Well, connected everything up, made up with the Serato integration, but having murder with drop outs now; I’ve changed the latency, turned off every app that is working in the background, still not playing nice. Is this Serato or the X1800 that isn’t working and any ideas?
Do you use Serato DJ with any other hardware? If not - then it’s definitely the software. Optimize your laptop.
There is lots of Troubleshooting & Optimization tips on Serato support pages: https://support.serato.com/hc/en-us/categories/200176274-Troubleshooting-Optimization
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Are you a Mac or Windows user?
It worked perfectly with the DDJ-SX (Version 1.9.7) before that went, and it’s connected into an iMac now (I need a hub to test it on my MacBook Pro).
IMac and MacBook Pro. Never had trouble like this with the DDJ-SX
Did you try your SX with Serato DJ. 1.9.10?
I haven’t, don’t own it anymore. It went to funding my prime setup.
up or down?
… 12 chars limit … 
Crackles, pops, drop outs, skipping etc are all things that happen when the number of things that the computer has to think about (dozens of times per second) are too much for the computer specification eg: signs that the latency setting is too low.
Every program or subroutine that’s running on the computer and everything thats connected to the computer will give the computer more and more to think about. Similarly, hooking up a MIDI device with 100 encoders and 200 LEDs may take more of a toll on laptop processing than a MIDI device with 20 encoders etc.
Remember too that a hot computer can “throttle back” or “throttle down” its CPU cores as a way of cooling the cores. So, once your computer has got a couple of hours into the party, it might not be as able to process data as quickly as it did at the start of the night - requiring the latency setting to be increased.
When it’s said that a latency is too low, an example could be where the latency figure has been set to 5ms, but really needs to be 20ms or 30ms or 40ms. There’ll never be an answer to “What latency setting should I use?” as everyones computer, background programs, foreground programs and attached hardware will be different.
So… why not just set the latency to 1000ms and leave it there?
Well, the downside of latency is that latency gives a delay between a control being pushed (moved/rotated/twiddled etc) and the computer noticing that action happening. Obviously for DJing, pressing {Play] and then a second later the music starts, is far from ideal.
So, get the computer really well warmed up (play a playlist for a couple of hours) then give the laptop a hard time… switch on all the effects, run video outputs, search lots of different ways on the hard drive, plug all the midi controllers in, all the 2nd and 3rd video monitors, record the outputted show using internally offered recording options, etc etc etc etc… Then start the latency off at about 100ms…
Search tracks, load tracks, play with effects etc… if all goes well, with no latency sounds, try dropping the latency to 50ms and do all those things again… if all goes well still, try 40ms and so on… when things start sounding choppy, or dropping out try adding 50% so, if 20ms sounded ok, but 10ms didnt work well, try 15ms…etc.
Both mate, still no difference. I’m now going to try a clean install of High Sierra!!
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Other factors that can potentially lead to audio dropouts (apologies if previously mentioned):
- Faulty/low-quality USB cable. The most obvious but often overlooked solution.
- Abundance of background processes. Disable any app/processes that are set to startup at login.
- Wi-fi and/or Bluetooth. This is more problematic for older systems, but can still cause issues. Disable during performance.
- Firewall settings. Disable or customize settings to place the respective app(s) on a whitelist/ignore list.
The above list contains potential catalysts for audio dropouts so please don’t take it as gospel as there are a myriad of factors to consider (system/computer age, OS, RAM, chipset, etc.).
Cheers.
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Appreciate the advice, and believe me, other than the USB cable (which came with the X1800) I’ve tried all of the solutions above (and don’t have a firewall at computer level).
Fresh install now, see how that goes, fingers crossed.
Just curious do you have the touchbar macbook pro?
Do you have Serato djs pitch n time plug in activated?
Not on the MacBook, on an iMac with 16Gb of memory, hat’s what is so surprising about it. Yes, hadn’t thought to turn that off, and I have all the FX as well.
You sir, have fixed the problem. USB cable, was causing all kinds of murder (I’ve reformatted the iMac; in hindsight should’ve tried the cable first 
). Borrowed my mates for his DDJ-SX and it worked perfectly.
For reference, the one that caused the issues had two “bulbs” whereas the DDJ only has 1.
Good stuff.
Do you onow what those “bulbs” are for.
I have various USB cable, from flat profile to chunky ones to Oyaide ones and to some with bulb at one or both ends.
I usually just use the same one from my last gig
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Don’t have a clue mate. Just ordered an Oyaide now, 2m class B (don’t think I need the A or S for our sound system), fingers crossed I never have problems with this again.
Now, just one further problem, why doesn’t quantise work on the hot cues? 
Apparently they are called “Ferrite Chokes”
you have to enable “Snap to Beatgrid” under the sync options for quantize to work
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