Novation TWITCH, User Manual

Page 1: ...TWITCH User Guide FA0257 01 ...

Page 2: ...tered names or trade marks mentioned in this manual belong to their respective owners Disclaimer Novation has taken all possible steps to ensure that the information given here is both correct and complete In no event can Novation accept any liability or responsibility for any loss or damage to the owner of the equipment any third party or any equipment which may result from use of this manual or ...

Page 3: ...e point where they exit from the apparatus 9 Only use attachments accessories specified by the manufacturer 10 Use only with the cart stand tripod bracket or table specified by the manufacturer or sold with the apparatus When a cart is used use caution when moving the cart apparatus combination to avoid injury from tip over 11 Unplug this apparatus during lightning storms or when unused for long p...

Page 4: ...hin this manual may cause magnetic interference with appliances such as radios and televisions and void your FCC authorization to use this product in the USA 3 Note This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residenti...

Page 5: ...ictions of Hazardous Substances RoHS as well as the following sections of California law which refer to RoHS namely sections 25214 10 25214 10 2 and 58012 Health and Safety Code Section 42475 2 Public Resources Code COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL NOTICES Novation is a registered trade mark and TWITCH is a trade mark of Focusrite Audio Engineering Limited ITCH is a trade mark of Serato Inc Limited Partnership...

Page 6: ...nalyse Files 25 Library Navigation 27 Searching 28 Browsing 28 Main Screen Overview 32 Dropping a Track In 36 Mixing 37 BEat Grid Sync 39 Beat Grid 39 Synching Tracks 42 Master Clock 43 Performance Modes 44 Cue Points 44 Slicer Mode 46 Loop Modes 48 The FX Section 50 Mic and AUX 54 Recording 55 Organizing Your Library 56 Library Management 59 Serato Scratch Live Compatibility 60 History 60 The Set...

Page 7: ...nsit do not discard any of the packing material and notify the carrier immediately as they would be responsible Save all the packing materials for future use if you ever need to ship the unit again Please check the list below against the contents of the packaging If any items are missing or damaged contact the Novation dealer or distributor where you purchased the unit TWITCH USB cable CD ROM cont...

Page 8: ...it Intel processor 2 4 GHz core duo or better 4 GB RAM 1024 x 768 screen resolution Available USB Port Hard disk space for music OSX 10 4 is not supported by Novation TWITCH Windows XP Service Pack 2 or higher 32 bit Intel processor 1 8 Core 2 duo 1 GB RAM Windows 7 32 bit Intel processor 1 8 Core 2 duo 2 GB RAM 64 bit Intel processor 2 4 Core 2 duo 4 GB RAM 1024 x 768 screen resolution Available ...

Page 9: ... ITCH Installation PC Before installing we recommend you download and install the latest ITCH version from http www serato com downloads IMPORTANT Do NOT connect your TWITCH to your PC before you are prompted to do so The installer will prompt you to connect it at the appropriate time Browse using Windows Explorer to the location where the ITCH download installer was saved Unpack the ITCH zip file...

Page 10: ...10 English TWITCH Overview ...

Page 11: ...nput Left Right Two RCA phono sockets for connection of additional sources such as CD or MP3 players audio mixers etc The inputs are unbalanced 5 Aux Gain trim control for the Aux Input providing 10 to 36 dB of gain adjustment to allow levels of external equipment to be matched 6 Direct Monitoring switch ON OFF determines whether monitoring of the Mic and or Aux inputs is derived directly from wit...

Page 12: ...one as TWITCH does not provide the phantom power this type of mic requires 10 mic gain mic gain trim control with gain range of 12 to 60 dB If a microphone is not connected ensure that this gain control is set fully anti clockwise thus preventing any unwanted noise from entering the mix 11 Headphone socket Two 3 pole sockets for stereo headphones are fitted jack and 3 5 mm mini jack The use of hig...

Page 13: ...tions 13 BACK library navigation control 14 FWD library navigation control 15 AREA cycles through browsing modes SHIFT AREA provides a sort function 16 VIEW toggles the ITCH waveform display through various modes including off 17 LOAD A loads the selected track into Deck A 18 LOAD B loads the selected track into Deck B See Hardware Navigation Controls on page 27 for further operational details ...

