Serato...

[Wakey]

I think the time has come for me to purchase Serato. I feel it will make my life much easier and it's much cheaper than CD decks.

So, I was wondering where is best to get it from? PRices online pretty much all look the same, am I right in remembering Judge Mental saying u got decks.co.uk to match a BIN price on ebay?

Any help much appreciateD!

[Judge Mental]

Yeah I got mine for £300 comparing new from ebay with Decks.co.uk, no hassle whatsoever, as oppose to the £360 or there abouts.

[Wakey]

Resurrecting an old thread here, but has anyone noticed that Serato now seems to be £390 everywhere?

[Moonman]

yeah i noticed that. Anyway, i sold up and moved to Traktor Scratch Pro. Man it is so much better, the timecode, the Audio 8 soundcard, the software. This is what its all about.

Serato is good though.

[Ian_k]

correct me if im wrong but doesnt serato/traktor make use of the decks you have already got? i.e uses your laptop as a virtual record library but the mixing is still done in the conventual way of using 2 decks using time coded cds/vinyl???

[KSheehan]

correct me if im wrong but doesnt serato/traktor make use of the decks you have already got? i.e uses your laptop as a virtual record library but the mixing is still done in the conventual way of using 2 decks using time coded cds/vinyl???

Yep thats exactly it. It can either work off vinyls with timecoded vinyls or cdj's with timecoded cds. Pretty impressive piece of kit, still dont really understand how it all works but its very clever. I'm seriously thinking of moving over to this myself. Burning cds is a pain in the ass sometimes!!

[simonross46]

I know when I get round to purchasing CDJ's I won't want to be sat here burning all of my tunes to CD's. It's ok when you have the CD collection already made and you just add to it each week or so, but when you have like 1000 tunes all as MP3 .... I will invest in something like this I think

[Ian_k]

Yep thats exactly it. It can either work off vinyls with timecoded vinyls or cdj's with timecoded cds. Pretty impressive piece of kit, still dont really understand how it all works but its very clever. I'm seriously thinking of moving over to this myself. Burning cds is a pain in the ass sometimes!!

just the innitial thread started off with " I think the time has come for me to purchase Serato. I feel it will make my life much easier and it's much cheaper than CD decks "

made me think surely thats missing the point or serato lol

[Judge Mental]

I think if I was to choose now I'd go for Traktor instead of Serato, but at the same time I don't regret ever buying Serato, it does everything I need.

Will be interesting to see if this Serato / Ableton rumour ever comes about though, that would be sweet as.

End of the day you can't really go wrong with either. For the £300 though Serato does everything I want it to, and my crates are all set up exactly how I want them to.

[Max Kane]

Slightly unrelated but I'm keen to get ableton, not for playing out as I'd still be using CDJs but definately wana check it out for the production aspect & maybe for doing radio shows.

[Judge Mental]

Aye Ableton's brilliant, I use it on my other laptop purely to use for Send / Return vst effects through my DJM, and the odd loop etc, but the things you can use it for are limitless.

[Ian_k]

I think if I was to choose now I'd go for Traktor instead of Serato, but at the same time I don't regret ever buying Serato, it does everything I need.

Will be interesting to see if this Serato / Ableton rumour ever comes about though, that would be sweet as.

End of the day you can't really go wrong with either. For the £300 though Serato does everything I want it to, and my crates are all set up exactly how I want them to.

i dont see the benefit of traktor over serato.....2 things would make me buy serato over traktor

serato has FREE updates, traktor doesnt

serato is apparently more reliable than traktor

[Ian_k]

Aye Ableton's brilliant, I use it on my other laptop purely to use for Send / Return vst effects through my DJM, and the odd loop etc, but the things you can use it for are limitless.

id never dj with it, but am keen to use it for production/bootlegs

iv actually got a copy but cant get my head around it lol....gona av a nuckle down 1 day and play about with it

[Judge Mental]

Do the tutorials, well worth it!

[Moonman]

i dont see the benefit of traktor over serato.....2 things would make me buy serato over traktor

serato has FREE updates, traktor doesnt

serato is apparently more reliable than traktor

I've played out on Traktor once since swithcing over and i never had any problems with it. I've also played out with Serato (as i used to use it) again, stable.

