Capture

Capture records a few bars of incoming audio into a deck, or straight into a pad, so you can scratch it like any other sample. It is how you scratch a vocal, a bassline or a drum break from elsewhere in your project.

ScratchCraft never scratches live input directly: it can’t play audio from the future, so the audio is recorded into a deck first and scratched from there.

Where the audio comes from

• In a plugin host: the plugin’s sidechain input. In Ableton Live, pick the source track in the device’s sidechain section. See Ableton Live.
• In the standalone app: the mic or line input of your audio device.

Turn up Input in the header to hear the incoming audio through ScratchCraft before and while you capture.

Capturing into a deck

1. Set the capture length with the small button next to Capture: 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 bars. The default is 2 bars.
2. Click Capture on the deck.
3. The button shows Armed… while it waits, then Rec with the progress in percent while it records.

When the recording finishes, it loads onto the deck as a new sample, and the status bar confirms it. The deck’s sample name shows “captured”.

To cancel, click the button again while it is armed or recording.

Timing rules

While the transport is playing, a capture arms and starts at the next bar line. It uses the song’s own bars, so time-signature changes and loop wraps land correctly. It records exactly the chosen number of bars, then stops. If the transport stops before it finishes, the capture is cancelled.

While the transport is stopped, a capture starts straight away and records that many bars at the current tempo.

Note

In a plugin host the sidechain only delivers audio while the source track is playing, so for a capture of another track, start the song first.

Because a capture is an exact number of bars, its tempo is known from the start: ScratchCraft sets it from the bar count and the song tempo.

Capturing into a pad

One-shot and Load pads have their own Capture button in the pad inspector’s Sample row. It uses the same capture length and the same timing rules, with the pad as the target:

• The pad face shows ARMED, then REC, and the inspector’s button shows the progress.
• When the recording finishes, it loads into the pad as the pad’s own sample, with its Start and End markers reset. The pad keeps all its other settings.

See One-shots and Pad modes.

There is only one recorder, so arming a capture anywhere replaces the capture armed before it.

The 64-second limit

The capture buffer holds 64 seconds. If the chosen number of bars is longer than that at the current tempo (16 bars below 60 BPM in 4/4, for example), the take is cut short and the status bar says so. A shortened capture’s tempo is left unknown.

Captures are saved in your project

Captured audio is stored inside your DAW project (or the standalone app’s saved state), so a session reloads with its captures intact. It is saved without loss, and only once however many decks, pads or session slots use it. See Sample library for how other samples are saved.

To keep a capture for use in other projects, save it to the library with the deck’s Edit > Save to library…. See Edit menu.

Triggering capture from MIDI or a pad

• Right-click a deck’s Capture button to MIDI-learn it, so a controller button arms the capture.
• A utility pad can run Capture as one of its actions.

Capture is not a host parameter, so it can’t be automated from your DAW.

Tip

Set the capture length to match the phrase you want, arm Capture a bar before it in the song, and the phrase lands on the deck already cut to length and in tempo. Then use Sync this deck or start scratching.