Page 14: ...to match the levels of different tracks to reduce the possibility of overload and to optimise the fader s control range 23 HIGH EQ control providing 6 or 12 dB of cut and boost at high frequencies 24 MID EQ control providing 6 or 12 dB of cut and boost at mid e g speech frequencies 25 LOW EQ control providing 6 or 12 dB of cut and boost at low frequencies 26 Headphone Cue select press to route the...

Page 15: ...IX the headphones may be used to monitor either the Cue system or the Master Output or a mix of the two The MIX control lets you adjust the mix fully anticlockwise is Master only fully clockwise is Cue only 31 BOOTH adjusts the level at the rear panel Booth Outputs 32 MASTER adjusts the level at the rear panel Master Outputs ...

Page 16: ... the key of the track from changing when PITCH is varied See page 31 36 SYNC AUTO sets the tempo of the track to that defined by the Beat Grid on the other deck Pressing SHIFT SYNC AUTO performs the same action even if the track on the other deck does not have a Beat Grid See page 42 37 PITCH rotary control which adjusts the overall playback speed of the track hence the BPM If KEYLOCK is not enabl...

Page 17: ...OLOOP enables Autoloop mode which reallocates the Performance pads to trigger loops of various lengths See page 48 44 LOOP ROLL enables Loop Roll mode which reallocates the Performance pads to trigger momentary loops of various lengths See page 49 45 PERFORMANCE PADS eight large soft pads intended to be used creatively in performance whose function is defined by buttons 41 to 44 46 BEAT GRID SET C...

Page 18: ...one or two additional FX parameters these will vary with the selected effect The MODE knob has a push and turn function which varies the second parameter where available 56 BEATS with most effects this adjusts the beat base of the effect in terms of the track s tempo See page 50 Mic Aux 58 57 59 57 LEVEL adjusts the level of the rear panel Aux Input and the front panel Mic Input after they have be...

Page 19: ...o the power supply and turn on in the following order the auxiliary input sources connect TWITCH to the computer with the USB cable supplied the output devices 4 Plug in your headphones 5 Start the Serato ITCH application USB Main Amplifier CD MP3 Player Booth Amplifier When ending a session reverse this operation by turning off the output devices first then remove the USB connection and finally t...

Page 20: ...ndows XP and 7 Start Programs ITCH To start ITCH on Windows simply double click on the shortcut icon on your desktop or browse your Start menu and click the ITCH exe icon NOTE When ITCH launches it will automatically detect your TWITCH if it is connected Successful detection will result in you seeing this screen with two virtual decks NOTE The screenshots throughout this manual are taken from the ...

Page 21: ...s the Panel 6 Tool Tips enables or disables the Tool Tip Display which provides a dialog box with a description of an ITCH feature when you place your mouse over it 7 Setup switches to the software Setup screen Click Setup again to return 8 Search searches your Library for the text entered in this field 9 Crates displays the list of Crates and Sub Crates available 10 Library displays the tracks av...

Page 22: ...f any currently selected Auto Loop or Loop Roll 35 Rescan ID3 Tags re reads file tags for the entire Library Use this function if you have edited or modified file tags in other software Tip Rescanning the tags is a handy way to identify any files that cannot be found for instance if the files have been re named or moved These tracks are shown red in the Library pane with a icon in the Status colum...

Page 23: ... either virtual deck Dragging a file or folder from Finder or Explorer into ITCH will also add the track to your library TIP Dragging a folder into the crates view will instantly create a crate Any external hard drive connected to your computer will show in the Files panel You can add files to your library from an external drive just like you do from your computer s internal hard drive If the exte...

Page 24: ... CDs direct from your computer s CD ROM or DVD drive however playback performance may be restricted by the speed of the drive and computer NOTE We recommend ripping your CDs rather than playing from them directly Ripping CDs while playing live is not a good idea as it places extra workload on the computer s processor For more information on iTunes go to www serato com articles 1905 Supported File ...

