Troubleshooting

Answers to the problems you’re most likely to run into. If something isn’t covered here, check the status line at the bottom of the ScratchCraft window: it often says exactly what happened.

ScratchCraft doesn’t show up in Ableton Live

ScratchCraft installs to the standard VST3 folder, C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. To make Live find it:

1. Open Preferences > Plug-Ins.
2. Turn on Use VST3 Plug-in System Folders.
3. Click Rescan.

It then appears under Plug-Ins > VST3. ScratchCraft is an instrument, so drag it onto a MIDI track, not an audio track. See Using it in Ableton Live.

If it still doesn’t appear, check that ScratchCraft.vst3 is actually in the VST3 folder. See Installing.

Reinstalling or updating fails

Close ScratchCraft in your DAW (or close the DAW) before you install a new version. Windows can’t overwrite a plugin file that’s in use, so the install fails or leaves the old version in place.

Capture doesn’t record anything

In a DAW, capture records the audio arriving at ScratchCraft’s sidechain:

• Choose a source. Open the device’s sidechain section and pick the track you want to record from.
• Start the transport. While the song plays, capture waits for the next bar line and then records. If you stop the transport before it finishes, the capture is cancelled. With the transport stopped, it records straight away at the current tempo.
• Make sure the source track is playing audio. The sidechain only carries sound while the source track is actually playing.
• To hear the input, turn up Input in the header. Capture records whether or not you can hear it.

See Capture.

“Audio input is muted to avoid feedback loop” in the standalone app

The standalone app shows this banner at the top of the window when it starts with its audio input muted. The input is muted by default so that a microphone near your speakers doesn’t howl. While it’s muted, capture in the standalone app has nothing to record.

To use the input:

1. Click Settings… on the banner.
2. Choose your audio input device and channels.
3. Untick Mute audio input next to Feedback Loop.

Caution

Use headphones, or keep the Input knob down, when monitoring a microphone, or you may get feedback.

A MIDI encoder or jog wheel only moves one way

Relative encoders send their direction in one of three formats. Open MIDI Map, select the mapping, and try a different Encoding: Two’s complement (1 / 127), Sign-magnitude (1 / 65) or Offset 64 (65 / 63).

If the control was learned as a knob (absolute), first set its Control to Encoder / jog (relative). Learn only guesses encoders on a deck’s jog target. See Jog wheels.

A button on my controller plays a pad as well

A MIDI note can play a pad and drive a mapping at the same time. When you learn a note that a pad also plays, the status line warns you and names the pad. To fix it, either:

• change the pad’s note (right-click the pad and choose Learn Note), or
• set the rack’s MIDI selector, above the pads, to one channel, and send your mapped buttons on another.

Samples are missing when I open a project on another computer

Samples you dropped onto a deck or pad, and captured audio, are saved inside the project, so they always come with it.

Samples picked from the sample library are saved by their location instead. On another computer, ScratchCraft looks for them in the same place in that computer’s library, then by file name through the library and any linked folders. To make them found:

• copy the samples into the other computer’s library (Documents\ScratchCraft\Samples), keeping the same folders, or
• add the folder that holds them with Link… in the sample library.

Samples that still can’t be found are flagged on the deck strip or in the pad inspector, so you can relink them.

The Key pill shows “…” and the pitch hasn’t changed yet

When you change a deck’s Key, ScratchCraft renders a pitch-shifted copy of the sample in the background. Until it’s ready, the pill shows the new setting followed by “…”, for example “Key +3 …”, and the deck keeps playing its previous sound. A long sample can take a few seconds. The Keep pitch lamp pulses red while a copy is rendering.

Going back to a Key you used recently switches at once.

Memory use goes up when I use Key

A deck with a Key set holds both the original sample and its pitch-shifted copy, so its memory use roughly doubles. Recently used copies are also kept so you can switch back instantly; older ones are dropped when they take up too much memory. Set the Key back to 0 on decks that don’t need it.

A long sample was cut short

Files longer than 10 minutes are cut to 10 minutes when loaded, and the status line says so.