Serato

Serato^[1] (stylized in all lowercase; /sərɑːtoʊ/) is a music software company founded in 1998 in Auckland, New Zealand by Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw.^[1]

Serato

Industry	Music software
Founders	Steve West and AJ Bertenshaw
Headquarters	Auckland, New Zealand
Website	serato.com

History

West and Bertenshaw met in computer science class at the University of Auckland. When West created an algorithm that could change the tempo of a recorded track without changing its pitch, Bertenshaw realized the opportunity to build upon the idea. The first published product, "Pitch 'n Time", which built off the original audio manipulation concept, was pitched to various companies like Pioneer and Sony but failed to gain traction with the music side of the industry. However, the idea was received more positively in Hollywood, where it quickly became useful editing tool for moviemakers.^[1][2]

Software

Serato DJ

Serato DJ is digital music mixing software for DJing.^[3] Serato DJ supports DJ mixing with digital music files and streaming music and is compatible with digital DJ controllers or digital vinyl.^[4] Serato DJ has visual components including waveforms for beatmatching^[5] and other information about the sound being produced by the system.^[6] DJ controllers from various manufacturers are supported, including Pioneer DJ, Denon DJ, and Roland.^[2]

In 2018 Serato changed the names of its DJ software from Serato DJ to Serato DJ Pro, and from Serato DJ Intro to Serato DJ Lite.^[7] The new versions use 64-bit software architecture.^[8] Serato also partners with hardware developers such as Pioneer to create Serato-branded DJ controllers.^[9]

Serato DJ supports stem separation for independently mixing the vocals, drums, bass, and melody of tracks.^[10] Mixing with stems is useful for remixing songs, creating instrumental or a cappella versions, and creating mashups.

Serato DJ Pro is compatible with the music streaming services Apple Music, Tidal, Beatport, Beatsource, and SoundCloud.^[11] Stem separation is disabled with streaming music from Apple Music.^[12] Tidal requires an add-on subscription called "DJ Extension" in order to use stem separation.^[13][14] Stem separation is supported with streaming music from Beatport.^[15] Recording is disabled when using streaming music.^[11] Tracks from Beatport and Beatsource can be cached for offline use when subscribed to Beatport Professional or Beatsource Pro+, respectively.^[11]

Serato studio

A DAW (digital audio workstation) for music producers and artists. Featuring a sample based interface and bright and vibrant layout. As of 2021, Serato launched an in- software recording feature allowing artists to record directly into the DAW, Serato also hosts other features such as iTunes sync and stem separation to make sampling easier

Serato Pyro

Released in 2016, Serato developed a mobile app called Pyro, which automatically fades songs from a mobile device as they transition from track to track and serves as a playlist creator^[16] drawing music from a device’s iTunes library.^[17] Pyro also comes preloaded with other song collections curated by different artists and labels.^[18]

Serato Pyro was retired in May 2020 ^[19]

Serato Sample

Seeing an increasing overlap between DJ and producer communities,^[20] Serato released a VST plugin named Serato Sample, an audio editing tool using their existing Pitch 'n Time algorithms. On release, it provided functionality for key detection, changing the pitch and tempo of samples, and finding samples similar to another.^[21]

In 2023, Serato 2.0 was released with the ability to perform stem isolation using machine learning algorithms.^[22]