Serato has just officially dropped the public beta for Serato DJ 5.0, and it’s now live and open to anyone across both Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lite. While it’s still just in the pre-release stage, it shows us where the software’s heading, and we’ve finally got a couple of exciting, long-awaited updates.
The Serato DJ 5.0 public beta is available to download directly from Serato today. But as it’s still a beta version, we wouldn’t recommend you go out and gig with it until it’s fully released.
Lucid Beatgrids
The big headline news for Serato 5.0 is Lucid Beatgrids, which completely updates Serato’s track analysis engine across both Pro and Lite.
For ages, one of the biggest complaints about Serato (especially compared to rivals like rekordbox, djay Pro and Engine OS) was how it handled music that didn’t have a perfectly rigid digital tempo. If you regularly mix old records like Disco with live drums, you’ll know how frustrating Serato can be to manually set grid points across a track to stop it from drifting.
Lucid Beatgrids aims to fix this by automatically detecting downbeats and tempo shifts for both fixed and fluctuating BPM tracks. You now get a dedicated ‘Flexible’ analysis mode and a ‘Fixed’ mode, as well as improved grid editing controls and clear waveform BPM labels.
Open Streaming Across Multiple Platforms
Those of us who like using streaming platforms for our music also get a big boost with this new update, as Serato has added something called Open Streaming across both Pro and Lite. Before, if you wanted to switch between different streaming platforms mid-set, you had to log out of one account and sign in to the other. So if you used most of your streaming on Beatport but wanted a couple of obscure SoundCloud edits, it was almost impossible to manage.
Now, with DJ 5.0, you can stay logged into multiple streaming platforms at the same time and mix seamlessly between any of them, as well as your local music library. Each streaming service now appears as an individual crate in your browser, along with a provider search dropdown to quickly switch between them.
On top of that, Serato now displays BPM and key data for streaming tracks before you’ve even analysed them.
Cue Loops
Exclusive to Serato DJ Pro, 5.0 adds Cue Loops to further expand what your pads can do. Now, you can turn any loop into a Cue Loop by saving it directly to a Hot Cue pad. Then, when you hit that pad, you jump to that loop and it’s instantly engaged. Just make sure to activate this feature in the Serato settings as it’s deactivated by default.
It’s a lot like the Hot Cue Loops we’ve seen for a long time on rekordbox and was another complaint from Serato users that this was lacking for some time. Again, it feels a bit like Serato is playing catch-up rather than doing anything too innovative, but it’s a very welcome feature nonetheless and it’s great to see them acknowledge the user base’s feedback.
Learn to DJ with Serato
If this new update has you curious to try out Serato, or maybe you’re thinking of switching from your trusted software, you’re in the right place.
Our Serato DJ Courses are specifically designed to take you from your very first time opening up the software to pulling off pro-level tricks and getting booked for real gigs. When you join Crossfader for free, you’ll unlock a personalised learning journey to help you meet your DJ goals, as well as unlock 3 free courses to get mixing right away.