Serato. Why Serato?

Hi there, my name is Ian, AKA Duzmoore, and I have been DJing for about 4 years now. After discovering festivals, and a passion for raving until the lights came up, I decided to give DJing a go after years of being a drummer. I got me a horrible pair of numark “wedding dj” CDJs and got about selecting tunes by the likes of prodigy, daft punk, fatboy slim, groove armada, chemical brothers. For months I was getting to grips with DJing principles (as best I could with what I had) and then learning to mix Drum&Bass when I managed to find myself on a pair of pioneers or 1210s for more than 5 minutes. It was this period that I was most thankful for in my DJing life, especially now that I use serato, which I will come to later.
 
So, there I was fiddling about with my 90s/00s classics, bigbeat and silly mashups on a pair of ridiculous CD players. And then my best friend (Benchmark aka Chaz) got serato. and a pair of turntables… It was awesome. I had been amazed by videos of Qbert and alike using serato on youtube. Mp3s on a fully controllable vinyl interface? I had to see it for myself to properly get to grips with how it works, but my understanding is as follows:
 
1) Your laptop plugs into the serato “box” via usb, through an interface, Mp3s are put into the box.
2) Turntables also plug into the box. Serato provide vinyls (and CDs) that emit a white noise, it is this that is put into the box.
3) The box is a bit of a genius and lays the MP3 over the white noise. However, the white noise has time-coded markers; if you pull back the vinyl, the mp3 follows- and it is very accurate and very responsive. look at the above, you can see that the serato suite just becomes apart of the setup and does not detract any power, space or focus from the turntable or mixer, other than adding the element of the graphics and hotkeys on the laptop.

Now that Chaz had serato, and my dance music taste was diversifying, I found myself honing my beatmatching and tune analysis skills. I was getting more used to turntables, and serato’s graphics helped more than a lame, dodgy bpm counter that i had on my CDJs. The graphics are a blessing, with the peaks and troughs of the likes of virtual DJ being replaced with colour-coded points and vertical waveforms (as seen in the centre of the above picture).

I realised that serato was a must for a DJ on a budget like myself. The initial investment (£350 for the serato suite, £530 for Scratch Live SL3) would have paid for itself after only a few months of buying vinyl as a serious DJ. I already had most of my tunes as mp3s from using CDs, and I knew that I was only going to aquire more. It was a no-brainer; I had to get serato- especially as I realised that it could be used with just a mixer and assigning CDJ style commands to the keys on my laptop keyboard (therefore, no need for turntables just yet!!!.)

http://www.decks.co.uk/rane_serato_scratch_dj_packages

I got my serato just under two years ago (after months of saving, and a month of NIL money!) and despite not owning any turntables myself, I use the vinyl interface wherever possible as it is what feels most comfortable, especially for a longer set. However, I mostly find myself using the internal function, using just the laptop and mixer to mix. After 3 years of getting into mixing dance music properly, I have found my genre and style; funky, bass driven breaks and electro. The internal function lends itself to this style perfectly as the keyboard commands act like the cue and play buttons, hotcues and loops etc of CDJs. This, combined with the graphics of the interface and ease with which you can organise your music is why serato is all about versatility and its ability to cater to a wide range of DJs.
 
Unlike what many purists believe of digital DJing (I.E. the “cheating” element), serato uses no tools like auto-sync. Although the graphics are an aid, you still need to know how to match your tunes and work with your bpms through nudging, braking and dragging etc by way of 3 possible mediums: Vinyl, CD or internal. But… You can pitch-lock tracks, which is very useful for mixing on the fly, and  playing that 105bpm tune that always sounded like alvin and the chipmunks at 125!
 
Another purist argument is the issue of using internet bootlegs, not owning something physical, not supporting the scene etc. My reasons for siding with digital media on this one is purely financial. As i said, I have been strapped for cash for quite a while. Despite a few cheeky bootlegs finding their way into itunes, (c’mon, everyone has those tunes they ripped from kool FM onto cassette tape right?) All the music I mix with is 100% legit, I am a firm believer that musicians (especially small/mid time producers working through independent labels) deserve and need the revenue from media sales. Therefore MP3 DJing allows the DJ to legally, consciously buy music at fair prices, at a decent sound quality and at any time of day or night. My chosen portals for buying music is beatport www.beatport.com and itunes, mainly for standardised 320kbps bitrate. Beatport is a little pricey at an average of £1.20 per tune, but compare this with the same tune on vinyl, and you got a bargain. Beatport is good for a comprehensive collection, well organised databases and a full 3 minutes of preview streaming. This compares poorly with itunes’ 30 seconds glimpse of a preview; however, 79p tunes is a steal despite a limited dance music database, apart from those cack house covers of cack pop songs. (Freemasons, I’m looking at you).
 
My top tip, if youre a digital DJ anyone asks you what you want for your birthday or Xmas or anything: ask for itunes or beatport vouchers. They can be got from most supermarkets and its always handy just to be able to download a tune if you stumble across it. 
 
I could blow serato’s trumpet all day, but i really haven’t found a more verstaile, reliable, mobile way of mixing using MP3s while still regaining the hands-on element of using CDs or vinyl. Its like driving an automatic car, but still having a gearstick that actually does the fun stuff. I really have been able to walk into DJ booths before and literally “plug in and play”, and not disturb either DJ playing either side of my set.
 
In upcoming posts, I will be looking deeper at serato’s functions and ways that it keeps afloat in a competitive market, eg. it’s new sample feature, reminiscent of traktor scratch’s feature.  I will also be look at serato’s competitors and chatting to the frontline users of this equipment and considering what is possible with certain tools. There is an alterior motive, however, as I develop as a DJ and musician- I want to see if there is any other technology out there that can help me incorporate live performance with a DJ set, again on a budget… I understand traktor has some tricks up it’s sleeve in that area… 
 
posted by Ian “Duzmoore” London, WONDERLAND RESIDENT www.wonderlandfestival.co.uk