Page 25: ... ITCH with your hardware disconnected On the lower right side of the main screen you will see the analyze files button Click this to automatically analyse all the tracks in your library TIP You can also drag and drop individual folders crates and files onto the button to analyse small or specific groups of files at a time To force ITCH to re analyse all files hold CTRL while clicking on the analyz...

Page 26: ...nge limit of 68 BPM NOTE As Auto BPM is part of the file analysis process it will not apply to any files that already have already been analysed Re analyse these files with a new range to recalculate the BPM NOTE ID3 tags contain data about your tracks and are saved inside the files themselves Genre track name and artist are examples of common tag information Offline Player The offline player is av...

Page 27: ...ls The SCROLL knob 12 in the BROWSE section of TWITCH controls cursor movement in ITCH Rotate the knob to navigate up and down through the Library pressing the FWD 14 and BACK 13 buttons moves the cursor forward and back between the crates and Library Use these same controls or the SCROLL control s push function to move through the different browse fields when the Browse panel is open Pressing the...

Page 28: ...ox The drop down menu shows which fields are currently being used Press ESC or the X button on the right of the search box to clear the search Browsing To browse through all your files just scroll up or down with the SCROLL knob 12 on your TWITCH Clicking Browse 3 in ITCH will open the Browse panel above the main Library This allows you to filter what is displayed in the Library area below The fil...

Page 29: ...pare Panel is an area for holding tracks much like preparing a set by lifting records partially out of your record bag Click the prepare button 4 in ITCH or use the AREA button 15 on TWITCH to open the Prepare Panel Navigate through your library with the keyboard cursor keys and mouse or the SCROLL 12 FWD 14 and BACK 13 buttons on TWITCH to drag tracks or crates into the Prepare pane or onto the P...

Page 30: ...When play from start is selected in the setup screen in Playback On Track Load the deck will try to skip any silence at the start of the track and play from the start of the audio Adjusting Gain The TRIM knob 22 located at the top of TWITCH adjusts the audio input gain allowing you to raise or lower the level of the track before you control the volume with the Channel Fader 19 during the mixing pr...

Page 31: ...r than boosting them For example if you have a track with too much mid range rather than increasing bass and treble to compensate it is better to reduce the mid frequencies The controls range of cut boost can be set on the Setup screen at Mixer Hardware General Keylock Normally changing the speed of a track results in an accompanying change of the pitch of the music With keylock on when you alter ...

Page 32: ...track title bar If any of this information missing from the file it will simply not be displayed Below the track details pitch 30 Playback 32 Repeat 33 and Performance Mode 34 parameters as applicable are displayed The time and remaining time are displayed in minutes and seconds The pitched BPM is the BPM of the track as modified by the setting of the PITCH control 37 If PITCH is set to 0 the pitc...

Page 33: ... NOTE ITCH takes account of the current setting of the PITCH control when calculating the BPM using Tap Tempo Track Overview Display This area 24 provides a preview of the waveform of the entire track and includes a marker to show the current position within the track the white triangle This view is useful for finding transitions within the track The waveform is coloured according to the spectral ...

Page 34: ... shorter time segment Note The waveforms alter as the PITCH control is adjusted to make it easier to see when beats are aligned and in time Tempo Matching Display The Tempo Matching Display area 21 is designed to aid tempo matching of the tracks on the two decks ITCH detects the beats within the track and places a row of red peaks for the track on Deck A above a row of orange peaks for the track o...

Page 35: ...B s track below a set of red peaks the tempo of Deck A s track 2 Adjust the pitch of Deck B s track using the PITCH knob 37 until the orange peaks are aligned with the red peaks in the Tempo Matching Display Once they are aligned the two tracks have the same tempo 3 Next align the markers in the Beat Matching Display using the Touchstrips while the SWIPE button 38 is illuminated It is helpful to w...

Page 36: ... puts the Touchstrip into Scratch Mode This is analogous to moving a vinyl turntable platter back and forth while a disc is actually playing The SWIPE button blinks in this mode Scratch can be cancelled by pressing SWIPE a second time PAUSE SWIPE when the track is paused swiping the touch strip moves the playhead backwards or forwards in time producing the scratching effect obtained on a vinyl tur...

