If you want to be told when the software will be available for a particular controller, you can be emailed by Serato by registering here.
Over the coming six months or so, the software will slowly be made available for all existing Serato ITCH and Serato DJ Intro controllers. ITCH users will get it as a free upgrade Serato DJ Intro users will pay a US$199 licence fee.
At that point, they’ll have “bought in” to the full Serato ecosystem, gaining access to free updates for life just like all other Serato users.Īt the time of writing (Nov 2 2012), the software is only available for Pioneer’s first Serato DJ controller, the DDJ-SX (read our Pioneer DDJ-SX review here). Users of controllers that come bundled with Serato DJ Intro will be able to upgrade to Serato DJ for a fee, to unlock the software’s full feature set. Hence we all guessed that some kind of upgrade would be made available at some point.
With Virtual DJ LE there’s the upgrade path to Virtual DJ Pro, and with Traktor LE there’s the upgrade to Traktor Pro – but not for Serato. “We need to be on that playing field too.” Serato DJ Intro successfully launched, the next issue was that there was no way to upgrade from Serato DJ Intro to Serato ITCH for DJs who outgrew it (and Serato DJ Intro, in line with all cut-down starter DJ software packages, has some clear limitations). “We’re not getting enough of these new users,” Serato’s execs will have concluded in their planning meetings. (This software is the equivalent of Traktor LE or Virtual DJ LE – bundled with controllers to give a “taste” of a full-priced package.) Serato was missing these people completely, and you can therefore almost hear the marketing thinking from Serato as it decided to introduced its last major DJ controller software offering, Serato DJ Intro. Serato DJ Intro introduced the company’s software to a wider audience, but offered them no upgrade route. The cheapest Serato ITCH-enabled controllers cost a lot more than the cheapest basic DJ controllers. To carry on the Apple analogy, the trouble was, there were lots of people who couldn’t afford to buy into the expensive world of Serato ITCH.
So the latest version of all Serato software is always available on the company’s website, upgrades never costing you anything – you just go and download the new versions as they appear, and they arrive ready-tested for your controller. This is because, of course, the software just won’t work if licensed hardware isn’t plugged in. You effectively “buy” the software when you buy Serato-licensed hardware. Serato has also always provided the software for “free”. This simplicity of operation has been forefront in Serato’s marketing and is central to its appeal to a certain type of DJ.
No set-up, no mapping, no audio configurations.
Serato has always done things a little differently when it comes to how its software works with hardware. From the company’s tight partnership with Rane (which makes Serato audio interfaces and Serato-enabled mixers such as the Rane Sixty-One for Serato Scratch Live), to the relatively small number of controllers Serato has licensed to work with its current controller software ITCH, the company has strived to provide “plug and play”, out of the box functionality.
Then, we’ll make a detailed analysis of the package. In this review, we’ll start by briefly laying out the history of Serato controller software, and explaining how Serato DJ fits in with the company’s other products (and the reason Serato DJ had to happen), to help you decide if Serato may be the route for you. It will be rolled out for all current Serato ITCH and Serato DJ Intro users controllers over the coming months. Serato DJ replaces the company’s previous flagship controller DJ software, Serato ITCH. It is currently available in the box with the Pioneer DDJ-SX (see our Pioneer DDJ-SX review), as well as a Serato DJ upgrade for users of the Pioneer DDJ-Ergo, Numark Mixtrack Pro and Denon DJ MC2000. Serato DJ is Serato’s new software for controller DJs.