Along with today's release, Serato Sounds kicks off its artist series with a sound pack from Just Blaze, the producer behind many tracks from artists like Jay-Z, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar. There will be sounds mastered with his own vintage studio gear, plus original self-recorded samples. Just Blaze said "I wanted to actually get on the drum kit, smack the sticks around. Bang on different things in my house and pick up different sounds..." so you may just get the kitchen sink in there, who knows.

While I covered much of Serato Studio's core elements in my beta overview, there are plenty of new and expanded features to note with this 1.0 release. There's now the ability to perform a master key change across an entire song in one click. Triplets and swing have been added to the step sequencer to add a little variance to your beats and you can now enjoy more spacious layouts with up to 32-beat scenes. Additionally, stem exports have arrived for those who want to work with their creation in other platforms and there's now a master deck waveform so you can get a visual of your entire piece in one go.

All these updates seem to take the software a few steps further into the realm of complete DAW products, letting you lay out more complex compositions beyond a basic chain of short looped segments. With the available catalog of sounds, the sampler and Pitch 'n Time tools, you can really dig into sound creation and get the core of a track together quickly. You can tap out beats or record filter sweeps live using your existing DJ controller or MIDI keyboard. This can save you the cost of additional gear while providing a more tactile and fluid interface than a computer keyboard. Although that works just fine, too.