Something fishy is going on at Serato… Here are a few of my observations:
1. The new Rane mixers and the latest Vestax VCI-380 controller have no SSL or ITCH branding on them. They all simply say “Serato”.
2. The latest ITCH version attempts to upgrade the user to SSL… Defect or coincidence?
3. It’s obvious from the Serato forums that users of SSL want a lot of the features in ITCH and ITCH users want what’s left of the features in SSL. (So far, ITCH has basically gotten everything from video to the SP-6, as well as the layouts from SSL.) A lot of users of Traktor (and former users of SSL / ITCH) say they would jump ship back to Serato if this occured.
4. Vestax released the VCI-400 with no software title worthy of its build. Why? Especially when the VCI-400 is a perfect fit for a 4 deck ITCH controller. There is currently only one 4 deck controller on the market… It makes sense that the VCI-400 would have sub-par scratching integration with Traktor since Native Instruments may not want the VCI-400 to eat into their Kontrol S4 / S2 money. But why is it paired with the arguably undesirable 2 deck Serato Intro and not the current release of ITCH?
5. Vestax announces the VCI-380 for ITCH. Apparently the hardware is ready to go, but is being held back because the full potential of the VCI-380 can only be achieved by the next version of ITCH. From what I’ve read, the new features of the upcoming version of ITCH match the layout of the VCI-380 as a 2 deck controller as well as the VCI-400 as a 4 deck controller… (with the exception of pressure sensitive pads which are only available on the VCI-380) Why would Vestax continue their relationship with Serato on a 2 deck basis only, when clearly there is money to be made by making the VCI-400 ITCH compatible?
6. Native Instruments’ Traktor is Serato’s main competition for both SSL and ITCH. Users are often split between the NI and Serato because although many users like the simplicity of Serato’s offerings, users get a more inclusive DJ package with Traktor. Traktor offers one software title capable of DVS and (multiple) MIDI controller support. Traktor also provides a clear upgrade path from less feature enabled versions to the full professional scratch version. At the moment, Serato offers SSL, ITCH, and Intro… all of them being distributed independently from each other with no unifying upgrade path for the user.
7. Virtual DJ 8 is on the horizon, as well as Audio Artery’s The One… VDJ 8 is undergoing a full rewrite and certainly has NI and Serato in its sights… The One is a new contender showing very promising results in developing DJ software from a more modular and customizable view.
8. Serato software is free. Other than hardware sales, how do the developers make money? Are they relying on users to constantly buy new hardware every year? Seems like an unlikely business model to maintain especially if they run the risk of too many users jumping to other companies.
In my opinion, Serato could kill the competition by unifying their current titles into one offering and provide an upgrade path from Serato Intro. The upgrade path would be a lesser cost to users when compared to the option of purchasing new hardware. Maintanence of code for developers is arguably much easier with a single software title and more cost efficient.
I realize my points about Vestax may be more of a commentary for Vestax and not Serato… but I make them because if you make a controller of the VCI-xxx quality, you’d have to be an idiot not to pair it up with one of the leading pro-grade DJ software titles. I’m wondering if Serato fell behind in ITCH development for the latest VCI line. Perhaps Vestax released the VCI-400 because it was mappable to existing MIDI compatible software and Vestax had to make money on their current inventory of already produced VCI-400s… (Mind you Vestax hasn’t released a DJ controller since the VCI-300, three years ago… as opposed to Numark which is constantly pumping out new controllers every year… and dominating the market in my opinion.)
If Serato isn’t moving towards unification of their software… What is their plan? It’s gotta be a game changer right?
*UPDATE: Apparently there is a way to map jog wheels of a MIDI controller to SSL… It’s being done with a Denon MC-6000… Which means the code is in there… All of the parts are there to make the following upgrade path: Serato Intro -> Serato Itch -> Serato Scratch Live… Why would they do that? Hmmm?
