There's already an option to display artwork, look in the lower left of the screen under the crates area for the button that says "show album art."

Yes, and I have that one up, but it's not what I'm asking for.

What I'd like is artwork displayed for the tracks that are currently loaded in either deck appearing directly below the Artist/Title/BPM text at the *top* of the screen.

Got'cha.

Even better, why not incorporate it into the actual wheels. The images could be cropped into the circle shape automatically by serato, and could turn as well (following in sync with the 'timestrip').

It would be like a mini picture disc on screen :)

Also, perhaps the chance to have an actual vinyl look in those circles on screen would be awsome (although i may be dreaming)

Like this?
gizmodo.com

That's pretty cool, but I do like the existing display of information. Having the artwork in the wheel area would make that almost impossible to see and would also make color coding less useful.

In fact, my only gripe about the wheel display is that the time and BPM indicators are a little small. I'd like them in either a bigger or bolder font.

I still like the idea of artwork sitting next to the wheels. Circular artwork is certainly snazzy, though!

Yes, i think it would look great! (serato could add an extra filter on top to give it the 'shine' of a vinyl.. :P

Obviously could be more CPU-Intensive, but visually very appealing :)

Perhaps then a new browse feature could be implemented along side it, so you browse through a 'catalog' of tracks (similar to browsing your cd wallets) and dragging the actual image onto the deck :).

Agreed! Being born from vinyl, I too am a very "graphical" DJ. It would be VERY, VERY, VERY nice to have album artwork appear on each deck (or left/right of decks). Seeing the artwork while it's playing is definitly a "DJ" thing and the value of strengthening the visual association to tracks by doing something like this is enormous. Having user option to place artwork in circles and bump track time info to sides of circles could be very cool also.

Hey, cool....

I made exactly the same suggestion a while back. I hope that they powers that be at ScratchLIVE take this suggestion seriously. I am used to flipping through crates and making the association between the artwork and the music. It is very imporant.

Thanks for making the suggestion over again. I really want that art work up there on either side of each table display. I do NOT want it in the actual "wheels"... This should be a simple addition that would make a world of difference.

-keep spinnin' keep savin' lives :-)

That PLEIO MP3 player is HOT!!!

I would love to see this very much too!!! Something like a "thumbnail"-view or something. A simplistic way would be something like the beatport-track-view in Traktor DJ (www.arbiter.co.uk - no, it's not herecy, it's just an example. I'm not going to cheat on my TTM57). A more soffisticated way would be the coverflow-feature from iTunes (www.apple.com). But of course this would probably eat more CPU.

Anyway, any of these 2 would be fantastic!!! It would add so much to the feel of SSL, and give a more realistic impression. Like you were actually going through your own vinyl-crates. that's something I miss a bit with SSL. A picture often says more then a tracktitle. I know my vinyl-covers better then the titles.

Artwork on both sides would make it nice too (altough user should be able to dis-/enable. I can imagine some people like it more 'clean')

Here's a sample of what it is I think we are all wanting: soulsonica.com

This would be EXTREMELY helpful!

PS: I don't know anything about hip hop, so I apologize if I got the cover art wrong in the sample. Just wanted to get an example up because a picture is worth a 1,000 words (even more for DJs who view their music collection graphically as we do.)

Nice one!!! That would be helpful indeed. But I would really like to see the thumbnail-view or the cover-flow-through MORE. Since it would help selecting tracks. If the track is already playing than I wouldn't care as much about it anymore. I would rather worry about the next track I want to play.

Or does that sound ridiculous?

If I hear you right Evil, you want to see thumbnails next to each track - right? If so, yes, I definitly want that also and am working on a sample of that right now. But I also think it's important to see the cover art WHILE it's playing because that is what sticks in your mind and strengthens your mental association with tracks (just like spinning vinyl). I will post the full-blown utopian cover art sample as soon as I've got it done here.

OK, it's rough, but you get the idea. This would be the ultimate in a DJ-friendly interface. soulsonica.com

Soul, that first mock-up is exactly what I had envisioned. I'm not sure if I'd use the track thumbnails, but I can see where they would be useful as well.

As I've read other suggestion threads, I'm wondering if this feature wouldn't best be incorporated into the larger ability to create customized skins.

I would definitely use both. The thumbnails next to the tracks would make flying through crates very realistic because you would be able to see multiples at a time and go straight to the one you want to select all on visual cues. As it is right now, you have to mouse/key onto a track before you ever see the artwork to see if it is the one you want or not. Think of how selection speed would increase ten-fold being able to see a half dozen or so tracks' coverart at a time while scrolling through tracks in a crate. You're right Releaux, user adjustable interface layout and having the ability to turn on/off features users want/don't want would make this all things to all people.

Rane, are you listening? ;-)

Agreed - a fairly comprehensive skinning API would allow the addition of things like artwork, while simultaneously allowing people who want to hide the waveforms or track names to do so without forcing the issue on anyone.

I like what I see! I've been looking for a feature like this since day 1 with SSL. The large artwork near the virtual decks might however take important space for future features in SSL.

*cough* this feature would be cool in 1.9 *cough*

Soulsonica,... you're hitting the sweetspot. That's more or less what I had in mind. Also I agree on the interface customization. Skinnability would be nice, but it's not that urgent I think. I think there is a bigger need for the ability to turn on/off features like waveforms, the discs/circles/... whatever. for example, If I'm not practicing or experimenting with new scratches or beatjuggling, the waveforms are sufficient for me. If I could turn off the rest, that would leave me more room for the tracklist for example (ergo, a better overview of what tracks I have).

Dj Dawn, I agree with you. It might take up space of future features. But that's where interface customization would be useful. Choose whatever you like! and strip it from whatever you don't need.

Reason I think this will not be implemented by SSL is because they wanna make it standard for all users. So far I think it has helped SSL a lot. It makes it easier for most dj's to work together at different clubs. That being said, custom keyboard shortcuts seems like a dream. Which really ain't a baaaaad thing.

Reason I think this will not be implemented by SSL is because they wanna make it standard for all users. So far I think it has helped SSL a lot. It makes it easier for most dj's to work together at different clubs. That being said, custom keyboard shortcuts & custom skins seem like a dream. Which really ain't a baaaaad thing.

I hear ya! You're absolutely right! Keeping everything standard is probably one of the things that has kept SSL extremly stable and reliable. And indeed, it makes it very possible for different DJ's to use the same Machine at the club.

And on the other hand, the ability to customize would also help/be cool...

I guess it's just the law of conservation of misery. By solving one misery, you're always introducing another one. It just depends on which misery you can live with :oD


But, ability for customization put aside, the artwork feature(s) would help. And this is something that can easily be dis-/enabled by your co-DJ's without haveing to reconfigure or reload a new skin-configuration or something.

Bump for Rane eyes. > soulsonica.com

its a hot layout but it'll be wack since i only have a 12 inch powerbook

That look super sweet

I would love it to see the covers next to each track in the list (and for those who don't want this you could just turn it off).

I already sugested quite the same, but with a poorer graphic (Soulsonica, your graphic is awesome) here: scratchlive.net

Another vote here for the enhanced displayed of artwork (very nice ideas Soulsonica).

To me this isn't superficial at all...it's including/enhancing an important cognitive feature of playing records that's otherwise missing when mixing digitally.

I've recently been hunting down artwork for my library of 80's stuff, and found it interesting I could immediately remember what some of the songs sounded like from looking at the record sleeves (or pictures of the record label), in a way I could not from looking at the artist/titles in a list.

These sites have proven really useful for finding artwork for some of the more obscure 80's and house stuff:

www.discogs.com

rateyourmusic.com

eil.com

anyone know of any others?

Check out the software Album Art Downloader

Bump. Keep this topic up front and hot. EVERY vinyl-bred DJ I speak with wants this.

thats true!

I couldnt agree more, I remember tunes by there covers, its the way my brain works, I get lost in words, everyhthing blends into one! Its so easy for me to associate a picture with a sound.

I NEED THIS FEATURE BADLY!!

Pretty please...

I commented on the thread scratchlive.net yesterday. I agree with you guys, although I'd leave the platter free not obstruct pitch, bpm, cues and color coding info. For the loaded decks it would be nice to have the artwork AND the name of the album.

Examples quite similar to soulsonica...
farm1.static.flickr.com
farm1.static.flickr.com

DJ Mark, other sites for finding artwork would be:
allmusic.com & juno.co.uk

Very nice!!

Very nice indeed!!!
Only... I just realised that if I want it this way that my Macbook is going to be a bit... small :o). Maybe I should have considered a Macbook Pro after all

I'm actually mildly Dyslexic, and this would help me out immensly.

At the moment I have to be meticoulous in how I prepeare stuff as if i don't do it in an intuitive way I'm absoloutely screwed, as everything can blur out.

I should just clarify: the album art being displayed for a crat ewould help me... that way I'd be able to think that album track 5

I hear you! I have to put in too much time too getting to know all names by heart. Artwork/sleeves I recognize in a snap. So I'd rather be spinning then learning names. I play very intuitive and I get a lot of good comments for it. So I'd hate to start preparing all my stuff. Less reading, more mixing! :oP

Seems "that other" vinyl sim program got it..?.

My laptop is 1920x1200, but still, I think that It would be possible to accomodate this at resolutions 1280x800 and upwards.

Well... let's hope so :oP. I'd hate to take a 24" with me to go spinnin'. I bought the macbook for it's portability combined with the power.

Cool...I actually realized that about Juno a couple weeks back, when ordering some downloads from them for the first time in about a year. They do a really nice job with the artwork.

Stompy.com very recently started providing nice sized artwork for new titles...Beatport and Traxsource are behind the curve on this for now.

i wish the "colored area" - circle area of the song (the part that shows progress of the song being played and is colored when a track has a color) could be a photo or even better would be an animation like fire while it plays and grows to show "song played"

Think Id like the Pitch% & BPM Displays inside the circle to be sligthly larger, maybe about the same size as time codes? Dislike squinting at the screen...

Does anyone not agree with this proposal of enhanced artwork display?

I agree totally but i do fear it may cause performance problems on older systems

I completely agree with this kind of stuff => farm1.static.flickr.com

I do not agree on the other hand, with putting artwork on the circles and make them spin and jump and whatever. Less animation is better for the performance. Keep most things static!

I also agree that this enhanced artwork feature could be a performance problem for older machines. But this could be solved with an option to turn it on and off. I can also imagine that for people that do not want the artwork, it will be irritating to have it fill up the screen anyway.

Have you guys ever tryed the Musci Match Jukebox? My is set exactley like the 2nd picture!!

This would be really great! But I think that would be really hard to implement.

Why not bring this even further? scratchlive.net

I really like the look of that

farm1.static.flickr.com

any news on this!

I'm not sure how well the album art in the 'search area' would work (it may work very well) but I think everyone is in agreement that a thumbnail on the side of the 'virtual decks' would be a VERY welcome addition.
I can't wait!!!!

Having the ability to view ALL label artwork thumbnails at once WHILE searching for tracks is VITAL. Speed and fluidity in track selection relies heavily on being able to do this just as it is while flipping through vinyl crates.

It looks like the new NI Traktor beat us to the punch on this though. This feature would be invaluable to DJs.

