+1

That would be handy, but I'm sure low on any priority list.

+1

I need that, too!!!

+1
Important feature for me!

+1
Please that's really helpful !!

Of course, that is common sense Mr Watson! Traktor and amateur DJ softwares like Disco XT have already this feature since at least 100 years ago so to speak! like I said so many times here before, (plus I got dozens of suggestions and hours to waste to make development suggestions to Serato because they don't want to take the time to do it when they should have created these basic ESSENTIALS in the very first place instead of focusing their development time on creating new fancy non essential features). You guys are too polite here... it's not 'I need that too' you should rather be shocked that it is missing, I think it's litterally, along with other essential missing features, unacceptable as it affects the quality of our professional work as DJs. And we may have good reasons not to move to competitors.
So yes, Serato really needs to get its act together if they want to keep and deserve a reputation in the top league of world DJ sofware companies.
I personally find the missing Cue/Preview Player extremely annoying and time wasting during a live DJ set in a gig and it makes me much less effective (needs to drag and drop the track to the deck PLUS it utlises the 2nd and last deck which I would rather reserve for my next track ready to go, RATHER than, in Tracktor doucle clicking on the track in the library-takes 1/2 a second from one track to another, quick efficient, and I can compare tracks well because there's no delay in between).

It should be ONLINE AND OFFLINE, as I need to jump in a fraction of a second from one track to another to see which ones fit best together: drag and drop dissuades me from comparing as 1) it's a hassle and 2) there are many tracks to preview hence is encouraging me to do a lesser quality job.
Thank you Serato in advance to create urgently that feature asap before summer 2014, that is what I'd call a good Christmas gift! Best.

Pretty sure you meant "elementary my dear Watson" as the saying in itself is common sense. You did nail this one on the head though in that amateur software are sure to add this to their feature set. You are very quick to point out the flaws in the drag-n-drop method but are not quick enough to realize that no professional I know uses this method. When it comes to the offline player the professionals I know (same goes with the online player) use cntrl+left arrow and it instantly plays (if you have play selected). The offline mode is a preview player in itself and you are asking for a preview of a preview. Although not necessary by any means for my purposes I CAN however see it being useful for some with alternate playing styles so can understand the want for it with the online player so carry on. Just know that this is NOT quite as crucial as you think and the improvements & additions are thought by some (if not most) monumental and innovative beyond comparison compared to a preview player. As long as they are selectable options that don't put any stress on the overall performance or stability of the core software I say add anything you want and to each his own. If it bothers you that much there are always the amateur applications which are sure to have features such as this otherwise keep at it here in the feature request area and I hope your efforts are met with success.

cheers

Why would anyone need this feature? Are you looking for a way to preview another song while mixing? Like all 4 decks (or 2 if you have a 2 channel controller) are playing live?

Just use a deck that is not currently playing to preview your tracks and don't forget about the keyboard shortcuts on page 14 of the SDJ manual:

control + L = Locate last loaded track (press again for other deck)
control + Z = Undo Track load
control + P = Add track(s) to prepare panel
control + O = Open track in default media player

I'm not being a smartass, I promise. Serato already has you covered as far as previewing goes. Just figured I'd give you a refresher and hopefully be helpful and constructive in the process. Practice with these keyboard shortcuts and I guarantee you won't see a need for an additional "pre listen" feature.

Also, dude.... Drag & drop? C'mon...

shift + left arrow = Load selected track to left deck
shift + right arrow = Load selected track to right deck

page 13

I think there's a page in the manual that says that the forum mods will immediately stop reading when you use the words "Disco XT' in a post.

@deejdave: hi mate, so you think I don't know ctrl + arrow key? (good to ask first before making conclusions): of course I do, doesnt change the fact that I prefer a double click on the song and a separate Preview player like in Traktor's for my own playing style and I'm not alone like SimpsonMtl. In my personal experience my live sessions are enjoyable, effective and stress free with such a system, not with the ones you suggest, it's user preference, should it be discussed & argued about? I respect if your style's different, cheers!
@Dokumentary: thx for answers, know the shortcuts already & my opinion is still as replied above, thanks. Ah ah, very funny the Disco XT joke, so you think I'm still using it (good to ask first too) and you didn't understand I was making a point that even 'amateur DJ softwares' like it have this feature (and, along Traktor, many other good practical ones which SDJ doesn't have)? you're very mistaken. I'm just trying here to help SDJ improve for the benefit of everyone, not sneering and mocking others esp. mistakenly, like some do here, got more important things to do or use my time for. Cheers & happy new year!

To Serato: I forgot to add an important detail: What I believe thousand of users would appreciate is a PREVIEW/CUE PLAYER in the songs library like the one in Traktor, where all it takes to cue for the next song is the OPTION -my favourite one- to create a PREVIEW COLUMN (with an eye symbol for eg) in the library, and all we need to do is CLICK ONLY ONCE on it to listen from the start, then, if we wish, we can browse through the track in the CUE PLAYER with the OPTION of doing the same by double clicking on the song OR drag and drop it to the cue player (each user can chose the method they prefer!).

I think what's most important, generally, for a DJ to have an enjoyable and effective live session, is to make more user friendly and MINIMISE the NUMBER of manipulations and TIME spent for it, esp. for the preparation and cueing of the upcoming tracks (incl. Prepare/Requests playlists etc) as our TIME IS VERY LIMITED (3 min. or so) or it can cause lots of frustration & affect the mood of the DJ (not good), I can surely testify. If that time is reduced and easy to manage (second deck ready to go/beatmatched, with the best potential next song if we prefer working on 2, not 4, decks), the DJ has more time to concentrate on making the best song choices and musicality (harmonies, beatmatching, crowd pleasers, etc).

PS: although there are only 8 users here, I'm sure many others would agree with some of us but have no time to come in the suggestion feature forum or probably don't even know about it, so again I think Serato should not wait for a minimum number of users requests to start taking action on new features but rather anticipate and take their own initiatives (as I know its their system, as it could take months/years) esp. if they are basic essentials which they already know are useful or that many competitors, incl. the leading ones, already have in place for years.

