Want knobs? Want buttons? Want to DJ from the flight deck of the Starship Enterprise? Stanton's got you covered.
Stanton has recently relaunched its flagship SCS.1 DJ System, which first hit the shelves back in 2009.
An ambitious digital pro-DJ hardware platform, the full-sized SCS.1 System (comprising the SCS.1m Midi mixer/sound interface and the SCS.1d motorised turntable) couldn’t be more different from Stanton’s SCS.3 System in terms of size – while the SCS.3 is one of the smallest modular DJ systems out there, this is probably the biggest. We put it through its paces…
The story so far
Since its launch, the SCS.1 has never quite lived up to its initial promise, and while it felt innovative and fresh, it also felt, well, kind of unfinished. It lacked performance-grade firmware/system software particularly with regards to scratching.
Stanton has listened, and now the system has been relaunched with, they say, all the issues addressed. In their words:
“The SCS.1, with its built-in FireWire audio interface, assignable encoders, and tight, two-way software control is now better than ever, offering expanded presets, new ASIO drivers, updated firmware and DaRouter software.”
The complete Stanton SCS1. System; it is basically the same size and layout as a traditional two-decks-and-a-mixer set-up.
A look at what’s new…
Hardware-wise, the new incarnation has a Pro X Fade crossfader fitted as standard, but apart from that is exactly the same. It’s still finished in the (now-trademark) Stanton grey, black and blue, with over-emphasised rounded corners and the new Stanton “on” logo (the last two letters glowing blue when the units are powered up).
Whether the look of the units agrees with your definition of what “serious” DJ equipment should look like is your viewpoint – Stanton has got “real” turntables in this style too. Personally? I like my gear to be foreboding and black! But with the “real” turntable strobe edges, porthole blue LCD displays on the decks (where the spindle adaptor would go on a Technics), and rubberised trims, it looks pretty professional.
Strobe strips round the edge of the aluminium turntable platters suggest authenticity and quality.
Metering and visual feedback were always excellent on this system, and thus they still are: It has red/green lit LCD strips that tell you which functions are assigned to both the big buttons along the bottom of the decks and the rotaries at the top, and the rotaries on the mixer too. Most buttons can light up to indicate toggle state, and some light red or blue depending upon function The VU metering is excellent, making setting gains really easy.
The real changes are under the hood. New firmware, new mappings, and a new DaRouter incarnation. DaRouter is the software that sits between the controller system and your DJ software. It’s a Midi translator but also contains much cleverness to allow the hardware to perform tricks not otherwise possible, including excellent feedback to the units, whose LCDs display written feedback on many of the functions and which have a plethora of progressive display controls to keep you at-a-glance informed as to parameter settings on many of the knobs.
To my knowledge no control system can offer old school four-deck control apart from this one.
One piece of news here is that you can run more than one instance of DaRouter at once, so it looks like it would be perfectly possible for four of the SCS.1 decks to be daisychained up to one SCS.1m Midi mixer for true four-deck control of, say, Traktor Pro.
In the vinyl DJ days, it was normal to find three or even four Technics SL1210s in a DJ booth, and while today’s DJ controllers nearly all offer control of four decks via switching, to my knowledge no control system can offer old school four-deck control apart from this one. (Not that I’ve had a chance to test this – I’m taking them on their word. They didn’t, alas, send us four decks to review…)
Mix and remix to taste
As this is a modular system, various kit combinations are possible. You could buy just the SCS.1m Midi mixer/sound interface unit to use as a FireWire sound card and Midi control surface. You could buy that unit alongside one SCS.1d deck (one deck can use switching to control up to four decks in your DJ software). Or you could match a deck or decks with an external sound interface and an analogue DJ mixer, bypassing the SCS.1m altogether.
For our review today, we’re considering the “classic” system – a mixer and two decks.
As this is a modular system, various kit combinations are possible.
The system comes with new DaRouter mappings for Traktor Pro, Traktor LE and Ableton Live, plus several generic mappings. As most DJs will be wanting to use this with Traktor Pro, that’s what we’re using to review it with, but be aware that it is possible to map this to anything Midi controllable, like most Midi controllers.
So – let’s summarise what we’ve got: a full-sized, motorised turntable digital DJ system, with the biggest turntables of any such gear (the Numark NS7 only has 7″ turntables), and uniquely, motorised pitch controls that remember where you were when you switch decks. As we said at the beginning, this system was always ambitous. Let’s see if, in its second incarnation, it lives up to its promise…
Unpacking and setting up
The DHL man loved humping this lot into the lift and up to our offices here at Digital DJ Tips.
The SCS.1 system is substantial. To start with it’s obviously all separates. The two decks are pretty similar in size to normal turntables, and not far off the same weight. That’s not surprising as they’re basically 10″ high torque direct drive turntables with aluminium platters, plus a bucketload of digital goodness attached. I’ve never seen so many buttons and knobs on a turntable before.
The Midi mixer is made to match and while not heavy (indeed, it feels rather plasticky and light), once you’ve unboxed all three units, waded through the plastic, polystyrene and various boxes and bags of leads, adaptors, instructions and so on, unpacked the slipmats and vinyl (these units have both of these things, just like real turntables), and found three power supply sources (each unit plugs into the mains individually via rather large supplied transformers/cables), your studio is certainly going to know the Stanton set-up has arrived! From unboxing to proper, fully set-up mixing took me a full morning.
It’s FireWire, not USB
The first thing to note is that this is a FireWire, not a USB, setup. You’ll need a FireWire port on your laptop or PC to use it. This probably felt like a forward-thinking decision to Stanton’s designers a few years ago when the first incarnation of this system was released, but now it seems idiosyncratic, especially with Apple’s recent launch of Thunderbolt as its “new” hardware data protocol.