Agree 100%

+1 again, it just looks nice

i think its just another stupid idea how to make the interface mor slow and unstable.... i don´t know how about you but i am choosing my tunes about mood and situation and searching them using name or artist not never using booklet.....

only if your lappy can't handle it mine could so bring it on

Why is it stupid? You go through your stuff in a textual way. I'm used to graphically recognize my stuff. It's just the way how everybody handles their stuff.
e.g. I like to use absolute mode, perhaps you like to use relative mode better. Does that make relative mode stupid idea? (Don't forget to consider that relative mode has cue points, loops, handles the timing signal in a completely different way and so on... in short terms, relative mode is a lot more complicated and '[bold]could[/bold]' cause problems, glitches, errors, blablabla...). Did relative mode fuck up? Did you ever notice serato releasing something unstable? They make sure their stuff is on point and steady as a rock. If they would be releasing this feature, it will be resource efficient and stable too like all the rest.

If there's a possibility to disable/enable the feature, then there is no way that this is going to be a problem slowing down your comp. Too slow? Disable it! And if you don't have album art anyway, then there is nothing to load, hence... no delay!

Well, for it being such a "stupid" idea, it sure does have a LOT of interest, desire, and support from not only fellow DJs on this board, but every DJ I personally speak with in the field as well. Just because YOU don't select tracks graphically it doesn't mean many, many others don't. Vinyl has been around a lot longer than RSSL and the fact is MOST DJs with any long-time experience are accustomed to selecting tracks graphically because of years of doing it that way. Why do you think so much of computer interfaces, personal electronics, automobiles, etc. invest so much into icon-based navigation? Because humans remeber things GRAPHICALLY! That's not to say ditch the keyword searching, because that's just as valuable, but having both would be utopian.

PS: Like th eothers said, Rane/Serato has proven to us that they aren't going to release something shoddy and that's not ready for professional, stable use in the field so I wouldn't worry about it. If your computer can't handle it or you don't want to search tracks that way, I'm sure there will be a disable feature.

can i get an Amen!!!!!

Amen

Amen.
maara, I think there's a reason albums have covers, no?
I guess there's a reason why we have such a great art history, such a huge film industry, cameras on mobile phones, etc. Im digressing but I think you get the point: Visual communication is such more powerful than just a line of text, or "just" music for that matter. Making a living as a motion graphics designer for the past 8 years I should know.

Id like to think that most DJ's, at least fairly good ones, are creative souls looking for ways of setting moods, creating great wibes. And most of them, at least every one I've talked to, are just waiting for coverart to be implemented, then they would switch to a digital vinyl simulation system. I do not think it's a matter of if it will come or not, but who will be first. And mind you, the first contender to deliver a stable, good looking solution with a coverart browser, will have better access to the market. Remember that the majority of DJ's still spin vinyl.

I totally agree with you keeping Serato stable & solid, so I guess the best way would be to have a swith to turn coverart on/off. Hell, maybe just make a plugin like they do with the video option.

Damn I/we really need this feature. The bigger my library grows the more important being able to SEE artwork all at once while browsing becomes. Was stumbling around a few times tonight looking for tracks that I only knew what the label looked like.

Dear Rane/Serato, please ad this feature. Please.

Sometimes when going through tunes, I skip a great track because the name doesn't get my attention or gives me the same feeling. While I would take out the vinyl in a second if I was to go through my crates and stumble upon the exact same track.

This feature would get my blessing too. Please Rane/Serato. It would be great to get your idea about this too.

eerybody says there graphical djs to which it helps immensly to be able to see an image to relate it to the music ....and i download each new ersion as they are released i was looking for a this solution from way back howeer it hasnt happened ..ok maybe theres workin on fixing other features with glitches ill gi em the benifit of the dout but whats the chances there going to for the next release put eerything aside so they can make any type of resolution to our Big problem and make us masters of our craft then go back to those lil tweaks ...please no more upgrades with out this resoled take a poll hold a brainstorming conferance amongs the creatie thinker in the office ...jus do something and keep us the users posted dont jus ignore our concern ...thanks

a comment from one of the mods on this would be great!

Throw us a bone here!

I don't know much but I can't imagine it's that difficult to have the thumbnail next to the virtual-deck. I don't want to sound winey, I would just really appreciate this feature and so would MANY other dj's.
Mods, why is this not happening?

+1 I was thinking of this very feature the other day when adding album artwork in Itunes. If Serato can implement a stealth mode I know they can make this happen. Serato make this happen!

I support this idea 100000000%. Hope to see it implemented

Hey guys, I just want to make sure that everyone understands and is on the same page when requesting this feature in that "ARTWORK FOR LOADED TRACKS" is only HALF of the graphical approach to selecting tracks by artwork. Having the artwork visible for loaded tracks only doesn't do a whole lot of good if you don't ALSO somehow have the artwork thumbnails next to each track WHILE BROWSING through crates. That's how you get the whole artwork=track association going in your brain (just like selecting tracks by flying through real vinyl in real crates). Dig? ;-)

Samples:
soulsonica.com
farm1.static.flickr.com
farm1.static.flickr.com

I still digs. This time I support this idea 2000000000000%.

I like the idea Soulsonica

Thats the shit im talkin about.

That's exactly what I want implemented!
Im spending so much time tagging my files properly & adding the album artwork, I think there should be some way of utilising that within the programme.

C'mon Mods give me a clue on this.

I really agree with Soulsonica, browsing albums for me at least, is more or less crucial for picking song's. And even more so when you've had a few drinks and are all hyped up playing a pumping floor. Somebody mentioned screen resolution to be an issue, so I mocked up another one today using slightly less resolution. I could not find my previous mockups, so Soulsonica have to forgive me for snatching some of his. Anyway here it goes:
farm2.static.flickr.com

It's similar to iTunes list view with albumart. So what Im thinking is, there should be a couple of different ways of browsing albums by art:
1. just covers
2. covers with a separate list:
farm1.static.flickr.com
3. listview with covers included: farm2.static.flickr.com

So, what do you, the serato users, feel about this? And please, mods/serato/rane comment on what you think about coverart browsing. I guess there's different opionions about iTunes, but seems to me official serato policy is to make the 2 work together as smooth as posible? Would it slow down serato signinfically, or would it be possible to implement?
WarpNote

i think also this is very very good (and simple) way to add the cover to ssl: soulsonica.com

very good work!!

the coverflow function from itunes is nice, but no necessary (because of performance). static cover is more simple to integrate like in the example above.

to all the mods - has this "show cover" option a good chance in one of the next ssl versions??

I think it needs more cowbell

Cowbell and handclaps

Let's add an Amen to that and go old skool.

Still no word from the mods yet?

I think iTunes Coverflow is exactly the solution to this problem. Evil_banana linked to it earlier, but just in case:

www.apple.com

It's VERY reminiscent to me of flicking through a record box. (Anyone else who started DJing in the 80s will feel me on that, it's such a thoroughly drilled-in process, more so than flipping through Case Logic folders ever became...) So browse away in iTunes (just an ALT-TAB away!) then you can drag and drop right from iTunes: click and drag from right on the picture itself - a nice big target for speed - onto the players in Serato.

I've got the cheapest Dell laptop you can buy (I did increase the RAM to 2Gb admittedly) and it'll whizz through artwork in Coverflow while two tracks are playing in Serato with no hint of a hiccup, doesn't seem to be too much for my budget laptop to cope with so a halfway decent machine shouldn't struggle with this?

I'm happy enough using the two programs together this way; if Serato introduces a built-in equivalent, that'd be cool but it'd be hard to actually improve on that set-up.

One thing: if they do introduce artwork for the currently-playing tracks, they had BETTER do it like this:

content.altnation.com

How you could mimic that in the PREPARE bit of Serato I'm not sure ;)

+1

I would love to see this feature.

Firstly, this album art topic is the best feature suggestion on this forum.

I agree that if possible, a few options to choose from/customise is the way to go. Great ideas of how to fashion it above.

The top corner(s) 'currently playing pic' should be easy enough.

I'd love an addition similar to CoverFlow - but how difficult is that to make, and run? Older CPU's can't cope with the new iTunes display... (not mine :)

iTunes looks heaps better since adding CoverFlow, and I think if SSL had a similar range of choices of how to display the album art as the new iTunes - it would be a great step forward.

shit yall allready know but +1

Would be nice to have some comments from Rane/Serato mods on this ;-)

+1

+1

+1

The mods have more important things to worry about.

P.S. Virtual DJ 5.0 has cover flow.

If I wanted an MP3-player I installed Winamp or iTunes instead of spending 1450 euros on a 57.

And the "importancy" of a feature depends on how you prioritize. And priority's are different for every individual. I find flipping vinyls visually important, and for me this feature would add a lot to the "vinyl emulation"-experience which is basically the prior goal of SSL. Scratching video does not interest me, but I don't go around minimizing this on the video-threads?

Respect everybody's preferences dude. We all bought the software and paid for it.

I didn't mean this feature is not important. I'm all for better album artwork support. I don't care much for video either as I don't have a 57.

What I meant was mods typically do not reply in the feature suggestion area, as they have more "important things" to do, but rest assured they do read this area. So don't take it the wrong way if a mod doesn't reply.

ahh thats why they never responded!

This needs to be done, Im also not interested in vid but would love to see this feature! would be dope!

Ok, sorry. I misunderstood what you implied. Disadvantages of reading text. It's a pitty though they don't respond here. I'm not requesting a date or something. I'm just curious how they feel about it. If they find it an interesting feature or not and if they would consider implementing this. I hate to waste my time dreaming about something that will never happen.

About your Virtual DJ suggestion, unfortunately this isn't anoption for me. It's not supported on Mac and I didn't buy a Macbook to run Windows anyway. Besides, I like the SSL stability and layout.

On the other hand you're also making a good point there. If Virtual DJ can implement this, why wouldn't Serato?

I would like the idea of being able to have a picture/logo/design on the deck labels as they spin would look cool!

spinning them would only cost unecessary processing power, and i even wouldn't like it... but anyway, i want some more artwork integration too ;)

i hope they make it an option.. because i wouldn't use it...

looks cute and stuff.. but i wouldn't use... specially because i only work with wav files...

the spinning shit is not a needed feature (although it would look cool) but the artwork intergration needs to be done!

Agreed. Spinning artwork on the virtual decks is gimmicky and pointless. Seeing the track artwork next to track text "BEFORE" selecting them and "WHILE" playing them is essential. This solidifies the whole "ARTWORK/SOUNDS LIKE/GRAPHICAL/MENTAL ASSOCIATION" thing we humans are so good at.

Sorry Toby, I think that would be a waste of cpu cycles, be quite distracting, not to mention it wouldnt look that special. Im all about a clean functional interface and no pimped Xmas tree.... (but hey, people differ in taste)

Now, I just could pull out those albums by looking at them, and not just a big chunk of text. I'm slightly dyslectic en.wikipedia.org and having a couple of lagers during a set don't make it any better ;-)

I truly beleive tha a lot more people would convert from vinyl to SSL once they get this feature in there. (Most of my friend's still spin the old way...)

Agreed.

Adding browsable (won't find that word in wikipedia) artwork adds function to the program.

Spinning deck art just adds looks and may deteriorate function on some computers.

If other programs are doing coverflow etc then I'm sure ScratchLive will eventually - and hopefully get it just right.

bump this up!

bump ! since i switch over to Serato ive been getting djs block because im so used to just looking at vinyl covers and not having to remember titles & artist!

+ a gajillion!!!!!!!

This hapens to me all the time!!!!!

you can sign me up for clubmembership too... unfortunately

The bigger my library grows, I'm feeling this feature is more and more necessary.

+1

International Coalition for Keeping Artwork Alive

Artwork liberation!!!

