DAW Sync

ScratchCraft always follows your DAW’s tempo and bars. DAW Sync decides whether it also follows the DAW’s play and stop buttons, so the decks spin up when the song starts and brake when it stops.

The DAW Sync switch

In a plugin host, DAW Sync sits in the header’s transport section, next to the readout. Click it to switch it on; its jewel lights. It is off by default. When the window is narrow, the header turns compact and DAW Sync becomes an icon that glows while it’s on.

DAW Sync is a host parameter, so it can be automated, and you can MIDI-learn it with a right-click.

The standalone app has no DAW Sync switch: it always behaves as if it were on, following its own transport.

What host play and stop do

With DAW Sync on:

• Stop brakes every armed motor, so Sync Loop stops with them, and stops Shape Play. The decks’ motor jewels turn red: still armed, but held.
• Play spins the armed motors up again, each with its Torque, and restarts Shape Play.
• A deck whose motor is switched off stays off.

The motor switches themselves are never changed, so your setup is exactly as you left it when the song plays again.

With DAW Sync off, the host’s play and stop have no effect on the motors. Sync Loop and Shape Play keep running on their own clock at the song’s tempo.

Tempo and position

Whether DAW Sync is on or off, ScratchCraft reads the host’s tempo, song position, time signature and bar lines on every audio block. Everything timed lines up with your song’s bars: Sync Loop, pad quantize, Shape Play, capture and recorded takes. Pickup bars and time-signature changes are handled, and the header readout shows the host’s bar count.

While the song is stopped

When the host stops, ScratchCraft’s clock keeps running from the last position at the last tempo. With DAW Sync off, Sync Loop and Shape Play keep going in time, and a looping deck never runs into silence. Hand scratching works whether the song is playing or not.

Song loops and jumps

When the host loops (or you click to a new position), ScratchCraft catches the jump at the exact sample where it happens. Pads waiting for their quantize step are rescheduled at the new position, and Shapes locked to the song and Sync Loop decks follow at once.

Decks without Sync Loop ignore song jumps by default. To change that, use the Needle options in the Feel window. These apply while the song plays with DAW Sync on (or in the standalone app):

Option	Range/choices	Default	What it does
Song jumps	Ignore, Re-cue, Follow the song	Ignore	What a deck without Sync Loop does when the song loops or jumps. Follow the song moves a running deck’s needle as far as the song moved, so a looped section replays the same part of the record.
Re-cue on Stop	Standalone only, Also the host with DAW Sync, Never	Standalone only	With the host choice, the host’s Stop also puts the needles back on the cue and stops pads and Shapes, the way the standalone Stop does.
Re-cue on Play	On / off	Off	Starting the host’s transport (with DAW Sync on) puts the needles on the cue, so every take starts from the same place.

How the platters stop on a re-cue follows the Transport stop option in the Torque group: at once, or winding down.

Shape Play

The Shape editor’s Play switch (the Shape Play host parameter) is locked to the song while the host plays: the Shape’s first beat lands on every multiple of its length from the start of the song, so it stays in time however long it runs. Switched on while the song is stopped, it runs on the free-running clock.

With DAW Sync on, stopping the song stops Shape Play and playing restarts it. Pressing Stop all switches it off. See Shape editor.

Gate and Latch pads playing Shapes are locked to the song in the same way while the host plays, keeping the phase of the grid line they started on.