Serato has finally released its much-anticipated ITCH 2.0 DJ controller software with a free download from its website and a launch video, after a short period of public beta testing.
With a powerful sample player, a simplified sync engine, better display options and improved file handling, the software aims to be simpler to use yet more powerful than its predecessor.
The new display modes – including night/day and album art views plus Serato Scratch-esque vertical waveforms – improve the look of the software and make it easier to use.
Serato ITCH 2.0 is free, although as always to use it you need a compatible DJ controller…
It is now possible to drag and drop folders, playlists and sets, including to removable media, from within the program.
The sync engine uses a set of four bars, to represent beats, that move in sequence for each track, which are colour coded to show if sync is locked or just on tempo. In reality this does away with the idea of master/slave tempo making sync more intuitive, especially across four decks.
New architecture bodes well for the future
The sample player – similar to Traktor Pro 2′s sample decks – “plugs in” to the software, as does another device used to reveal your playlists to the world via Serato’s website.
This architecture indicated the arrival of a plugin engine, which means that new features in the future should be easier to develop and launch, maybe even by third parties. I’m thinking about the much-anticipated addition of video and Ableton Live integration (“The Bridge”) particularly.
Serato ITCH 2.0 is free, although as always to use it you need a compatible DJ controller like those made especially for Serato ITCH by Vestax, Numark, Allen & Heath, Pioneer and Novation. The update is available now from serato.com.
Have you tried ITCH 2.0 yet since the public beta was available? Does this release contain what you were hoping for? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Now go to:
First Review: Serato ITCH 2.0 DJ Software
Review & Video: The Novation Twitch DJ Controller
Review: Traktor Pro 2 – Is It Evolution, Or Revolution?
Want to escape the bedroom and play in public - fast?
Our 1000s-selling How To Digital DJ Fast video course shows you how.
Learn to DJ Free - email course plus bonus PDF book
Sign up for our weekly email course for beginners now...
Trouble choosing a controller? Visit the web's #1 guide!
DJ Controllers: The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide 2013.
Tags: serato itch 2.0, Software
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
its seems to have more latency issues than the first version of itch
[ link ]There are some of hidden features:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kji_G-AyVIY
What others there might be?
also, it appears that there’s MIDI-like (with touch OSC on iPad in this case) control over the SP6 sampler, which the marketing info is missing:
[ link ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ3DEKMQ-rE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJscrPEPrJY&NR=1
Thanks for the heads up!
[ link ]I was wrong to assume that there’s MIDI mappings support in 2.0. The iPad control demonstrated in the video is not MIDI mapping. It’s OSCulator, translating TouchOSC commands to key strokes using the keyboard shortcuts.
It’s still a way to use ITCH 2.0 with extra controllers, but is limited to what ITCH supports as kb shortcuts only.
amazing … i never thought that we’ll need to convert MIDI messages to keystrokes. So far, I only thought of ways to convert HID(mouse/keyboards/joysticks) commands to MIDI, and never the oposite
[ link ]Man! Things need to stop changing so fast, i don’t know what to buy anymore! Phil, i need your help!
[ link ]Don’t get overwhelmed! Pick a hardware/software combo you like and stick with it. Change it in 2-3 years time minimum. Remember it’s about music, not gear.
[ link ]“It’s the ears not the gears”
[ link ]Thanks Phil, You Rock!
[ link ]“The sync engine uses a set of four bars, to represent beats, that move in sequence for each track, which are colour coded to show if sync is locked or just on tempo. In reality this does away with the idea of master/slave tempo making sync more intuitive, especially across four decks.”
Virtual DJ has been doing this for years, in addition to their sampler.
[ link ]Yes but ITCH adds colour coding to indicate locked sync or just tempo sync – it builds on the idea. Agreed, though, VDJ started it.
[ link ]Oooooh now that is sexy
[ link ]Thus far I like 2.0, I have to play around with it some more and read the manual since there are many new features and changes.
[ link ]Hi all,
I downloaded the Itch 2.0 version, but I’m too disappointed because the soft does not show cue points (with colors) as Scratchlive does.
Am I wrong? Do you think it will be added in the future?
Thanks in advance
[ link ]The beatgridding engine is substantially better at autodetecting than Traktor and Ableton now.
I’m not sure what they changed, but when I imported 100 tracks (already tagged with accurate BPMs from Traktor) the beatgrids were spot on in 97 of them. The only tracks it got wrong were ones with slowdown/speedup type breakdowns.
It seems like A: they’ve changed it to respect pre-existing BPM values (which makes the beatgridding way simpler, since tracks are coming down from Beatport etc with BPM already specified), and B: they’ve dramatically improved transient detection.
[ link ]This new 2.0 is crashing on my Sony Vaio. My Traktor NEVER crash on me when I am playing out.
[ link ]Hey,
when is the bridge going to be released for serato itch? I want to buy a controller but would rather go digital than analogue
[ link ]In theory they could do it soon (as Itch now accepts plugins), but we’ve no official word on that.
[ link ]