The Bridge

Part one of the Serato / Ableton Partnership


Ableton and Serato present The Bridge - the first result of the partnership announced in October 2008.

Take it to The Bridge

The Bridge spans the gap between music production and DJing, creating a natural link between Ableton Live and Scratch Live or ITCH. The Bridge provides a powerful fusion of DJ and production tools, opening a world of opportunities for DJing, remixing and live performance.

You can cross the Bridge in either direction:


Ableton to Serato

 
 The Bridge provides Ableton Transport Control (ATC), giving you control of your own multitrack productions with a turntable, CDJ or ITCH controller. Drag an Ableton Live set onto one of the decks in Scratch Live or ITCH. Scratch Live or ITCH provides deck control, mixing, nudging and DJ style looping; Ableton Live lets you remix multitrack files, mute/solo tracks, use virtual instruments, change drum patterns, manipulate audio, tweak effects and launch loops in real time. Read More »

Serato to Ableton

 
 The Bridge gives you the ultimate mixtape creation tool. Perform your mix in Scratch Live or ITCH and save it as an automated Ableton Live Set. Play your mix rather than cut and paste in a DAW. Forget about having to start a mixtape from scratch because of a mistake at minute fifty-nine. Each song is recorded and laid out on a track in Live separately, and any moves you've made with your hardware are recorded along with the track. Edit, add beat synced loops and virtual instruments, stretch, chop and manipulate your mix as required - with Ableton Live's production tools at your fingertips. Read More »

 

Reactions to The Bridge

The Bridge is already blowing minds. We showed The Bridge to some Ableton and Serato artists and here's what they had to say:

DJ Jazzy Jeff

“The mixtape feature was probably the best thing I've ever seen... For DJs who don't make beats yet, that turns into 'hey, I can make beats in here too.' For the guys who are beatmakers already as well as DJs, it's great because it's almost like you're DJing with multitracks. People are going to get really creative, I know my brain is working already, there's stuff that I'm going to do that I choose not to disclose right now because it's top secret.”

?uestlove

“My initial reaction? I was absolutely elated. As with most DJs that are Ableton friendly, a lot of us have been utilizing Ableton's warping to quantize and straighten out records that otherwise fluctuate. Now that we have the opportunity to play with the actual files... and use them in DJ gigs and live shows, the possibilities are absolutely 100% endless. Being as I just saw [The Bridge], my mind is racing with endless ideas...”

Kenny Dope

“Seeing where Ableton is at, this state of technology, and all the stuff that's in there, and thinking about Ableton and Serato together is mind boggling. I know there's a lot of stuff that can happen... we're all producers, we're all DJs, your mind starts to wonder what's coming. Everybody's gonna get excited.”

Recloose

“There's really becoming less and less of a difference between a DJ set, and what people call a Live PA. For me, performing live has been an 8-piece-band. And a lot of the guys I came up with in Detroit, their live sets were running MPCs and synths, and I never really did that so much by myself. But with this innovation, and as well as the introduction of the APC 40, I'm going to jump head first into this. I love my band, but you can't really beat having it all compact right there in front of you.”

Hudson Mohawke

“To see the two things working together is an immediate step forward. Definitely for the DJs, it's a big step. Now I can focus on more of the creative side than just getting things in time.”

Magik Johnson

“Anyone who is a producer and a DJ, I think, there's no reason why they all wouldn't be using it, it just makes total sense really. You can make it as easy as you want, you know, just use Ableton as a way of throwing samples or loops in. Or you can be creating tracks as you go, it's kind of endless really what you can do with it. There's nothing really that's combined producing and DJing like what I've just seen.”
For more on what these artists had to say about The Bridge, watch Hudson Mohawke, Recloose and Majik Johnson, and DJ Jazzy Jeff, ?uestlove and Kenny Dope.

Pricing and availability

The Bridge is free for anyone who owns

  • Serato Scratch Live or Serato ITCH compatible hardware, and
  • A registered version of Ableton Live 8.

For more information regarding availability and public beta testing, sign up for a Serato website account and receive the Serato Newsletter.


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