Coming out of beta today is the brand new update Serato DJ Pro 2.2 (as well as Serato DJ Lite 1.2). The update finally brings two highly-requested features to the Serato DJ software, Day Mode and Play Count, as well as a number of smaller improvements. Keep reading for details, watch the overview video, or jump directly to Serato’s download page here.
Day Mode
Serato DJ’s dark user interface is great in a club, but it can be incredibly hard to see when you’re DJing at outdoor daytime events or venues with bright lighting (like a sports arena or traditional stage).
Serato DJ Pro 2.2 adds Day Mode, a button at the bottom left of the screen that switches the colors around to a more comfortable, high contrast look that works well in bright light.
Play Count
iTunes does it, so why not Serato? In this new update, the number of times a track has been played shows in the browser with a new column called “Plays”. This count is updated when a track is played, but you can also edit it manually.
Serato’s team suggests that this function also “can be great for file management, as over time you can remove tracks that get little airplay”.
Streaming Analysis
Here’s a big one for users who are using the streaming services in Serato DJ Pro – you can now analyze streamed tracks in advance without loading them to a deck. This makes it a lot easier to see what tracks you might want to choose from a playlist in the streaming library without loading each track.
Smaller Stuff
There are a few smaller changes that DJs might be excited about, including:
- Serato Video improvements: Serato Video is now a 64-bit application for Mac, making it even faster and more stable. Both Mac and Windows users can also enjoy a raft of Serato Video improvements, including increased frame rate and multiple bug fixes.
- Waveform improvements: DJs should notice an immediate improvement to waveforms with this release, bringing an increase in smoothness and performance for most setups.
- Free trials are reset: All free trials in Serato DJ Pro have been reset so everyone can try these exciting new features, free for 14 days.
- Other Streaming Improvements:
- Track overview fills to show download progress of streaming tracks
- SoundCloud ‘Likes’ added to Serato DJ library
- SoundCloud Albums and Playlists have been separated into 2 library items
- Improvements to Tidal search filter
- Tidal now supports thousands of playlists and albums
- Tidal ‘My Albums’ and ‘My Tracks’ added to Serato DJ library
Listening To Users
With this release, Serato continues to build a reputation of listening to user feedback. We published a popular article in January about the biggest feature requests that users seemed to have about Serato, and the first two were play count and day mode.
This type of developer response deserves praise – good work to the Serato team for making it happen.
