Audio Tracks show a large waveform, with several user-defined Clips as well as access to quick controls for each Clip. Audio Tracks are broken up into several components and understanding what they do will give you the ability to make unique DJ Edits as well as enhance your existing projects by adding acapellas or new layers.

Adding a new Audio Track

You will then be presented with the option to load an Audio File into the Audio Deck Area. This can be dragged directly from your Serato Studio Library, or dragged into the software from a location on your computer.

Deck Header Area

Here you can find controls for the Audio track. These are applied across all of the clips in the audio deck and are as follows:

Deck Play / Pause: Use this to toggle Play or Pause for the loaded source file in the audio deck. The white playhead in the middle of the waveform display will move through the track as the source file elapses in duration.

Deck playback mode: 'Hold mode' is the default playback mode, where triggered Clips will continue to play while the trigger is being held down. Alternatively, using 'Trigger mode' means Clips will continue to play until the end of the slice length, or the end of the source file if an endless slice is used - regardless of how long the clip trigger is held down for.

Deck Info Display: Information and tags relating to the currently loaded source file are displayed here and include; Title, Artist, Original key, Original BPM, and Elapsed track duration.

NOTE: Information is updated upon loading of the source file, so if you update tags, the information will only update once the file is reloaded to deck or ID3 tags have been scanned again.

Deck BPM: Displays the current BPM. Click and drag up or down to make changes, or double-click to enter a value manually. Hold control/command on your keyboard, while you click and drag, to make fine adjustments, or hold shift on your keyboard, to make coarser adjustments.

Sync: Click Sync to sync the Audio Track BPM with the project BPM. Click again to disable sync and allow for manual control of the Deck BPM.

Halve / Double BPM: Click on x2 to double the current Deck BPM, or click on 1/2 to halve it.

Deck Keyshift / Detune: Choose either Key or Detune to select either semitones or cents, then click & drag,

up or down on the value to adjust the Deck key. Hold control/command on your keyboard while doing so to make fine adjustments, or hold shift to make coarse adjustments.

Deck Waveform Area

Here you'll find a visual representation of the source file, as a waveform with different colours that represent the frequencies most dominant, in that part of the audio. Red colours are used for sounds with low-frequency content and lighter colours are used for sounds with higher frequency content.

Main waveform: A large waveform that shows a snapshot of the source file audio, with the playhead in the centre. Clip-in and out points are illustrated by small coloured flags known as Cues. Click & drag on the waveform with your mouse to scrub through the audio and 'drag' the playhead through the loaded source file. Use the + or - buttons on your keyboard to zoom in and out of the waveform, or use the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Waveform overview: This smaller waveform shows the entire source file as an overview, and also shows the cue points and current position of the playhead. Click on a section of the waveform overview to move the main waveform snapshot directly to that position in the source file. Click & drag horizontally to scrub through the entire source file.

Playhead: The white vertical marker that appears directly in the centre of the Main waveform, which illustrates the current playback position, and moves through the waveform as the source file is played.

Cue: Cues are colored markers placed in the audio waveform, which assign playback positions for the Pads and any clips created from those Pads. You can trigger Cues by clicking on their corresponding Pads with your mouse, or alternatively by triggering MIDI notes or using your computer's keyboard. Cues can be made up of a start point, an endpoint, and the region between these two points which define the Pad, and any subsequent Clips.

Cue end: Near the bottom of each Cue is a small handle or flag that illustrates the endpoint of a Pad. By default, Cue points will automatically place the Cue endpoint on the same position in the waveform as the Cue start - these Pads will play until the end of the source file when triggered. Click & drag on the Cue endpoint, in the Main waveform, to specify a place for the Pad to stop playing - this will also create a Pad region.

Beat Grid Mode: Click the ‘Grid’ button to enable Beat Grid Mode. Use this mode to make any corrections you wish to an audio samples beat grids for a more accurate reading. For more information about this mode, see the Overview: Editing Beat Grids section here.”

Autoset 

The Autoset feature is useful for quickly setting Cue points in the Audio Deck, based on one of three preset modes. Using it will populate the pads with these cue points, according to the rule set by the Autoset mode preset.

To choose another Autoset mode, click the downward arrow button and a drop-down menu option will appear to reveal the other three modes.