+1

have the mods given any indication yet as to a yes or no to this feature

no

+1

No mod response would be a negative - wouldn't it?

I'd like to think they'd put this into 1.8 - but I have a feeling 1.8 is going to offer video capability and not much else... That alone seems to be taking them long enough.

None of the 1.8 promo videos around youtube etc show anything that looks like artwork.

That said, if you can sort out video-mixing, surely you can add some cover-art to the corners, no?

And this has been bumped so much it's clear we want it.

the thing that makes me laugh is most of us dont give a shit about the video aspect!

I do

I think the video is cool, but not my cup of thee though. I'm also a little afraid that it has changed the focus from vinyl to video too much. There's so many things the DSP of my 57 could do... but isn't doing at all. There are so many other things people have been asking about for a very long time, but it's al postponed to "1.8"...

It's like the Coreaudio drivers. One of the things that pushed me to buy the 57 was "the ability to record mixtapes on separate tracks"... which basically means that you would be able to record 2 vinyls at once, that would cut my vinyl-recording-time to 50%... Unfortunately I had to find out that it was a lot of "brochure-talk". It is limited to some second-hand beta ASIO drivers which are only available for Windows. Can't help to feel a little F***ed over by the video-thing...

Man to be honest all I want now from serato is the effects from the 57 on sl1 & cover flow artwork on the side of each deck so I stop keep taking the needle of the wrong deck when not concentrating properly!

Also making my songs easier to find, because as my library grows im finding it increasingly hard to find tracks! (im slightly dyslexic by the way so this would help greatly!)

I feel you mate :o). In the heat of the moment I can be a little enthousiastic too sometimes and load the track to the wrong file. That's why I assigned the "undo change" function to B1 on my 57 :oP so I can correct it in 1 second.

I'm having trouble too recognizing all my songs, just from text. I need visual recognition markers. It's like, at school when I had to process some large amounts of typed text, I would start highlighting and underlining like crazy. Personalizing the text. This way I could better remember all the stuff because every page would look different. Otherwise it's all a bunch of letters swimming around my page. I don't know if you could call this also some form of being dyslexic, but it's anoying as hell anyway.

I guess so I mean sometimes I look at the word & say snoop wil look like sonop or some shit! (bad example i know)

However with a picture I can clearly see the doggystyle cover etc etc & know yeah its on that album! Within seconds! Just like if someone asks if you have a track you dont need to look you just know!

I reallly want this! Can we get a yay or nay at least!

I'm almost to the point of setting up a second screen that has iTunes open so I can actually SEE my music, then drag files over to my primary screen that is running SL. It's the long way around the block I know, but I'm starting to feel like I'm reading a phone book while DJing when using SL, trying to identify tracks by reading all this mice type text rather than quickly and intuitively selecting tracks via artwork.

mods???

An answer would be great???

we should report someone then they will show up in here ha ha ah!

Oh, and regarding the video comments: I too could care less about video. I know there are people who do want it, but video (or any other distracting elements) are in fact the LAST thing we want in our environment while DJing. 100% of attention focused on the MUSIC is the primary goal in our circles. Our best nights DJing are when people on the dancefloor have their eyes shut and their ears open.

same here. Integrated Covers/Artwork is the most needed and wanted feature for me. I really want covers being displayed in the track-list and also for the decks

yeah for the decks too is really impoertant as I keep lifting the needle on the wrong track where both labels look the same!

I actually do this while playing now, dragging tracks from iTunes over to the prepare list in SSL. I'm only using 1 screen at 1920x1200. It makes me squint, and I guess it makes my system more liable to crash but I really need those covers...

I just thought of this, it's from the top of my head so bear with me, Now that SSL has a tabbed interface for the setup, why not make something similar in the main screen? something like:

-tab 1: a regular list with tracks for the selected create, just like we're used to.

-tab 2: a horisontal split view with both albumart for the selected crate and tracks for the selected album (multiple selection would be needed I guess) farm1.static.flickr.com

-tab 3: like tab 2, only vertical split
farm1.static.flickr.com

I'll try to rework my mockups during this weekend (got no gigs...) to show that they will work on smaller screen resolutions...

Being a motion graphics designer by occupation, I do like visuals. Still I feel they're done best from dedicated people, and not by a DJ (for the most part that is....)

1024x768

= 786432 ;)

But got point. That's why my favorite is an additional small cover preview in the track-list. A column like all the other columns... So people who don't need it just deselect that column.

Here we go, 1024x750. The "Arworkbrowser" fully employed ;)
This is the thing Im looking for, a new way of browsing albums, being able to sort the ALBUMART by artist, album name, year, etc. (should be able to do multiple selections of the albumcovers), THEN sort by the fields in the tracklist like usual.

Vertical browsing view:
farm3.static.flickr.com

Horisontal view:
farm3.static.flickr.com

Can I get a witness? Allmighty serato/rane staff ?

It's painful to view those renderings WarpNote because I know that when I jump back on SL later today I won't have artwork to browse.

Very nice. It would also be nice if the pixel dimensions of the artwork could be adjusted (or maybe preset small/medium/large sizes) so that the user could decide what works best for them = smaller artwork/more artwork visible at one - or larger artwork/less artwork visible at once (I'm sure there are some DJs who are blind as bats).

Rane/Serato, either way, we don't wan't this functionality, WE NEED IT!

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!

i need this

I know, Im not complaining, especially now that we got 1.8 beta to play around with. However, with albumcovers, SSL would be complete for my part.


Im thinking maybe 32x32 icon size, 64x64 small, 96x96 medium & 128x128 large.

I do think they need to keep the artwork fairly small, both due to cpu & memory issues. I'm running a 30k library in SSL myself, and can imagine those thumbnail files will take time to load... Most likely they would need to pre prosess the artwork to maintain a stable and fast GUI. Im thinking maybe storing a local version in the database file or similar when building overviews.

Serato guys:
Josh, Sam, Scott & Dave - any thoughts on how it could be implemented? ;-)

If this offered, i hope it's an option that can be turned off...I don't want it. I look at song/artist/bpm/genre fields to find songs. Artwork would just distract me and take up screen space.

Out of curiousity bourbonstmc, how long have you been DJing, and if I may ask, how old are you?

15+ years, 45.

Thanks. I am surprised however by your answer because older guys (like you and I) typically rely on album art as the natural way of identifying tracks - especially if they've been DJing for a long time and have a sizabe library. My hunch is younger/less experienced DJs are the ones who may be more comfortable with just text because they don't have the years of graphical conditioning that we do, don't have the amount of stuff to remember, etc.

I haven't used vinyl in ages. I'd been used to CD's in books, but find SSL allows me to find tracks way faster. I find some tracks by scrolling, but more often by getting an idea and then using the search box. If you really want the artwork & the developers can work it in as an option, great. I just like the way the interface looks now, and think artwork would add distracting clutter. If artwork was only an option and not a dedicated part of the interface, we'd both be happy. :)

"no artwork" was my first complaint about SSL. I remember being able to select records based on the feel and wear of vinyl cover alone. no replacing that. I would def like to see artwork added.

But I would probably use the absolute smallest setting, even crazy small like 15x15. For me, just as I neednt see the entire cover of a record, I doubt I would need to see crispy artwork either. all I need is some sort of visual that would be unique enough, say one in a couple hundred. that would be good enough to select by visual cues, enough to differentiate and remember tracks.

just hoping that we could get a 'very small' setting, I still value the real estate

I know it sounds too small, trust me it will work

Yikes! AKIEM, no man should ever, ever, ever utter those words. lol

lool :)

grrrhhh... you got me

+1 for artwork
- picture on each deck OK
- browser by pictures OK but keep it an option
- coverflow and other fancy animated stuff NOT OK

my 2 cents!

Man, I really hate to ask this, but are there any other DVS systems currently available that has this feature? If there are, unfortunately I'm considering taking at look at them because the lack of album art thumbnails in SL and trying to remember tracks solely by text instead of viewing the art with a huge library is really starting to take its toll on me.

if you use iTunes, keep iTunes open in the lower half of your screen set to COVERFLOW mode, and drag and drop onto SSL's decks, problem solved.

Hi Toast - Yeah man, that's what I've been doing for a while now, but it's a royal PITA. I've been keeping all my crate organization in SL and when I do the splitscreen thing it just makes a mess of it all. Using iTunes' coverflow does give me the visual I need, but at a heavy tradeoff cost. I'm now looking for a consolidated way to get back to DJing visually (sans vinyl). Thanks though.

+1 for artwork.

RapidEvolution has a nice artwork browser... (pic www.mixshare.com), and you can drag and drop into SSL. It's pretty customizable too so you don't have to have everything shown like in that pic.

And I'm pretty sure RE can stay pinned on top of the SSL screen so you don't have to keep switching windows or tab back and forth. Basically RE would just replace the lower crate/tracklist section of the SSL screen.

Why should we have to use two programs to accomplish something that can be done in one?

You're right, but, let's face it, this isn't going to be in SSL anytime soon, so I'm just trying to help out and give possible workarounds. Take it or leave it.

Wherefrom do you know?

well the 1st post was basically a year ago!

May give you some indication!

Midi was requested looong time ago, but now its available...

May give you some indication!

Chill guys, as long as enough people has use for it, and is both manageable from a developing point of view, - and if it won't damage the stabilty of SSL, it makes sense to implement new features. To me at least, SSL feels like a pretty mature product.

It only makes sense to make the most of the library management. Must be the reason SSL reads ITunes library files in the first place?

I guess the workarounds, running Rapid Evolution or iTunes etc. simultanesly with SSL is not the worst solution, but for people using the headphone output for FX it can be a bit risky.. When a product is even more a fully "package" it's just so much more valuable to larger market of DJ's.

Most of my fellow DJ's still spin analog vinyl, and I find myself bringing at least one crate of records in addition to my SSL setup to most gigs, for the same reason.

I guess bottom line is that Rane wants to sell the most units, which should be a good thing, no?

Liberate the art! Peace!

Dude I wan't it too!

But Im just doubtfull is all!

But yeah I say have it as a switchable function.

Agree 100% !!

word

Thanks Konix for the RE2 suggestion. Will check it out.

PS: Rane/Serato, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE be working on this feature. Every DJ I talk to wants/needs this. Constant album art thumbnails is the last thing I really must have to make SL the complete DVS solution. PLEASE.

Im with everyone here. I cant believe how creative and intelligent some of you guys are coming up with those designs. Thats so clever. Im so impressed. Im missing not flicking through my vinyl and relating covers and pictures to music.

PLEASE RANE SERATO IMPLEMENT THIS FEATURE????

Thanks, Ben :}

has anyone tried this rapid evolution yet?

imma give it a go tonight!!!!

I've spent a considerable time with Rapid Evolution 2.8.10
Quite nice tool for analyzing/manually setting key codes for your tracks, the albumart browser is useful, but RE 2 wont add the album cover art to the mp3 files themselves. The arwork is typically stored one separate file for each track in: C:\Program Files\Rapid Evolution\albumcovers (or similar).

I've had my share of stability issues with RE 2, and personally I think the interface could do with some improvement.

What I found is that using RE 2 makes me maintain two music library's instead of one, with a lot more effort on my part. This add's up to a whole lot of time organizing music, instead of rehearsing sets.. I do spend quite some time tagging files and maintaining artwork already, and just dont want to do it twice....

