The Serato DJ 1.6 Public Beta is in full swing and the official release is on the horizon. That means Scratch Live users are now making the move to Serato DJ and navigating the new interface, features and workflow. After a bit of obsessive holiday reading through the Serato Forum, i've noticed a few things people have been having trouble with. Here's a short guide so you can get your claws around the Serato DJ FX, powered by iZotope.
If you have any questions about your own workflow or want to chat about anything, just drop us a note in the comments below - we live here.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
The biggest change is that the FX in Serato DJ are now developed in partnership with iZotope, an industry leading pro audio FX developer. There’s a solid base package of 10 FX that come standard in Serato DJ and the option to activate free and paid FX Expansion packs within the software itself. Check out how to activate the Serato DJ FX Expansion Packs.
You can also now manage your favourites so that only what you actually use shows up. This is great to reduce clutter and set up a much simpler performance platform. In the setup screen, open the FX tab, where you can easily add and remove your favourite FX.
In Scratch Live there were two modes, Super Knob and Ultra Knob Mode. Depending on what you think is better, Super or Ultra, it might not have been 100% obvious what these were. Now there is Single FX and Multi FX Mode, which are both simple but powerful performance modes.
Simple FX Mode gives you control of one effect per unit alongside a range of extra parameters that you can adjust to create your own unique sound.
Multi FX Mode gives control of three effects per unit, which can be activated and controlled using one knob per effect - a really straightforward and quick way of using FX but also a way of creating interesting textures and combos.
WHERE IS ???? NOWWW????? WHAAAAAAAT?
“Echo Out” from Scratch Live has probably been the most frequently asked about effect in Serato DJ. It’s now called available in Multi-FX mode as “Combo Fade Echo” and is available in the free FX Expansion Pack, the Wolf Pack.
In Multi-FX Mode, the Tremolo effect has white noise injected to give it it’s unique sound. If you want to use a standard Tremolo without that, just select it in Single FX Mode and set the Noise Injection parameter to off.
Some of the newer FX such as Pitch Looper, actually work best when you set the depth knob to 12 o'clock. This is the neutral position and turning either way lowers or raises the pitch of the looping audio.
For some of the crazier FX like Shredder or Time Stretch, I recommend just having a play around at home. Turn it on, play with the parameters and see what works for you. It's quite fun messing with the noise sweep style FX in the Chip Pack in Single FX Mode! (Vocal mode for the Noise Pulse is quite creepy)
If there’s anything else you’re having trouble re-creating or finding in Serato DJ, let us know in the comments. There might be a simple workaround or it could be something that we are looking at adding down the line :)
FLEX FX WAT?
Rane Mixers now automatically allow the FLEX FX USB Insert to be activated so that Serato DJ software FX can be used post-fader. In Scratch Live this was a slightly hidden setup screen option. Just hit the USB Insert button on your mixer to enable this.
This sounds really confusing but basically it means you can use the software echo, delay and reverb style FX, pull the fader down and hear the tail of the echo/delay. Without this, software FX are pre-fader and when you pull the fader down, it cuts everything. Bread and butter DJ move.
Just turn it on and then use the Flex FX controls as you would with the Rane hardware FX. Rather than the channels being routed through the internal hardware FX unit, they will be routed to the software FX through the USB insert.
IF YOU HATE READING, HERE ARE A FEW VIDS
Mojaxx giving a good run through of the Wolf Pack and Back Pack FX Expansion Packs:
Logan from our Products Team with a demo using the Wolf Pack and Back Pack FX:
Tom, one of our software developers using the latest, Chip Pack FX: