Serato doesn’t have a booth at NAMM, opting instead to demo software at various other manufacturer’s booths that come with Serato DJ. At the Reloop booth, we got a chance to play around with a beta of the upcoming Serato DJ 1.6 that had the recently announced Pitch ‘N Time DJ plug-in installed. Does the algorithm really work, and how well? Watch our video inside.
OUR TEST AND IMPRESSIONS
Being able to increase or decrease the tempo of a track dramatically (beyond 10%) and still have useable audio is pretty rare in DJ software – especially with distinct melodies or tracks with vocals (like both songs used in the video). The algorithm seems pretty promising, and while mixing at 75-100% probably won’t ever be necessary / useful, it’s really more about having options in the +/-20-30% range.
We’re waiting until we get back to DJTT HQ to do a really good analysis of what this tool sounds like against Traktor, Virtual DJ, Cross, and other key locking algorithms – but the first tests are pretty promising. Be sure to watch all the above video to hear both examples in all of their forms and an A/B at the end.
PITCH ‘N WHAT?
Serato Audio Research was actually originally founded on the Pitch ‘N Time key locking algorithm, a utility that has continued to be built out as a studio-grade tool for all types of producers. According to the Serato crew we talked to, integrating it into their DJ softwares has been on the feature roadmap for a while, but because of the split code base between ITCH and SSL, they’ve waited until the grand unification of Serato DJ 1.6 to bring the tool to all potential users.
Here’s outgoing Serato CEO Sam Gribbin’s two cents on adding this new plug-in:
“Since Pitch ’n Time for Pro Tools launched nearly 15 years ago, it has been used on countless hit records and movie scores, and has set the standard for professional time stretching and pitch shifting. With all the under the hood work we’ve done on Serato DJ over the last few years, we’re now able to bring the award winning Pitch ’n Time algorithm to our DJ platform. This day marks literally years of planning, and we’re very excited to be showing DJs just how good time stretching can sound. This is a big step forward for DJs who are dedicated to sound quality.”
The plug-in will cost $29, and will be available to users when Serato DJ 1.6 is released in February.
