Serato

Serato sets out to make premier audio software for music lovers the world around. Serato’s users have grown into a community of millions of DJs, producers, engineers and musicians across 190 countries since launching its first product in 1999, from the unknown to the greatest and from bedroom studios to festival stages. Serato is on a mission to deliver the best possible experience for creating, playing and sharing music, wherever you are.

Serato’s story begins with Pitch ‘n Time - still the world’s foremost studio plugin for time-stretching and pitch-shifting technology. In 1997, co-founder Steve West was a University of Auckland student learning to play bass guitar on the side. Steve wanted to slow down complicated bass solos without altering the pitch.

Frustrated with the sub-par tools available at the time, Steve set out to write an algorithm that would do just that. And so, Serato Pitch ‘n Time was born in 1999.
In 2000 Steve and AJ Bertenshaw began experimenting with the idea of controlling digital audio using vinyl. AJ had a working prototype of software that allowed you to scratch audio off a CD with a mouse. After a bit of feedback Serato took this idea further and soon developed the Serato Noisemap: a control tone pressed into vinyl records for controlling digital audio playback.

As professional digital DJing grew, so too did the demand for entry level software. In 2012 Serato launched Serato DJ - the evolution to Serato Scratch Live and ITCH - in conjunction with the Pioneer DJ DDJ-SX. This was Serato’s first step to an unified piece of software across the whole product range and introduced a new interface to Serato users.

2017 saw Serato come full circle and return to the diverse world of music production with Serato Sample. A high-quality sampling plugin allowing producers to find, chop, time-stretch and key shift their samples while retaining studio-grade sound. All using the power of Pitch ‘n Time.

In 2018 Serato’s flagship products, Serato DJ and Serato DJ Intro, became Serato DJ Pro and Serato DJ Lite. DJs can now mix two tracks together with just their laptop, have a limitless music library, and a crisp, high-resolution interface. June 2019 saw the release of Serato Studio. This intuitive beat making software packs advanced production functionality into a familiar, DJ-friendly workflow so you can transition seamlessly into beat making.