Saturday, August 3, 2024. Sound Collective, Financial District. Manhattan, New York.—Some seriously soulful, heavy cookin’ and flaming beats were on the menu today at the Sound Collective in New York City, after an inspiring software navigation and beat making demonstration hosting by Serato Artists Relations Representative, OP Miller and Platinum, Grammy Award-Winning Producer, Cookin Soul, the brainchild behind top hip-hop mixtapes and collaborations with Mac Miller, Nipsey Hussle, Wiz Khalifa, Larry June, Nicki Minaj and many more.
The only software built to sustain the heat of the beats was none other than Serato Studio 2.3.0, the newest expansion of the digital music brand Serato, established in 1999, known popularly for its unrivaled DJ and music production capabilities. After OP provided the audience with a brief 10-minute introduction on the MIDI Mapping and the new features, announcing its release and functionalities, Cookin Soul did the honors of a live demonstration of Serato Studio 2.3.0, dispelling any intimidation behind the usability of the new software.
Doors opened at 2:00 pm at the Sound Collective, a community create-space based in Manhattan New York, that is comprised of likeminded artists, creatives, and mentors that aspire to inspire and work together to achieve a common goal. The seats filled up quickly with colleagues, eager fans of the producer and the Serato brand, aspiring artists, DJs, musicians and veteran producers alike that included Multi-Platinum and Grammy Nominated Producer, Buckwild and American DJ, Songwriter, Record Producer, and Music Manager, Sha Money XL, ever ready to discover more about the innovative changes to the popular DAW, Serato Studio 2.3.0.
The All-New Serato Studio 2.3.0 is the DAW (digital audio workspace/workstation) beat maker that Serato has released. It is notably the fastest and most intuitive DAW software for making beats on the market to date. Producers are able to compose album quality beats with a wider spectrum of sound and creative range. Due to its seamless workflow, unrivaled sampling and powerful audio separation technology, the latest version of Serato Studio is designed with beat makers in mind.
Serato Studio 2.3.0 allows for the producer to intuitively and rapidly make beats. It includes a technology called “MIDI Mapping”, this update allows beatmakers to easily map MIDI hardware controls – including faders, knobs, buttons, keys, and pads – to various functions within the Serato Studio 2.3.0 DAW, creating a more tactile music production experience.
New users of Serato Studio 2.3.0 DAW will discover the BPM (beat per measure) and key syncing feature that ‘locks in’ and provides for a smooth flowing, cohesive blend of rhythm and sound. The ease of use allows for greater flexibility, more range creatively and allots more freedom of self-expression for the producers and aspiring composers who tend to struggle with learning music theory, adapting to ear training, and additional learning curves associated with music composition. Serato Studio 2.3.0 also includes a feature called “Serato stems” that allows the producer/composer to separate the samples into their respective parts, in other words, you can load a sample and extract the vocals from the instrumental, or any part of that instrumental, whether bassline or snare, hi-hat, horns, piano, etc.
“For people who like to sample music, this program is a dream come true because it allows you to have access to all of these different parts of a sample that you never would have had before and then your creativity kind of goes wild.” – OP Miller, Artist Representation for Serato
OP continues to add regarding the new software, “There are other incredible features as well. There’s one function called, ‘make drums’ where you can literally press a button and it will give you a drum pattern… so if you press the button, you don’t like it, you can select another one…and you can them customize it to your own liking as well. The program is super easy to use, and super intuitive. A lot of people use it, Cookin Soul, who’s here now, obviously has been making music with it now. It’s an extremely versatile program.”
When asked what he wanted to add regarding his experience with the new software expansion and a few gems he’d like to share with up and coming creatives, Cookin Soul had this to say, “Well first of all, I am thank you for asking me, and let me say this, if you ever thought about making music, or even if you are already advanced, it’s one of the best programs you’ll ever use to start or use. I know this because it’s what I use every day. If you have never tried to make music before, as a beatmaker, you know how hard it can be with other programs, once you get on Serato Studio, you’ll see for yourself how easy it is [to navigate], especially with the Midi Mapping, you can plug in your midi controllers and get down to it. Its super easy, super intuitive… so I would recommend 100%. Get into it! Make it fun, have some fun. It is not hard to use this program at all. Music should be fun. And if you become a hot producer, holla’ at me…thank you…something!”
He laughed and continues to share insight on the new album by Larry June, releasing on August 9th, where he is featured as the producer on the last song, “Money Bag” which he deems as one of the best records he, himself, has released as a producer. This speaks volumes considering that the Cookin Soul is known for creating music with a wide range of influences from fusing soul, funk, jazz, and boom bap. Cookin Soul has released over 25 LPs, 20 remix tapes, and numerous instrumental projects. With production credits on over 250 albums and tapes, he has crafted original tunes and fully produced projects for artists like Freddie Gibbs, Curren$y, YG, Joey Bada$$, Max B, NORE, AZ and the list goes on.
The live demonstration closed with a beat making competition, whose victor later turned out to be JP The Producer aka Jus Pressure an up-and-coming producer hailing from Harlem New York by the way of VA.
Here’s where you can go to download the full version of THE ULTIMATE BEAT MAKER, Serato Studio 2.3.0 (a monthly subscription option and a free option is also available) by visiting The Ultimate Beat Maker – Serato Studio:
Full Version of Serato Studios 2.3.0
