Serato has added key detection to its Serato DJ software, bringing one of the most asked-for features to the popular digital DJing platform for the first time. Serato DJ 1.8 – which will be available as a free upgrade from the end of October – features the company’s own proprietary key detection analysis, and is complemented by further key features within the pro-grade Pitch ‘n Time plugin, again a free upgrade for existing Pitch ‘n Time owners.
Free to all DJs, Serato users or not
As Serato DJ’s offline player is free, this upgrade brings free key detection software to everyone; it writes key directly to music files, making it viewable in any other music software that supports ID3 tags. Within the Serato DJ app, you can also choose one format for displaying key in all of your tracks (whether or not analysed in Serato DJ), as the software will display Camelot (the notation preferred by Mixed In Key), Open Key, or Musical key notation.
Plug in Serato hardware and install Pitch ‘n Time DJ (a paid-for plugin at $29 that offers a studio quality pitch-shifting algorithm), and you gain additional features, including key shift, key match, and key sync.
Hardware remapping is here
Alongside Serato DJ’s new key functions, Serato 1.8 also offers owners of licensed Serato controller and equipment the ability to remap their hardware in order to give hardware control over features previously only available in software. So if you want to remap that unused knob, button or fader to do something else, as long as it’s a “core” piece of hardware (this isn’t offered for not Serato accessories or non-Serato controllers), this is now fully enabled.
• More info, videos and download are available here.
Are you a Serato user who’s been longing for key detection to be added to your software? Or is it the hardware mapping that most excites you? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Phil Morse
