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DJ software veteran Serato launches iOS app to intelligently mix your music

Serato-Pyro

DJs will be well familiar with the name Serato. It’s one of the — if not the — leading software products around for DJs that make the hop from vinyl to digital sets (and that’s most of them these days). But the company hasn’t had a huge presence on iOS devices outside of that world — save for its Remote companion app for users of a Serato desktop setup. That’s where Serato’s new Pyro app comes in, but it’s not exactly the scaled back version of the company’s desktop offering you might have been hoping for.

Instead, rather than act as a suite for mostly professional DJs and their mixing and controller hardware like on the desktop, Pyro is aimed at all users and meant to act like the DJ for you, using Serato’s technology to automatically mix songs from one to the next by changing the tempo and doing a real mix like a professional DJ would:

The powerful Serato algorithms inside Pyro allow it to break down each song, finding every beat, then blending them smoothly so it’s hard to tell where one song ends and the next one begins. Serato Pyro actually changes the speed of the incoming song to match the one currently playing for an unbelievably smooth listening experience. If the tempos of the two songs are too far apart, Pyro uses an old DJ trick called the “echo out” to make a smooth transition.

If it works well, that sounds like a feature that would be an excellent and really fun addition to services like Apple Music and competitors. But for now the app lets you use the music in your device’s library and also integrates with Spotify so you can easily bring your playlists in to be mixed. In addition, Serato tapped into some of the DJs that use its products to offer playlists to get you started. You’ll find mixes preloaded in the app from DJ Jazzy Jeff, A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold Records, Diplo’s record label Mad Decent, Steve Aoki’s brand Dim Mak and GRAMMY® Award winners, The Roots.

While the app does everything automatic, you can have some say in the mix by influencing the playlist that the app also helps you intelligently track out:

Pyro doesn’t just play through an existing playlist; rather each music session is created on-the-fly, built from existing playlists and searches on the whim of the user at the time. It is easy to rearrange and edit the upcoming songs while the music is playing, so there is never any need to prepare before the party starts.

And Pyro includes an Apple Watch companion app that lets you view, rearrange, and control currently playing and upcoming tracks in your mixes.

The new Serato Pyro app is available on the App Store now for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

And the company offered a look at the technology it’s using in the app in the video below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EyUx41M3tM]

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Comments

  1. nonstoprug - 8 years ago

    Seems it doesn’t work with Apple Music. You have to have the files stored on the device.

    • chrisl84 - 8 years ago

      Yeah, I’ve tested similar apps with Apple Music in the past and Apple Music does not let the “cloud” files to be accessed by other apps. You have to purchase them first.

  2. Graham J - 8 years ago

    So it’s like Pacemaker. Neat.

  3. chroniktronik - 8 years ago

    Hmm, it’s not detecting songs that are on my device (don’t use AM or Spotify).

    • Johan Gunverth - 8 years ago

      It doesn’t work with ANY iTunes Store/Apple Music purchased song. Only ripped CDs.

      • chroniktronik - 8 years ago

        I have plenty of CD-ripped music synced from iTunes to my iPhone.

  4. sparklehedgehog - 8 years ago

    First off I’m a DJ of 17 years experience now (professionally not hobbyist)

    Not anywhere near as good as advertised. The amount of mixes it chose to just echo and fade with a one word repeat of the previous song out into the next song was crazy.

    I can see the potential but it has a long long way to go yet. With the foundation that they have I hope they take it all the way to make it a great product which it could be but its got some work remaining to be done

  5. bigpoppa206 - 8 years ago

    As a professional DJ of 40 years, I was skeptical. I brought up Bryan Ferry’s “More Than This” and “Kiss And Tell” knowing the K&T intro is unique. The software flawlessly segued from one into the other. Can’t wait to try a few more mixes. Would never use this in a professional setting as I prefer to do my own work. But still it’s fun. Yay Serato!

  6. b9bot - 8 years ago

    It doesn’t work. No wonder they give this software away. I deleted the app from my phone.

  7. its a next step. It seems thats how future apple players will be look like. If you didnt specify exact tracks, pyro will offer most suitable by tempo and make a transition mix to the next track, so it will be like the seamless continuous dj set, just press “next”

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.