So, SERATO/RANE TEAM: Please, Please, Please!! : add the album browsing feature, either built in or a plug-in feature.

warp not to add the files easier try out yet another programme as rane still have not implemented any form of artwork adding!

Its a great programme called media monkey!

googgle that shit pay for the 10 quid upgrade and your all gravy!

Its fantastic!!!

Thanks Nicky, I'll have a look at the monkey today!
Until now I've been using Album Art Downloader album-art.sourceforge.net and
Album Art Aggregator team.thenexusnet.com to look for cover's

(and just my own snapshots for digitized vinyls)

Will the monkey do browsing views like RE 2 ?
ie something like this: www.mixshare.com

nope its a just a programme to add the artwork!

I find it better than I-tunes it seems to be fairly popular here on the boards!

Just yet another thing that we would not have to use if rane would implement this into the prgramme for when the magic box isn't plugged in.

Wow, thanks again Nicky B. Why didn't I get hold on this one earlier?

The Media Monkey is a really nice piece of software. When I first made that photoshop mockup, farm3.static.flickr.com I never had a look at Media Monkey, and they've actually implemented what I was looking for farm3.static.flickr.com !!

Great stuff.
Serato Developers: have a look at Media Monkey and learn from their library organization ;-)

i thought you may like it!

What I do is Ive put it on all 3 of the computers that I use to edit my library!

My home pc my office pc & my lappy!

then just update the library as according!

Fantastic prog!

the update is defo worth the money!

Well, I gave the RE2 thing a shot and yes, you gain full view constant view of album art, but using it with SL is just a clumsy as using SL with iTunes CoverFlow. Actually any scenario where you have to split your screen real estate up into two programs is going to have the same results. It's already been said a bazillion times now, full constant album art view simply needs to be part of SL.

Text is for lawyers, numbers are for accountants, graphics are for humans, and album art is for DJs.

Serato, PLEASE be working on this. Please.

lol :)

graphics are for humans! no doubt
lol

Serato should already have recognized that this missing feature is yet the MOST DISADVANTAGE of a DVS system.

i have asked for things like this 2 years ago.
i hate reading so much text and look like checking emails while browsing tracks at a gig.

so please make someting like this soulsonica.com with customizable sizes and ability to be turned off.

it would be the greatest step to more usability for SSL you could imagine at this time.




+1 :)

My point exactly!

My point exactly, as SSL performs so stable and solid, it would be interesting to hear from the Serato Team, their thoughts on how much this suggested feature would stress a system?

It certainly would be. It's been requested already several times now. With 175 replies within this thread alone about this very feature, the customer demand is obviously there for it and you'd think we could at least be given some sort of insight as to what manufacturer's thoughts are and/or plans for this would be.

+1

Yeah artwork on the virtual label would be awesome!!!

Also, not sure if this is possible, or whether it's already implemented, but I would like to be able to associate artwork with .WAV files from within SSL? As all of my vinyl ripped so far has been ripped as .WAV files

Can you embed/associate artwork with .WAV files.

If not, could the SSL database be modified to include a field that stored a reference to an image for each file?

I would like to see SSL WAV tag support as well. There is already a wav tag format being used by others but I don't know if it supports artwork.

is there anything new from the developers about that thing?

you should try typing in something either about filesharing, advertising, get tony little in here! These things allways seem to get the mods attention so maybee you'll get an answer if they stunble across it!

LOL.

Expanding on the artwork thing, would be good if the album atrwork appeared on the virtual deck, and rotated with the needle? Be just like looking at a vinyl, and would aid in backspinning etc.

Expanding on the artwork thing, would be good if the album atrwork appeared on the virtual deck, and rotated with the needle? Be just like looking at a vinyl, and would aid in backspinning etc.
+1

imo that might be a bit much. Plus you've got some info inside the virtual deck that you wouldn't want to make hard to read. I'd personally just like the album cover next to the virtual deck. Spinning would look cool but just getting the info on screen in your head at a glance is the important thing.

I agree the spinning thing would make the info hard to read & All I want is the artwork if there is any next to the v/d!

But the waythe mods have been I cant see this happening any time soon!

it is annoying to try reading real vinyl while it spins

yeah i agree guys, spinning artwork will just confuse things.

pointless, but i'd like to see artwork included for tracks...

you don't need to read artwork while it spins, you read when you browse records, before loading on the virtual deck

why does it have to spin? just because a record spins? couldn't it just not spin? i think that would look cooler and tax the processor less.

To be honest guys I think this has turned into an swv request!

I.E.

Never gonna get it never gonna get it never gonna get it wooo wooo wooo woo!

Ha h aha!!!!

^^^NB, you mean En Vogue.^^^

either way! The message was sent!

Ha ha ha!!!!!

Does anyone know why this doesn't seem to be getting implemented?

There seems to be a hell of a lot of interest in it!

because they have a very long list of items

I vote "NO" to the spinning artwork idea. IMO that's just getting gimmicky and will probably waste processor resources. Not to mention album art is square, not round because of the jacket and digital release artwork is always square as well. A circle can alway fit in a square, but a a square can't fit in a circle (unless you decrease the size).

#1: Artwork thumbnails (approx: 40X40 pixels) next to all tracks in the library, crates, subcrates, etc., visible at all times (unless feature is turned off/defeated by user).

#2) Larger artwork (approx: 100x100 pixels) next to each virtual deck visible when track is loaded (unless feature is turned off/defeated by user).

I agree, keep it sweet & simple, I need the info on the platter as it is. It would mess up cues and color coding.

And, it would still be interesting to hear from the Serato team, is this even feasible?

How's about maybe having the option to select how we view tracks in a crate? Like browsing files in Windows. Thumbnails would be my preferred option. Although some might prefer film strip etc (effectively coverflow)? I really don't see how the spinning artwork etc would benefit anyone...you've already selected the track to play...does the artwork make any difference?

Not spinning artwork but the artwork placed somewhere by the virtual deck would be nice.
The hardest part of going from vinyl to digital has been getting my head around my now huge music collection. The artwork next to the deck would just help file away tracks/mixes that I like in my head.

And agreed, options for the track selection views is going to be necessary to keep everyone happy.

i think that the spinning thing is a universal no! However the mods aint said anything about it o im asking tony little his advice befgore i download it foir free from limewire!!

Ha Ha Ha

(No Ban)

:P

Same here. The spinning thing would kind of throw me off.

Main thing for me would to be able to scroll through artwork instead of text, that's the big thing for me. This is kind of a necessity.

I can see the benefit for having artwork from the loaded song into player A/B, but not for me though. I spin on a 1280x800 pixel Macbook, so I don't really have that much room for it. Perhaps with a bigger screen, yes. This would nice.

(still waiting for some input from Serato-guys. I'm not asking for a release-date :o), just want to know what they think about it)

I like this, especially after spending countless hours organizing, re-tagging, and renaming audio files. I'd like to literally see the fruits of my labor.

+1 and we wanna be able to send the artwork to a external port to project it on a screen live

Hey Rane/Serato, any word on this much needed feature?

cmon rane we would like our images simpler to use more coheasivly ...and id like before any other mod ......i use the others but as stated by all on this thread it would be easier

weve worked hard to make yur product number one .tons of file orgnization ..images correct and id neva look at another program...and i know u wanna be number 1

soulsonica.com Constant cover art thumbnails IS without a doubt the missing link that would make Scratch Live the complete package and untouchable to the current competition.

Yep, "see" being the key word here. We need to see our tracks, not just try to remember text.

+1

Still waiting ;-) farm3.static.flickr.com

Yo what is tha point in this? Who cares if you have artwork for the loaded songs, you are listening to the damn things...

Read the thread Hungry B and you will learn why. In short, humans typically remember things visual and the reason why artwork should be shown next to the loaded decks is that it graphically reinforces to the user what is playing while it's playing - just like looking at a real vinyl record while it is playing. It's the same concept and a proven one for decades for thousands of DJs who have used vinyl for any length of time. The brain remembers what something sounds like by what it looks like and can be quickly recalled later by browsing through your tracks if the tracks all had thumbnails next to them (just like flipping through a crate full of vinyl).

BTW, if you read the thread you will also learn that although a great many DJs really want (need in many cases) it has been proposed that this feature be able to be turned off for those people who do not want/need this feature.

This is still a major +1 for me guys. I love SSL, but I still miss the feeling of going through the crates visually. Having this artwork implementation would completely compensate that and make the vinyl emulation experience complete. For me, it makes the difference between looking at it as an Excel-sheet or a Vinyl Crate.

I'm actually getting a bit disappointed by serato for their lack of input or thought on this feature. Should I start swearing, calling out profanities and ugly words Like F this and S that to get some attention in this thread?

Come on guys, some input wouldn't be hurt. Besides, this doesn't seem the mass-feature everyone is asking about, bu I am convinced that many people will love it once they would be using it.

+1

My guess it will be in 1.9 major upgrade, it's pretty much the only thing missing from scratchlive

This is definitively what I'm expecting SSL to look like in the next iteration... The integrated arts for the loaded tracks is such a useful thing for experienced DJs who used to rely a lot on vinyl's illustrations / arts !!!

Go for it !!! This is exactly what we are waiting for SSL !!! :]

Peace !

Fact
myspace.com/deejayfact

this will really help with dyslexia as i dont have to try & read small text I can just look at the cover art!

Get on it!!!!!

limewire kiddie porn gary glitter filesharing violence homophobia rascism & anything else that may actually get a response from the mods on this!!!!!

lol

I've added pictures to all my files yesterday. The current album cover display is quite useless. I do feel soulsonica's suggestion!

A very fast way (button or shortcut) to show/hide the cover column would be more than welcome.

@Nicky Blunt: great technique :)

Zzzzzzzzzz.........

Jeeeez SoulS, put a lid on it! you're keeping me out of my small nap while I await some mod response... hope this doesn't turn into a "sleeping beauty"-nap

lol. Sorry. Just deploying the ol squeaky wheel.

It's really a pitty this thread is not getting any reaction from the guys. It's been 1.5 years and still nothing... Come on Serato! You have almost all aspects of vinyl emulation covered, you're using vinyl, it feels like vinyl, it plays like vinyl, it even skips like vinyl!!! Why not go all the way by implmenting this last step and making it actually look like vinyl?!

After this I'm done, I really don't need any other fancy features (could be nice, but no other seems necessary in my opnion).

I know we've already discussed RE, but I think a lot of you are missing out, I've got it setup just how'd I like it in SSL... i48.photobucket.com

Also, to throw more salt on the wound, Traktor Scratch's new Pro version has album art loaded next to the song on the deck, albeit pretty small... i48.photobucket.com

i like soulsonica ideas on this great way i get so lost in track titles it looks like the matrix sometimes and its all really about the ears and i relate colors in my music list and pics would even be better expecially with the little extra space and cover art on bottom and it being on both sides of the deck . also some way it just imports the cover auto to ssl

My guess is that they have trouble implementing it in a stable way. Looking at iTunes, it seems to draw at lot of resorces, needless to say that's no good for a real time application like SSL. That being said, I still would like to hear what the Serato dev team actually thinks about this suggestion... And probably will keep nagging for it until they do comment on this, as I believe its the one big thing missing to really bridge the gap from "regular" Dj-ing.

As it was suggested back in 2004 scratchlive.net - Moderator AJ commented: Guess this thread proves him wrong?

