FS2 or Serato??? Arrrrrrrrrrrgh! Which one???

Dave Martin · Post by **Dave Martin** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:14 am

Finally just about to purchase. I much prefer the views in Traktor but I'm hearing that Serato crashes a lot less. Also I hear that you can play 256k MP3s through Serato and they'll sound perfectly fine, as good as playing it from a CD. Can you play 256k MP3s in FS2, do they sound OK? Also how stable is FS2, it's a lot different testing it in a shop to taking it out and using it live, any horror story crashes?

Cheers, any help may just keep me sane...

jspr · Post by **jspr** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 2:01 pm

I'm running FS2 on an iBook G4 with 512mb RAM, and it works perfect I must say.
In the beginning there were some crashes with the preview function (I have no idea what this function is for actually, because you have to listen true the scratchamp to use this), but after an update it was totally gone.

FS2.0 can play wav/aiff, mp3 up to 320kBps and it depends on the actual recording of the mp3 how it sounds.
You can record a crappy record on 320kBps and it still can sound horrible. But a good record/recording on 160kBps can sound much better than a bad 320kBps recording. So it's up to you how it sounds.

I have no idea what to choose, but i prefer FS. I really don't like the Serato screen. It's sooo ugly, and the vertical waveform display.....no way!

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 3:48 pm

Both systems are great, and I think you'll be fine with either.

FS 2.0 has never crashed on me, and I've been extremely happy with it. I also prefer its interface over Serato's, and Traktor supports MIDI, which is very nice if you want to control parameters without a mouse. There's a link to a comparison of all of the systems in another thread ("alternatives to fs/serato" I think) that may help you with your decisions.

Dave Martin · Post by **Dave Martin** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 4:02 pm

Hi guys I'm planning on not recording very much from vinyl I'm buying most things on MP3 or getting sent them direct. Does 256k sound OK on FS2 if it's not ripped from vinyl?

Also are you guys playing out with it regularly or using it at home.

Kiwi, your reasons for preferring FS2 are the same as mine. I much prefer the screen view to that of Serato.

Cheers

Dave

jspr · Post by **jspr** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 5:19 pm

Dave Martin wrote:Does 256k sound OK on FS2 if it's not ripped from vinyl?

I think very good. A lot of dj's play with 192, 256 and 320 and you hardly hear a difference. But as I said before: it the recording that make an mp3 not the bitrate.

Dave Martin wrote:Also are you guys playing out with it regularly.

Yes, but i noticed that a lot of Technics turntables have new (mostly not original tecnics) fixed cables, and sometimes time the timecode is disturbed because of the bad cables.
Also the groundloop screw on the terrible Pioneer mixers are a pain in the ass. If the groudloop is fixed right you wont have problems, but i noticed some mixers were damaged, and i wasn't able to tightly screw the groundloop cables to the mixer. I prefer my A&H groundloop screw. Much better.

And i always take my own Shure Whitelabels, so I have all the time good needles.

brianc · Post by **brianc** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 5:47 pm

Kiwi's right about what to look out for. The overwhelming majority of problems come from those things, but if you've got good cables, good grounding, and clean records and needles, you shouldn't have any problems. I haven't.

They're also offering a rebate for Final Scratch right now. I don't know the specifics for each country, but it's $50 in .us.

zzebbirt · Post by **zzebbirt** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:23 pm

jspr · Post by **jspr** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:08 pm

I asked Richie at Stubnitz, and he is still testing both systems.