Thanks in advance for your consideration. Happy new year & best wishes!

This is a feature that is very usefull for us mobile dj's. Especially when you go to a gig unprepared or the crowd isn't what you expected and you must improvise with songs you know you have but don't know how they sound. A quick way of making a playlist on the fly when you're records are spinning is a prelisten function in the browser. I mean quickly listen for a few seconds, you remember the song en go within a second to prelisten the next one and so on... So don't load them up in your player because that is time wasted and the song on the left deck may have 10 seconds left to play... Just an example.

Thanks.

So this feature has no use in a four channel environment being there is no way you are using all four channels thus one can be used for listening?

I hope this is possible with next generation software/controllers. Now you have to sacrifice a channel and load them up.

thanks. Agree with Holland -preview is missing in library-, and thanks to others' suggestions but please note that I dont drag and drop anymore but ctrl L and already know all your short cuts! yet it doesnt resolves my problem. I do not find it efficient and pleasant to prelisten in an empty deck: i like to work with 2 decks, 1 playing, another is ready to go next but i want to prelisten for future songs and i find it time consuming/distracting to toggle all the time between 2 and 4 decks (dont like 4 because takes too much screen space and dont need it for now). Traktor is not a beginner software but world leader. If it didn't mix and spread my playlists' songs all over other crated I'd have stayed with them cuz they thought about every user friendly and safety details except spotting viruses in all types of files, not just Mp3. their preview player, on or offline, does not oblige me to use and load a deck which I keep for my current and next song and i just click on the headphone logo in a second I can hear it, like 3 songs in 5 seconds, that's fast and efficient!
Deejaying is not about despising basic functions because we are of a higher level, often basic things are essential and most efficient and more important than some advanced features.

The other thing which i highly dislike is the Prepare panel, is the fact songs that disappear from the Prepare panel which to me is meant to keep my future playlist in a safe place for future use, not to make it disappear! (precisely because to prelisten we have no choice but to load them on a deck), so we are obliged to drap and drop them back again into the prepare panel, whereas with Traktor it does not disappear but instead we have a tick in a column to say it has been played plus we can remove the tick anytime and also there is a logo to say the song is in Prepare (whereas with SJD one has no idea if no good memory if track is already there or not)! so I find this panel very inconvenient and stressful during a live set. We're talking about being efficient in preparing a playlist and in a stress free manner.

I cant believe why SDJ didnt do the same as Traktor for my a.m. points and can't wait for them to create it at last, it's been make by others already for many years! These are to me the most important essentials SDJ is missing, not to mention one has no idea how many tracks are in the whole library (only in crates we know), so no way to control if any major errors like deleting crates by accident (not even a warning window to confirm deletion like in Traktor, to prevent mistakes). isn't it common sense? thx for yr feedback.
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thanks. Agree with Holland -preview is missing in library-, and thanks to others' suggestions but please note that I dont drag and drop anymore but ctrl L and already know all your short cuts! yet it doesnt resolves my problem. I do not find it efficient and pleasant to prelisten in an empty deck: i like to work with 2 decks, 1 playing, another is ready to go next but i want to prelisten for future songs and i find it time consuming/distracting to toggle all the time between 2 and 4 decks (dont like 4 because takes too much screen space and dont need it for now). Traktor is not a beginner software but world leader. If it didn't mix and spread my playlists' songs all over other crated I'd have stayed with them cuz they thought about every user friendly and safety details except spotting viruses in all types of files, not just Mp3. their preview player, on or offline, does not oblige me to use and load a deck which I keep for my current and next song and i just click on the headphone logo in a second I can hear it, like 3 songs in 5 seconds, that's fast and efficient!
Deejaying is not about despising basic functions because we are of a higher level, often basic things are essential and most efficient and more important than some advanced features.

The other thing which i highly dislike is the Prepare panel, is the fact songs that disappear from the Prepare panel which to me is meant to keep my future playlist in a safe place for future use, not to make it disappear! (precisely because to prelisten we have no choice but to load them on a deck), so we are obliged to drap and drop them back again into the prepare panel, whereas with Traktor it does not disappear but instead we have a tick in a column to say it has been played plus we can remove the tick anytime and also there is a logo to say the song is in Prepare (whereas with SJD one has no idea if no good memory if track is already there or not)! so I find this panel very inconvenient and stressful during a live set. We're talking about being efficient in preparing a playlist and in a stress free manner.

I cant believe why SDJ didnt do the same as Traktor for my a.m. points and can't wait for them to create it at last, it's been make by others already for many years! These are to me the most important essentials SDJ is missing, not to mention one has no idea how many tracks are in the whole library (only in crates we know), so no way to control if any major errors like deleting crates by accident (not even a warning window to confirm deletion like in Traktor, to prevent mistakes) etc etc. isn't it common sense? thx for yr feedback.
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sorry guys, this forum's page has copied 3x my answer! :)

Hear, hear... Agree on the prepare channel. Sometimes on a gig i just use an empty crate. The new functions are great in Serato, but i hope the programmers don't forget to improve the simple basics!

Just short words: A preview player IS handy

I like the suggestion of using a new crate instead of the "prepare" panel. Good fix for now.. Definitely useful to have quick pre listen option without loading for the above mentioned reasons. In terms of sacrificing a channel for this, vdj has a very smart cue setup in which pre listen is routed through the currently active headphone feed. I suspect this is an oversight and hope that it will be dealt with soon. In the meantime I guess it's like loading and previewing records or cds before playing them. Who said old skool is dead. One love.

Re: my last post. Shouldn't have said "currently active ". To clarify, whether Pfl for any channel is selected or not, the pre listen could be routed to the headphones. Then a button or key can be mapped for on/off. It would also be useful to have a way to scroll through it. Not necessarily a waveform..

Plz pre listen to preview tracks

I just don't understand why this would be needed... Why not use the cue button on your mixer and listen to it in your headphones?