Konix, do you actually run RE2 alongside SSL on while playing out? after all that work with scratchtools and crates? If so, how much will RE2 take i when it comes to the size of the library, also do you have any special tricks for organizing/"syncing" between the two?

it is true if you grew up to the 10 + crates pic and the groove of the record is what i know, a or b side is all i read on my records than again after 10 years them records grow on you and they are apart of the dj that owns them that is why we need this feature in this ssl just because 10 crates really is not so bad to lug than making my eyes go out from this damn 13 mac book squinting at the matix of words im 35 and i need my sight my hearing and my hands these 3 things a dj must have.

I wish that retail packaging box wasn't blocking the view of the left side of the GUI because I'd really like to know if a DVS company has finally woken up to the fact that cover art is needed among many DJs. I see cover art flanking the decks which is a step in the right direction, but if this thing has cover art thumbnails next to all the tracks in the crates, I'm switching to it the day it's released. I love SL, but they are asleep at the wheel when it comes to this critical feature.

I too would love to see the artwork next to the virtual decks. If you have a high res screen you have a lot of space to fill up at the top.

I'm still unsure as to why you would want to see the album artwork when the track is already playing?

I absolutely agree that artwork is essential when browsing for tracks.

For me as well the browsing part is essential, but I can see the benefit in it for some people. Same principle as with browsing basically. Rather than reading the name, you can recognize with one eye-flash which track is loaded to what TT/CD.

But definitely no "spinning artwork" for me though, that's over the top :o)

Why do you think every company has a logo?

EXACTLY!!

Hammered the nail head on

im shocked at the slowness its takin for a rane employee tp get involved in this debate!

Its been like forever & a week!

I still believe they will blow our minds with a brilliant solution for all the artwork requests in an upcoming release...

Bingo.

Man I hope so because I may be jumping ship to TS Pro if they have this feature and SL snoozes on it. Yes, it's that important.

MODS PLEASE RESPOND! PRETTY PLEASE.

Because of the visual reinforcement that happens in your brain WHILE it's playing so you can recall it easier later when browsing - just like real vinyl has done for thousands of DJs over the decades. They are both needed to complete the perfect experience.

You're 100% right! Didn't think of that yet. It's indeed not only about finding and recognizing your stuff immediately... it's also about remembering what you are playing right now and memorizing it for the next time :o)


I have a few white labels with nothing written on them (and I don't know either what the songs are called), litterally completely white labels, and still I'm able to recognize them immediately by the way the paper sleeve is torn up, or how the grooves are put on the record, what stripes were made on the empty white label... this sort of thing, no text, just... visuals. And still I'm able to pull the right one out... ALWAYS.
I can't think of a better proof that text and names are way lower priority for me than artwork is.

+1

Just think of the possibilities here guys - since all cover art is these days is a jpeg image, we could be making our OWN covert art for as we see fit - especially for tracks that have no cover art, white labels, etc. What better way to remember it than that?! Not to mention vinyl tracks we are all digitizing as we go for use in SL - take a pic of the cover, drop image file onto music file, done. Problems solved.

I know this is a bit of an old discussion, but I agree 100%!!!

Well, it's official, Traktor Scratch Pro has album art browsing like Soulsonica's pic... www.native-instruments.com

Whoa! The envy....

Game over guys. Checkmate.

If TSP is solid and that screenshot is correct, looks like I'm switching.

Too bad because I really love the minimalistic elegance and proven reliability of SL, but they are unfortunately asleep at the wheel.

Somebody please hit me up if SL ever awakes from its slumber.

Mark my words, this will be one of the most important advancements in DVS. Guaranteed.

Super Duper Kudos NI

Please add ALBUM ART.. I think that SL overall is a solid product, why not add this SMALL FEATURE. Or let Trakor Scratch Pro, take over the market.

I'll have to agree, It will make it so much easier for "traditional dj's" to switch for a DVS. I'm not jumping ship just yet. Still have some faith that Serato will sort this out. But I'd say that if its not done in the next 6 months I'll have a real "close look" at TS.

As we all been nagging about: it would be really interesting to hear from the serato team what they actually think about the feature, and if they feel it's substantial or just eyecandy from their point of view.

Major road turn ahead, wake up! ;-)

Yep, bravo SSL, way to go, good job guys!!! While you guys are going off-track messing around with all these video-gimmicks, NI is actually keeping it's focus on DJ'ING!!! Yes, true... lot's of bells and whistles, fisher-price feeling and an overloaded interface, FX-processing is done by the PC and so forth... But they keep adding, they keep moving forward and they keep upping the ante when it comes to expanding on their DJ-features to expand the DJ's possibilities to be creative. (Album artwork, FOUR decks, effects, auto-mixing, crate-shortcuts, 24 Cuepoints,... etcetera...) Meanwhile SSL just sits there adding itty bitty features because "all these bells and whistles can cause SSL to become 'unstable'...". I understand that one of the main forces of SSL is its stability. But saying "hey, the product is good, let's not touch it anymore"... is the wrong way to go. If everybody would think this way, we would still be lugging around with 6 crates of vinyl to every party instead of popping out a Laptop and an SSL-unit... Hell, nobody would ever have invented the art of scratching if early DJ's would just put on the needle and not touch the record anymore since "it's playing OK like this"

I hate the looks of NI traktor, I don't like their upgrade policies and the company's vision on many things (and their slutty affaire with Final scratch). I love the simiplicity of SSL, the minimalism, the free upgrade policy (altough they are kind of useless if no major upgrades are made anymore)... Just about everything about it. But standing still is moving backwards guys, and this makes me less enthousiastic bout SSL every day... Especially since video seems to be interesting enough to keep it moving...

But they [Serato] have been constantly adding features! Compare 1.8 to 1.7! Offline Player, Midi, Loops - just to name a few.

They are just very cautious (some would say slow...) at adding features.

How many programmers are working on SL?
Hire me Serato!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Serato has never improved or added. I agree completely, 1.7 to 1.8 has seriously matured the software. But ever since Video came it feels like they got off-track. Only video is moving (which hasn't much to do with vinyl-emulation), but we don't get much sound from regular SSL-side.

Cautious is good, but this FR for example has been going on over 20 months with several nice mockups of what it could look like... and it didn't get a single response from serato. Not one. I'm not even talking about getting a final yes or no. I'm talking about A answer "yes that is a cool idea" or "ooooh, this will be very hard do implement. At least aknowledge that you read that post.

To me, this is not a "nice to have" but a basic necessity. And it makes me uncomfortable that NI has it, and SSL not. NI is making jumps on vinyl-emulation, even going too far with the amount of features... SSL gives us... video. About a year ago you could still say that "maybe NI has a lot of bells and whistels, but SSL is still the very best and high quality". Now NI is overwhelmingly moving ahead almost making me feel like a sucker for sticking with SSL and having bought a TTM57.

I have to disagree. Judging from the forum posts only a very limited number of peopple are working on VSL. So what are the others doing? Okay, there is ITCH. But I can't imagine ITCH sucking all resources. In the past Serato just announced products which were ready for the market (except for VSL - haha ;) ), they didn't make any promises and just delivered. I expect them to do so in the future. So since it was a bit quiet the last months I am hoping for some good stuff in 1.9.



I don't think they are not reading. I am pretty certain that they are reading but they are carefull with making promises which will upset users if not kept.


This is a long ass thread, it's hard to believe this is falling under the radars of Serato.



I don't know. NI's product has new feautures - point taken. But it will have to prove stability first. And on top, as you mentioned already, they are sucking the money out of the customers. Yes. How else would you explain that this update for a "Pro" version costs money? If this is the "Pro" version - which is the version which I bought 1 1/2 years ago? This is the same ugly tactics NI has been doing for quite some time. I thought they learnt from the mistakes with Stanton and Final Scratch where each bugfix was sold as a new update. They promised that updates will stay free this time with Traktor Scratch.

The catch? Well, they tricked the customers again. Since they can't charge for updates (b/c that's what they promised earlier) - they'll tag this as a new product. Just add a "Pro" and there you have it - a new product which you can charge for.

In the end... I agree, if paying for updates would speed up the whole process I'd glad to do so. But ... yes, Serato has their own view how things have to be done.

Let's hope Serato is learning from their mistakes (1.7.0, 1.7.1 and 1.7.3 were a *mess*, updates were rushed out and caused some serious problems for a lot of users) in the past and that their vision is the same one which the majority of DJ's are having.

I totally agree. I do not want to go NI. NI stands for "fast and easy" money which is never a good thing. Absolutely never! And it's always better to release 5 perfect features than 10 halfass coded pieces of *bleep*. But SSL is taking their sweet time, and honestly, there are some things that always lack that make it feel non-perfect (stupid example - a way to unify the format of all your crates). If resources is the problem, I wouldn't mind forking out some extra cash for a major upgrade.

Anyway, I guess I'm just getting a little frustrated. Instead of going for a cheap solution like torq I went the whole stretch for the 57, and it's things like this that make it feel like you didn't get the best solution anyway.
This feature, is what keeps me from having BIG fun and really feeling like I'm doing vinyl... not the effects, no 7000 cue-points or automixing, not even a 3rd or 4th deck (I bought a Kaoss Pad to cover that one)... It's the labels and the covers that I'm missing to have the same fun as flipping through my collection. Reading the text almost makes it feel like work...

Anyway, you're right, it's a long ass thread :o), I think I made my point clear and there's nothing I can add anymore to all the advantages of this feature. So I'm going to (try to) shut up and keep it at:


Cover art is a must for true vinyl emulation. Do not underestimate it.

Cover art is a must for true vinyl emulation. Do not underestimate it.

This should be the main feature for 1.8.3

Pleeeeeeeease ! Don't make me switch to TPro... :[

I think its a really nice touch, and obviously very important for a large number of users. Like nik39 mentioned, it is definitely on our radar.

Soulsonica's GUI mockup looks really good - the challenge with that one is making it work on every size screen resolution. What do you guys suggest for someone using a screen size like this?: serato.com

1. shrunk down fuzzy 10x10 images is better then nothing.
2. if your screen is too small turn it off.

Hey Nick,

i didn't take your picture, as it hasn't full native resolution, but here is my mockup wich also fits well for that small screen:

serato.toby82.de

I took a random screenshot from the internet and also random covers, but you get the point.

The tiny covers side by side with the track list would of course scale if you do the new library zoom in/out ;)
In general this implementation would mean just very little changes to the gui, which is good, as it is much more likely to be implemented.
Also the tiny covers could just be a new column which can be selected or deselected to display like any other column.



P.S. i resized the artist/title/bpm/time box on top to fit the cover. When implementing you could just crop it a little, so you don't have to make big changes to the gui here too...

Only allow album art if screen res is greater than a certain size. Grey the option out in the setup screen with a tool tip explaining why it's not available.

I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now ;-)

Seriously though, I don't think 10x10 would do it, might be better than nothing yes, but to really be able to use the feature, I think realisticly 32x32 px would be a good setting.

I actually have to admit that your competitor did it rather clever, showing the top part of the sleves, like they would a appear in regular crate, remember those days? ;-)

So that would mean they could actually be 32 wide by 24 height. (croping out the lower part of the image)

Maybe 2 different settings would make people happy, either small or large.

Ideally thumbnails would be built separately, either as a part of overviews or completely separate only available in the offline mode, to keep things stable & less complicted.

Thanks for responding to this Nick!

Thanks for the response Nick, I'm glad to hear it's on the radar (not interpretting this as a promise :o), just glad you're looking into it)

On the topic of small screen sizes I would comment the following. I would not go for a cropped album art. It makes sense, but personally I would like to see the entire albumcover.

