yeah mine are cupped too---

Hi BadCompany,

We have re-mastered the records at a new facility and are about to receive the test pressings. We will keep you informed as soon as we have any news.

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the quick reply, and reassurance of future prospects. Overall I think SL rocks! I will continue to recommend it to everyone despite my person issues.

thanks again

djBC

Great! I hope the test presses came out well!

:}

Will there be any way to get the new vinyl that is guaranteed not to have any odd flux's from RANE or Serato directly?

I hope these records are made available for purchase. Having only one set of control records is a bad idea to me. Any problems with the vinyl an your whole gig with SSL with a turntable setup is shot. Plus the control records would be used far more often then any typical record over time. Maybe this has been mentioned in another post.

They are already available for sale from Rane or your local dealer, $10 each I think. Some resellers are even including an extra set as a freebie when you buy SSL :)

I think he means the fixed records. Sure you can buy more records, but they're all going to have that same drift pressed into them. Personally I'd rather get a set of new records without the drift preesed in.

Maybe that's what he meant but it's not what he said.



Sounds like he is just worried about only having one set of vinyls and them getting damaged.

The fixed records are not available for sale yet. I hope they will be made available VERY soon. I don't give a rat's ass about having to pay $10 for them, I'd buy four straight away. I mean, I buy stacks of regular 12"s and you get a lot more milage out of the SSL vinyl. Having an extra set is indeed a good thing, but I'm not going to buy an extra set of the 'drifting' vinyl.

I just read the update on the pitch drift thread - apparently the software fix was unsatisfactory for some of the beta testers. Forget about the software fix and get the fixed records on the market A.S.A.P.!!! (and sue the company that pressed the first batch). That's what I say.

I'm not sticking up for the company who pressed the crappy vinyl, buuut... I have at least 4 records from different labels that have drift issues pressed on them... most of them don't have the drift till the end. How do I know? I did several tests where the records were beat-matched so perfectly they held right up to the end (with about a minute left to go) and then a huuuge trainwreck happened. When I went back and zero'ed in on that location, I noticed a slight drift up and back down. On the other records, 1 has a drift point in the middle and the other 2 are toward the end.

It seems that this drift issue is rare, but does happen occationally...which is weird, given the industry. It just sucks that it happened on the SSL vinyl cause then we have to deal with it all the time.

I'm not takin sides, just statin my findings (personally I found it interesting and a bit disturbing, when I stumbled across these probs).

I agree, the wrong pressing is just a case of 'shit happens', only too bad it happened on such a important record.

I just hope Serato/Rane are doing everything in their power to get the new records to customers ASAP. Apparently, the masters have already been pressed, and in theory worldwide distribution should not take much longer than it does with regular records. That's weeks, not months.

I don't like the idea of a software fix and I hope they are not pursuing this route in order to sell the old records they have in stock. That would not be in our (the customers) best interest IMHO.

I hope they pursue a hardware (vinyl) AND a software fix... that way, peeps with the current vinyl pressings can still use their Scratch Live and others can use the new and improved vinyl records. Better to cover all bases than to focus on only one potential solution.

They are pursuing both, as has been stated here a number of times.

my guess is that you will have to have the new update in order to use the new records since they have a new noisemap pressed on them, therefor, the new records won't go on the market untill the fix is available.

Does that sound about right? or have I missed something?

No. The software fix is for the existing vinyl. It will compensate for the problems in the pressing. The new vinyl will (AFAIK) include the same noise pattern which should have been on the vinyl in the first place, and so the existing software will work with it. I assume there will be a switch in the new software version to tell it if you have old or new vinyl.

Wrong, the new vinyls will have a new noisemap, so I guess only newer versions will wirk with them. It will also have a distinct noisemap on both sides, so that the software can tell which side is being used right now automatically. Right now this cant be done automatically.

You win some you lose some :)

Regarding having extra records, it's a must IMO, wearing down your records is a fact of life, and some of our test pressings have had a harder life than most, the scope even with brand new needles shows alot of noise on those. But the scopes with fresh records _and_ fresh needles? That's a beautiful, beautiful thing ^_^

Allow me to clear up any remaining confusion about the vinyl:

1. There is no issue with the pressing itself, we intend to use the same pressing plant for the next batch of drift-free vinyl. The drift is caused in the process of cutting the master.

2. The new masters are scheduled to be cut this Monday, and transferred same day to the pressing plant. The test pressings will take at least a week, more like two once you include shipping them to us. We'll check them out for a few days and then if they are good, we'll get a pressing made, which can take anywhere from a week to three weeks depending on schedule. Then they will go into stock, and be made available on the Rane website. Shortly after that they will be included inside the new boxes. Any left-over old style records will probably be sold at a slight discount on the Rane site, fo people who never cared about the slight drift in the first place.

3. Software compensation is being tested currently. Our first beta version had a bug in it, but that is why it we have beta testing - to find the bugs before we release. We will certainly not "forget about software compensation", it can, and will be perfect.

4. The new records will have a new noisemap on them, so you will need version 1.2 of scratch live to use them. This will be made available at the same time as, or before the new records. We are using a new noisemap not because the old one had anything wrong with it, but so that we can tell in software which records you are using. We will even be able to tell which side of the record you are playing.