Coz it takes a lot of time when its critical

It's not NEEDED, just a very fast and convenient way to listen without having to actually load a deck. Loading shows the song as played, possible analysis time and in two deck cases ejects an already chosen song which u have to remember because it is removed from the prepare unless u drag it back(another thread)... again..more time. Some DJs have become used to prelisten and it makes innovation and workflow easier. What we are asking for is as valid as most of the other nice new features offered. Not a necessity but an expected comfort. Keep hope alive!

All the softwares has a prelisten preview ,it really makes it easier the work flow,but the problem is serato only dedcated to scratch djs nd scratch djs dont need this feature

There are a lot of new features that scratch DJS don't need though. All good but still waiting for this to be fixed. I think serato is focused on the extremely organised DJ.. one who makes and sticks to play lists or knows all their tracks and how they work together.. less need to prelisten.. load n go..

Apologies for the double post.

SDJ present day: select song -> press load on deck a -> press play (not the song you want) -> press pause -> select another song -> press load on deck a -> press play...
SDJ in the future: select song and press the select-button, done… 'wow, that's fast!' If this is the song you want press load on deck a.

Now that SDJ can handle larger libraries this is the next logical step.

Hope someone at Serato/Pioneer is inspired to implement this in the next version software/controller.

Thanks.

So what you are saying is there is NOW an extra step LMAO. You do realize that if it stays the way it is (assuming you know your songs) is faster than what you just said.


1.) select song and press the select-button. NOW load on deck A
2.) select song and load on deck A.

Which is faster again?

I understand in order for the second option to work as planned you must be organized and know your library but not for nothing for me there is NO other way.

There are two extra steps now, the play/pause or cue button(ddj-sx) when you quickly want to listen to several songs. In a possible pre-listen function there is only one knob, which turns for selection of the song and when pressed, play's on a separate channel for quick listening. If you found the right song press the load button for your deck.
I understand when you are preparing your gig at home/studio that you don't need such a function, and SDJ is for us mobile dj's a great program. However there are always guests who want to listen/dance to something that you have and you don't know how it sounds or which version is the better one. And like ChronicX said "it's just a very fast and convenient way to listen without having to actually load a deck. Not a necessity but an expected comfort."

Cheers.

Are you adding a knob to your DDJ-SX or something?


For such a little feature it seems to me this now means each & every supported SDJ controller now needs to get an update/custom mapping in order to use said "feature" unless you plan on using this strictly with the laptop in which case this is the opposite of a shortcut..................... unless of course you are using a generic mappable sub controller as well.

I know, I know I'm a pain BUT the logistics are for more important the the feature itself many times.

I can't add anything, this is a feature suggestion. If this is done right, it must be a new feature because it has to be on a extra or separate soundcard-channel. It can't be done by simply change the midi mapping. Manufacturers of controllers and Serato has to implement this. If this was a little feature we wouldn't be having this conversation.

P.S. you're not a pain, if you don't want to use this (possibly, maybe, hopefully) new feature, just don't use it! SDJ does not work any different than before. That's logical.

I wish you guys all the luck in the world with this one.

Would it be possible for controllers with scroll and push function to have this 'mapped' to the prelisten as most of these controllers have buttons to go from crates to the various selection panels(back,forward, crates select etc.). Just a thought because I hardly push the scroll button anyway. Also I think I'll just get back to just playing and simply keep an eye on the progress if any. Remember to have fun guys.!

I really couldn't understand the need to preview a song before loading it to a deck until I messed around with Cross DJ. Now I'm on board with you guys...

+1 for pre-listen via pressing the scroll knob.

I to think that mapping it to the scroll encoder would be perfect:
- scroll to select
- press to load and start playing
- scroll to scrub through song
- press again to stop playing and go on scrolling

to keep the crate function:
- hold the encoder and turn to scroll through the crates

Also gotta have the ability to open sub-crates here.

I agree a mapping could do it and I feel like you guys would stand a chance then.

@ Holland is looking for the real deal full fledged hardware integration of such a feature as in dedicated controls on the future hardware as well as an extra channel for the preview....................... not gonna happen. This feature is just not that high of demand................ at Serato at least. Someone said it earlier I and I agree that DJ's who utilize Serato tend to be both organized and know their libraries front to back. The organization and knowledgeable alone removes any and ALL reasons for this feature to begin with I think we all agreed.

That being said I CAN see how SOME guys here would benefit while others like me could simply not use it. AS LONG AS it is NOWHERE to be found when de-selected taking up valuable layout space from some other feature we would actually use. THIS adds to the reason why the hardware integration part would never work IMO. You can't simply get rid of certain controls. Although I WOULD be on board with adding a few (unlabeled) controls that could be custom mapped to whatever we wish. I can GUARANTEE one thing. The few custom mappable (again UNmarked) controls alone would get 10X the amount of traffic this would so perhaps this venture should be started there.

Keep in mind Serato considers features based on popularity and feedback above all else. I can promise you thus far this thread has not even come close to the amount of activity that gets their attention. a.) Not a lot of numbers to begin with b.) Half the posts are people who disagree and the big one c.) Serato would have given their two cents or at least a bump of hope by now.


For reference to see what I am speaking of look at the other feature requests that made it.

1.) Sticker SYNC
2.) played tracks different colors
3.) Order change of Cue points
etc.

All these have one thing in common. They have a TON of people asking for the feature with pretty much NO ONE disputing. Furthermore Serato was vocal throughout the threads.

Examples of active threads that will most likely see the light of day serato.com

serato.com

Not trying to shut anyone's hopes down or say what's what. Just trying to give a realistic grasp on the situation and what can be done about it. I would say start small (custom mapping request) then go larger.

Point taken. I get the feeling this is gonna be like a sync button discussion. The 'old school' dj's don't want it and others do. A big plus for me is that it is in SDJ now and on the new controllers. DJ software and controllers must innovate to be ahead of the competition so i have big hopes...

Thanks for the talk deejdave we shall see, happy spinnin!

Cheers

+1

For me, if Serato would fix the "track played" logic it would eliminate the need for pre-listen. At the moment it's too easy to get tracks marked as played if they're loaded into a deck and listened to with the volume down and listening via cue.

Mike

That makes a lot of sense to me actually. There should be more specific requirements to be considered "played".

