Why is Serato worth more money

[tombruton69]

For all those bitching about midi mapping in traktor my book on it is nearly complete. Duno if i will w8 till this release to change it. The evidence that ppl are being more creative with traktor is evident from youtube. Most serato djs i see around are fat middle ared men. But i do know some ppl doing some cool things with the bridge

[xtianw]

For all those bitching about midi mapping in traktor my book on it is nearly complete. Duno if i will w8 till this release to change it. The evidence that ppl are being more creative with traktor is evident from youtube. Most serato djs i see around are fat middle ared men. But i do know some ppl doing some cool things with the bridge

people are being plenty creative on serato these days

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcZDsK0yUE

[tombruton69]

pritty cool video. Its a novation promo, dj made a few mistakes fairly complex routeen tho. I looked to find good vids on serato b4 posting that obv didnt look hard enough. both software have there pros and im not saying one is better than the other is one really worth that much more tho. And the comment about 2 companies splitting the profit is a good comment

[BennyJ]

people are being plenty creative on serato these days

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcZDsK0yUE

whats so creative about cue point juggling and scratching?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8eB83axVvw

THATS being creative. Using effects and cue juggling slowing and speeding up a song. Cue jugging and scratching is creatuve i guess for serato.

[midifidler]

People seem to have some pretty skewed opinions here, Xtianw - you have it bang on the head in terms of their business model.

This thread is turning in to an opinionated yawn fest ... again.

[mostapha]

people are being plenty creative on serato these days (video)

(video)
THATS being creative. Using effects and cue juggling slowing and speeding up a song. Cue jugging and scratching is creatuve i guess for serato.

Am I the only person who's flat-out not impressed by either video? There's a lot of tricks, but the core set in both of them is seriously lacking. I'm aware that they were both done as an example of what could be done with the hardware, and it's impressive for the hardware and the obvious technical mastery of the DJs. But, I'll never be convinced that technical mastery without artistry is impressive, and I'll never be convinced that even trade-show sets should be able to get away with a lack of artistry.

When it comes to the artistic elements, I don't think one system really shines over the other. By that, I mean that for what I value, Traktor barely edges out SSL because of two seldom-used features: beats to cue and the key knob. The latter makes many discussions of harmonic mixing moot. The former–used correctly–is a tremendous aid in phrasing. You can do without the feature, as DJs have been doing at least since the first disco records were pressed and composers were doing long before that. But it is–to my knowledge–unparalleled in the modern DJ world. It's like having sheet music that you can write one song before it matters and that persists if you want it to.

Depending on the style of music, I think that Beats to Cue and SSL's better Loop Roll (I'm aware of Beatmasher and doubles hacks) can almost cancel out, so I call it a wash. If you're either stricter or more lenient about Harmonic Mixing, then it comes down to UI, which is a preference…and I think SSL wins hands down if you're using CDJ or Vinyl control and Traktor wins hands-down if you're using controllers.

It should be obvious where my chips fall, though I do kinda want an SL4.

[BennyJ]

I dont get what ur saying at all. Artistry?

[Ghostdad]

Some good thoughts and discussion in this thread. Here's my 2:

I have no deep seeded allegiance to Serato but I started using it because it was sort of an "industry standard" when I was DJing every weekend maybe a year ago. A lot of the clubs I was playing in had 57's or serato boxes built into the booth. And many of the DJ's I played with were using Serato as well. At the time it was sort of impractical to want to hook up a separate interface. Serato was successful in establishing themselves early on in the working DJ game and their proprietary hardware did well to keep them at the top of that market.

I think that's changing now. A lot of people are adopting controllers and alternative setups to the clubs turntables and with a midi controller comes some flexibility to what software you rock so it's great people can customize their setup to their heart's content. As a working DJ though it's often your job to play what people want to hear and to do it in the most effective AND creative way possible. For many that means getting behind a software that costs more and is a little more closed off.