Sync Loop

Sync Loop keeps a deck in time with the song. Use it for a beat or backing loop: the deck loops on its own, locked to the song’s bars, while you scratch on the other deck.

Sync Loop works while the deck’s motor is on. It keeps time even with the transport stopped: it then follows ScratchCraft’s own clock, which carries on at the last tempo, so the loop never runs into silence.

The Sync Loop button

The Sync Loop button is on the deck strip’s bottom row, under the waveform. It shows the current setting:

Button shows	Meaning
Sync: Off	Sync Loop is off.
Loop: 4 beats (or another length)	Restarts the cue every 4 beats.
Fit +2.5%	Sample mode: playing the sample at the song tempo, 2.5 % faster than its own tempo.

Click it for the menu: Off, then Sample under “Play the sample at the song’s tempo”, then the restart lengths under “Restart the cue every”. The default length is 4 beats.

Restart lengths

Pick a length (1/4 beat, 1/2 beat, 1 beat, 2, 4, 8 or 16 beats, or 1, 2 or 4 bars) and the deck jumps back to the cue at every multiple of that length in the song. The deck stays locked to the song’s grid however you play it.

Between restarts the record plays at the deck’s Speed. So at +10 % it plays 10 % more of the sample in each cycle, at a higher pitch; the restart still lands on the beat.

The end marker is greyed out in this mode, because the length decides where the loop ends.

Restart lengths suit short stabs and chops, or any sample whose tempo you don’t know.

Sample (beat-matched)

Sample plays the sample at the song’s tempo, the way a DJ beat-matches a record. ScratchCraft sets the deck’s speed to the song tempo divided by the sample’s tempo, and loops from the cue to the end marker. The loop can be any length, not just a power of two.

The button shows the Fit speed, such as Fit +2.5%.
The Speed knob does nothing in this mode and is greyed out.
If the sample has no tempo, the menu reads Sample (BPM unknown: loops every bar), and the deck restarts every bar.

If the loop is in tempo but its beat sits off the song’s, move the cue (or use Sync this deck). You can also nudge it with a jog wheel, below.

Sync this deck

Sync this deck, at the top of the BPM pill’s menu, sets a deck up to loop in time in one step:

It uses the sample’s tempo (or a fresh detection if the tempo is only a guess).
It finds the best-sounding loop of 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars starting on a beat: one whose end flows smoothly back into its start.
It sets the cue and end around that loop, puts the beat grid on the cue, and turns Sync Loop on with Sample.

The status bar reports what it chose, such as “Deck A synced: 92.4 BPM, 2 bars, confidence high”, and warns you when the tempo is unclear.

Loops

Loops in the BPM menu lists the top five loop suggestions, such as “2 bars from 0:03.2 (good)”. Pick one to set the cue and end to it.

Undo sync

Undo sync puts back the cue, end, tempo and Sync Loop setting from before the last Sync this deck or picked loop. It undoes one step.

Nudging the timing

A MIDI jog wheel in Nudge mode shifts a running deck’s timing, like the pitch bend on a CDJ: turn it to push the beat a little earlier or later. On Sample, the shift stays until you turn Sync Loop off. A jog’s default Auto mode nudges while Sync Loop is on and the motor runs, and scratches the record otherwise. See Jog wheels.

Keep pitch, the lamp beside the Sync Loop button, lets the Fit speed change the tempo without changing the key. See Key and pitch.
The Feel window’s Sync catch-up option decides how a deck rejoins the loop after you let go of the record or start its motor: by jumping straight onto the beat (default), or by spinning up with its Torque and chasing back into phase.
Sync Loop and its length can be MIDI-learned, automated and switched by utility pads.