+1

Pre listen player

There's one problem with a generic pre-listen player, and that's where the output is sent. For example, the DDJ-SZ has five audio outputs. Four of these are the "deck" channels, the other is the sample player. Only the decks have the ability to go to the headphone cue channel, so however they implemented it you end up using a deck.

I'm sure there are other controllers that have different facilities but then maintenance gets to be a pain. If they fixed the "played" logic it'd allow you to use any spare deck for a prelisten facility.

Mike

All the softwares have pre listen player ,i use vdj with serato to organise my library from pre listen..key analysis ...etc vdj got it all ,am not a scratch dj so i feel serato is so limited to me in comparing also to other softwares and its so costy while others offer more options for cheaper prices

While I agree with you with your statement as a whole remember Serato is known for their performance features yet simple interface. This IMO falls into neither.

When dealing with a four channel controller I see NO reason why this would be needed. With a two channel MAYBE but the question remains.................. how?

Maybe ur right i guess its is not for my business not up my standards i should use something else fits mine

Well I mean again there is no harm in asking them. I am not trying to bully you from using Serato OR get what you want out of it. I am just stating the obvious is all. The thing is DJing itself is an evolving and very much "alive" concept so change is never really a bad thing.


Above all the big questions mus be answered. We have the what. We have the why. What is actually most important though is the how.

Serato still has not created to date (although I contacted them many times directly about it since 1.5 year) this Preview extra player in the library, nor stopped the Control Panel to delete all played songs or create an option to 'append as next' a song, which would prevent from scrolling up a long list of songs (all this is time consuming and frustrating, ineffective).

Seems like many people have never used Traktor to see the million years difference, efficiency and pleasure of deejaying with it. Djaying is not only about 2 hour set DJs who play only with 10 songs max and who don't need these practical features no much! nope, there are millions of DJs, probably a good majority of them, who are wedding/parties/function and club DJs who have libraries with 100s of crates and thousands of songs and who need them desperately with Serato.

The solution offered by Dokumentary at 11:55 AM - on 30 December, 2013, is like nightmare.com! have a try of a free Traktor version, if any, and you see what I mean, I am seriously annoyed by this, considering seriously returning to Traktor (only issue to me was their weak virus scanning & I know they considered my input), and can't understand why Serato still has done nothing about such a basic thing, as if simple things are to be despised because one is so much above that (like a 2 h set club/festival DJ), nope, simple things also make people and things great (think Mac), DJ softwares need to consider the needs of all types of users, esp. when they concern a majority of them.

sign!!

You can append to prep list, that helps a lot. And now they've fixed the track played logic using a spare deck is a lot better. Obviously if you have four mixer channels that is, it's no good if you have just two channels.

Have agree a dedicated preview channel would be nice, even if it uses the built-in audio on a laptop as latency wouldn't be an issue.

Mike

Not to mention, I forgot, that the songs, in some places, turn in color as 'PLAYED' when one previews them for just ONE second! this is causing a pro DJ to make mistakes, esp. if one does a 6-9 hours set like club or wedding/private parties DJs, being mislead into thinking he/she played the track (and not everyone has a perfect memory) when in reality it's never been played to the public… this system is stressful, requires too much thinking which the computer should spare us from so that we concentrate on selecting and playing good music.

If you don't have the main volume sliders up the track isn't marked as played now. They seem to have changed the track played logic totally in 1.7.4 - it now seems to be marked as played if the track is played AND the volume slider is open. There are no conditions like having to play in a 1-2-1 sequence anymore.

Playing with the volume down and CUE enabled doesn't mark the track as played. This was a major thing for me in 1.7.3 too as I do mainly parties and weddings where I'm often pre-listening to tracks.

Mike

I remember when, in order to preview a tune, I had to dig through the crate (often in bad light), remove the vinyl from the sleeve, load it to the deck, change rpm speed if necessary, and then either skip through it if I was just previewing the track or beat match it if I was actually wanting to see how it sounded in the mix. Then, if it wasn't suitable, I had to take it off, put it back in its sleeve, set the sleeve back in the crate and start all over again.

Now (and for the longest time) I can find, load and listen to a track in mere seconds. I can preview several tracks in just a few measures, choose the one I want and have it mixing in no time. I don't need a torch. I don't need multiple crates, or worry about space to store them in the booth.
(and yes, I know that CDs made all that much easier when they came along but still)

I'm not offering an opinion on whether a dedicated preview function is needed, nor any changes to the prepare crate. I can see uses/advantages for both. Just saying that when you put it into perspective, do I really think it's worth hours of development time and other resources to shave a few more milliseconds off my time?

No. I'd rather see other areas get attention tbh.

Damn, that CD line was supposed to be after the first paragraph. Meant to press preview, not post. :-/

I'm not offering an opinion on whether a dedicated preview function is needed, nor any changes to the prepare crate. I can see uses/advantages for both. Just saying that when you put it into perspective, do I really think it's worth hours of development time and other resources to shave a few more milliseconds off my time?
No. I'd rather see other areas get attention tbh.

People have their own personal ways of experiencing or defining a DJ's efficiency in a live set esp. when the DJ improvises. In my case, that is when I see the big difference between Serato SDJ and Traktor Pro 2, just a fact : with the former I am much more slowed down and led to make mistakes or lose the songs I put in Prepare, so I don't even dare doing much prelistening and am stressed because of the limitations of the system, whereas with Traktor I can relax and be much faster and artistically efficient and on point as I can preview fast as much as I want with no stress nor risk of missing songs which I have cued/not played or put in prepare panel (disappear if played twice even for 2 seconds of cueing!). With SDJ I'm led to avoid impro. for these reasons and obliged to prepare playlists to the max., which is not handy as puts additional preparing time and work, is much limiting and not practical when one has other things to do or no time to prepare before a gig.
Best.

my above comment was a response to Marv Incredible which I quoted in 1st paragraph of my response, didnt work ...

Hi to All.

Well coming from radio's word i see the preview player a must have. It's a no brainer. When you are making playlists its essential to have a previe player.

Our automation software on the radio (Jazler) has an "autoplay" toggle button, and if you togl it on, everything you are picking is playing right away on the 2nd soundcard.