Page 37: ...ying tracks Once you have a track playing the next step is to mix it into another track Finding the Next Track First you ll need to find the next track to mix in Browse your library to find a suitable track TIP The library s BPM column is useful for finding a track with a similar tempo to the current track Loading it to the Deck Load the next track to the desired virtual deck by pressing the LOAD ...

Page 38: ...led in the Setup screen Playback On Song Load for Continuous mode to work correctly See page 62 for more details Getting the Tracks in Time The playback speed of the track may be varied with the PITCH control 37 The range of the PITCH control when SYNC is not active is 50 50 relative to the track s initial tempo The control has fine and coarse modes rotating the knob while pressing it down will ch...

Page 39: ...rid more accurately to the track Enable Beat Grid To activate the Beat Grid ensure that the Enable Beat Grid checkbox on the Setup screen is ticked SETUP PLAYBACK GENERAL Beat Grid Waveform View The Beat Grid is placed on top of the waveform overview It is displayed as follows A full white vertical line is a Beat Marker indicating the beginning of each Beat Grid Bar Each Beat Marker has the bar nu...

Page 40: ...o check if the Beat Grid has calculated the markers correctly you can skip forwards through the track to see if the markers fall on the beats or not after a breakdown is a good place It is also a good idea to go to the track s outro and see if the markers are still falling on the beats Setting a Beat Marker Pressing the BEAT GRID SET button 46 will place a Beat Marker at the playhead position By d...

Page 41: ...d The Beat Grid may not always be placed correctly and the markers may not line up exactly with the transients so you may need to make occasional adjustments To adjust the Beat Grid so that the markers are aligned with the musical transients press and hold the ADJUST button 47 while using a swipe gesture on the Touchstrip see below The Beat Grid will expand or contract to follow your movements fro...

Page 42: ...he tracks Sync Behaviour with Beat Grids Press SYNC on a deck to synchronise the Beat Grid of the currently loaded track to that of the track on the other deck The Master Clock displayed in the virtual deck area 21 see page 43 now displays the tempo that the both decks are playing at If a deck has sync engaged its number in the Master Clock is green also the SYNC button on TWITCH will light Adjust...

Page 43: ...ds are enabled Press SHIFT SYNC to synchronise the tempo BPM of the currently loaded track to that of the track on the other deck This will not synchronise the Beat Grids or transients it will only synchronise the tempo The Master Clock now displays the tempo the two decks are playing at If a deck has auto tempo engaged its number in the master clock is yellow also the SYNC button on TWITCH will l...

Page 44: ...ly To create a cue point press one of the Performance Pads for the deck The button will light to show that a cue point has been set To delete a cue point hold SHIFT 48 and press the Performance Pad for the point you want to delete Once a cue point is set you can jump to it at any time by pressing the relevant Performance Pad If playback is paused recalling a cue point will play from that point as ...

Page 45: ...to fine tune the playhead placement to ensure your cue point is set exactly on a downbeat Providing no temporary cue is already set pressing the CUE button 34 while playback is paused will create one at the current playhead location Once the cue is set holding the CUE button while still in Pause will play from the temporary cue point until the button is released then playback will pause and the pl...

Page 46: ... corresponding to the selected pad for as long as the pad is held meanwhile the playhead position will loop round the current eight slice block When the Performance Pad is released playback immediately resumes from the current playhead position but the Beat Grid ensures that the track s beat is maintained On the waveform display the real playhead position is indicated by a thin green vertical line...

Page 47: ...always creates a block of eight slices By default the DOMAIN value is 8 where 1 slice I beat It is possible to modify the Domain value by using pinching and expanding actions with two fingers on the Touchstrip Expand Pinch E g if Domain is set to 4 each of the eight slices will be a beat in length A further parameter relevant to Slicer Modes is QUANTIZATION The description of Slicer Mode action ab...

