Serato just launched the public beta for Serato Sample, a digital audio workstation (DAW) plugin that lets you trigger, chop, and manipulate audio using hot cues. It works by letting you place up to 16 cue points in a track that you’ve loaded, whether it’s a song, a loop, or a sample. You can then trigger those cues in your DAW, just like how you launch hot cues in Serato DJ, and you can change the tempo, musical key, and filter of each of these cues for easy and creative audio manipulation.
Serato Sample’s layout will be familiar to users of Serato DJ, with its coloured waveforms and cue point system. There are loads of ways to individually manipulate the cues: For example, you can stretch and shift their musical keys, getting you that vocal pitch shift sound you hear all over the radio these days. Waveform scrub and Needle Drop allow you to jump around the track with ease, while the Autoset feature does some of the legwork for you through an algorithm, helping you find 16 of the best samples within the track with one touch.
Serato Sample supports Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro X and Maschine. Serato says it will work with other DAWs, though it won’t officially support them.
First thoughts
It’s an interesting development by Serato, a company that’s mainly released apps strictly for DJing in recent years, though DAW integration isn’t new for the company (Serato Bridge and Ableton Link come to mind). Serato Sample seems to be meant for production work in the studio, but it also could be a potential tool for live DJ use, especially if you’re working in a performance DAW like Ableton Live. It also looks to be a great way to quickly find out the musical key and tempo of a piece of audio, whether it’s a full song, a loop, or a sample.
Check out the promo video below.
Promo video
• Serato Sample is out now in public beta and can be tested for free. It will be available for US$99 upon release, and those who buy it during the testing period will receive a 50% discount. Check the Serato Sample website for more details.
Are you excited to try out Serato Sample? Do you think it will be of much use to DJs? How would you use it in your performances or production work? Let us know in the comments…
Christian Yates
