03/11/2024
Serato is absolute garbage 😒
I just bought a new controller (Numark Mixtrack Platinum FX) which is fantastic. I has a much nicer feel than my Pioneer yet that was royally overshadowed by just how bad the software was to use live.
I started back in the day, using Traktor, which was pretty good and moved into the Comic Sans of performance software that is DJAY Pro during the pandemic because they dropped the bombshell of Spotify support (great interface, really simple, crashes all the freaking time)
For the last 4-5 years, I've been using Rekordbox and, yes it's clunky and a pain in the arse to use on a laptop screen but it's rock solid, feature packed and very very good at what it does. Not to mention, it's basically the industry standard.
I strayed away this time because Pioneer's latest entry controller which replaces the DDJ-400 seems have no improvement on its predecessor and costs £280.
For £240, I got the numark with dual LED displays, nice heavy jog wheels and all round better build. I thought it was a no brainier.
Sadly, the limitations of Serato (Lite, and somewhat in the £250 Pro upgrade too) are unbearable.
1. Beat grid analysis.
Fu***ng terrible. Almost all tracks were off by almost 1/4. It simply gave up on anything that doesn't have a consistent time signature and it can't tell the difference between, 87.5bpm Nu Metal and 175bpm D&B. You also can't analyse files on the fly without loading them to a deck. Bu****it if you're loading requests from tidal.
2. Library management.
So I can make tidal playlists and something you call "crates" for my local files but can't mix them? F**k off! There's also no shortlist feature for requests / ideas. The absolute worst for me is the lack of track suggestions. The way I DJ, I don't plan sets, I'm far too ADHD for that to work. I also have one huge master playlist with over 1000 popular tracks that I use as my base. Rekordbox suggests 10-20 tracks of similar BPM / key / mood to play next. That's led to some of the most fun, unexpected (and god awful 😂) mixes I've ever done. That is a feature I simply can't live without.
3. Mixing
Beat syncing simply could not cope with anything "alternative" but worst than that, the BPM matching was to the nearest whole number! I found myself struggling to mix in a bloody Pendulum track! It would just start drifting and needed constant attention to make the transition passable. Also the lite version limits loops to 1 through 8 beats. No 1/2s or 1/4s or even 16s!
Such a shame. Love hardware but cannot live with the software.
I'm returning the Numark and getting a Pioneer DDJ-FLX4
