Another day another announcement about the future of DJing.  This time Ableton (the makes of the the groundbreaking Live DAW) and Serato (the makers of Scratch Live DJ package) they're collaborating on a new package called BRIDGE.

I know, I know, "OMG I can haz ableton & serata?!?!?"
 

Well.  First of all the interface is garbage.  It looks like Mac OS 7 is back.  I have always hated Serato's interface and Ableton's won awards for theirs so WHY!!!  Serato should take a back seat on this one.  Second, Sertao is MAD picky about your needles.  Traktor is way less finicky if your records are dirty or your needles are worn, but Native Instruments makes software.  They would never partner with Ableton. Third, look at the screen shot above. Ableton is assigned to Deck A and Thriller on Deck B.  Thats right.  No you cannot drop 2 tracks and use Ableton.  Weaksauce.

I have been an Ableton OWNER (yes I buy software and music) since version 1.  I'm a little stunned that they would do this when they could have licensed "Ms. Pinky" which is a VST plugin that has control vinyl support for MIDI and they could have done it themselves.  Hell, thats what M-Audio did with Torq (Their flaming POS digital DJ system)! **Editor's Note: I owned Torq.  It sucked. I sold it.  It worked for 2 out of 7 gigs

I'll hold back my overall skepticism for now, but I don't see this being the awesome thing they think it will be.  Especially since you can watch James Zabelia in this video from OVER 2 years ago clearly swicthing from Ableton to Traktor while playing in front of 5000 screaming fans.