Maybe this can be implemented with an "autoload/autoplay" button that when pressed on the click, loads the song and starts playing asap from the first cue. That way you can save some more time without making many changes to the software.

The right way should be an "autoplay" toggle button that plays the track on the cue-output of the controller used, stoping any cues happening that was going on before (if the deck was playing that return to cue). And have a security measure that the volume of the channel is to 0% (so not to do a mistake with the cue button and stop the main output).

It's not so difficult

Not a edit post button??

Guys it's 2016 fix that at least

I think a playlist/library preview player would be very handy since we today can not use serato to preview songs without it being marked as play when using serato in HID mode. This is very annoying, even for a small 1-2 hour set more so for a set up to 5-6 hours. (did I only preview this track or did I play it?? when your whole playlist is marked as played at the end of the night)

If you could preview from the library instead of loading it into the track your track played/unplayed list would still be intact. (I know this is not a factor when using a controller) But for us who is using serato in HID (Im sure there are more then me out there who is).

+100 on this!!

There are new options via 1.9.2 to mark or unmask as played. Not exactly what u are looking for but may help.

Sometimes I end up making a new crate to hold a track which I would otherwise put in the prepare window if it wasn't going to disappear :/

+1

+1


Brilliant answer to a problem that shouldn't even exist.

+1

+1 preview option is needed.

I've only been with Serato for about a year. Originally, I also wanted a dedicated "Prelisten" feature that did not require loading the song into one of the decks.

However, after witnessing a bunch of new releases of Serato DJ (to fix bugs, to add really important things like Pulselocker, to smooth the waveform for the SSL groupies, and to react to Rekordbox), I'm afraid I must now join the Nay Sayers - there is no way they could do this without causing a monumental mess - it's just not in their DNA.

You want a dedicated "Prelisten" feature that works, or software that actually makes use of your mouses right button, get a different DJ program.

"get a different DJ program" - that's a bit strong lol! You know this is the feature request forum, seems fair for people to ask for features.. If anything preview would be more useful to me than pulselocker.

If we could map preview to custom midi buttons that would probably be best. That way it doesn't disturb the UI or spirit of the software. Its invisible unless you want it. There's plenty of ways it could be done without needing right click.

What channel would it route through?

It just needs to come out of the headphone cue. I think Rekordbox handles it the best. It has a very small play icon by the track name to preview the track. As soon as you move the mouse away form the icon it stops playing. Its quicker because it doesn't need to load up waveforms etc. and its the minimum amount of interaction needed by the user. Makes it very quick to look through tracks.
It makes sense to me. Its not some mad feature, its a simple thing to streamline our performance.

So you would take off your mixer headphones and put on laptop headphones?


Songs actually play as fast as you can load them regardless of the wave form. There is little to no delay at all, you can even load the next track and have it hit on beat.

No it would play out of the mixer headphones, same as any cued track. But you can click through and play them rather than loading the track into the deck.

You are right though, it does load them and play very quickly if you first press play and then leave it playing then load the next one.

But especially on library view it gets annoying dragging the tunes up over and over again just for a quick preview. Give it a look on rekordbox just for comparison. Its simple and handy, doesn't get in the way of anything. Just a little play button next to the track name and it stops playing as soon as you move away..

I can understand not wanting to load files by dragging them. Kills me every time I see someone doing that.

But its pretty easy to move and load with the arrow keys, and even load next file with just one click.

And you can pretty easily save a cut in the prepare window to return to it.

Hmm you know after thinking about what you said I think I worked out what the problem is.

I like to use the option to lock the playing deck to avoid any mistakes. But that means that any fast loading tricks like the keyboard shortcuts don't work anymore. Because of the lock, I have to stop playing the track first then load the next one. So every time I want a preview I have to stop, load, play, stop, load..

So instead of a preview function what would be better is if the deck lock gets released when the volume of the track is all the way down. Then I can quickly load tracks and do my previews but as soon as I raise the volume then the lock should kick in.

That would match how the played track marker works. It doesn't register a play until the volume goes up. This would probably be a lot easier for them to add to Serato too..

Boom. Good, I can agree with that.

And that might be possible to do by assigning the fader position to the lock-deck by editing the midi xml. Might work, might not.

Consider just leaving your decks unlocked too ;)

I thought you would say that ;) thing is I have two controllers, an Akai AMX and AFX and its possible to load tracks in multiple ways with these things. I can even load tracks with the pads on the AFX if I leave it in the wrong mode. So basically there is really a lot of room for error.

Is there a way to delete midi functions without assigning anything after? Maybe I could get rid of some of the traps on these controllers. I know in the Serato beta 1.9.3 it says there are new midi options. I will take a look.

Yes.

Exactly ! there is nothing to discuss, creating this basic feature should be a no brainer and is an essential, not for gimmicks but as a foundation for good user friendly and efficient DJ tools in order to allow good/efficient mixing esp. for DJs who manage thousands of tracks (weddings, birthdays, public events etc) and not 2 hours sets like a minority of DJays ! It is done by all other major professional softwares like Rekordbox DJ and Traktor, so why Serato would call itself a music software world leader when it lacks basic features like this one who again are crucial for good deejaying, especially for improvisation and last minute public requests ? (not to mention favorite playlists, Prepare panel not deleting automatically pre-selected tracks after play, etc). I've been telling Serato this for 3 years nearly now and nothing has changed (I had to leave Traktor who mixed randomly my music out of its crates : they denied it for 2 years but finally acknoledged to me their software fault last year ! I call this lying to clients-sad since I used to love Traktor now I cant trust it anymore as it had power to destroy thousand of hours of library making work!).

This is why as soon as I have time, I will use REKORD BUDDY 2.0 (next.audio) which has just been finally released (Sept. '16) in order to move my Serato library to Rekordbox DJ by Pioneer (and other softwares if needed) which seems to me the most advanced, practical and professional DJ software on the planet. Bless and good luck to you all!

