Serato DJ Pro General Discussion

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 Serato DJ Pro General Discussion
Get the Currently Playing Track to a Text File
Talk about Serato DJ Pro, expansion packs and supported hardware

Get the Currently Playing Track to a Text File

nock 4:53 PM - 27 March, 2020
Hi all, First time posting and a relatively new Serato user.

Over the last couple of days I've been doing some research to try and find a way to get the current track name from Serato to a text file, so that I can use it in a Text item while streaming DJ sets in OBS Studio. During research it looks like there were quite a few people looking to do similar things to be able to output the track and artist to streaming programs like icecast and BUTT.

I have managed to find a way to do this, utilizing the "Live Playlist" feature within Serato and have created a small application (currently windows only) do get this data (I got the inspiration from this historical post: serato.com). It is however dependent on being able to access the Live playlist on your Serato profile, therefore it's only a viable solution if you have internet.

For anyone who would like to try this, I have created the following GitHub project, where I will continue to work on the project over the coming weeks months. You can find the project here - github.com - and require no other software to run along side it.

If there is already a solution for this out there, please can somebody point me in the right direction.

Many thanks, Nock
9807852 1:28 PM - 8 May, 2020
Hey Nock,
Thank you - I have downloaded and installed your software
So, serato was free with my controller (pro). I have activated 'live play lists' and pointing your software to my userid/live but my text file is not updating with the track names.

I found this in the serato manual

Live History
Serato DJ Pro has a 'Start Live Playlist' button in the History panel. Clicking this button initiates a 'live' Playlist whereby your track listing is sent to Serato websites as you play it. From here, your friends and fans can watch real-time updates of the set you’re playing at the club/on the radio/in your bedroom.

I don't have a 'start live playlist' button, only a start session/end session. Am I in the right place?

If I can get this going, I'll happily create a 'readme' for you :-)
nock 4:14 PM - 8 May, 2020
Quote:

I don't have a 'start live playlist' button, only a start session/end session. Am I in the right place?


At first I found it a bit hit and miss as to whether it would work or not, however I worked out how to get it to appear always.

Go into Settings > Expansion Packs > Serato Playlists. Disable both "Enable Serato Playlists" and "Enable Live Playlists" and then close the settings. Then go back into Settings > Expansion Packs > Serato Playlists and enable both settings again. From here, go to history and the option to start Live Playlist should then be visible.

Let me know if you need anymore help on this
9807852 7:05 PM - 8 May, 2020
Perfect mate, that works - another key point, make sure controller is connected, I think that helps :-)

If any use to you ....... we.tl
nock 8:10 PM - 8 May, 2020
Glad you got it working.

I’ll be working on expanding it in the near future 😀
Djelad00 6:36 AM - 9 July, 2020
hi, i've open sourced a java "api" that will output track-info events whenever a track is loaded or ejected in Serato.

feel free to use it if it's helpful:
gitlab.com
nock 11:54 AM - 24 August, 2020
All, today I have released a new version of my tool, Serato Now Playing - Lite. This is primarily a stripped down, .NET Core port which allows it to be run on Mac.

You can find more information about how to install and use this tool on the Git Hub page linked above, or directly on the release page - github.com
Lee Miran 3:22 AM - 23 September, 2020
Hi Nock. Nice tool. I created something similar for Mac using Python that is distributed as a native Mac binary app, for those that don't want to go the .NET Core installation route.

It runs in the menu bar instead of terminal - github.com
nock 10:18 AM - 23 September, 2020
Quote:
Hi Nock. Nice tool. I created something similar for Mac using Python that is distributed as a native Mac binary app, for those that don't want to go the .NET Core installation route.

It runs in the menu bar instead of terminal - github.com


Nice work Lee :)
sexteixeira 10:07 PM - 26 September, 2020
I want to use this but I can’t find the star live playlist thing. When I click history I don’t see this option. Where is it?
sexteixeira 10:09 PM - 26 September, 2020
Quote:
I want to use this but I can’t find the star live playlist thing. When I click history I don’t see this option. Where is it?


Sorry, I re read the thread today and there’s an answer.

:P
Lee Miran 8:12 PM - 17 October, 2020
For anyone interested, the latest release of my similar tool now retrieves the song info locally from the Serato history log, no longer requiring the use of the Live Playlist. You can get it here: github.com
Ricoposse 2:30 PM - 18 October, 2020
Quote:
For anyone interested, the latest release of my similar tool now retrieves the song info locally from the Serato history log, no longer requiring the use of the Live Playlist. You can get it here: github.com


Hello Lee

Im having problems getting the tool to launch. I've the recommended methods of extracting it to the downloads folder then moving it to the applications folder as well as using the terminal command, but still nothing. My OS is High Sierra. Any tips?
Lee Miran 5:25 PM - 18 October, 2020
Quote:

Im having problems getting the tool to launch. I've the recommended methods of extracting it to the downloads folder then moving it to the applications folder as well as using the terminal command, but still nothing. My OS is High Sierra. Any tips?

