Being the impatient lot that we are, many of us have been waiting expectantly by our screen, hammering the refresh button to within an inch of its life, hoping for even a smidgen of new about the rumoured update to Serato’s flagship Serato DJ software. And after a period of not especially closed beta, it seems that Serato is ready to lift the lid off of their latest major update.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfhPViJhteM/
Just announced in Instagram, Serato is going to show us exactly what’s coming in what’s being dubbed as Serato DJ 2.0. But we’ve already seen it being demoed at NAMM as Serato DJ Pro, and indeed the copious NDA disregarding leakage from forums and social media confirm the existence of Serato DJ Pro too. A last-minute name change? Maybe a Pro version will be announced that has more than has currently been released? Probably just playing coy, or maybe throwing out red herrings.
Who knows. Well actually, we all will this coming Monday at 3.30pm Eastern Standard Time. Being the helpful chap that I am, I made a useful time conversion page for major cities, but you should be able to make sure you catch the live stream wherever you are.
NI: knock knock
Me: whose there?
NI: nobody :(
:(
I think you’re overthinking it here – it’s logical that after “1.9.whatever” comes “2.0.0”.
The Pro looks to me like re-branding the tiers to better differentiate between the full version (soon to be Pro) and Intro. Hell, maybe they intend to add a mid-tier option too at some point.
Overthinking is my superpower.
Patiently waiting for an Updated Pioneer DDJ with Serato Pro…….
If you look at the new DDJ-1000, the signs are there that future Pioneer controllers are likely to be rekordbox only.
We also thought that after Pioneer launched the DDJ-RX and DDJ-RZ controllers so who knows….
But Pioneer is still in the mass market for controllers that is Serato.
As long as rekordbox doesn’t gain traction they’ll heavily rely on them.
My guess is that rather than selling re-branded Serato units they will further develop their own type of layout and workflow to be less comparable, at least in the higher end units.
I mean, a year ago, what was the benefit for the end user to get a rekordbox controller over the Serato unit?
It was basically the same hardware with a slightly different feature set in exchange for an unstable/unproven software with a very small user base and almost no presence in clubs.
The economies of scale in manufacturing just don’t seem to outweigh the importance of differentiation.
Sometimes, you have to take a stand. And Pioneer DJ cannot forge its own path while hedging their bets with Serato DJ. Bear in mind that Serato is juggling balls with multiple hardware partners — Pioneer DJ hasn’t got time for that, and I doubt they’re very happy at having to stand in line with Denon DJ, Rane, Reloop, Roland, Mixars, Numark, Akai, Hercules, A&H, Gemini etc i.e. their direct competitors, especially when they already have their own fully formed software.
If they genuinely believe in rekordbox (which I believe they do), they’ll put heart and soul into it. They have the money to hone it then develop it further, and then market the living daylights out of it. They know how to do it — they just need to commit to the goal, especially with Denon DJ and Engine Prime snapping at they heels for booth space.
Remember — we’re not talking about some amazing new piece of revolutionary software from a tiny company with no marketing budget. This is Pioneer DJ with established product and a huge resource pot at their disposal. They have the tech, so it’s a matter of persuading more people to buy into it. At this point, I feel it’s more of a marketing thing than anything else. Hedging their bets is just stopping the progression of rekordbox.
It’s true more and more that Traktor, Serato and Rekordbox are pretty comparable for the average user. And VDJ too I guess. I’m definitely caring less and less about the software’s interface and more about the quality of hardware and it’s latout. For me, I started looking at the djm750 mk2 and realized I can either use Traktor (which I’ve used for about 10 yrs) or Rekordbox – it doesnt really matter, it’s the hardware that I’m hands on with. I’m tired of waiting for a Traktor update. I don’t even really care about software updates anymore, I care about the gear.
I’ve seen bigger changes on major updates…