Serato Studio is beatmaking software aimed at DJs, and it’s a great tool for making DJ intro edits of songs you’ve got in your library. One of the most useful edits to make is called the “intro edit”, which makes songs easier to beatmix. (Check out all our other free Serato Studio tutorials at Getting Started With Serato Studio – Free Tutorials.)
What is an intro edit?
An intro edit adds eight to 16 bars of a simple beat to the beginning of the song. This makes it easier to mix into. It’s important to add eight or 16 bars because that will allow for correct phrasing in your beatmix. These are some of the simplest edits to make and ones that you will end up using over and over again in your gigs.
Serato Studio makes it possible to finish an intro edit in just a few steps. So let’s go over how easy it is to complete an intro edit from start to finish using Serato Studio.
Making an intro edit
After opening Serato Studio, select “New DJ Edit” to open the DJ edit template. Then use the library window at the bottom to locate the song you would like to create the intro edit for. Once that song is selected, drag it in the edit window where it says “Drop Audio Here”.
Once the audio is loaded into that window, Serato Studio will analyse the song. After the song has finished being analysed, make sure you set the BPM of Serato Studio to match the original BPM of the song you are editing.
Once that is done Serato Studio will set the “Clip One” cue point to the beginning of the song. Move this cue point to the beginning of the first verse of the track. Make sure to zoom in to make sure that the cue point is set exactly on the first beat of where the verse begins.
Next, you will want to listen through the song to find a section of the song, preferably one to four bars long without any lyrics and that is not too “busy” musically, meaning there aren’t a lot of production elements or instruments playing on top of the drums. Once you find this section set the “Clip Two” cue point at this section.
Use the small triangle marker at the top of the cue point to make sure it is set right at the beginning of the bar. Then use the triangle marker at the bottom of the cue point to select the entire section you are going to use.
With both cue points set you can now build your edit in the Song View, which is at the bottom of the screen. Serato Studio will automatically add the entire song to the audio track when you load the song, so go ahead and delete that by clicking on it and hitting delete so you can start fresh.
You’ll notice black and grey blocks in the song view, each of these blocks represents one bar (or four beats). This will help ensure that you create an intro of the right length.
Click and drag Clip Two to the audio track in the Song View, and duplicate this process until you create a total of eight bars. Remember to use the black and grey squares as a guide. This will be the eight-bar intro for your edit.
After you’ve created your eight-bar intro, you can now add the rest of the song. Click and drag Clip One directly at the end of your eight-bar intro and you’re pretty much done!
Double-check your edit a listen by hitting the play button in the song view and listening through the intro to the first verse. Once you are happy with your work, go to File and select “Export Song”. You’ll want to “Export Master”, then select which format you’d like, either WAV or MP3.
Finally…
I use intro edits every single time that I DJ. It makes beatmixing so much easier and Serato Studio makes the process super simple. If you’ve ever wanted to start making your own personal DJ edits but have been intimidated by complicated software, creating intro edits in Serato Studio is a great way to start. Load up a song you wish had an intro edit in Serato Studio and create it yourself, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how fast and easy the process is!
Marc Santaromana
