So Ive had a chance to play around with Serato Flip for a month or so and I figured Id give a quick review for yall on the fence. First gonna preface - I originally didnt see the point in using Flip - Ableton was great for edits when I needed them and to be honest, I dont use or make a whole lot of edits to begin with. If I needed to shorten a track, Id usually just use doubles and mix the end out of the beginning. I dont have a lot of need for intros and outros cause I just prefer to get the phrasing down or use loops in a pinch. After messing around with it a bit, Im converted. Its a great little plugin that can be pretty powerful when used correctly. So from my tests, there seem to be two main reasons to use Flip: 1. Making edits - basic rearranging of tracks to create things like intros and outros, extend breaks, shorten or lengthen tracks, or allow tracks to get to the good bit faster, or creating new beats from cue point drumming. 2. Live-looping of cue point drumming or tone play - being able to drum out a pattern using the cue points in a track and then seamlessly loop it at the touch of a button. So in this blurb, Im going to focus on #1 - making edits. At first I thought it was annoying cause it seemed you had to do your edits in real-time and hit the cue points in time while waiting out the track. If you made a mistake then you had to start all over again. Turns out this was completely the wrong way to go about it. Because Flip is based entirely on cue-point triggers, you can literally scrub through the tracks, fine-tune the exact spot, press the cue, and be done with and save. For simple song shortening, I can do it in under a minute. So the process of creating say a 1-and-done intro -> verse -> chorus -> outro edit would be this. 1. set cue at the beginning and another at a good edit point for the last chorus before the outro. 2. Hit record on flip while track is stopped. 3. Hit cue 1 4. Scrub to the spot in the 1st chorus where I want to cut into the outro chorus 5. find the exact spot where the edit will take place 6. Hit cue 2 7. Hit Record again 8. Review edit 9. save and turn off loop So heres why I like this so much better than using ableton at this point. 1. Its fast. I dont have to launch a new program, load up a track, warp a track, do the editing, export the track, and re-import the file into Serato. On top of that, if Im in the middle of a jam session or making a mix and thinking hmmm, this would be better if I could edit it like so, I can do it quickly within the software and get back to mixing and practicing without getting me too out of my groove. 2. Sound quality is better. Unless all your files are lossless (and lets face it, a lot of our files arent), you have to worry about any transcoding when youre editing mp3s in ableton which can lead to quality loss. When you use an mp3 as the source, and then export and then re-encode as an MP3, youre going to get some quality loss. With Flip, youre making these edits directly in the original file and not converting it into another piece of audio. 3. Its non-destructive. As mentioned above, you arent directly editing a piece of audio like you would in a DAW or editor so you dont have to export out a track, save a project file, or re-export something if you hear a mistake that you missed earlier. If you dont like how it sounds or decide it needs a change after a few days of playing with it, its all non-destructive and you dont have to re-open an old project. 4. Its super easy to use with non-quantized tracks - Because its based purely on cue points, you dont need to warp anything or quantize anything. Zoom in on the spot, mark the transient you want to use as an edit point record it, and voila. 5. You can save up to 6 Flips per track. If I want to create an edit that has an intro/outro with the full track, another with 2 verses and then outro, and a third with 1 verse and an outro, Id have to create three different versions and export them out as separate files. With Flip, it all saves to the same file and you can choose which Flip to activate. Saves on HD space and reduces library clutter. 6. This one is just a personal mindset but it ties into #1 - whenever I open Ableton just to make a quick edit, I tend to get distracted easily. I start thinking about how after its been edited, maybe it could use beefier drums… or maybe I could throw in a cool new bassline… or maybe I could throw this acapella over top… or maybe it would sound good mashed with this other riff… yea… I know Im trying to make a mix, but Ill just sit down and do that real quick and…. Next thing you know, Im producing instead of practicing DJing or making a mix. Not the worst thing in the world, but sometimes you really need to focus on the task at hand. I also feel like its a bit of a waste to use Ableton just to edit tracks so I feel compelled to make more changes. Flip keeps me focused and is so ridiculously quick, Im actually now going through the edits I made in Ableton over the years and re-making them in Flip. Incidentally, the above is kind of the reason you havent heard a new mix from me since 2012. Well, that and having a kid kinda shortened my available time… Dont worry, Im working on it. Honestly... So heres what I dont like/think could improve: 1. Ability to edit flips - the edit points on Flip are denoted by blue lines and greyed-out areas of the tracks. I would love a way to fine-tune those points similar to how you can fine-tune manual loops and beatgrids. Probably will come with time. As of now, if you make a mistake, you have to start all over again - this is a little more annoying for more complicated Flips. It would also allow you to sketch out the idea in real-time and then fine tune it later. 2. Wish there were more options - as of now, Flip allows you to record cue points and the Censor commands - nothing else. Would love to see features like turning on and off saved loops, loop rolls, and even effect automation. Maybe in an update down the road. 3. Having to change my mindset for edits - this isnt really Flips fault, but Im used to a linear view of my tracks when Im editing them whereas Flip requires you to think of your edits more in a non-linear way utilizing cues to jump around a track rather than copy/pasting and deleting segments. So is Flip worth the $30? Kind of depends. If you like to make edits of the classic variety (re-arranging a track to better suit your DJing needs), then Id say so. Its easy to use, fast, and even kind of fun. If you like to add a whole bunch of shit to your edits like extra drums, acapellas, synths, mashups, etc. then its not really going to do what you want. Flip works well for what it does - allowing you to re-arrange tracks however you see fit, be it in a basic way or a complex way. If you dont have a DAW suite like Ableton or dont want to spend the money on a fully featured DAW just to make quick and easy edits, its a no-brainer to get. On top of that, you get a rudimentary live-looping function (which I will detail later on) which can be pretty fun and cool for live performances. Im hoping to see a few more robust features in the future, but for now I think its a slick little piece of programming and well worth the money. Now if youll excuse me, I have more tracks to flip...
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 07:16:25 +0000
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