No Speakers? No Problem!
Unfortunately Serato has never given the user the ability to use their computers built in speakers when hardware is plugged in. This means when you want to practice, Serato users are forced to plug in speakers to their decks or use headphones. Not always practical, it leaves Serato DJ’s envious of the Rekordbox users who benefit from a simple button to activate the laptops speakers. How ever, what most DJ’s don’t know is that there is a quick and easy hack to re route the audio back to the laptops speakers.
Note: In version 2.4.1 you can now simply enable “Use laptop speakers” in Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lites audio settings.
The “Hack”
1. Connect your controller to your computer.
2. In applications, scroll to “other” and then launch “Audio MIDI Devices”
3. Click the “+” symbol in the bottom left corner and then click “Add Aggregate Device” .
4. Once you have created an Aggregate device you’ll be able to see it in the list of devices to the left. Rename the new device by double clicking on its name, rename it to the exact same name as your controller in the list.
5. On the right hand side, make sure you click “Built-in Output”.
6. Now open Serato DJ, and enjoy the master output coming through the laptops speakers!
Note: You must delete the new aggregate device when you wish to return to controllers audio outputs.
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This worked, but now the headphones don’t work. Is that supposed to happen?
Yes, unfortunately when you take the sound away from the controller and route it through the speakers, the cueing system also stops working! There’s no work around on this yet, but if anything changes we will update this guide!