It sounds like you just have corrupt files in your library that aren't being tagged as corrupt until you play them.
You need to analyze all your music prior to playing them.

At this point unplug your Rane hardware, hold down the ctrl key, and click the 'analyze files' tab.
This will force SSL to analyze every file in your library.
Once done, delete ANY corrupt files that come up and retest.

I always analyze my music before playing, it will randomly do it to tracks that i've had for years. bout to do what you said and reanalyze everything to be safe.

Yes.. We recommend anytime you update your version of SSL that you reanalyze your entire library because various versions of SSL may handle corrupt files differently.
One may see a file as being corrupt while another one won't.

jesus christ everytime? my computer has been going at it for 20 hours straight and i have about 20,000 more files to go.

Yes. Keep in mind, you don't have to update to every new version of SSL.
I'm a strong believer in if its not broken don't try to fix it.

for sure, ive updated everytime hoping my drop out problem would be solved. and had to since i got a sixty two. and then the flac update. blah blah blah. either way, im not gonnaupdate for awhile after this.

Cool.. Let us know if you you're still having issues;)

expect a response in a fort night !

reanalyzed, got rid of the files, and i just tried to do a set and the waveform dropped, audio cut out, and the file came back corrupt. now what?? getting real irritated with the fact that i spend money on these tracks and the program i should be able to trust is ruining them.

Are you importing your music from an external drive?
If so, try not using it and just import music from the internal drive.

I've never heard of waveform dropouts causing a file to go corrupt.
Please upload this problem file via the gray 'attach a file' link in this post and I'll take a look at it. Also attach an original version (non corrupted) if you have one.

i have to use an external. too much music and im not always on my computer.

i already deleted the files so next time it happens i'll upload em.

The external may be your issue.
If you need to use an external buy a G-Tech drive and move everything to it and retest.
If you don't want to buy a new external just take your current one out of the equation to test to see if that is the problem or not.

never had issues with it before and i ran diagnostics on my external too.

I uninstalled serato, reinstalled, and reanalyzed all my files. I took out all the newly corrupt ones so nothing in my crates should have been a problem. Had a few more drop outs but the files didn't come back corrupt until just a few minutes ago. The file should be up in a few minutes. I don't have the original though because the original is the one that got corrupt.

This is strange. I'm going to ask for some assistance from Serato. Hold tight.

In the meantime.. did you try using a different external HD?

No I haven't. But I've plugged into other people's computers before with this exact same hard drive and never had an issue.

Hey DJ Skritchin,

I have some ideas on top of the assistance Zach has been giving you. Lets start with some optimization and then move some things around for testing.

Optimization guide: serato.com
Also what is your USB Buffer set to in Setup > Hardware? Maybe try moving it to the right..

Does this only happen with mp3 files?

• I would like you to move 200 tracks onto your desktop in a folder for testing and eject your external drive.
• Go to Music > Rename your _Serato_ to _OldSerato_
• Open Scratch Live and add those files from the desktop into a crate in Scratch Live.
• Test for a few hours and see if the dropouts occur?

Regards
Dave W

^^ i did that, let it run while i ran some errands and came back with no corrupt files but im not sure if it dropped out while i was gone.

O.K i'd need you to test while you are there, in front of your setup.. We can't be sure if you have tested it correctly till you do this.

If there is no dropouts we may need to look more closely at your hard drive.

Did you run through the optimization guide?

Regards
Dave W

well the files that came back corrupt after the drop outs are no longer corrupt....

happened again. seriously no resolution? i'm supposed to have people look at me stupid when serato drops? and the files i buy are just fucked? serato is cool with that? me wasting my money?

and the hard drive is fine. ive ran diagnostics and used it on others with other programs and its fine. ITS SERATO AND THE TEAM NEEDS TO FIX THIS DROP OUT BULLSHIT

and why when i reanalyze, some files are coming back corrupt when they werent before? ive already rescanned everything. bullshit.

I just looked at my files and more are becoming corrupt, why is serato missing these? after i literally reanalyzed everything which was a 40 hour process.

I'm sorry for the late reply, i've not been available till today. Lets continue with the investigation.

If the corruption error you are getting is this:
Corrupt file: This MP3 lost syncronization between the frame index and the frames

Scratch Live is reading an old overview of an MP3 that has been edited in a third party editing program. Re-building the overviews for the affected files usually corrects this error.