That's exactly what I just said in my other post, you confirm it : Rekordbox DJ seems to be the best and most practical/efficient pro DJ software on the market now esp. for live improvisation with big libraries for generalist DJays. Thanks Serato for helping me during the transition phase, at least SDJ caused no damage to my library, that's what we call being 'stable' innit ?

+1

+1

I think adding this to the prepare tab would be a good idea. I'm not going to bother quoting all the messages about why this is needed but I use both SDJ and VDJ. I mainly use VDJ for my gigs and having multiple versions of songs, and re-drums, bootlegs, remixes, and even though I use Mixed In Key for my key detection it's nice to quickly hear if it really fits or not. Even just to make sure it's the song you think it is. This also comes in handy with Content Unlimited in VDJ and I'm sure anyone with Pulselocker would love to be able to prelisten to the songs instead of downloading it to your hard drive then loading it on a deck to listen (if that's how Pulselocker works anyway?)

I've been telling Serato about this for at least 3 years. That's so dumb and not worthy of a software claiming to be a professional world leader with so many essential and basic features missing which make easy the most important part of the job : prelistening, selecting and storing apart playlists for live play, especially for generalists DJs who play 6+hours set of improvised music. Right now, using SDJ is an unfriendly nightmare for me and I'm 'out of here' as soon as I have time ...
MOVING my library from SDJ TO REKORDBOX DJ (released oct. 15) thanks to the long awaited new and fixed version of REKORD BUDDY 2.0 (found at next.audio), allowing to move from a software to another in both directions (Traktor, SDJ, iTunes, Rekordbox and Rekordbox DJ).

_This is why i don't use serato for my gigs!
Pre-listen option is ESSENTIAL!!!!!!!
YOU CANNOT LOAD A TRACK INTO TRACK 3 THEN SWITCH CUE POINTS THEN IF USING DDJ-SR ITS EVEN MORE CONFUSING,........
PRELISTEN OPTION IS EESSENTIAL BC IT TAKE TO LONG TOP DO ALL THE HANDLING BEFORE U PRELISTEN A TRACK.. AND YOU DONT HAVE TIME GOING THROUGH THAT O A gIG!

i cannot understand how serato team does not understand that. Obviusly they never play at gigs. Big thumbs down for serato..
šlus i even bought all the effect packs for serato which now i dont even use becouse serato doesnt have the pre-listen option!!!!
Serato why don't you make it for gods same but for our sake aswell!!!!!!!!
freaking Lazy losers!!!!

After struggling with various work-arounds (unloading/reloading cued deck, sampler, etc.), I took my own advice and giged this past weekend with different software, Cross DJ. Worked beautifully, and what a pleasure having a dedicated and easy to use Prelisten feature.

Even though my Spanish is poor, I'm now the preferred DJ for the local Latin Club, and I absolutely need the ability to go very quickly through my library using just my ears (600+ Salsa Dura alone). If Serato does not include this in V2.0, I'll probably stop using it.

I said this before - just have two versions. One version for those who DJ in the real world (and are willing to put up with a few bugs as the software advances), and a rock solid, refined-to-death version stripped of everything (no sync, prelisten, etc.) for Heroes, SSL Groupies, or those who wish to impress others with their DJ skills in a YouTube video.

Once a feature is rock solid in the real world version (by a large group of DJ's, not just a small group of Beta testers), give the those who use the stripped down version the option to use it, or not.

Whats wrong with Cue?

Whats wrong with Cue?

This.

The software? Cuz turntables don’t have a cue button.

lol

you are missing the point.

Since the likelihood of a prelisten feature is nil, having the software actually locking ONLY the Playing Deck that's outputting to the Master would be a big help (when "Lock Playing Deck" is selected in Setup.

The software already sense this and only marks the song as "Played" if's outputting to the Master. Implementing this shouldn't be hard.

"Lock Playing Deck" is good, but really slows down using the other decks for previewing.

That’s not my experience at all. If I preview a song on the other deck it gets marked as played.

That's some sort of bug.

So what's wrong with cue?

Both scenarios are possible depending on your settings. Bug? LOL

A - "Serato DJ considers a track played if you have cross faded to the track and brought the line level fader up. If you don’t do both these actions, the track will continue to stay unplayed or “white”."

B - "You can choose to show tracks which you have auditioned, but not actually played, by checking the show unplayed tracks box. The session will then also list these tracks in grey, along with actual played tracks."


support.serato.com

I've had tracks marked as played after only loading, both faders closed. The behaviour would change in the middle of a session then work again after 20 tracks or shut down. It was a bug.

A possible answer -
serato.com

+1

+1

come on guys! if the so many people wan't a prelisten feature, why don't you just make it?
and stop asking why. and thats vbad and such idiotic claims. Just look how virtual dj is set up! and you will know what i mean. It is not a good idea not to have a pre-listen feature on mouse click. It is an absolute must and those who claim.. whait is wrong with cue, have no idea what a pre-listen feature is all about.
Pre-listen feature gives you the opportunity to listen to a song and quickly go through the whole song with mouse clicks without putting the song into a deck.
why is this good? it is good because if you load a song into a deck, let's say we have two decks. One deck is playing a song, and the next deck is empty. If you are not sure which song to put into the empty deck it is good to prelisten to it, so you dont, fuck up the next song that is going to be played, because sometimes you just need to use a fresh song that you never played before. This is so important not to lose your dj flow, and to make people who have song happy by adding a song into the mix, that satisfy you and the listeners wishes. you becvouse youn know the song fits and the listener because you grant them the wish.
2. secondly: if you accidently put a song into a deck that has poor quility for some obscure reason you dont know untill you hear it, so its better to prelisten to it before you even put t into an empty deck so your music mixx doesn't get interupted by removing the son g from the deck putting another one into deck, and if even that one is bad .. you get silence.. which is terrible on a performance... so prelisten function is a must!!! i don't know how you don't realise that!!!!

open track in defoult media player? are you serius? and listen to it where?
keyboard shortcuts? are yo serius?.. what are we in stone age? Just look hw virtual dj has set this up: follw the same example. Mouse click oand drag a song into a prelistener and click forward in the song viewer. and you hear the song in your headphones in the program. If you have cue on of a track you hear them even together. So to listne to a track you need to close the cue's of the song which makes perfect sense. isnt that simpler then remembering shortcuts. and having shortcuts? Is it really so hard to make a prelisten function Serato People????? Come on!!

plus you cannot switch between windows while dj-ing its not a smart thing to do!! (using diffrent music viewer using control O)

So you guys want to preelisten through the laptop headphone jack?

