Serato DJ Pro 5.0 beta is here

Lucid Beatgrids

The analysis engine has been rebuilt rather than tuned. Serato calls it their most accurate beatgrid technology to date, and the practical claim is that it follows tempo across a whole track instead of assuming one number holds from top to tail.

That is the part that matters for anyone playing records cut to tape, live bands, early dancehall and reggae, or anything a drummer played. Those are the tracks that have always needed the grid dragged about by hand.

• Flexible analysis
  The new default. It maps tempo changes across the full length of the track and detects downbeats far better than the old engine did.
• Fixed analysis
  The old single-tempo approach, kept for the tracks that genuinely are one tempo — but more accurate than it used to be.
• Set Grid Start
  Puts the start of the grid where you want it.
• Set Beat
  Nudges one beat into place without pulling the rest of the grid out behind it.
• BPM labels on the waveform
  You can see where a track speeds up or drops, rather than feeling it go wrong mid-mix.

Your old grids do not change by themselves

This is the bit to read twice. Installing 5.0 does not rewrite your existing beatgrids — every track keeps the grid it already has, and you only get Lucid grids on tracks you re-analyse. Serato also says earlier versions hold on to the original grids, so stepping back to 4.x does not leave you playing off nothing.

Which cuts both ways. A library full of grids you corrected by hand over years is safe until the moment you select all and re-analyse — and that is one click, with no undo behind it.

Work in passes rather than all at once. Re-analyse a crate of the tracks that always fought you, play them, and see whether the new grid is better before you turn it loose on twenty thousand files.

Open streaming

You can now stay signed in to several streaming services at the same time instead of logging out of one to reach another. Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud, Beatport and Apple Music each show up as their own crate in the browser, with a dropdown to pick what you are searching.

Key and BPM are also shown for streamed tracks before you load them, which is the difference between planning a mix and guessing at one. Tidal subscribers get a set of ready-made DJ playlists as well.

Cue loops

A loop can now be saved straight onto a hot cue, so one button jumps the playhead to the cue and fires the loop at the same time. Useful for intros you always loop, and for holding a section while you talk over it.

This one is Serato DJ Pro only — Lucid Beatgrids is in Lite as well, cue loops are not.

The smaller ones

• Protect Library
  Stops tracks being removed from your library by accident inside the app. Long overdue.
• M3U and M3U8 import
  Drag a playlist file in and it becomes a crate.

It is still a beta

It installs alongside your current version and keeps your library and settings, so testing it does not mean giving up the install you trust. Serato are clear that it is not for shows that matter, and early reports back that up: on tricky records the grid can land a bar out, and some of the editing controls will flatten a flexible grid back to fixed if you reach for the wrong one.

Getting the beta

The build, the system requirements and the release notes all come from Serato directly — the 5.0 beta and its forum are at serato.com. Take it from there rather than from a mirror.