Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Serato DJ 1.7 First Test Drive



I did a test drive with Serato DJ 1.7.

Hardware:
-Rane SL3
-Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 2.3ghz with 16GB RAM

 Serato drivers for Pioneer DJM-900SRT, Rane SL3 and Rane 62 installed.

So far, so good. I listed my computer type because there are isolated issues with the Retina MBPs compared to previous generation MBPs.

Improvements I noticed:
 - Latency issues with timecode are gone, and timecode responds just like SSL which I can now scratch properly.

- Left deck does not start a milisecond off from the cue like it did with 1.6.

A few things I also noticed:
-SL3 driver for Mac no longer has the buffer control. I don't know if this is a good thing or not, but I will say the buffer did very weird things with 1.6...like setting it lower and the latency would increase, and setting it higher, would make the latency go way off the charts, like 1 to 2 seconds off. Whatever the case is, timecode is responsive now.

-Recording channel is default to Channel 1, when I think it should be default to Channel 3 since it is the aux. Nothing more embarrassing than have a timecode signal recorded as opposed to your set. I did that when I made this video.

-When the line/phono switch is set to phono and you input it with a line timecode signal, unlike SSL where it gives you a red signal but will still play, Serato DJ will play at +230% forcing the DJ to check for something wrong. I think this is awesome because many DJs forget to switch back to line from phono simply because it "works" in SSL. It's not good to load your inputs with a line level signal. From what I read, the overload could actually destroy your channel inputs to your interface or mixer.

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Still have to do further long term tests to see if it can be used live. Will also try HID mode with Pioneer CDJs to see if they improved the known latency issue with HID. Will be doing further tests with a Rane 62 real soon, and the 900SRT sometime this month.