Posted: 05/08/2009 21:31
I recently purchased and got a chance to play around with Stanton’s new Midi Controller and “Touch Surface” DJ Controller, the SCS.3d, otherwise known as “DaScratch”.
I’ve only had a chance to play with them for 2 weeks, so in contrast some may say that I’m not giving it a fair shot, but for being a DJ for 16 years, and seeing all the technology come and go, I have to say that Stanton has done the exact same thing with the SCS.3d that they did with the Final Scratch. Stanton is always on the cutting edge of DJ Technology and probably will continue to be well into the future, their ideas are technological masterpieces, however their execution is usually a complete SNAFU.
Eight years ago when I purchased Stanton’s Final Scratch (yes, I had version 1.0), i had a hell of a time getting it setup, and virtually nobody was using it because laptop computers were so expensive at the time. I was acutally lugging my desktop and monitor around with me to gigs, which may sound extreme, but I was able to get my musical digitally, and was always on the cutting edge with my music. With Final Scratch I spent months on the phone with the only guy that had any knowledge of troubleshooting it, I even had his cell phone number, I am a daytime web developer and I get pissed when I have to troubleshoot with clients… I can imagine how this guy felt. After about 3-4 months I was finally able to grasp the technology enough to troubleshoot it myself and run it smoothly enough to rely upon it for a gig.
I am afraid Stanton has run the same course with the SCS.3d, while the Tech Support has come a long way (there is actually a whole department, and they answer pretty quickly), it still seems like its going to take 4-6 months to be able to rely upon this technology for a gig, which is time I really dont have. Also, I’m not just saying this because I’m not really an experienced MIDI DJ, it’s because the software (DaRouter) is buggy and seems to be incapable of being solid for long periods of time. I haven’t been able to play for more than 45 minutes without the controllers completely locking up.
Stanton also released MIDI mapping pre-sets for Traktor Pro, while good, there doesn’t seem to be a rotary or jog-style pitch bend function similar to most “vinyl” style CD Decks (ala Pioneer’s CDJ-1000MK3) which makes beat-matching on the fly very difficult. Bundling all the features into a nice neat little package is great, 2 units fit into my record bag with ease, and only weigh about a pound each, however, this means that you much switch “modes” to access different functions, which didn’t seem like a bad thing at first, but eventually proved to be very cumbersome while in the mix.
So, while great in theory, anybody who has an upcoming booking will still get the same vinyl / final scratch setup.
**UPDATE**
On 6/2/09 I was contacted by nem0nic @ Stanton and I wanted to clear up the fact that the SCS.3d DOES HAVE jog/pitch-bend mode, however you must access a seperate mode by pressing “vinyl” twice to use it:
On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:16 PM, Craig Reeves <nem0nic@stantondj.com> wrote:
It was brought to my attention that you were having issues with your SCS.3d controller(s). If you have any questions regarding its performance, please feel free to contact me. Without knowing the specifics of your setup, I would recommend that you use the latest version of the DaRouter software, which is available on our forums. If you are using an older version of DaRouter and OSX, this is especially true, and would explain your stability issues.
And the pitch bend functionality you mention is indeed in the Traktor Pro presets. Vinyl Mode 2 (press the VINYL button twice – it will light purple to indicate the proper mode) not only gives you fine “jog style” pitch bending, but also ties the SCS.3d’s LED feedback to the phase meter in Traktor Pro to give a visual guide without needing to look at the computer screen.
Craig