Page 48: ...a second press when playback resumes from the end of the current looping segment A green block overlays the main waveform display to indicate the looped segment You can also define an Auto Loop in Pause mode Auto Loop Saved Mode Pressing AUTO LOOP a second time causes the button to flash The Performance Pads are now redefined as SAVE buttons for eight slots or memory locations within the track s I...

Page 49: ...he pad is released the playhead is returned to the position it would have had if it had not entered the loop The range of values available for loop roll are 1 32 beat to 32 beats Use short loop lengths to create stutter type effects As with Auto Loop Mode the Touchstrip may be used to select the range of loop durations assigned to the Pads Use of Swipe and Drop in Performance Modes The SWIPE and D...

Page 50: ...CT MONITORING switch 6 must be set to OFF for FX to be applied to the Mic or Aux signals Effects parameters All the effects may have their amount adjusted by the DEPTH control 54 As the DEPTH control is turned clockwise the sound of the track will become increasingly altered by the FX processing The DEPTH control actually varies a specific parameter for each of the available effects but you can ge...

Page 51: ...he flanger effect is created by mixing two identical sound sources together one of them being slightly delayed relative to the other The delay itself may be dynamically varied at a low frequency this is adjusted by the MOD control The delay is adjusted with the X control PHASER The phaser uses a series of moving narrow band filters distributed across the audio spectrum to create the characteristic...

Page 52: ... where the audio winds down before resuming playback once again The table below summarises the FX parameters controlled by the MOD and X controls for each effect The DEPTH control is effective for all effects EFFECT MOD CONTROL X CONTROL REVERB Room Size DELAY Feedback LPF Resonance LFO amount FLANGER LFO amount Delay PHASER Color FE Q HPF Depth Resonance CRUSHER Skew Low Drive ECHO Feedback Feedb...

Page 53: ...eing illuminated You can select the effect you want by pressing the SELECT control 27 The currently applied effect is indicated at the left hand Deck A or right hand Deck B end of the Effects area of the screen display 37 Note that only the following effects are available to the Fader FX feature HPF LPF Phaser Repeater Echo Delay Flanger Rotating the SELECT control varies the effect parameter The ...

Page 54: ...If the rear panel Direct Monitoring switch 6 is OFF you can click on the Mic Aux button 11 to open the metering EQ panel High Mid and Low EQ controls are provided as well as a 13 segment bargraph meter Click the routing button to select where the MIC AUX audio signal will be sent Mix the signal is sent to the Program Mix whichever deck is play ing X F A the signal is mixed with Deck A s audio only...

Page 55: ...rding Meter shows the signal level that will be recorded to disk We recommend that you set your levels such that the loudest parts of the mix light the red segment only occasionally 3 Click the REC button to start recording The length of the recording will be displayed in the Recording Timer Press it again to stop recording 4 Enter a filename in the empty text field and click SAVE Recordings are s...

Page 56: ...e you could organize your tracks into the following crates and unlike physical discs of any kind any one track could be filed in more than one crate Hip Hop French Hip Hop UK Hip Hop Instrumental Hip Hop Old School Hip Hop Hip Hop LPs To make a new crate click the button in the crate area s header bar To rename a crate double click the crate name You can change the order of tracks within a crate b...

Page 57: ...m Artist Bitrate kbps BPM Comment Composer Filename Genre Grouping Key Label Length Location download source URL Remixer Sampling rate Size MB Track track number on album Year Clicking on the triangle at the top right of the library will show the list so you can turn fields on and off You can resize columns by grabbing the edge and dragging to the width you want ...

Page 58: ...ault colour is white NOTE Tracks that are read only have a locked icon Album Art MP3 files can contain album artwork Clicking the album art button 1 toggles the artwork panel on and off There are many third party applications available for adding album art to MP3 files Library Auto Backup When it is installed ITCH creates a folder on your hard disk called Serato where it stores your library databa...

Page 59: ...in the library pane with a question mark icon in the status bar Relocate lost files If you alter the location of files of library tracks by some external file management operation ITCH will subsequently be unable to find them and tag them not found They will then be displayed in red This situation can be resolved by dragging and dropping a folder from Finder Mac or Explorer Windows onto the reloca...

