quote:

Originally posted by auujay Don't PM him, post a thread. I am sure many people would like to hear some real reviews.

good call, please post a thread!

quote:

Originally posted by nrjizer For the price of a laptop and FS/rane software you can be close to 2 CDJ-1000 MK2's. Not only do you get the ease of carrying tunes around in cd wallets, you get all the effects and tricks that goes with the CDJ's. Just look at what zabiela does with them.

I've been seriously pondering this idea and I just might go this route for the mean time. I've always wanted a CD deck. I still buy vinyl, I just thought FS would save me an ass load of problems with my back . I'm going to wait just a little bit longer for the CDJs to drop under a grand. (which will probably be a year or two from now )

quote:

Originally posted by stevebutabi final scratch is wack. if i get a chance to on the 26th, i will tell van dyk that he is wack for using it.

Priceless

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http://531.am

ill let him know by throwing an open water bottle at the powerbook

Final Scratch only dosen't work if you're a moron. Sure, I hooked it up incorrectly the first time and it was all wacky... but once I got all the connections working right it's been perfect.

I don't know if you've got an old, pirated copy or what.. Final Scratch 1.1 is a LINUX application and was nothing but problems and thoroughly sucked.
Final Scratch 1.5 is a native Windows XP application that works perfectly.. can even play mp3's off of mapped network drives and removeable media. I was 100% sold after a friend let me borrow one for a week. There is NO reason to buy a CD deck... Final Scratch lets you play electronic copies of music from mp3, CD, or whatever and manipulate it exactly like vinyl WAY better than a CDJ.

Don't listen to these morons talking badly about it.. any problems they are experiencing are either 1) hardware failure (the device or their laptop) or 2) user error (more likely)

Final Scratch is awesome and if anybody has any questions feel free to PM me and ask (I'll probably forget to re-check this thread)

the # of A-list DJs and producers that use Final Scratch is staggering.. too many to list here and they can't all be wrong

P.S. - whatever IDIOT said that the price of a Final Scratch was almost 2 CD decks needs to re-check his math. the shitty CDJs price starts at 600-700 and the decent ones are easily $1000... even DJ Cubano says 2 posts above this that he's "waiting for the CD decks to drop below 1000" .. I got my Final scratch on Ebay for $435 including shipping. even full retail they're only $450-$500... so I don't see how 2 x $600 is less than $450

Last edited by E-vangelist on Jun-14-2004 at 16:28

quote:

Originally posted by LinX thats really strange bc i have a few friends that own the software and have no problems with it.. try calling support maybe they can answer your questions, dont give up from what ive heard its a great piece of software

Yeah, we have one...and it works AWESOME...

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Theres no hope with dope...

quote:

Originally posted by stevebutabi final scratch is wack. if i get a chance to on the 26th, i will tell van dyk that he is wack for using it.

can you take video of that conversation? I'd love to hear PVD telling you what an idiot you are for trying to tell him what he should and shouldn't spin with just because you can't figure out your final scratch

quote:

Originally posted by nrjizer I still think software is bullshit. I don't like the idea of having all my tunes on one little hard disk. Laptops are easily stolen, dropped, crushed, etc. And this proves the software is unreliable. For the price of a laptop and FS/rane software you can be close to 2 CDJ-1000 MK2's. Not only do you get the ease of carrying tunes around in cd wallets, you get all the effects and tricks that goes with the CDJ's. Just look at what zabiela does with them.

*MORON ALERT! MORON ALERT!*

Final Scratch 1.5 is a Windows XP native application, for weeks now I have been playing mp3's with FS SOLELY off of mapped network drives WIRELESSLY thru my network. so that "you have to have the tunes on one little hard disk" is just ignorant.

and his pricing is REVERSED... for the price of ONE decent CDJ deck you can get TWO Final Scratch (not that you'd need them)...

try doing some research before opening your mouth next time

E-vangelist:
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, thats no reason to go name-calling on an online forum. We all know that TFS goes for about $500 new. However, you must buy a machine to run it on. And you have to buy a somewhat fast machine. If you factor in the price of the machine plus the price of the software, that does come to about the price of 2 CDJs. You're going to want something with a good processor speed and alot of memory, that isnt cheap at all. Not everyone has a spare G4 powerbook just laying around, maybe YOU should do your research.

As far as your other somewhat ignorant post, Final Scratch ***DOES NOT*** work for everyone. And since the support for the application does not exist (most users speculate because NI gets so many complaints they just gave up), there is no way to get it running on a particular machines. I owned a machine that was "compatible" and 1.1 would not even install, let alone run. 1.0 had USB issues, it could not detect the ScratchAmp. 1.5 was the worst of all. I don't even know where to start. It was completely unusable. The sound quality was horrible, there was 1-2 second audio drop outs, and it would crash randomly for no reason. It was a nightmare.

Check the online forums, you will find an amazing number of people who are having serious problems with the software. The fact of the matter is, Stanton did not do their homework when they created 1.5. You list "hardware error" as one of the problems . . . reality check man, that's still a problem. Compatibility issues are something that should be addressed BY THE MANUFACTURER. If you want to hear any more "morons" complain about TFS, then I will get ahold of some of the people of the FS forums that I struggled with to post here.

Like I say, I'm glad that you have had a good experience with FinalScratch. But don't be ignorant and think that you're the only one who uses this application. Not everyone has been as lucky as you. So please think before posting. There's no problem with saying that it works for you, but there is a problem with making a generalization.

