Sorry 'bout the rant.

I've just sent a rather long letter to some people at Numark, so I feel much better now :D

Hey Roy Levi,

Could you please specify which chapter and page did you find see this in the manual? I'd like to have a read of it and i couldn't seem to find it.

I tried this myself with smart sync enabled in the setup of Serato DJ. It worked find for me once the overview had been made it would sync with a beat grid.

What type of files are you using?
Does this happen to all files?

Regards
Dave W

You will find it on page 17 in the chapter Preparing Your Files of the Serato DJ 1.1.2 Software Manual - English.

It's written in bold letters on the top half of the page:

"NOTE When hardware is connected, Set Beatgrid and Set Auto BPM options are in effect. Keep these checked in the offline player if you wish to have new tracks analyzed with these values when dragging files to a deck."

The problem is reproducible with mp3 files from Beatport and DJCity among others. The problem exists on both Mac and Windows versions. Please note that *neither* BPM nor Beatgrid is calculated.

Files that have been "manually" analyzed in the offline player work fine.

However, if you delete the BPM from a previously analyzed track (warning about editing beatgrid will be shown) and load it to a deck , it will *not* recalculate BPM and Beatgrid.

I didn't see anything in the manual on that last part, but it certainly would be expected behavior. Feel free to reference this related discussion: serato.com

In both cases *manually* entering a BPM value will also calculate a Beatgrid.

Hey Roy Levi,

This behavior is normal. If the track has not been analyzed before it will do as specified in the manual:
"NOTE When hardware is connected, Set Beatgrid and Set Auto BPM options are in effect. Keep these checked in the offline player if you wish to have new tracks analyzed with these values when dragging files to a deck."

However if the track has already been analyzed and you delete the bpm it will not force analyze the track again just because you add it to deck. This is because the overview has already been built and the tags written to the file. Liken it to deleting the artist name and then loading the track back to deck and expecting Serato DJ to then add that artist name again. It will analyze it once only when added to deck for the first time, after that if you wish to reanalyze you'll have to do that via offline mode.


Warm Regards
Dave W

Let me make this perfectly clear, fresh tracks that have never been analysed does not calculate bpm or Beatgrid when loaded on a deck.

Now, if bpm can not be recalculated by simply loading a track, that's just silly application behaviour, considering that it will be recalculated by analysing the track in offline mode, and also has .nothing to do with your artist metadata analogy.

Still, I'm talking about fresh tracks. The application is not performing as specified in the manual.

Could you please attach a file that this is happening with. I'll see if i can re-produce it with your file.

I'm sorry if I confused you with the additional issue of recalculating the BPM, let's just ignore that part for now.

Here are the steps to reproduce the real issue:

* Disconnect controller
* Make sure "Set Beat Grid" and "Set Auto BPM" options are checked
* Make sure "Smart Sync" option is checked in "DJ Preferences" tab under SETUP
* Connect controller
* Download a new mp3 track from Beatport
* Locate the downloaded file in the file browser
* Load the downloaded file on a deck

Seen behavior:

* Waveform is gradually calculated and shown as the file is analysed on the fly
* BPM is not calculated
* Beat Grid is not calculated
* Library metadata and ID3 tag is not updated with BPM

Expected Behavior:

* Waveform is gradually calculated and shown as the file is analysed on the fly
* BPM is calculated
* Beat Grid is calculated
* Library metadata and ID3 tag is updated with BPM

One addition to seen behavior:

If the file does not already have a BPM tag, the behavior is as described in the previous post.

If the file already has a BPM tag, that information will be used, but no Beat Grid will be calculated/shown.

Please find the attached file from DJCity. The file does already have BPM tag and will therefore only illustrate the Beat Grid part of the issue.

When this file is loaded onto a deck in Serato DJ 1.1.2, Beatgrid is not calculated.

Did you delete the Beat grid info from this track at all?

I'm currently testing other part of this discussion.

The file is clean from DJCity, the copy you got have never even been loaded in Serato DJ.

It already has an overview built. It must have been done at some stage, if there is a bpm value and overview, it will as above, not rebuild the overview in the online player automatically. I can't test this track as it's not really going to work. If I reanalyze it in offline player it builds a beat grid no problem.

I've just brought a song from beatport i'll test...

I tested an mp3 file from a source that has no metadata on the files (no ID3 tag). Once added to a deck, the track was correctly analyzed with waveform, BPM and Beatgrid.

While this is not conclusive, it might look like the problem may be related to metadata already on the file when received from source.

Yes, that has always been the case. Although going offline is ... inconvenient during a set ;-)

As a possible workaround;

Is there any way to delete that overview and force new analysis on the next load? Without leaving online mode?

I've download a new track from Beatport. It had a bpm, but had no built overview. I followed your steps and wasn't able to reproduce your above issue. The beatgrid was added and calculated correctly.

Basically it seems to be functioning correctly based on the test we have both done. You are right that if the overview has been built at an early time and no beatgrid added at the time you'll need to reanalyze in offline mode to create one.

I understand it can be a hassle on fly, however we always recommend analyzing files in offline player before using them. The reason for not being able to reanalyze/ analyze groups of files in online player is that the process is a CPU intensive task. The Serato software uses the cores to process overviews and it would not be a stable or wise choice on Serato's behalf to allow users this feature.

Warm Regards
Dave W

No sorry unfortunately not. Again I suggest you prepare your tracks in Offline mode by analyzing them all and then adjusting any beatgrids in offline or online if needed.

But perhaps allowing the user to re-analyse a single file would not be a bad idea? ;-)

Anyway, if I get you right, the file may already contain some Serato metadata (like if the DJCity pool manager tests the tracks in SSL before releasing them, not saying that he actually does...). And this will prevent the song from being analysed on first load.

There is absolutely no way that the file I sent you was analyzed by Serato DJ on my machine, the song was released only hours ago and I have never downloaded it before. I also made you a copy before moving the file into my music library (and then loading in Serato DJ).

Yeah strange man, it had an overview as soon as I added it to virtual deck. It had Serato overview metadata no doubt.

Roy I strongly suggest analyzing all your songs as you get them in offline player. We also don't recommend downloading or using the web while running Serato DJ. But thats only a recommendation, it's up to you.



Regards
Dave W

Alright, thank you very much for the effort, really appreciate it!

Best,
Roy