Page 60: ...ate of session name of track and artist name In addition these other categories listed below provide more detailed information about your sessions Start Time When viewing a track row the start time of the track is displayed When viewing a session row the start time of the session is displayed with the date using your computer s internal clock End Time When viewing a track row the end time of the t...

Page 61: ...hich can be imported into media players Note that an m3u file does not contain audio itself it only points to the location of your audio files TIP You can make a new ITCH crate containing your session information Select a session in the History pane and drag it to the create crate button in the Crate pane The new crate will be named with the session date Listing Behaviour only the tracks you actua...

Page 62: ...rner Clicking the check for updates button launches the computer s default web browser to access the ITCH update page of the Serato website This lets you check whether an updated version of ITCH is available NOTE The computer must have an Internet connection for this feature to work The computer s real time clock is displayed at the screen top left and the small horizontal bargraph indicates perce...

Page 63: ...lower overall system latency However this requires more processing power and thus a higher CPU load so lower buffer size settings require a more powerful computer to produce uninterrupted audio If you want tighter control you should try decreasing this setting on the other hand if you experience audio dropouts you may need to increase this setting or use a more powerful computer Platter Speed Appl...

Page 64: ... level To find the optimum setting load a track with an average volume level onto one of the Virtual Decks Now play the track and take note of the volume and LED lights inside the software The idea is for the track volume to be sitting just under the clipping point indicated by the LED meter red lining If the track is too quiet unload it then go to the Playback setup screen and boost the auto gain...

Page 65: ...at is already loaded on the other it must be the same file the playhead will jump to the current play position of the track that was loaded first Keylock and looping statuses are also copied This setting overrides the play from start and play from first cue point options play from first cue point enable this option to start all tracks from the first cue point after loading This setting overrides t...

Page 66: ...Enabling this setting will also lock all file tags and crate names so that no text can be changed Custom crate columns check this option to set custom column views for each crate and playlist When the option is off default all crates will share the same column configuration as the All crate Center on selected track when this option is on scrolling up and down in your library keeps the selected tra...

Page 67: ...ems The default rate is 60 Hz screen is refreshed 60 times per second This setting applies to the entire ITCH user interface the Virtual Decks the waveforms the library and the setup screen Horizontal Waveforms the main waveforms are displayed horizontally across the bottom of the ITCH screen Left Vertical Waveforms the main waveforms are displayed vertically on the left of the ITCH screen Right V...

Page 68: ...miter acting especially when more than one audio channel is in the mix With the initial headroom setting of 0 dB you can apply 3dB of gain per deck before the limiter starts working CUE Overdrive increase this setting to give the level at the headphones output an extra boost To prevent hearing damage be careful not to set the level too high NOTE Adding overdrive can reduce audio quality so is only...

Page 69: ...nd to sign up to receive updates on the latest promotional releases visit http www whitelabel net Locked whitelabel net Files Due to some labels licensing requirements certain Whitelabel audio files will require email and password verification to unlock them If you have legitimately downloaded these tracks yourself entering the email and password you use for Whitelabel net will unlock the files fo...

Page 70: ...ctive programs Disable wireless networking devices Disable any bluetooth devices Disable antivirus software Disable screen savers Disable sleep hibernate power saving mode Increase the USB buffer size Connect TWITCH directly to a USB port on your computer not via a USB hub Try all USB ports some may work better than others Unplug any other USB devices Run your laptop from its AC power supply For m...

Page 71: ...mum gain for 0 dBFS 4 dBu Line Inputs Dynamic Range A Weighted 102 dB Frequency Response 20 Hz 20 kHz 0 1 dB THD N 0 002 measured with 0 dBFS input and 22 Hz 22 kHz bandpass filter Noise 92 dBu 22 Hz 22k Hz bandpass filter Analogue Audio Outputs TRS Electronically balanced output Maximum Output Level 0 dBFS 7 0 dBu THD N 0 0075 1 dBFS output 20 Hz 22 kHz bandpass filter Analogue Audio Outputs RCA ...