The announcement of Serato Control Vinyl/CDJ control forthcoming in Serato DJ 1.5 for the new Rane and Pioneer devices isn’t just exciting for anyone thinking about purchasing these mixers but also for our beloved Scratch Live community, with support also on the way for existing Scratch Live hardware in early 2014!
This October, Serato DJ 1.5 will be released, supporting the Pioneer DJM-900SRT and Rane Sixty-Four, the first devices in Serato DJ to support vinyl emulation technology (DVS). For our trusty SL 2, SL 3, SL 4, Sixty-One, Sixty-Two and Sixty-Eight users, Serato DJ support is also on it’s way and will be available early 2014. Your first taste will be a public beta period prior to the release, where you can test it out at home and get used to the new platform before support is officially released.
So... What’s in Serato DJ that you can look forward to? What’s different? Why even bother? Take a look at this short list of what you’re in for, and for current Serato DJ users, here's a couple of new things available to everyone in 1.5.
Virtual Deck Area
Serato DJ has an improved and updated Virtual Deck area, a lot of which will be familiar to Scratch Live users. See your tracks relative BPM directly on the deck, access play modes easily and scroll through your Cue points and Saved Loops.
iZotope FX & Expansion Packs
The software FX in Serato DJ are vastly improved. Choose from up to 10 standard FX, developed in partnership with industry leading FX developers, iZotope. As well as the standard offering, you can unlock our new FX Expansion Packs within the software. Unlock the Wolf Pack for free, a classic pack of basic effects and standards from other Serato products and pay $ USD19 to unlock the Back Pack, a dub pack of analog & old‑school effects. There’s more to come in the future too!
You can use the new FX in two modes. Single FX mode, allows you to control one effect per unit and control a range of parameters, Multi-FX mode, gives you control of 3 separate, chained FX per unit, with simple but powerful control.
Sync
Simple Sync is here for DJs that want to use it with Control Vinyl/CDs. If it’s not your thing just disable it and never see it again :) Hit Sync to match the tempo and beats of your tracks. In Serato DJ 1.5 there’s also a “snap to Beatgrids” option for using Beatgrids in Simple Sync mode so you can use features such as the Slicer - this option is also available for all controllers.
Slip Mode
Brand new for users coming to Serato DJ from Scratch Live. Slip Mode works in a similar way to Loop Roll. Engage Slip Mode and scratch, trigger cues and engage loops. Stop scratching or disengage the loop and the playhead will jump back to where it would have been - allowing you to always be on beat.
More Cues, More Loops
Use up to 8 Cue Points and save up to 8 Loops in Serato DJ!
Two SP-6 Sample Player Modes
The SP-6 Sample Player will be familiar from Scratch Live but now has two different modes in Serato DJ. Choose from either an advanced mode, great for preparing or complex control and a simplified mode, perfect for performance.
Library Management
The Serato library is cross-platform - your Scratch Live crates and songs will show up automatically in Serato DJ. The classic Serato library management features such as iTunes library compatibility, Prepare and History are still there as well as support for Whitelabel.net files.
We had a lot of feedback on the “played track” color in Serato DJ and are happy to say in this release we’ve added a new bright blue color option in the setup screen. So bright, so nice.
Serato Remote Support
The Serato Remote is also compatible with Serato DJ.
Serato Video Support
Just as with Scratch Live, Serato DJ supports the powerful Serato Video plug-in.