This probably felt like a forward-thinking decision to Stanton’s designers a few years ago…
The bottom line is this: you need to have FireWire on your computer, and you need to make sure that specifically it’s an old-style FireWire port. If not, and you in fact have a 4-pin Firewire port (more common on PCs), there’s an adaptor provided.
But if you have any modern Mac laptop with a square Firewire port (that’s assuming your Mac laptop has one at all – MacBook Air doesn’t, for example), you’re going to need an adaptor. That lead should definitely be in the box, Stanton.
We could debate the pros and cons of using FireWire. It’s not as common as USB, and as you’ve seen, not as straightforward either. Arguably it has performance benefits (some high-end equipment and sound interfaces, especially, feature it for that reason), but the performance of say a Vestax VCI-300, tightly mapped as it is to Serato ITCH, is superlative, and that is via USB, so it’s not cut and dried that FireWire will solve latency/performance issues.
However, Stanton is where it is with this system, and presumably a USB relaunch was not on the cards. (I used it with a six-year-old and underpowered Sony Vaio and had no performance issues with the latency set low.)
Anyway, wiring the system up involves FireWiring everything together (you chain the decks into the mixer and then one Firewire cable goes off to the computer). Before actually connecting the computer you need to hit the web and download Stanton’s DaRouter software which runs in the background while you’re using the system.
If you’re a Windows user you also need ASIO drivers that are available from their site and which I needed to install separately, despite the manual assuring me they’d be installed automatically with DaRouter. (By the way, the website mentioned in the manual doesn’t exist – you have to go and find this stuff on the main Stanton site.)
I found it less than straightforward to complete this process, not least because there are conflicting methods for set-up presented in the stapled paper manual that came with my mixer unit. Presumably this is something to do with it being a review unit and it will be updated (the manual seemed quite old). Having said that, I worked it out, and to be fair, the supplied manual was detailed if a bit inconsistent, and it does implore you in multiple places to ring through for technical support if help if needed.
Once set up, I had a full-sized DJ system that frankly harked back to the days of owning real decks.
Next you need to load the Traktor Pro mapping, set the audio configurations and so on.
Stanton recommends you to click the “?” by the chosen configuration in DaRouter for full HTML guidance, and true to their word, there is a big, helpful document there that talks you through all the presets.
It’ll be a cinch to anyone who’s set up controllers with Traktor before, and it will appear convoluted to anyone who hasn’t (as Traktor always does to first-timers) – but either way, a few minutes and you’re there.
So once set up, I had a full-sized DJ system that frankly harked back to the days of owning real decks, as it sat there on our lab desk, imploring me to load up some music and give it a go. I plugged my headphones in (bizarrely, the headphone socket is right underneath the mixer, with a small extension cable to let you easily add/remove headphones without lifting the unit up), and got mixing…
Next page of Stanton SCS.1 System Review »
Pages: 1 2
Tags: stanton, stanton scs.1 system
is there a way to convert firewire to usb or minidisplay port? since i got a new laptop i dont have firewire anymore. Great review tumbs up!
[ link ]I am pretty sure there isn’t, although somebody may prove me wrong. They’re different technologies.
[ link ]I REALLY want this. How much does this cost?
[ link ]you can see the prices in the product details section at the end
[ link ]So. Much. Want.
[ link ]From what I have read and seen here, this is the system for me.. thanks for the great article and review, the only thing I hate is the price.. brb robbing a bank.
I was thinking about buying one of the scs1 decks last year when I was shopping around for my first controller. It came down to a choice between this and a Numark V7 and I went with the V7 mainly because at the time the scs1 system wasn’t working 100% as it should and I couldn’t bring myself to drop about £500 and something that had lots of potential but didn’t work properly out of the box. Kudos to Stanton though as it seems they’ve sorted a lot of the issues by using the DaRouter software.
I think the scs1 still has a lot going for it over the Numark NS7/V7′s, mainly in the flexibility offered by Traktor compared to Itch, the larger decks are also a bonus and the fact it has motorised faders gives it +10 cools points
Some of the problems are still there though, the fact that it requires a firewire port could be a major obstacle for many people. Apple have given support to Firewire way longer than any other PC manufacturer but now even they are moving away from the standard in favour of the new speedy Lightpeak/Thunderbolt standard. Going forward, I think you’re really going to struggle finding a new laptop that still supports Firewire.
In all, I think this is too little, too late from Stanton, when this system was first announced it seemed like the perfect DJ controller but in the 2/3 years it’s taken Stanton to get their act together other manufacturers have caught up and, certainly in terms of platter response, surpassed the scs1 with their own systems. If Stanton are really serious about this they need to re-think the hardware a little, USB support is a must for me.
[ link ]I guess only time will tell on that one.
[ link ]thanks for the review,,,
[ link ]my question would be , if i dont have a fire wire port on my laptop and i use a pci card with a fire wire connection – how would this affect the latency ? is it stable enough this way ?? how about ‘hot plugging’ and fire wire issues ?
(my pc laptop has a firewire connection and was using m-auidio’s fire 410 that can only be connected while the system is shut down – wich is a pain , especially on stage while setting up…)
otherwise these units look great,, would use the mixer , one turntable and the ‘kontrol x1′ for dj’ing house,trance music…
Looks good, but they screwed up on the price point and firewire. No wonder there was so much firing at stanton about 4 months ago.
The scs-1 looks great but $700 each is really not too competitive price-wise
[ link ]You can convert FW to thunderbolt which is apples latest offering for connecting devices. I have the S4 my beef with it is that the system should be modular… Anyway, this looks good apart from the FW issue
[ link ]