IMHO I would make a few options available:
HIGH RESOLUTION
farm1.static.flickr.com
or
farm1.static.flickr.com
There are Pros and cons to both, but I would prefer the first. Only compilations have 30 or more tracks, all other albums and EP have 15 or less on the average, so the track-view of the album wouldn't benefit from the extra vertical space most of the time (as you can see in Soulsonica's mockup, it's 75% empty). But when going for the horizontal split screen, you get to see all the trackinfo, so less screenspace is wasted.

LOW RESOLUTION
soulsonica.com
or
serato.toby82.de
This offers cover art and still allows for substantial track info and a decent amount of available lines to display multiple tracks. I think this would be a fair compromise for the DJ's with less screen real-estate who want album covers anyway.

And to be honest, I have a Macbook (1280x800) and I think I wouldn't mind the HIGH RES option on my small display after all. Even if it means displaying only 1 single line with album covers. The nice thing about album covers is that you can recognize them in the blink of an eye. This option wouldn't show a lot at once, but scrolling would go a lot faster because you don't need to read, you can just focus on colours and shapes first.
That is why I would go for the High Res option FIRST and possibly add the Low Res option SECOND and not the other way around.
Also the nice thing about the high Res option is that for a single album, only ONE cover is displayed (and you can subselect a specific track when selecting an album. With the Low Res option, one album with 15 track, will generate the same album cover 15 times, which is messing up the overview in my opinion. Selecting Album first, track second will create more overview (kind of an implicit subcrate)

WHAT ABOUT MANIPULATION?
I also realize that working with that split screen has an impact on controllability and manipulation. E.g. the TTM57 has 2 knobs, 1 for the crates and 1 for the tracks... and suddenly there is a third window! I would go for a SHIFT-solution, which you could assign to any of the buttons.
e.g. I assign SHIFT to B1, I want to scroll through my albums, so I turn the left knob until I find the right one. To select the right track from that album, I just push B1 (my SHIFT-button), and turn my left knob at the same time which will scroll through the tracks of that specific album.

If you can assign it to anything button like most of the TTM57-functions, you could even assign it to the click-function of the Left knob for example => turn knob for albums, push and turn for tracks.
Same goes for SL-1 users or keyboard use, up/down selects album up/down+SHIFT selects track (or another button if already taken). Or just go for up/down=album, Left/right=track...

WHAT ABOUT ARTWORK-LESS TRACKS?
Just use a default "missing pic" icon. If you're displaying artist and albumname like in Soulsonica's mockup, you can get around even with tracks that are missing album art.
And second, if you want to use album-art view, make sure that you're album art is OK.

WHAT ABOUT ALBUM-LESS tracks?
Just show the individual track as an album with it's artwork if available, but use artist+trackname instead of artist+albumname.
You could differentiate albums for single album-less tracks by adding an indication. Something comparable to the little arrow that windows adds to the icon of an application when making a shortcut out of it.

ZOOM?
Album-artwork zoom or scale would be nice, but not vital to me. I think a nice compromise would be 3 or 4 scale-presets which can be set in the settings. No real-time zooming and custom-scales as they will eat unnecessary CPU-cycles.


ANYTHING ELSE?
Plenty, but this is more or less my idea about album art :o).
Thanks again for responding and reading this boring long-ass comment of mine :o)

I like Toby82's layout. Combine it with the ability to zoom and you get Soulsonica's :) The good news is that zoom is already implemented for text...

One thing that may be doable is to display the cover on a few lines when there's a sequence of tracks from the same album in the playlist:

* |Track 1 Album 1
*** |Track 2 Album 1
*****|Track 3 Album 1
*** |Track 4 Album 1
* |Track 5 Album 1
-----+---------------
* |Track 1 Album 2
*** |Track 2 Album 2
* |Track 3 Album 2

I favor solutions which would let me display as many information as possible. A cover panel would (imho!) take too much room.

D'OH damn font! My ascii art is ruined!

I'm afraid that zoom for text won't matter a single bit, Zooming text is just altering the fontsize. Zooming artwork actually involves recalculating and resizing the image. those are 2 different things


true, and a good compromise as well, but that would still mean that you have to skip through all the tracks instead of flipping through the albumcovers (like with vinyl). If you have a 3 CD compilation, you will have to skip through 40 or 50 tracks before you reach the next album. Ok, it's no different from the situation now without artwork, but why not taking full advantage of the cover-flipping?

Also, only having Toby's view isn't all that great for smaller screen sizes, even with zooming. You would have to choose between having all track info and teeny weeny album pics. Or have album pics at a decent size, but lose a great deal of your trackinfo. The first view of SoulSonica (farm1.static.flickr.com) would allow for 1 or 2 lines of albumcovers in a decent size, and leave room for 5,6,7,... lines for displaying tracks which show as much trackinfo as without coverview (since you still have the entire width of the screen)

Besides, in a way, the cover panel is actually showing you MORE information than the track-panel. Where you could normally display 5 or 6 tracks, you could display 5 or 6 covers (which are basically EP's or Albums which mostly contain more than 1 track). So implicitely it shows you more content at once, it's just that you have to select the right track after you selected the cover.

(not trying to force anything, just want to bring up the discussion to see if you or I haven't thought of pro's and con's for each approach. This is how I feel about the feature)

Thats true, but I sort of believe/hope they are working on this, as James said in a beta thread: "That is part 2 of the library zoom feature (still yet to come ;) Having the icons resize along with the text, and being able to zoom different windows separately."
-> scratchlive.net

Hey Banana, I did that mockup ;-) Soulsonica's was a list view. soulsonica.com
Anyway you are right, a panel like this leaves enough room for both tracks and albums IMO.

I absolutely agree, If the cover art panel would be in the same position as hardware/browse/review/prepare/import panel, I think it would integrate nicely to the gui, and with current tab focus behavior.

Also, don't want to force anything, just sharing my opinion.

The way I think it should work is:
- Fucus using tab, would work just as with panels browse/review/prepare/import.

- Select artwork icon(s), and a list of tracks from that/those album(s) should appear below in the track list.

- When searching, the icons should filter just as in the tracklist. And only icons from the selected crate should show up.

- If artwork is missing just use a default icon, maybe something like ;) www.calsound.com

- I also think it should be possible to select multiple icons using <ctrl> or <shift>. You should the be able to drag these albums to crates, just like single tracks.

- If icon(s) are dragged onto a deck, the first track of the album should load (just like inserting a cd in a cd player) (actually, this is currentl behavior: if you drag multiple files onto a deck now, the first track in the list is loaded)

- I also believe the icons should have text, under or next to them, in some way
eg: www.flickr.com

- Icons would probably have to generated for the appropriate size when building overviews and not when loaded to a deck in a performance.


Nick M, I've made up 3 new mockups (to much time on my hands ;) I would think these should work for most people? The resolution is 1024x600 and could even work on a netbook...

Here we go: ( when it comes to track selection, pardon my french ;) )
1. Small - zoom level 1, icon size 32x32 pix (default) -> www.flickr.com
2. Medium, zoom level 2, icon size 48x48 pix -> www.flickr.com
3. Large, zoom level 3, icon size 64x64 pix -> www.flickr.com

- Also a comparison of icon sizes: www.flickr.com

So what do you all think?

Also forgot:
- When using AM mode, the icons in the top for loaded tracks, should blank out like the text, but keep the others in the panel. (Leave icons off if you really don't want people to see them)

And, the reason for choosing those resolutions, apart from visibility:
the small icon resolution lines exactly to 2 lines of text,
the large lines exactly to the large text in the top.

Also both those sizes numbers are "computer friendly" when it comes to memory handling.

The medium one is 2/3 of the large. Makes sense?

Oh my god, WarpNote, you just made me consider a Netbook for spinning! :oD
You're mockups are great and it proves exactly what I had in mind. (sorry for giving props to SoulS on your mockups :o)

I agree with you every step of the line, I have the exact same idea about how it should work (for me). And indeed, very important... Artist and album names below the cover-art.

That's it, that is everything I every dreamed of in regards to cover art in SSL!!!

Thanks for the mockup WarpNote! It's cool to actually see it is possible.

Hey Nick M, just wondering about your opinion. Did any of the above make sense to you and did it seem like a practical implementation or are there any other things we're forgetting?

minor related note; SSL seems to suffer a big screen update performance lag with high quality artwork. i don't notice any lag with "standard" sizes such as 300x300 but with higher quality such as 768x768 there is a big performance hit. i wonder if this is something that could be solved in an update

but also i hope to see a more visual ssl interface in the future. i have made the effort to tag all my tracks with artwork because i realised early on that an visual element is essential in managing a large library

THANK YOU VERY MUCH NIK for the response. I had given up hope that the best DVS in the world was paying attention to desperately needed feature and glad someone from the team finally acknowledged what's being discussed here. Thrilled to hear it's on the radar as you say.

I agree!
I mostly browse with up and down arrows, each time a track has some (big?) artwork, scrolling stops for a while :-(

I would cover art would be somewhere around 50x50 to 100x100 max. Enough to visually indicate what's what breezing through tracks, but nowhere near big enough to start causing performance issues. Then again, as said before, I would think this feature would be user defeatable should he/she's computer not be powerful enough to run browsable cover art (or if they just didn't want to use the feature at all).

I agree!!

As you cannot embed artwork into .wav files (my preferred format for ripping my vinyl) I would like to have the ability to associate an image with each track, that would appear in the "Show Artwork" window which is already setup to display .mp3 artwork.

Surely this is not a big ask? You just need to add another SSL system folder that keeps track of each track's associated image file?

The human brain is much better a relating imagery to certain items, why is it that you can instantly remember what a record sounds like by looking at the sleeve/label?

I have a massive vinyl collection, built up over 20 years and I know the sleeves/labels like old friends and the thought of now having to browse all this music by reading the artist/title/song is a nightmare, as the font is the same for every track! This hampers locating stuff too, as a lot of my collection I know by sleeve recognition alone, not by the artist/title info! Just think how many white labels I have drawn pictures on?

Come on Serato! We need this.

I do not want to use MP3's.

I forgot too add, this could be a user preference in the setup screens, for those that want to disable the feature.

C'Mon People, this is a Must!!

now it is part of 1.9. but it is in line with the track name section, not below it, which costs screen width

Based on the info available, it appears at this time that artwork is available for loaded tracks only, but that it's still not browsable artwork though. Important addition, but still not there yet. While seeing album art of loaded tracks next to the decks is a great addition because it visually reinforces to the user what's being played, it's really only half the battle because without true browsable album art (ie: artwork thumbnails next to tracks in library/crates) there's nothing to see when trying to search and recall tracks later based on what your brain remembers them graphically.

ASSOCIATION

Main Entry: as·so·ci·a·tion
Pronunciation: \ə-ˌsō-sē-ˈā-shən, -shē-\
Function: noun
Date: 1535

1 a: the act of associating b: the state of being associated : combination , relationship
2: an organization of persons having a common interest : society
3: something linked in memory or imagination with a thing or person
4: the process of forming mental connections or bonds between sensations, ideas, or memories
5: the aggregation of chemical species to form (as with hydrogen bonds) loosely bound complexes
6: a major unit in ecological community organization characterized by essential uniformity and usually by two or more dominant species

great point, soulsonica.

I just sent a PN to Nick M who replied here with that conern.