5. We use a 125g record for scratch live, which if not handled properly can become cupped more easily than heavier pressings. Heat and humidity are big factors as well as storage orientation. The records are stored vertically at Rane and hopefully you dealer stores them vertically as well. Sometimes it is hard to control how they get shipped, but we have done our best to make sure we use a premium service to ship them to dealers. A heavier weight vinyl could be used, but the disadvantage would be that they would be less practical for turntablists and scratching, and the sound quality would not be improved.

Dude, this is so cool. I absolutely love you guys, the info that you're feedin us is primo stuff... this is what drop dead awesome customer service is like. A++++++++ in my book guys!

I know we're not supposed to ask this, but if Im putting all this info together correctly, that means version 1.2 will be avaliable in a few weeks? and that version has been said to contain the fix for the bpm displaying boxes if decimals are there? Is that correct? to be honest, I dont ever reach the point in the song where this pitch drifting is happening, but im excited about not having to retag all my mp3s with whole number bpms.....

I hope we can all order our records online in the near future.

I don't know about the software, but from what AJ says, I think you'll be able to get the records in a month or two. I figured I could make do with the original vinyls for that time, so my order is in!

Oh, to AJ, Steve W and the rest @ Serato/Rane: BIG props on being so open and informative on everything here on the forum! There's a lesson there for many music technology companies.

I second that. I would even say it'd be a good idea to have 4 records in the box as standard.

No doubt lo-fi, I think so too. 1 Set as replacements, because if you only spin on SSL, both records should about wear out at the same time.

It's not that you're not supposed to, it's just that there isn't much point. It's too hard to predict when a release will be ready. Having said that, our goal is to have the 1.2 CD inside the box by mid-september. After we're done beta testing, I would like to see the final candidate version released on this site before it goes on the CD, so it may be available a little sooner for download.

Then again, beta testing could take weeks if we find bugs, or if the new pressing is no good, and we have to master again timelines will get shifted. All I can promise is that we will do our best and keep you informed.

Perfect.... Thats all very understandable..... I dont know if this is a bad suggestion or not (im one of the few people on this board apparently who isnt a computer genius), but, personally, I would like to see updates that are less action packed, but more often (especially for download).... for example, the only thing preventing me from taking this to clubs with me is the bpm decial issue.... if the next update has bugs with letting people change the color of the background, and it makes me wait two more weeks for my rounded bpm field, that kinda sucks.... Im not trying to ask you guy to put in more work than you already do, but is it possible to make quickie updates with some of the easy known issues and post them? Just a thought.... Let me know what you think

agree @ djpetey

I'd like to see more frequent smaller updates too, if possible. The faster it works better, the safer we'll be playing in front of audiences...

the minute you start releasing more frequent versions from a developer's standpoint that's more versions you have to support. (expect more "well what milestone version are you using?" questions). also, there's a huge difference between the code that's being worked on and what's being released. basically when you release the software you edit all your debuging code out of there... so in other words, the more often you have to do that, that's less time you can spend fixing bugs. i'm sure you guys would rather have stable software than having feature-filled software that only works 5 minutes before it crashes because all the bugs haven't been worked out yet.

thats kinda my point though..... I dont really care about some of the big features they are talking about adding.... I want stable software that reads my bpm tags..... I understand the reasons why it might not be feasable to do smaller and more frequent updates...I was just suggesting we fix the issues that are preventing people from using this software in an update and then we can get creative and make it sexier in future updates..... Im going for stability and ease of use here, but in an impatient manner

Our policy has always been bugfixes over adding features, that is still the case.

Cool....again.... I think everything has been handled really well on you guys's part....I was just saying that for what its worth, id prefer udpates to address some of the known issues as opposed to waiting on new features.... apparently thats what youre doing, so...good work

I can only agree to that, great support, guys!

One more thing: I just read in another thread that the pitch problem doesn't start until minute 8 of the 10 minute side. Is this true? If so, I won't have a problem at all. Hardly any track I play is longer than 8 minutes, and if I do play a longer track, I can just switch to internal mode for a smooth mix.

i think they said 'most consistant pitch' that doesnt mean there is no issue

BadCompany's right, there's actually 2 drift issues. One is where the vinyl increases pitch over time, which means that the record is actually playing faster toward the end. The other drift is in short "bursts" and happen most dramatically at around the 8 min mark. But there are still minor short bursts throughout the record forcing you to adjust the music more than you normally would with regular vinyl.

Hmmm. Well I guess I'll find out for myself how bad those 'bursts' are in a day or two. Fingers crossed...

There's actually a workaround for it, which I use if the track is nudging toward that end of the vinyl.

What I do is reset the record. This can be accomplished by going into internal mode, backing the needle to the begining, then starting the record and selecting "absolute" mode. The music doesn't stop once, but then you're automatically added yourself extra vinyl room to aleviate that horrible end of vinyl drift ; )

Of course you have to check relative mode again to cue up your next record, but it's an ok solution to a bothersome problem.

You mean putting the needle to the start of the record and then click on relative mode, or?

uh yea, relative mode...damn it I always get the two mixed up!