Serato has announced the full public release of Serato DJ 1.9.5, which offers mixer compatibility with the Pioneer DJ DJM-900NXS2 mixer, and HID compatibility with the Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2, the current flagship Pioneer pro DJ booth gear (and the gear DJs are likely to encounter when playing top clubs).
The mixer works when you have purchased the Serato Club Kit add-on to your Serato DJ software, and means that there is no need for a separate audio interface to use Serato with the DJM-900NXS2; you just plug a USB cable from the mixer to your laptop and Serato DJ will happily use the DJM-900NXS2’s built-in sound card instead, making for much simpler set-up.
Meanwhile, HID compatibility with the CDJ-2000NXS2 media players means that all the main controls on the players can be used to control the software features of Serato, and that the big colour screens on the CDJ-2000NXS2 units can display Serato information directly from the software, too, including album artwork. Again, a USB connection to the laptop is all that’s needed, or in networked Pioneer systems, simply one connection.
All of this is a huge improvement on the “old” way of playing on club gear with Serato (taking a DVS audio interface and timecode vinyl or CDs), and while we’ve yet to test it to see how slickly it all works and whether there are any limitations, it is good to see this being introduced by Pioneer DJ and Serato, for the sake of making DJing a bit more universal and a bit less hassle for all, no matter what platform or system you happen to prefer using.
• Update to 1.9.5 from within your copy of Serato DJ.
Are you looking forward to trying this out? Have you managed to do so already? Any feedback? Please let us know in the comments.
Phil Morse
