Serato just released Serato Sample, a plugin for DJ/producers looking for an easy way to chop, stretch, and key shift music files. It has an interface that will be familiar to Serato DJ users consisting of a waveform display and 16 hot cue pads, and it uses Serato’s own Pitch ‘n Time algorithm for time stretching and pitch shifting. It works within digital audio workstations (DAWs) like Ableton Live, FL Studio and Logic Pro.
Serato Sample works by allowing you to assign up to 16 cue points in a piece of audio such as a loop, one shot, or even an entire song. Each cue point can be manipulated in a number of ways, such as changing its pitch, and speeding it up or slowing it down. You then trigger cue points using your mouse, computer keyboard, a pad controller like the Push 2, Maschine, Novation Launchpad, or any other Midi-enabled controller.
Serato’s latest offering is aimed more at producers than traditional digital DJs, however it’s not hard to imagine Serato Sample being thrown into DJ sets where performance DAWs like Ableton Live are used. We’ve not had a chance to try it just yet, but if it’s as simple as hitting pads on your DJ controller to get great synth and vocal pitch shifts (ie the sound of chart music today), then it’s something definitely interesting. Watch out for our review of it soon.
Check out the promo video below.
Promo Video
• Serato Sample is now available for US$99 and you can try it out free for 30 days. Check the Serato Sample website for more details.
What are your thoughts on Serato Sample? Think this is a useful studio tool? Would you want to use it live in your DJ sets? Or do you think Serato is wasting its time by coming out with this app? Share your views below.
Joey Santos