Akiem, you do smart aleck remarks like this deliberately?

Guys, don't inflate a couple of people replying to the same post over and over again on here being a TON of users who think this is a priority. While it would be nice, on a scale of 10 it's around a 2 for probably more than just myself.

Watching folks get so worked up about stuff on here is funny, you need a new job, hobby or another software suite completely.

I must be missing something. I don't get it.

I 'pre-listen' to tracks by throwing them onto a deck and monitoring through the headphone cue. It's the way DJs have 'pre-listened' since forever.

The only argument I can possibly think of for not doing it this way is so that the history log doesn't get populated with tracks that haven't actually been played. There's no need to worry about tracks turning blue, because that should only happen if the fader is up AND the crossfader is open which, if I'm not mistaken, is the only way they get added to the history log (see djdave's post above).

If all that is true, then it destroys the ONE argument i can think of against doing it the way I mentioned above. Other than that, even after reading all the comments, I just can't see what the benefit or 'MUST-HAVE' urgency is. You can still preview hundreds of track quickly this way, so no benefit or advantage there. I'm not too familiar with controllers, so they might well have some limitations that mean it works differently, but I've never personally known it to be a problem on any of the controllers I've ever used.

After all, even if it was implemented (like the way I think it works in say, Rekordbox), all you'd get is a straight playback of the song. You wouldn't be able to see what it sounds like mixed into the playing deck, or change the speed, or check how it would sound with certain FX, tweak parameters etc. These are all things I often do when 'previewing' a track.

ha. Popnwave's just chimed in with a comment while I'm writing this and I'm with him. Think I'm gonna go get something to eat. Besides popcorn. lol

Seriously though. No one's trying to be a smart-ass. It's just that I (for one) am yet to hear a plausible case for this feature.

Doctors used to operate without anesthesia, but science moved forward.

You can not understand what you have no experience with. Most who are requesting this have used other DJ software that had it.

Nope, completely by accident, coincidence and happenstance.

Only, I was asking a question.

The 'it's new technology' arguments always make me laugh.

What 'new' technology? A laptop? A headphone jack?


Maybe surgeons should operate by VR phone headsets since it's 'new technology'?

Ah ha. It seemed an unusual question, given there had already been over a hundred messages in this thread - so you either really didn't understand what we were talking about, or you were being sarcastic. I gave you the benefit of the doubt and assumed the later, I guess I was wrong.

Neither on of those options sounds too great.

I thought maybe there were several possibilities or something I actually didn't understand about the request. Because now I'm guessing you don't use headphones now, or you will be using two sets of headphones, or pluging into the mixer then laptop then back to the mixer... whatever...

Half a century of just cuing the next record.....

Speak for yourself bruv. Don't insult my intelligence. If that's the best argument you've got then I guess you don't have one.

It was answered earlier in the thread -
serato.com

"Unfortunately, Serato DJ does not have a dedicated song pre-listen/preview feature - you must first load a song into a deck or a sampler. Most other DJ software has it, and if you've ever used it, you know how handy it is, especially after songs are already loaded in the decks.

Many people have asked (in the Features Suggestion Forum) for Serato to add this feature - to date it has fallen on deaf ears. What follows is my solution to the problem. It is specific to Windows, although I'm sure it can be altered for Mac's. It requires an additional piece of hardware, two cables, and a different default Windows Player. Here goes -

Serato has a keyboard shortcut - Ctrl O - that plays a song highlighted in it's library browser through the laptops headphone jack, using Windows Media Player (or whatever default player you have). We will take advantage of that, but first the default player must be changed to this -
www.trayplayer.com

Why? Because it is one of the few players that runs completely in the background and never captures "screen focus". I'm going to assume you know how to change your Windows default player to this new one.

Now, you will need a headphone mixer. Anything should work as long as it's stereo - I already had a Multimixer 6 (typically around $30 on ebay). Next, a 1/8" stereo jack and cable to feed audio from the laptops headphone jack to the mixer, then a 1/4" stereo jack and cable to feed audio from your controllers headphone jack to the mixer. Your DJ headphones also plug into the mixer. At this point it should be self evident how this works.

Turn off the PL button(s) on your controller, hit "Ctrl O" on your laptop, and using the laptops up down arrows you can fly through your library pre-listening! You can also customize keyboard shortcuts for the Max Tray Player - just make sure they don't conflict with any of Serato's. That's it."

Unfortunately, this is a Windows/controller based solution that still uses keyboard commands. I have only posted it because I believe Serato will never include a a dedicated Prelisten feature.

Aaaand a light goes on! I see it now. I think I'm so used to having access to 3 and 4 decks i forget what it's like to be restricted to just two. I can totally see where a preview feature would help in that situation.

#1



#2






These are just the last two users who are pro-prelisten. Supposedly asking for the same thing yet on comletely different pages. There are already so few users asking for this in the first place so perhaps it would be best to take a step back, regroup and unify. A few points I can agree with personally are:


There ARE advantages to having this.
It is by NO means necessary.
It SHOULD be possible to implement.
Other DJ apps DO have this.
Using such a feature by NO means makes you less of a professional.
Not wanting said feature is by NO means ignorance.
There ARE other ways of getting similar and often times more useful results by alternative methods such as a third/fourth deck (hardware permitting).

FTR I am unbiased on this one as I have no use for it personally but if it helps others and does not affect my workflow why not right?

How about instead of another mixer, extra cables, software in background etc, you set up a four deck situation? SDJ has that.

In all fairness his solution involves stuff you may already have and it keeps your footprint to a minimum. Purchasing a 4 channel device is sometimes easier said than done........

These are all good points. My solution IS a work-around - the best solution is to add the feature to the software.