Bump > soulsonica.com

This interface looks amazing, and I know that when I'm trying to put together music for a mix, I end up listening through iTunes, making a playlist and letting Serato import that because I've been used to picking my music visually through the album art. So to have a view where I could do this in the offline SSL mode as well as live when trying to create a mix would be incredible. It is literally the only feature that I want, that is short of making SSL IMHO perfect.

Also on a small note, In the 1.9 offline player, I think whenever you have selected "show album art on deck" the offline player should look something like this -> www.flickr.com or maybe even a bigger icon like -> www.flickr.com

Anyone agree?

Yes, makes sense.

Think I'll put up a thread in the beta section.

Agreed. This would make yet another great way of reinforcing to the user what his/her music looks like.

Whoooooooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! Progress >>> www.scratchlive.net

Heres another idea. Have a plug-in feature for SSL. From what I have noticed, for every person that says they want a feature, another will disagree.

Setup a new version of serato that will allow users to design the optimal setup for their needs. Slow computer, your not forced to install items you dont need or want. Screaming fast or need all the bling bling effects, install all the plug-ins that your heart desires.

Keeping the base program of SSL would be the same for all users, but after that, the opportunities are endless. Updating the plug-ins would keep us users from having to waiting ???? amount of time for a complete new release with only few additions.

Also let the community become more involved with the Serato experience. There are many talented people on this site that could help in designing new ideas and sharing them in the community.

Rane may have a team of developers, but there is probably an army of people here that could aid also.

Simply put, Look at the MediaMonkey way of things, The community has implemented so many ideas and the community shares their experiences using what others have offered and built upon them based on the end users needs.

can't help feeling that that would inevitably detract from the MAIN feature that we all want more than anything else: bulletproof stability.

No computer or program is bulletproof. Serato is extremely stable as with XP, but things can go wrong at any time.

From what I have seen, the Rane crew have released beta verison of updates in the past with warnings. Same could be done for this. I for one would not have used 1.9 when it was finally released, until I tested it at home and was comfortable that it was going to preform in a live enviroment.

The beauty of this plug-in system as with computer software is that, the root of the program could be the same and really unaffected for those worried about Bulletproof stability, then you stick with what works for you. But it would open the door for those looking to explore new options and possibly offer the things the community is asking for much faster then Rane could produce.

Fourm moderators with programming skills could be borne, and the community could expand with us, instead of putting up Santa wish lists, to actually being pro-active. We the users become beta testers and could report back any bugs or tweaks and those of us that can aid in programming could fix and upgrade the plug-ins as necessary. Dont like a feature, you would have the option to delete the plug-in and revert back.

Then Rane could focus more on the core of the program more. They could also review the plug-ins and also setup a certification system to make these plug-ins official for those that would worry if it would cause problems with their core system.

By having the community involved in the Serato experience, you may see your requested options faster then what the Rane techs can produce. I have seen posts dating back a number of years asking for features that still have not been implemented. We could bring SSL to a whole brand new level.

I understand your point, but I'm afraid that the whole new level it would bring us to is that of linux. Meaning, there are very strong programs, there's loads of creativity out there, but you would almost never get hardcore quality on apps (e.g. try to compare Linux Audacity vs Windows Wavelab)... and the other problem is, that you would most probably have to spend 2 days getting your wireless up and running. (just a comparison, I know SSL doesn't need wireless)

Open community would lead to a handful really strong plug-ins... and a million crap plugins messing up the place. Besides, an open system can NEVER be as stable and as efficient as a closed system, it's even a scientific fact (open loop vs closed loop).
Check out Propellerheads Reason for example, the big complaint for years has been that it is closed and you can't use external plugins or instruments. But ALSO notice that Reason is stable as hell, it has NEVER crashed on me, and it is extremely resource-efficient. The amount of effects and instruments I can simultaneously fire up in Logic or Live doesn't come near the amount I can setup in Reason.

I don't believe in open community when it comes to large professional level applications, not when I'm standing in front of a crowd. I won't deny that there are great open source programs out there, even big ones... but there aren't that much. For the majority, I don't believe that someone programming an application in his spare time can get the same results, resources and quality testing as someone who does it full-time for a living together with an entire team.

"Yes but you don't HAVE to install the plugin!"
no, that is true, but programmers will lose control over the internal dataflow and interface since they can't touch the "standardized" open interface that everyone needs access to (otherwise the plugins would stop working). Therefore losing ability to finetune the program or even redesign it if they feel like they can hugely improve.

I love open source, open community and use many free and donation tools also in my day to day job. But when it comes to these sort of things I couldn't care less, it HAS to work. You're right, no program is bulletproof, but I prefer the one that is 99.99% bulletproof over the one that is 86.53% bulletproof. I paid 1450Euro for my TTM57 because I believe in SSL and I wanted the satbility it was/is known for. For 1450Euro I expect "it will work", and not "it will PROBABLY work".



On a last note MidnightCharger, this thread is about artwork for loaded tracks and artwork scrolling. NOT about SSL as an open community plugin platform. If you want this feature, please open a different request for it so we can keep this one on track.

So, I've been busy, spent quite a lot of time ripping all my CD's and partially my vinyls as well, I'm at about 90% of my collection (for the last 10% I can't find the energy anymore, it will have to happen later on).
And I tagged everything properly, organized my folders, and I even provided every single song in my library with album artwork. It looks WAAAAAAAAAY cool in iTunes, it almost feels like a case full of vinyl. It's incredible!!! Before I added the artwork, I felt like I had a huge collection, but I couldn't find a single song that I liked. "Doesn't ring a bell" "no, I don't think that is a good song" "shit, I can't find any dance-tunes"... and I would see this big flow of tracknames passing by and I couldn't pick out a single good song to put a playlist together. Now that I added the artwork, I immediately recognize 80% of the tracks/songs, even when scrolling pretty fast. I know immediately what song it is, how it goes, what the tempo is... It fels... intuitive, like I know all the songs again.
So with all this work completely, it seems that I'm pretty much done and prepared.

So erhmmmm.... I'm ready when you are....


;o)

PS: I do agree, you need enough RAM and a decent graphics card or small artwork to make it smooth... But it's simply too good... You can get your vinyl Emulation any closer than this. Cheers!!!

Congrats EB. I'm sure it was well worth the effort. And as artwork included with digital releases continues to become the norm, this will all get even easier. Just look at any modern e-shop and the proof is there. Your comments about the look and feel reinforcing the recognition and selection process echo mine and many others as well. If/when SL adds true browsable cover art as a feature it will be the complete package. Game over.

Amen!!

Praise the lord!!!


Yes, the feel is COMPLETELY different. Right now, I tend to only put the tracks in Serato that I like and I know, otherwise I get lost in the list of crap (produced by full CD's). With Artwork it doesn't matter. I see the cover and I know immediately what album it is, what stuff is on there and that the first 3 tracks, some track halfway the album, and also the last track are great for mixing....

+1
Cover Flow or similar please!!!

This would make my life so much easier, a picture paints a thousand words.

+1000

Thought i'll just add my two cents.. To maybe hide or collapse the current spinning discs and/or wave forms to save a little ram and screen space, and allow the screen to be taken up with the vinyl cover artwork as a coverflow or to show more tracks with there artwork...

I really don't use all the bells and whistles with Serato, I like to keep things simple..

please, please this would be a great feature


lister

bump

There are several other threads and feature requests going on on this subject. I suggest you add your comments there. This particular thread is about adding cover-flow/-view/-scroll to SSL, not a customizable GUI.

As i'm sure many of you have done the transition from Vinyl to Digital and there is no better way to get it done than with Serato... Hands Down. I guess the issue i'm still having is that I just have way too much music and for me, a Visual person, would love to be able to reference a lable cover (album Cover) while i'm searching for that special fit (Track).

Starting off for the first 4 years djing with vinyl I had unfortunatly relied a little too much on what the record/cover/lable looked like and not as much on what the track was called. No excuses just my own issues.. LOL

MY QUESTION IS.. (finally) Is or will serato look at putting "art on deck" feature in the crates... I feel this would seriously help us vinyl heads and long time partiers move smother and quicker into the digital world, since i'm sure for many of us Memorization is not always our strong suit ;)

PLEASE HELP THE SORTING BRAIN FREEZE!

Best Regards
StatixXx

Well it seems that they have done the loaded track part... what about the creats.. is there any ETA as too when it may come out or if they are even looking at it?

This visual creat feature that would be just left or right of the actual track would be key for my full move to digital... don't get me wrong I will always love my "Black Crack" (vinyl) But I deffently could use help sorting through all that new stuff that I have added to my collectin via digital :)

COME ON SERATO... lets make it happen :)

OK, now that we've all seen the new Pioneer CDJ-2000, now is the time for Serato to really put the nail in the coffin with this feature.

Yes, the CDJ-2000 has cover art, but from what I can tell, it's only one single cover at a time, just like SL's current cover art feature. You can't see the cover until you select it, which is practically worthless in terms of being able to pick tracks with lightning speed, graphically by seeing multiples with cover art at one time.

The other thing we've learned about the new CDJs is what a tiny screen it has. Sure it's larger than previous CDJs, but that's not saying much. At 6", it's every cramped and only shows the user a limited amount of info at any given time. I imagine navigating the user interface and searching for/selecting tracks is going to be like building a ship in a bottle. So, here is a golden opportunity and perfect time for Serato to fully exploit the large, rich, wonderful canvas of the SL GUI by finally including TRUE BROWSABLE COVER ART and completely blow the doors of anything a CDJ can do.


Please. Do it for the children. Do it for aging DJs across this great land and around the world who remember the way things sound visually. Amen.

The CDJ has caught up to SL with this feature. For God's sake, COME ON!!!!! If a $99 iPod can show multiple cover art, why can't SL?

Please.

Actually, out of all the great and correct arguments that I've heard up until now... this is one that doesn't put the nail in the coffin, it's smashing it right through!!!

An El-cheapo iPod, can play music... show multiple cover art... scratch (musicmeister scratch application?), it does video and it's easy to manipulate... there are several fantastic and customizable tools to use the iPod/iPhone as a midi-controller, great and easy interface...

Time to take it up a notch guys!

Oh, btw, I beleive SSL still has a headstart on price tag :o)
2xCDJ-2000+DJM800=5000
2xSL1200+TTM57+MB=3300

WarpNote endorses this message!

You know, I like this forum, and I access it almost every day, hoping that suddenly I would see a new beta-section saying 1.9.2 and that the release notes in that beta-sections would mention "artwork scrolling" .... It's almost becoming an obsession. I would like Serato to help me overcome this compulsive behaviour by just adding the 1.9.2 beta-section with artwork scrolling included. It would me me to move on with my life :oD


PS: Only noticed it for the first time, but guys,... we got a "Some messages in this discussion have not been loaded"-mid-thread-cut. This thread really had gone bananas guys :o). Nothing unexpected though, seen that the thread started over 2.5 years ago!!!! (hint hint)

Well, 1.9.2 beta is here and out now, but still no album artwork improvements. But hey, we got 24 slots for the SP6 now.

P.S. The "Some messages in this discussion have not been loaded" message appears in threads with a lot of posts (>150 I think), so it doesn't have to load the entire page. Good if you browse the forums on mobile phones. Or for example the "your setup pics" thread in the general section has over 4000 posts, used to take forever to load without that option.

Ah crap... 24 samplers but no artwork... that's a bummer. Thanks for the heads up anyway.
The sampler wasn't really one of my wishes. The cue points and the looping functions are actually the only "advanced" features I use. I guess I like it oldskool (or can't keep up with the nu-skool :oD). But I guess it's a big Pro for some people. Actually, this could come in handy to replace the sample-functionality on my KP3 (which was one of the main reasons why I bought it)

Konix, do you have any linkage to 1.9.2? I can't see it in the beta-section. I only have the 1.9.0. Did I miss a link or is the beta just not public yet?


