DJ Equipment Reviews

Final Scratch 2.0 takes the Final Scratch legacy into the future

I’ve talked previously about Final Scratch 1.5 and the "miracles" it brought to the working DJ world. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t long before the vinyl junkies DJs turned to Final Scratch for their entry into the digital age.However, it also wasn’t long before the revolution of Final Scratch became generalized and companies like Rane started coming out with their own analog control of digital files solutions, which eventually became superior to the now obsolete Final Scratch 1.5. That’s when Stanton decided that the first system that allowed this kind of control will not give up its place that easily, so FInal Scratch 2.0 arrived.

For all intents and purposes, Final Scratch 2.0 is the updated, new and improved version of the Final Scratch 1.5, and I will mainly talk about what it brings new to the DJ scene, rather than what it took from its successful predecessor. As I see it, the main upgrade of the Final Scratch 2.0 is the reinventing of their proprietary hardware, the ScratchAmp, now also to the 2.0 version. The new ScratchAmp is first of all, better built than the 1.5 version. From small and plastic, the ScratchAmp becomes a truly respectable piece of gear, about as large as a book and in a metal enclosure. The ScratchAmp 2.0 is a fully featured lightining-fast FireWire audio interface that makes communication between your gear and computer instantaneous. The new ScratchAmp features all the connectivity of the previous version, bringing also some newer tools out to play:

• six RCA connectors which offer input and output for every piece of your working DJ setup
• the previous USB port is replaced by FireWire (that unfortunately must be driven by a supplied power adapter if your computer doesn’t have a powered 6-pin FireWire jack)
• gain control knobs for each input channel
• separate auxiliary RCA inputs for when you record your mixes live to disk
• a headphone input with volume control
• line/phono switches for connecting to your turntables and/or CD players
• XLR microphone input
• another important feature is the presence of a MIDI In/Thru interface for connecting other external MIDI driven controllers or gear

Alongside all of this, the new ScratchAmp 2.0 now offers working DJs instant data transfer between your computer and gear, with minimal latency, which makes everything feel natural and complete, no matter what you do on your turntables. Also, Final Scratch 2.0 now allows for professional 24-bit/96 kHz hardware studio-quality sound and being passive, it doesn’t require power to run audio through.

The Final Scratch Traktor software that drives the mixing process from inside your computer is much the same as in the 1.5 version, offering all the options and information a working DJ would ever need for any gig. A nice addition is the presence of a status bar which shows you things like the CPU load, battery remaining, clock, input level or ScratchAmp connection status, so you’ll never have your computer crash on you in the middle of your mix.

The Final Scratch 2.0 playlists are largely the same as well, with an extra loop pool playlist available, that’s useful if you use a lot of snippets or skipless records when you mix. The Final Scratch loop pool contains just that, files of skipless bits of drum loops, vocals or short sound effects, which you can have repeated over and over again. The possibilities are endless. The time stretching ability (key lock) is vastly improved in Final Scratch 2.0, offering three different alghoritms, depending on your needs: CPU efficient, pitch synchronous overlap adding and phase vocoder.

Here’s a short overview of what Final Scratch 2.0 (link to PDF infosheet) has to offer new over the previous 1.5 version:

• a new faster search engine working easily with over 50 000 files now
• improved time-code readouts with absolute or relative mode
• microphone recording addition with instant playback from vinyl
• new calibration tools for optimal time-code response and tracking
• intelligent play history with time stamps and prints
• on screen 1 minute marker for faster visual cueing
• lead-in graphics that work seamlessly with the lead-in grooves on the vinyls

Separately, the Stanton Final Scratch 2.0 package comes with everything you need to start running this magnificent concept out of the box, and it includes:

• the ScratchAmp 2.0 FireWire audio card
• Final Scratch Traktor 2.0 software from Native Instruments
• the regular three Final Scratch standard time-code vinyls
• this time you also have teo time-code CDs for those of you mixing with CD players
• four RCA connection cables
• FireWire cable(6-pin on both sides)
• a power supply for the ScratchAmp 2.0 in case you need it

This last part of the Final Scratch 2.0 presentation is not for the faint of PCs, as the requirements have quite shot up compared to the Final Scratch 1.5 version. Now you must have a 1 GHz CPU and 256 Mb RAM to run the Final Scratch 2.0 system, but a 2 GHz CPU and 512 Mb RAM computer is recommended. Using FireWire extensively instead of USB, now all computers need an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port to run Final Scratch 2.0.

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