from SSL & Traktor.
SInce it's no where near as stablwe as SSL, I will stay with SSL for the unforseeable future...

BUt, it's a very odd decision from Serato to have SDJ sound this bad without Pitch n Time... I would have thought it would have hurt them, but SDJ has been around for years and looks like hardly anyone notices/complains....

c.

@Kebzer: i feel you man, I've quitted serato and just using my SL4 as a regular soundcard, no more crash in the middle of the gig (i've switched to CDJs with rekordbox to prepare my sticks), crappy sound, glitches, etc... the worst is I used to recommend SSL. Today I just say: "well, not serato, try other things it might be better, the quality dropped significantly the software is not stable etc.. "
I have friends who don't touch their setup since it works (and it's stable), but I've tried for so long to have something stable, tried to support serato, bought pitchntime, bought SP1, etc.. etc.. and as said it reached a point where I was scared it would crash when i'd load a track or call too many times a cue point.
it's like you have to reach the perfect combo of drivers version, software version, hw release, etc.. sounds more like alchemy than actual computer science, at least it's my humble experience with my SL4. Hope they will reach their past glory one day otherwise they'll just die

The problem for most DJ's is that SSL is no longer a cost effective solution.

I run SDJ 1.9.5 on a $250 Windows laptop with a $250 controller, and it has been rock solid. My total cost is LESS than just the cost of your SL4. Plus, I don't have the hassle of all the weight, all the interconnects, etc., when I'm mobile.

Does it sound the same as SSL when I make large tempo changes? I don't know, but I can tell you that when wearing my Sony MDR-7506's it does sounds good - about the same as Traktor, which I also run trouble free on the same rig.

I realize cost should not be the say-all for a professional DJ - you do need reliability above all else. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I have that with SDJ 1.9.5

you have to really use ssl/sdj/traktor on large systems to tell the difference. its the same thing as putting things under a microscope. i personally think its really obvious at high Db levels with pioneer and sdj mixers and ssl and boxes and rane mixers.

I can personally tell even on small systems. For one of the monthly parties we do, our sound system we bring in consists of two QSC KW153s, two BassBoss SSP215 dual sub cabs, and two QSC K10 opposite dance floor fill speakers. SDJ vs. SSL on the same hardware is a noticeable difference. SDJ sounds muddy. Let's not even get into its distorted effects. :(

I'm willing to wager the vast majority of SDJ users are using those crappy $400 controllers. Obviously those sound terrible anyway, so you can't really tell what's the software's fault and what isn't. But that type of consumer doesn't care anyway and says "oh its totally fine."

I just noticed the sound difference when i used serato dj with a pioneer s9 and a rane 62 a little hum with the Rane 62 no hum with the pioneer s9! The rane playing ssl sounds great! The Rane 62 playing serato dj 1.9.1 sounds not that great,but the same test with the S9 it sounds better damn good!

Obviously, especially since most of the music came from a 16 bit 41,000 hz source that's been doctored to hell and back through a huge mixer with a bazillion op amps in it. Obviously!

Funny how this thread is still alive, while a few certain people still swear by the "stability" of 1.9.5, even with a brick for a laptop, lol.

But you know what is even funnier? 1.9.6 beta performing better than 1.9.5 at my very same MBP. Just finished an 2 hour testing and it is performing considerably better, at least at the drifting part / cue slip & overall feel when scratching. It still needs some work with popping / overloading but 1.9.6 is clearly better than 1.9.5.

I've heard and seen the same thing that 1.9.6 is stable!
But the question is what OS is it stable on?

Been very nice on Yosemite for me.

👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿 I think Yosemite is the most stable OS Mac ever had!

sounds like you accidentally deselected what IDR3 tags the search looks for. Be honest is this SDJs fault or pilot error. The same thing could have happened in SSL by the way

+1, half these "issues" are user created. And the problem is with all these folks being vocal about how shitty SDJ is vs. SSL, Serato has to use a lot of its resources to come up with a marketing strategy, live demo/tutorial sessions, training their tech support how to deal with hostile customers, etc...we would probably have an even better product if folks didn't turn to the forums to commiserate how bad eveything is.

new releases are supposed to work better than the versions they replace. why is that funny? The reality is that I, along with the majority of SDJ users, have had no issues with 1.9.5 stability or DVS on DJM900SRT or using my SL4 (not to mention on my controllers).

Does that happen in internal mode too? I am assuming since you are using an identical hardware, that you are using an SL1-4 or maybe one of the Rane Mixers. Perhaps there is some other kit that runs both SSL and SDJ, but either way, it is an amazing feat of computer engineering to have the the same audio source files get converted from digital to analog two different software programs developed by the same people and their code is garbled and adding bad effects in the digital domain.

@mister_wilson I can only hope your efforts pay back and somebody for Serato sees your heartwarming supporting comments and you eventually get your free control vinyl endorsement. :-)

Seriously though, if it wasn't for users reporting problems, y'all would still be in 1.6, so mind me the advice about user feedback.

You guys are rep

@kebzer, a) SSL got all the way to version 2.5 long after it was very stable around version 1.9. Your logic that Serato would not continue to improve the software if it weren't for issues and problems is not consistent with history. b) I don't see problems being reported in this thread. I see people commiserating about how bad SDJ is and many of the problems I read are issues that could be resolved if some of these folks opened a trouble ticket or read the posts that focus on solutions and workarounds. c) you coming on here to whine about how bad everything is and how tired you are doesn't help you be a better DJ or get you any help with your technical issues. d) I am only conversing with you in the hope that turning a few heads to being more proactive will diminish the amount of resources going to PR to address people like you AND because there are folks who read these threads who are worried and concerned, and they need to at least be aware that the loudest in this forum aren't necessarily the majority or even a significant contingent.

Whatever, move on, nothing to see here.

MY MASTER VOLUME KNOB ON DDJ SR STOP WORKING WHILE I CAN STILL REGULATE IT WITH MOUSE ON THE COMPUTER. THIS HAPPEN AFTER I UPDATED TO 1.9.5 VERSION. I HAVE ALSO UPDATED FIRMWARE BUT ITS STILL NOT WORKING, CAN SOMEONE HELP ME OUT HERE.

Kebzer on the zone again i see, i will fetch my popcorns :D

Hey guys,

We'd love to work through each of your cases and solve whatever issues you're experiencing.

Please open up a help request and our support team will be in touch.

support.serato.com

Look forward to hearing from you.

For me the firmware update fixed it.