Once you’ve chosen an Autoset mode, press the Autoset button again to populate the pads with Cues.

Repeatedly pressing the Autoset button will continue to re-populate every pad. Cues that have been ‘favorited’ will not be overwritten when using Autoset.

Autoset Modes

●  Serato DJ: This mode will load Cue points previously set on the file in Serato DJ (option will be greyed out if no Serato DJ cues exist)

●  Set Slicer: This mode creates 8 consecutive Cue points in a row (a domain), with a set length, starting from the current playhead position. The starting position of the domain can be adjusted using the Slice Region controls that appear after using the Slicer Autoset mode - via the left and right arrows. The length of each cue can be set using the beat value and the two left and right arrows. Cue length can be changed to several values between 1/16, and 16 beats, and adjusting the length will immediately reset all Cue points to match the respective setting.

●  Set Endless Slicer: This mode creates 8 consecutive Cue points in a row without a set length, starting from the current playhead position and playing through until the end of the audio file. The starting position of the clip can be adjusted using the Slice Region controls that appear after using the Slicer Autoset mode - via the left and right arrows. The length between each slice can be set using the beat value and the two left and right arrows.

Parameter Panel

Here, the controls that affect each Clip can be found. Parameters are saved to each pad, so if a pad and corresponding Clip are deleted, those same parameters will be lost. Clip Parameters can be adjusted across one or more pads simultaneously - to select multiple pads, simply hold shift while clicking on subsequent pads.

Reverse: Toggles reverse playback of the selected Pad.

Favorite: 'Favorite' a Pad, to prevent it from being overwritten by the Autoset function. Using this in conjunction with the Autoset feature, allows you to retain useful Cue points, and quickly replace less useful ones.

Tempo: Click & drag vertically to adjust the playback tempo of the selected Pad, from -75% to 300%. Pad playback is calculated with the Deck and Project BPM in mind, so increases to the Tempo parameter are cumulative. Use the 2x and 1/2 to quickly double and halve the playback Tempo. Hold control/command while clicking & dragging vertically to make fine adjustments, or hold shift while doing so to make coarse adjustments.

Key Shift: Allows for individual adjustments to the key of the selected Clip at values ranging from -24 to +24 semitones. Changes made are in addition to any changes made to the Deck or Project key, and are cumulative.

Select All: Use this to quickly select all available Pads, or press control/command + A on your keyboard.

Delete: Use this to delete all non-favorited Pads, or press control/command + delete on your keyboard to delete all Pads.

Mixer Panel

The Mixer panel in the Audio deck, controls aspects of each pad. You can also adjust the Mixer panel parameters for all pads by holding shift on your keyboard while clicking on multiple pads to select several at a time (controls turn white in this case). Double-click on a Mixer control to reset it to the default value.

Gain: Increases or decreases the maximum volume that the selected pad or pads can reach.

High: Reduces or increases the high-frequency content in the selected pad or pads.

Mid: Reduces or increases the mid-frequency content in the selected pad or pads.

Low: Reduces or increases the low-frequency content in the selected pad or pads.

Filter: Turn clockwise to engage a high pass filter, and counter-clockwise to engage a low pass filter, on the selected pad or pads.

Fader: Click and drag the fader up to increase the volume of the selected pad, or down to decrease the volume of the selected pad.

Practical Task

Making a basic DJ edit

This exercise should take between 20-30 minutes with your students.

For this exercise, either pre-select a song to edit for students, or allow them to select a song themselves.

Student Steps:

1. Load Serato Studio, select New Remix template. Drag the song in, ensuring that the correct BPM for the edit has been selected.

2. Cue Points. Get students to select relevant Cue Points in the track. If there is a logical downbeat for the song, ensure the first Cue Point is there.

3. Set Endless Slicer. Once the correct first Cue Point is selected, use the Set Endless Slicer option to select the subsequent cues - they can be in divisions of 1,2,4,8,16, 32 or 64 bars. Allow students to experiment with what divisions work best for the song they are working on.

4. Arrangement. Once the students have made 8 Cue Points in logical order, allow them to drag and rearrange the Cue Points onto the arrangement below.

5. Going Deeper. If students accomplish this quickly, then encourage them to add other elements - Drum Decks, Sample Decks, even Instruments or Plug Ins. Any material will correspond to the key of the song being edited, and can give some quick, exciting results.