Frame indexing happens when we analyse the files. Think of it as a table of contents. All the bytes are like letters in the book. The frame indexing helps the buffering and caching by telling Serato where that part of the file it's playing. If you have analysed within another editing program some of these Frame indexes could have been removed from the file like pages of the book being ripped out. Which could mark it as corrupt or even dropout the audio. Hopefully when you re-analyse these files they should come back as no longer corrupt.

Are you still getting the same corrupt message on re-analyzed files?


We may need to look at the two issue separately. You are also getting waveform dropouts so we need to check all of these things too to be sure what the problem is exactly?

Quoted from other thread....

Scratch Live > Setup > Display > Audio Cache

Audio cache size; if this is too low then the buffer could run out unnecessarily, if you set it to 60 seconds on the buffer fader this will allow the audio caching to be larger allowing for more audio to be ready to play.


Your hard drive could have a big part to play in this situation

When Scratch Live tries to access your files from your hard drives the disk access time can effect playback.
Your Disk access time; comes from the seek time of the disk, disk speed, USB throughput for an external disk, how many files are being read at once, disk fragmentation (bits and pieces of your files all across the disk causing more pressure on the disks reading ability), disk vibration (suspends reading to protect disk).

We need to take into account all of these things when trying to diagnose this issue for each and every user.

Here are some questions which need to be looked at.

How many playing files are loaded to the virtual decks at once? Also, are they all on the same physical drive, including logical partitions on the same drive?

What is your CPU usage like? (It shouldn't be high if the disk is working hard it may increase the overall load).

How long does a dropout last (waveform disappearing)? Does it seem to be just having trouble keeping up, or does the end of the buffered audio come up like running off a cliff? (Which suggests that buffering may have temporarily stopped). Please if possible record a video of this for us to see your issue visually this can help us understand a lot about why it maybe happening to you.

Does this only happen in a club environment? Is it a place with a lot of bass or vibration?

Is an external drive powered over USB or Firewire? Is it receiving enough power to keep up? What USB speed is it? A drive on a bus that is forced from USB 2.0 down to 1.1 (sharing with a 1.1 device) will only stream at 1.1 speed hard drives however there isn't always a simple answer if this is the case.

Lets work through these questions together.



Regards
Dave W

I answered all that in the other thread, the main one about audio cut outs.

Lets not confuse this thread, the questions I have are important to be answered and investigated in the other thread however i'm working with you here and i'd like to keep your answers here so we don't get lost.

O.K. Lets step back a bit, please clarify this:

it always tell me this mp3 contains invalid frames when it comes back, most the time i can't reanalyze it cause it literally messed up the file. audio is missing or you get feedback. I already did the force reanalyze of everything and got rid of all corrupt files when i updated.

This MP3 lost synchronization between the frame index & the frames. that's the message not the first one I posted.

I believe this is something to do with your hard drive.. If you're files are not dropping out or corrupting from the internal drive then it's external Hard drive related. This is not happening to other users, waveform dropouts are 9 times out of 10 related to the disk I/O or caching of the files to RAM. When you add frame indexing issues to the mix it's even more likely in my opinion that is the cause. It's not going to be hard for us to reproduce here, i've never seen this issue before and nor has Zach.
I'd suggest next, to reformat that drive after backing up your music, and try again. If that doesn't work i'd get a new hard drive and try moving some files there and testing.

Regards
Dave W

my hard drive is fine, other programs read it with no problems and no diagnostic is telling me something is wrong.

I'd still suggest giving the above recommendation a go so we can rule this out. If you believe that this is not your hard drive doing this, it would be good to see if it happens using another one, don't you agree?

i have another hard drive but it's the exact same model. do i have to try a completely different one?

What model is it? I'd suggest trying that one then maybe trying another if this issue continues.

seagate 4 tb for mac. works fine on others. even worked fine on other computers with serato.

Sorry to clarify are you saying that the new hard drive works fine or that the one in question works fine on other computers without dropouts?

Also sorry to the late response I've been on holiday, I'll be back in a week.

Regards
Dave W

I've used the one in question on other computers and it works fine. The seagate I have is firewire and usb so i've been running it through the usb just as a precaution. Other hard drive not in question worked fine too through firewire.

Lets break it down.

• You don't get drop outs when not using this hard drive in question, by using music stored on the internal drive.
• You are not having an issue with this other Hard drive when using it with your computer via firewire.
• There are no other issues with this hard drive on other computers using Serato applications or other software applications.

Are you still having the issue when you run it via USB connect rather than firewire?

Regards
Dave W