P.S. I understand the use of the mid-thread-cut and it's very practical, but I just wanted to mention that this thread had reached more than enough posts to get the mid-thread-cut :o) It's good to see that I'm not the only guy who has trouble DJ'ing text-based and is making a lot of fuss, while useless to other people.

Ok, nevermind the linkage request. I tried the last resort which is using my brain and guess what... I found it (dumbass me).

lol :)

Haven't chimed in for a while...

1.9.2 is primarily a bug fix release, with very little emphasis on features.
Artwork for loaded tracks hasn't been forgotten though!

Great, I haven't forgotten it either :oD
Just kidding, unfortunately it's against policy to ask for any ETA's ;o)

Nick, I've been restarting DJ'ing and I'm rebuilding my entire library. I have passed 10 000 tracks, mp3, AAC and ALAC mixed, and 99.90% of it has artwork in all different kind of resolutions.
So if me or my library can be of any help for testing or something, feel free to contact me.

Oh, and at work I tried it with a couple of other things as well and AGAIN it worked!!! Marvelous... this is a trick I have to remember,... which means I have to use my brain AGAIN!!!

Woooooow, a brain turns out to be something quite handy... Keeeeewwwwl.

Sorry about that, I guess I'm just tired and stressed out lately which leads me to acting stupid and asking dumb questions :o).
Cheers guys!

AWESOME! Thanks for the update Nick. PLEASE keep in mind though, that this is NOT about artwork for "loaded decks", rather TRUE BROWSABLE ARTWORK. Two very different things. Artwork on loaded decks already exists (thank you by the way), but that's only a small part of what's really needed and that is for the users to be able to SEE the artwork associated with each track BEFORE they load it or even select it. Think Apple iTunes when in grid mode, or Beatport with artwork icons all lined up and you you multiples at once while scrolling. The idea is being able to visually see artwork while browsing and then making selections based on what you see, not what you think you might see once you select it. Having this will speed up the browsing process ten-fold and closer replicate how vinyl DJs see/select their music while flying through crates or records. Dig?

I haven't played with it yet, but from what I understand, NI's Traktor Scratch Pro even has true browsable cover art in the form of thumbnails next to each track's text info. Think this happened about a year ago, but I'm still holding on, not jumping ship, hoping and praying SL will eventually come to the rescue. IMO, it's the last missing link to having the true vinyl experience in a digital world.

Sorry, messed my post up completely - its been a busy week...! what I meant to say was:

1.9.2 is primarily a bug fix release, with very little emphasis on features.
Browsable artwork hasn't been forgotten! Stay tuned :)

Hahah, no worries Nick. Just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page here. Thanks again for the update and all of you guys' hard work. It's much appreciated. Tuned and glued to this feature ;-)

Well said!

Waiting for that too

Hi freshcuts, Nick and others,

Browsable coverart would indeed be a major major improvement!
(in case that it loads fast enough to use while scrolling in the lib)

I believe a lot of people are much FASTER in remembering the tune
connected to a VISUAL REPRESENTATION, then one pure text.

I believe this is one of the MAIN REASONS that a lot of people stay hooked to CD's or vinyl.

Often, you can not remember an exact track name immediatly, but you can still find it quite fast in your old recordbox, because you know the PLACE and the COVER.

The Place can today be simulated by the "genre" tag of crates, the coverart today is "nice to have", but not browsable and slow...

This would be (together with the remove leading silence - autocue) my nr 1 enhancement in this great software!

Time for the next round of naively hoping for this to be introduced :o). 1.9.2 got us a couple of nice extras and bugfixes, but no Artwork yet. Maybe 1.9.3 will be the lucky build.
Fingers crossed and.... GO!

:o)

we already have "play from first cue point" ...?

Think he's referring to the autocue found on most cd players (also called A CUE on Pioneer CDJ players), it automatically eliminates the silence at the beginning of a track. This way your cue points could be used at other positions in the track. (ie. you'll have one more cue point at disposal.)

Not saying that I really need this myself, just trying to explain...

skipping past silence is only a needle-drop way....

Id love to see the artwork displayed in the library window - perhaps a small window next to each track title - as is done in Itunes. Ive seen it written on here elsewhere that DJs find it easier to recall tunes with a visual cue, and i agree.

Keep up the great work

Andy

+1 would be a great feature

Bump for browsable artwork. Essential.

@ Black Science, Soulsonica right?

Yes sir, it is I. For a number of reasons, Soulsonica needed to be retired and Black Science is now new identity. To keep thing neat and streamlined I requested to the mod/admin here to do a simple account name change, but for some reason they wouldn't . No biggie, just created new account. Anyway. wanted to post in here so I can get notified of any thread updates or progress on SL's end.

Holy !@%^&*(%(&^$*%$^#*(&$!!!!!! Are my eyes deceiving me? Is this what we have been begging for? Is this actually browsable artwork I see? If it is, Christmas is either a month late or 11 months early. Either way, I don't care. Wow... just wow. Somebody pinch me if true. Strange that chosen tracks for demo wouldn't be populated with those that have artwork to show off the feature, but just may be what happened to be on at the time of shot.

i2.photobucket.com

i2.photobucket.com

I guess we'll know on thursday? I'm really really hoping for it.
If so, all of our begging and mockups might have proved our point.

In November 2008 (Just after Traktor came out with their artwork browser) i sent this PM to Serato mod Nick M :



Nick replied in December 2008:


So maybe this is our moment...?

SHIT!!!! Why did you have to go and say that?!?!

Now my mind won't be able to think of anything else than thursday's event.
This way I won't get ANY work done!

;o)

Found in the 2.0 thread...
img403.yfrog.com

rane.com

sorry wrong thread

i2.photobucket.com

Wow, just wow. I never thought I'd see the day, but here it is. Amazing. Four years later and true browsable artwork appears to have been finally implemented into SL. I think I'm about to cry :tear:. Excuse me while I compose myself.

OK, I'm back. I apologize, but I'm a overcome by this news and a bit emotional. The addition of this feature means the world to me and nearly every other DJ I know. Words seem so inadequate in expressing our gratitude. If I was in LA right now I'd take you all out for dinner, drinks and hookers.

Obviously I haven't played with it yet, but have no doubt this is now the ultimate DVS. The complete vinyl experience is about to be realized. Seriously guys, congratulations and thank you. (formerly Soulsonica on SL forums)

I'm not sure what Brigid would think about this ;)

Oh yeah, thank you Serato for listening to us!

I'm sort of a cautions guy, so I will hold of my unlimited praise until I've actually tried out the new software.

But I also want want to thank the Serato team and developers for listening and for their hard work. This fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! ...encore... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

I would be very cautious as well before having tested it... but the different buttons at the bottom of the interface indicate to me that there are different views to choose from and the pictures I already saw.... I'm about to burst into tears I think!!! :oP

And then "the bridge"... man, this is incredible, this is going to be the most natural way to make cool mixtapes, no more choosing between live mixing and restarting all over again 10 times in a row because of 1 silly mistake, or feeling like a computernerd cutting and pasting all the audio together in Ableton... No, start out your mix organically by actually mixing, and remove mistakes and add sugar later on... I know it will bring forth more microwave DJ'ing, but on the other hand, it's great to have a tool that allows you to accomplish something proper in a relative short amount of time, especially for people who don't have heaps of time (like me).

Twice a year I eagerly await the Apple Keynote to see what new hardware they bring. But I never waited for a press release with so much anticipation as this one... and they didn't let down :o)

Man... Serato and Ableton... Add "max" in there and throw in NI's Komplete 6 and you have one powerful Mofo system for the DJ/producer/live-artist....


thanks Serato!!! It was quite a wait, but it was worth it!!!
THANKS SERATO FOR LISTENING!!!!
And thanks Soulsonica and Warpnote for the nice mockups which defenitely drive this thread.

Oh yes, also thank you to Serato for NOT implementing this request in the butt-ugly useless way they did it with NI traktor :o). If there ever has been any competition between Scratch live and Traktor... I think it's game over now :oD

Well, it was nice discussing this with you guys, I suppose this thread will soon die :o)

What's so bad about their approach?

sorry, jumped too high there :o)
I was referring to the way they show all the tracks in a list and are showing only half of the artwork (which is just plain stupid in my opinion). But after your question I went looking for more screenshots and apparently there is an alternative view. So I retract this statement. Still I feel that Scratch has more view implemented than traktor so... cool!

Okay.. sort of new to this so where do I find the version that gives me the Feature (Library Artwork) that I have craved since I made the move to digital.. heheh???

Please Please Please Help... I want to play as well.. LOL

Okay.. wow. i'm an idiot.. LOL.. found it :) but I do have one question... Is there or will there be an option to able to see all the artwork up at once. sort of like what you see when browsing through Beatport, Etc.?

Here is hoping ;)

StatixXx, Wait for SSL 2.0, it will be in there.
Public beta should not be to that away, in the meantime, patience, patience, patience, reward will come.

Great to see that this is requested

I also DJ visualy. The I tunes coverflow will be great if it can be incorporated, however I would prefer a single cover view as I browse, so that it can be a bigger thumbnail, rather than multiple covers and smaller thumbnails.

JMO

Will post pic of what the skin should look like.

@ Marl,
from the pics and videos we've seen, artwork scrolling is in 2.0. Don't hink coverflow will be there, but who knows :o)

I'll hold thumbs

Coverflow looks swish in iTunes but I'm not sure it's the best way to browse - the way they overlap probably means that you see too little of the ones at the sides to be as useful as it could be for the amount of screen space taken up.

If you could get them to go front to back rather than side to side (like in a real record box) I might change my mind though!

Maybe something more like the way the dock works on a mac, with icons getting bigger as the mouse pointer gets nearer to them... if tracks sort of spread out more and got bigger, rather than just flipping past as per coverflow, it would be more suited to what we want i'd have thought?

Agreed. That would be sweet (If you could get them to go front to back rather than side to side), this will almost be emulating going through a record box, also if the crates that we create could actually resemble an actual record box

2.0 now in public beta, check out the artwork features, very nice indeed.
Then come back to this thread as I have a few thoughts on have to tune it to an even better experience. Exciting times :D
www.serato.com

How do I upload pics?

I posted those thougts in separate public beta thread -> serato.com as it is so close related to the 2.0 release.

Album artwork at last! but I have a major reservation.

Is it not possible to group by release? I don't need to see the album art on every single track and it clutters up the screen. Would it not be possible to somehow show track info next to a single album image?

Do I submit that as a bug or is it a feature request?

That would be a feature request.

Yeah a feature request, already made in THIS thread....

+1 then

PLEASE increase the size of the artwork in player and browsing window.
being an old school Dj and used to playing with real records. I have trained my mind to use visual recall.In the club dark lighting situations combned with drinks make reading small text difficult. I can look at an album sleeve and hear 4 bars in my mind for the track.Having Artwork and Vinyl control is why I have chosen Serrato. And I do have the artwork in the Id3 of every mp3 i play out.

the artwork increases in size in the art grid views if you display fewer tags.

um, or i may be talking nonsense, haven't used the betas since 20035, evidently



so sorry for talking shite :D

(edit button would be SOOOOO useful!)

Just increase album art size in setup (in SSL 2.0 that is...)