Make sure in the Security settings in System Preferences that you have given permission to the app. Unfortunately, Apple’s security measures for unsigned apps are a big pain and I only have a Catalina and Mojave machine to test with. So, I’m not able to support beyond those 2 OS versions.
akakak 8:54 PM - 19 October, 2020
This is amazing! Thank you, Lee. You're my hero.

How could I get this into the format that Audio Hijack expects? This nearly works perfectly!

All the fields are optional, so only really need the first two fields. An example:

Title: Song Title
Artist: Artist Name
Album: Album Name
ArtworkData: <Base64'ed contents of image data>
Artwork: file:///Users/ammo/Desktop/artwork.png
Time: MM:SS

rogueamoeba.com
sexteixeira 11:48 PM - 19 October, 2020
Leo, fantastic app and the answer to my prayers, but I have an issue. When I try to select a document to have the infos written on to, they are grayed out. Apparently it'll only let me choose a folder, not a file.

I'm using a Mac and tried with both TextEdit and Word files.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
sexteixeira 11:54 PM - 19 October, 2020
Quote:
Leo, fantastic app and the answer to my prayers, but I have an issue. When I try to select a document to have the infos written on to, they are grayed out. Apparently it'll only let me choose a folder, not a file.

I'm using a Mac and tried with both TextEdit and Word files.

Any ideas?

Thanks!



Solved. It was an RTF file, I just made it .txt.

Thanks!
Lee Miran 3:40 PM - 21 October, 2020
Quote:

How could I get this into the format that Audio Hijack expects?


The latest update, v1.4.0, now allows independent prefixes and suffixes for both the Artist and Song data chunks. So getting the two data chunks to be read by Audio Hijack is just a matter of prepending the required metadata field names and also selecting the Multi-line Indicator checkbox.
Res-Q 8:02 PM - 28 December, 2020
Thx Lee for this update and the Local way of getting the song info instead of going through the live playlists.

I managed to get it working as local with a mac and a streaming pc in a network.
It worked, for a few songs, then i restarted both machines, and now I cant launch the app on the mac. (catalina).
If I clic open on the app in the app folder, nothing happens, the app doesnt launch anymore.

Because the app doesnt launch, i cant give any permissions in the system prefs.

I did try the terminal command, but i run into an issue: terminal then asks for a password. If I type the pw of my mac nothing writes in the terminal, so i cant apply this sudo command.

If I am hijacking this thread and if u need me to post this in private or on github let me know
Res-Q 8:08 PM - 28 December, 2020
ps
the text file is on the pc
the app file is in the app folder on the mac

this setup worked for 3-4 songs, then i restarted and since then i cant launch the app. Should I reinstall it or try something else?
Lee Miran 9:59 PM - 28 December, 2020
Quote:

If I am hijacking this thread and if u need me to post this in private or on github let me know


I'll reach out to you in a direct message.
nik39 2:57 AM - 31 December, 2020
Good work!
Mr Wilks 3:31 PM - 18 January, 2021
Quote:
For anyone interested, the latest release of my similar tool now retrieves the song info locally from the Serato history log, no longer requiring the use of the Live Playlist. You can get it here: github.com


I've just updated to 1.4 as I didn't realise there was another version. Really nice update and it works great.

I find the system notifications on MacOS are a bit hit and miss and when I first start I get one when it is set off and when it is on I don't seem to get them but that could just be the setup so I'll see if it is on my end.

Other than that, 1.4 is fantastic. Cheers!
Mr Wilks 3:39 PM - 18 January, 2021
Quote:
I find the system notifications on MacOS are a bit hit and miss and when I first start I get one when it is set off and when it is on I don't seem to get them but that could just be the setup so I'll see if it is on my end.


Scrap that. It seems to give me a notification every time now. Not sure what I did but it works!
DJ Ed Wong 9:23 PM - 13 February, 2021
Quote:
All, today I have released a new version of my tool, Serato Now Playing - Lite. This is primarily a stripped down, .NET Core port which allows it to be run on Mac.

You can find more information about how to install and use this tool on the Git Hub page linked above, or directly on the release page - github.com


Thanks a bunch for this - Ive now gotten it to work on a consistent basis (operator error)
DJ Ed Wong 10:38 PM - 13 February, 2021
OK - since I got totally confused but I THINK Ive got is straight now

There are TWO GitHub projects
-- SeratoNowPlaying (@nock)
-- NowPlayingSerato (@Lee Miran)

To add to the confusion, the app that NowPlayingSerato creates, is named "SeratoNowPlaying"

I've gotten BOTH tools to work, on a Mac running High Sierra (its a 2010 MacBook Pro, so I cant update it much more AND its the latest version Ive been able to get the Rane SP4 "drivers" to work on so I can get OBS to access all the stereo input channels)

Since I am running OBS on a separate machine than Serato, I need to run the "remote" version of SeratoNowPlaying.

There are some minor quibbles with both apps, but in the end, they do what they are supposed to do.
DJ Ed Wong 10:46 PM - 13 February, 2021
Im DUMB

The NowPlayingSerato app (which is Called SeratoNowPlaying), when launched, puts an icon in the "Mac Menu Bar".

I dont know my terminology very well. I had not idea what the "Mac Menu Bar" is

Its the little icons in the upper right were the clock is and the batter indicator etc are