Serato ITCH 1.7 adds beat gridding, initial key and more.
Serato has released Serato ITCH 1.7, the latest version of its flagship DJ controller software. The software is specially designed to work with Serato ITCH-certified DJ controllers in a tight software / hardware integration environment. Compatible controllers include the Vestax VCI-300, Numark NS7 and Allen & Heath Xone:DX.
Serato ITCH 1.7 adds a number of much-requested feature in the shape of beat grids, initial key display and limiter functionality, and also fixes bugs and optimises in a number of areas. This new version of Serato ITCH has actually been available as a public beta for a few weeks, but has now passed all tests and been released officially for general download.
Advantages of beat gridding
Beat gridding means, for example, you’ll be able to mix tunes accurately away from the beat information – for instance when tunes have long beatless intros or breaks, It does this by allowing users to prepare and mix tunes by dropping a “grid” over them, in much the same was that Traktor users enjoy.
Often criticised as “not real DJing”, nonetheless beat gridding is a great help in the mixing of acappellas, and many DJs will prefer to mix using beat grids, especially when using the four-deck functionality of the software with the Allen & Heath Xone:DX.
Adding the initial key information to the decks makes key mixing easier.
Initial key display on decks
Another often-requested feature is Initial key. Initial key is an ID3 tag for showing key information, which can be written to by software such as Mixed in Key (note the “C” and “A#” information in the screenshot).
Until this version. Serato ITCH didn’t display this information in the decks, meaning it was harder to mix in key as you had to continually refer back to the library. This is a useful fix for the significant minority of DJs who choose to prepare and execute their DJ sets with key mixing in mind.
Limiter indicator for distortion-free partying
It’s surprising how many DJs are ignorant of the way to properly route audio at the correct volume using the gains and faders.
The new version of ITCH has a limiter indicator to show DJs when the software is having to limit the music due to too much gain or volume being pushed through the system by over-setting these controls. Should help to better educate the over-enthusiastic volume-freaks among ITCH’s user base.
Bug fixes blah blah…
The software also has the usual raft of small but welcome bug fixes, optimisations and so on.
It’s available as a free download now on the Serato ITCH 1.7 download page.
Now go to:
Vestax VCI-300 & Serato ITCH – 3 Months In
Hercules RMX & Virtual DJ 6 vs Vestax VCI-300 & Serato ITCH
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Tags: itch 1.7, Numark NS7, serato, Serato ITCH, serato itch 1.7, vestax vci-300
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
I’m having a few problems with Serato itch that you could possibly help me with. The first one is that my tracks aren’t being analyzed. When I drag them onto a deck it asks me to tap out the bpm. Second how do you edit the beat grids? I’m using a Numark v7. Thank you.
[ link ]http://serato.com/howtos/itch/5877/how-to-create-and-edit-beatgrids
[ link ]also having probs w drop outs t tmes w the new ver. software. im using the vci-300 on a mac pro 1 gig. havent had this issue before. ive put my request in for a answer in the forums help section..no reply yet . its been about 2 days now. help serato/vestax! other than that its ok.
[ link ]When is Serato fixing all the bugs on Itch? I got it when it was 1.6, it had bugs which in version 1.7 fixed them but created another batch of bugs.
[ link ]Not cool, I’ve had the device (Xone DX) for 6 months now and the software still does not work, not what I expected, I’m truly frustrated, as Serato is not providing solutions… time to buy Traktor Pro? Hey Serato can you help me get a discount to get Traktor?
I suspect we’re about so see ITCH 2.0, maybe even at NAMM in a week or so, so I’d hold on until then before jumping ship. It seems that the Xone:DX implementation was never 100% from what several people have said, which is a shame because it’s great on the VCI-300.
[ link ]Hi,
I was hoping to find a full review on the Itch software and not just about its upgrades/fixes. Do you guys have an article like that and if so, can you give me the link?
I’m mainly wondering what features it has (effects, sampling, recording mixes, ..) and whether it’s comparible to Traktor LE (being a stripped down version of the software).
Thanks
[ link ]No we don’t I’m afraid, we’ll review ITCH 2.0 when it’s out soon extensively though.
[ link ]