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i turn to the music
cause it never lets me down

Last edited by opianstate on Jun-14-2004 at 18:16

It's quite sad actually, in the beginning I was excited about my shiny new Scratch amp and such. After playing with it for a day or 2, I found it:

Crashes, trashes, jitters, flitters, spazzes.

OMGWTFBBQ! Why did I buy this piece of crap, the audio quality is lame even when I happen to get all the jitters out of it. Holy hell, someone send me some money for a Rane. I agree wholeheartedly:

Screw Stanton.

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Blithe is a member of the Regressive Party.

Proud member of the Anti-Emo Adolescent White American Sulker Alliance... aka: "Quit crying f**ker and dance."

Here's a question that I have. If I have all my vinyls recorded out in CD format. What would I need FS for?

quote:

Originally posted by E-vangelist *MORON ALERT! MORON ALERT!* Final Scratch 1.5 is a Windows XP native application, for weeks now I have been playing mp3's with FS SOLELY off of mapped network drives WIRELESSLY thru my network. so that "you have to have the tunes on one little hard disk" is just ignorant. and his pricing is REVERSED... for the price of ONE decent CDJ deck you can get TWO Final Scratch (not that you'd need them)... try doing some research before opening your mouth next time

Try reading more closely before opening your mouth next time. I'm fully aware of the price of the FinalScratch SOFTWARE. Since I'm feeling patient and tolerant today, I'll say it once more, with emphasis so you can understand:

"For the price of a laptop and FS/rane software you can be close to 2 CDJ-1000 MK2's."

Perhaps it is more clear now? I know that Final Scratch costs $500. But you need a laptop to run it on. FS reccomends a 1.6 ghz processor with 256 mb of ram. You will also need a HD large enough to hold your collection of songs, since full length trance tracks in quality .wav format are going to run about 100mb each. So you're starting to look at about another $1000 for the laptop, at least.

So you're already looking at about $1500 worth of stuff, which is already about enough for a pair of CDJ-800's and is getting close to the $2000 you'd need for a pair of CDJ-1000's.

Oh, and if you're building yourself a whole new setup from scratch, add $800 to that for a pair of turntables and $100 for mid-range carts. And that doesn't include a mixer. So you're up to about $2400 now, plus the price of a mixer by getting a whole new setup with FS, whereas a whole new CDJ-1000 setup is only $2000 + a mixer.

Now then, putting all cost issues aside, lets compare FS with a CDJ setup:

Both FS and CDJ's share one key attribute, which is that they both play music digitally, instead of analoge like vinyl, thus you get a loss in quality on a big sound system. So, what advantage is there to these systems that makes them worth their cost, and makes them worth using in place of vinyl?

With FS you get the feel of vinyl and the ease of having all your tracks on a small laptop. But, whats the real point then? If you've got the kind of money it takes to buy FS and a laptop, why not just buy vinyl? The ease of carrying a laptop around instead of a bag of records isn't much of an excuse for $500 (for the software alone). I mean, I'm really shedding tears over here for these superstar DJ's who have to put up carrying a bag(s) of records around while they are flown all over the world every week and make more money on a saturday night than a lot of people do in a year. What about mp3's? Mp3 won't cut it on a big system, not to mention it's pretty lame to be making money at gigs off mp3's you've downloaded. If you just want to mix mp3's in your bedroom, you can buy a pair of CDJ-100's and a cheap mixer for about $750 new. Or you can use Traktor, or any other mp3 mixing software. And unless I'm mistaken, there's no online service that lets you purchase and download .wav's of tracks. I know beatport will mail you burned CD's with your wav's, but why not just use CDJ's then?

With good CDJ's, however, there are plenty of obvious advantages, not just over Final Scratch, but over vinyl turntables completely. Want proof? Go download any set by James Zabiela. CDJ's can loop, set cue points, reverse instantly, pitch up or down by 50%, can change tempo without altering the pitch, and a million other things that I can't possibly name from memory. CD's also do not suffer from wear and heat like records, and you don't have to replace stylii. CD wallets are also light and easy to carry around, probably lighter than a 8 pound laptop too. And if your CD wallet gets stolen just go back to your house/studio and re-burn them (assuming you've backed up). If your laptop gets stolen you're fucked, and out a lot of money.

So then, what can we conclude? If you want to mix with the vinyl feel, just buy vinyl. You get a wide selection of releases and all the sound quality of analogue. If you want to go digital, or tire of lugging records around, go CDJ. They can do far, far, far, far, far more things than Final Scratch can do. If you want to just mix mp3's at home, get a setup of cheap CDJ's and a cheap mixer, or just use $30 mp3 mixing software on your computer. Mp3 quality won't cut it at gigs, nor is it fair to the artists to be paid for spinning their tracks that you've downloaded. Unless FS comes up with some truly revolutionary features, CDJ's are simply a much better choice.

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NEW MIX [Feb/March 2008]

Have been using FS for a year at different clubs, ON 2 DIFFERENT BRAND LAPTOPS. It hasn't crashed once during a gig!
Mine (but not all) has its minor quirks with detecting the scratch amp on one channel, but that can be easily fixed by unpluging the USB cable and plugging it back in a few times. Other then that, once it's set up and running, it's perfectly stable.
FS has been great, but I wish all clubs I play at already had one installed... It's a pain in the ass to hook it up and unhook it every time, especially when there are CD players already hooked up which you can use instead.