How to Add DJ Drops to the Serato Sampler and rekordbox Sampler

Club Ready Music drops go into the Serato Sampler and the rekordbox sampler the same way as any short MP3: render on the DJ drop tab, download the MP3 or the Dry version, drop the files into a sampler slot and set the slot level a little under your tracks. Both outputs are 44.1 kHz stereo 320 kbps at a fixed −8 LUFS, so every slot plays at the same loudness without per-file trimming. The work is in choosing wet or dry per slot and arranging banks so you can find a drop in the dark.

Steps

1. Render a set of drops

On the Drops page, DJ drop tab, type what the voice should say in the box, up to 200 characters; write unusual names phonetically. Pick a voice: Hype for a club MC read, Smooth for late-night radio, Imaging for a processed station ID, Robotic for a vocoded pitch. Choose the FX chain, the Music bed and a Length of 3 s, 5 s or 10 s, then press Render 3 variations. You get three reads with slightly different delivery, so pick the one that lands best and keep the others as alternates.

2. Download wet, dry or both

Each render offers MP3, which is the wet mix with FX and bed, and Dry, which is the voice alone at the same loudness. Download the MP3 for drops you fire into a breakdown, a gap or over a drum-only intro; the Impact hit or Riser bed fills the space. Download Dry for drops you trigger over a full mix, where a second bed under a kick turns to mud. Name the files so the slot label reads well, for example "DJ Name hype 5s" and "DJ Name dry 5s".

3. Build a Drops folder and crate

Put all the files in one folder on the drive you perform from. In Serato, drag the folder into the library and make a crate called Drops; in rekordbox, add the folder to the Collection. A crate or playlist is faster than browsing the file system when you want to swap slots mid-set, and both programs then show length and title.

4. Load the Serato Sampler

Open the Sampler panel in Serato DJ Pro or Lite. Drag a drop from the Drops crate onto a slot. Each bank holds eight slots, so fill bank A with name drops and bank B with transitions and station IDs. Set the slot to a one-shot trigger so the drop plays through once when you press its pad or key, and lower the slot gain until a drop over a full deck leaves your master meter where it was. The 5 s drops suit most mixes; the 3 s ones are tight enough to drop on a single bar.

5. Load the rekordbox sampler

Open the sampler panel in rekordbox and drag each drop from your collection into a slot. rekordbox will analyse the file and may show a meaningless BPM for a 5 s clip; ignore it and make sure the slot is not set to sync or loop. Match the slot level to what you set in Serato, around 2 to 3 dB under the deck level, so a drop sounds the same whichever software is running.

6. Time the bed to the music

The Impact hit bed puts its sweep at the start of the clip, so fire it on a downbeat. The Riser bed peaks at the end of the clip, so start a 5 s riser five seconds before the drop you are building to and the peak lands on the first kick. The Dry version has no bed and can go anywhere. Rehearse each slot once with a track playing so you know where the voice ends relative to the bar.

Tips

• Club Ready Music never cuts a read short. A long script stretches the clip past the chosen length, so check the length column before you assume a slot is 5 s.
• Map the first four slots to pads or keys you can hit without looking, and keep them the same across sets.
• Keep a Dry and a wet version of your main name drop in adjacent slots. Switch between them depending on how busy the track is.
• Drops are 44.1 kHz while Club Ready Music tracks are 48 kHz. Serato and rekordbox resample on the fly, so nothing needs converting.
• Re-render rather than editing. Change the FX chain, the bed or the length and press Render 3 variations again; the Renders panel keeps the old ones.

Common problems

• The drop is much louder than the track. The slot gain is at unity and the drop is −8 LUFS. Lower the slot by 2 to 4 dB or use the Dry version.
• Two beds collide and the low end booms. You fired a wet drop with an Impact hit over a kick. Load the Dry version in that slot.
• The riser peaks after the downbeat. You triggered it on the bar before the drop. Start it one full clip length ahead, five seconds for a 5 s drop.
• The sampler slot loops or syncs to the deck. The slot is in a loop or sync mode. Set it to a one-shot trigger with sync off.
• The slot label is the file name, not the words. Rename the file to the words you want to see on the slot before you load it.