I understand the concern that SDJ still had a lot of things that needed to be addressed first. IMHO, I think 2.0 (or PRO) will address that. It has taken so long to happen that it's not a case of simply compiling for 64 bit, or sourcing Serato approved hardware for 64 bit drivers - code has to have been re-written.

All the other major players have this feature. I know that of itself means nothing, but judge it by it's merits, not the fact it's "Virtual DJ ish".

I play a lot of music from the 50's to 70's time frame. Most songs are only 3 minutes long, usually less, because at that time radio stations is the US would not air longer songs. If I'm freelancing the song Cue, have a half played song "A", another already loaded in "B", maybe dealing with a person who wants a song request, it can definitely start to get rushed looking for that third song by ear. At this point a fast, simple preview feature, that by design I cannot play in the main mix (by mistake), is a huge help.

There are several feature requests that involve the laptop card from day one. As far as I know Serato has always ignored or said no. This feature has several viable options so I highly doubt it ever happens.

1. The finder/window player and external headphone mixer.
2. Using Ctrl+z will automatically load the track you are reserving.
3. 4 Decks. Seems like Serato would want you to go that rout. So there doesnt seem to be any incentive for them to implement this

+ 1

I need this feature too, immediately.
I'm fine with payment for this.

Please develop some expansion pack with this feature asap!

You can get some sense of the frustration level when you see posts like this - people actually willing to pay for improvements - but in truth this is actually not a bad idea.

Since the good people at Serato obviously feel a prelisten feature isn't worth their time, perhaps a financial incentive to do so will help.

I'm also willing to contribute for developing a plugin/expansion pack that includes this, $50.00 USD.

In fact, if all future improvements were determined this way (literally putting your money where your keyboard is), it would help them determine what people really want by simply adding up the amount proposed to help develop it!!

Start a go fund me

Maybe few more bids like this will find somebody from external development for this simple job in case that Serato don´t care :)

Approved 3rd party plug ins are an interesting feature if the code base would allow it. Treat it like some game companies do for game mods on PC and console.

can you explain why Serato wil never make a pre-listen feature?

and i thought costumer is always right... right??
nope.. ..

usually wrong actually.

lol

All opinions aside of this feature I am cringing at the thought of what the SW would be like if every person who thought their idea was "THE" idea got their way and Serato added it just like that. Let's keep in mind that the second any given person off the street purchases the SW they become the customer. The prerequisites include skillsets such as breathing and being able to push some keys on a keyboard...............do you really think this qualifies them to be making decisions that could potentially affect us all?

Agreed Serato should not implement every feature that is suggested but in the event they did, most features can be toggled on and off in the settings. Personally I like flexibility as I tend to experiment with tools that I dont regularly utilize. Sometime Im like "yep i'll never use that" and sometimes I have a realization like "whoa I wish I had tried this sooner!"

That said id definitely give a +1 for a prelisten feature!

True but every second spent developing item X means less time for stuff that matters. Furthermore bloat becomes an issue as well as items running in background not just visually.


All good just pointing out the obvious is all. In other words reiterating the customer is not always right when it affects other people who may or may not have different needs/wants.

And to add something to this I can 100% see the use for this item IF it is implemented as RBDJ has done. A visual overview of the individual tracks in the library could be huge.

Good news ! at last, and I hope Serato will follow in their steps, big basic improvements have been just released by Serato with v. 2.0.2, with such a name as 'Pro' version, it better had ONE OF the basic essential features ALL other DJ softwares have (including amateurish ones!), that is the offline mixer ! sigh ...

Ok, we don't need to be boastful and contempt full of this feature here as 'pro' DJs : although we don't use it live, of course!, it can be so useful to mix occasionally in places where we didn't plan or don't want to bring our controller or CDJs because it's not worth the risk of damaging it or else (ex. : a job for a school, unplanned party on holidays ...).

Now I do encourage Serato to keep keeping on and move on to creating urgently in the near future the other ESSENTIAL basic/simple DJ features without which DJaying becomes a hassle and of lesser quality because of poor working tools (which all other competitors HAVE), which I've constantly begged them to create since 4 years ! :

- PRE LISTENING PANEL in the library.

- correct the BUG of the useless 'Prepare' panel which is a disaster and prone to make big DJ mistakes : doesn't do its job to put aside songs : it makes them disappear if played twice (as we PRELISTEN in the deck BECAUSE there's no other place to do that !). Is anyone thinking logically here ?

- manually set When (ex. : set the play time after which it disappears) and IF played songs disappear or Not from the Prepare Panel (like Traktor).

- indicate, for each track, in a special column, its state by a special icon (ex. : if it's in the Prepare Panel : will avoid us from prelistening it again if we forget), see how Traktor does that well : it's clear and makes us avoid wasting time + to show us in which Crates it is.

- an automatic confirmation window (ex: 'confirm Yes or No for this command') for each important SDJ command to avoid irreversible disasters by pressing keys or SDJ buttons accidentally (ex. : 'show itunes library' which is trouble maker)

- A 'cancel last operation' in case of mistake.
- A possibility to save SDJ's library at anytime during a session to prevent losing its data in case of accidental crash
- etc ...

Thanks in advance. Best regards.

I agree with that part

No

Prelisten....yes please!!!!!!

I have a question about Serato Remote. I can scroll with Serato Remote thru the library (of the connected laptop), but is it also possible to prelisten a selected song on the (Serato Remote) Ipad, without load that specific song into a virtual deck (on the laptop). This loading into a virtual deck, costst a lot of value time, I've to decide quickly which song has to be played next. For instance Mixvibes provides, a perfect solution. In Cross DJ it's possilble, by right mouse clicking directly on a song in the library, to prelisten your song without loading it into a deck. And that saves a lot of search time. It's this,essential, option I'am missing in Serato.

No, it's not possible.

Would love to see the pre listen feature too.
You could e.g. implement it with a combination of shift and browser knob:
Shift-Click (browser encoder) loads the track to pre-listen. Then keep holding shift to keep the track playing and use the browser encoder to scroll through it in 4 bar increments. Releasing shift (or shift-click again) unloads the track and ends the pre listen.
This would work with most hardware as there's no extra buttons/ knobs needed.