I personally think Traktor sounds better. The Audio 8 Soundcard is so much more crisp and clear than the Serato one.

Secondly, Serato is having to integrate Ableton to add effects and beatmatched loops etc. Traktor already does this. Serato only has 2 deck usage at the moment, with Traktor, you can have up to 4 decks playing.

Thirdly, ever wondered why there aren't many updates for Traktor like there is for Serato? Because the software is slick as out of the box.

Fourthly, if you wanted to, Traktor can do the beatmatching for you allowing you to work in accapella and loops etc. And the beat detection is very very impressive.

Fifthly, Traktor's hardware is a lot quicker to setup than Serato's. When i played out on Traktor i got all the hardware plugged in, in about 2 minutes. Serato used to take me about 5.

Since i've swtiched, it just makes total sense. Why this isnt the industry standard DVS yet, i'll never know. But more and more people are switching over to Traktor. For me, Serato is just too basic. The timecode on Traktor is also extremely accurate.

Re the Serato/Ableton thing, i've read that all that will happed is Serato are making it easier to plug Ableton in and run it side by side.

More and more DJ's are switching to Laptops, its more convenient and it makes more sense. It is the way forward, i believe, like it or not, it is. Even the luminar DJ's around here are using Serato now.

[Wakey]

just the innitial thread started off with " I think the time has come for me to purchase Serato. I feel it will make my life much easier and it's much cheaper than CD decks "

made me think surely thats missing the point or serato lol

Ahh but I have my trusty Technics 1210s, get the point now sir?

[Number2Fan]

God I dunno what to get now, there is so much, I had just decided on a CDJ I thought and now there's this thread!

Then I get confused and don't want anything, but the fact of the matter is there isn't enough stuff on vinyl and when there is something on vinyl it's well expensive!!

I know I'm keeping my decks that I already have, I have ableton on here but don't think I could use that very easily.

Is serato easy to use, or am I better off turning MP3s to CDs and using a CDJ alongside what I already have?

[emy]

Is serato DJing with a laptop????

What is the point? I don't understand

[Number2Fan]

LOL Cool, solely laptop DJing is boring but vinyl DJing is expensive and has limitations it seems.

[emy]

Um so what is serato for then? I don't think vinyl has limitations, look at the DMC DJs. It is expensive though, but if you cut back on other things it is not so bad and you can pick up some good second stuff cheap if you search for it.

[Uberduck]

I have ableton on here but don't think I could use that very easily.

You have Ableton but you don't use it? Surely you wouldn't fork out all that cash for something and not actually use it?

I don't really think you can accurately predict whether everyone will ditch CDJ's for laptop DJ'ing. Jules said a good few years ago that most people would ditch vinyl given the possibilities of CDJ's and [unsurprisingly] he was right. Laptops give you more options, i.e. live editing of tracks, but I think CDJ's will be wround for a fair while yet (or I could be completely wrong ).

[Number2Fan]

Well I play with it on a tune making basis, but to be fair I haven't had it long (couple of months) I'm gonna need some more time for that! Maybe when my smallest ones start school, what I meant was I don't see how that can be easily used for DJing. It's on my main big computer too btw, if that makes any difference.

[Number2Fan]

Um so what is serato for then? I don't think vinyl has limitations, look at the DMC DJs. It is expensive though, but if you cut back on other things it is not so bad and you can pick up some good second stuff cheap if you search for it.

Limitations I meant were total lack of new tunage coming out on vinyl.

[Wakey]

Basically though from my point of view, I have my 1210s and a shed load of vinyl, don't really want to part with them anytime soon so plan is to keep them and get serato to use with my decks instead of CDJs, I can already use CDJs and have always used them when playing out over the last 3 years. Makes sense to spend less money, get serato and then have the option of that vinyl or CDs when playing out

[Moonman]

Basically though from my point of view, I have my 1210s and a shed load of vinyl, don't really want to part with them anytime soon so plan is to keep them and get serato to use with my decks instead of CDJs, I can already use CDJs and have always used them when playing out over the last 3 years. Makes sense to spend less money, get serato and then have the option of that vinyl or CDs when playing out

This is the whole point. You get the benefits of the 1200 manipulation and the benefits of digital tunes and software. To me it's logical and makes perfect sense. It's all about opening your mind.