DJS OUT THERE - Advice on DJing in Ableton

[dubohno]

Im not really an old school dj, i dont use vinyl, but I do have that kind of simplistic mindframe at the moment...

Now its back to the decision of Traktor or Serato?... A lot of DJs I see seem to be using serato...

Choices choices!

[FrankieP]

Im not really an old school dj, i dont use vinyl, but I do have that kind of simplistic mindframe at the moment...

Now its back to the decision of Traktor or Serato?... A lot of DJs I see seem to be using serato...

Choices choices!

I didn't mean that type of old school , what I meant probably was traditional type or, yeah, simplistic would be an acceptable term. One who manually beatmatches, no sampling, no crazy beat repeats or looping, no Mashups and watch-me-go-crazy-with-them-effects thingy. Just a DJ that reads a crowd and plays the songs. And btw, you can DJ digitally without using vinyl but still have that tactile feel of turntables/CDJs.

[dubohno]

Yeah i'm definately a more read the crowd and play the right songs dj... rather than play a horn sample over every transition..ha!

My question now would be... is there a software program that would let me record a 'bedroom mix' at home aswell as take it out to clubs and dj live? Or is Traktor used for the former and Serato for the latter?? Costly stuff!

(i'm probably on the wrong forum for this now...)

[Dj Ace]

using serato scratch live and the bridge (ableton integration) will give the best of old school and new school integration.

[102455]

dubohno - the main thing to know about "DJing" with Live is that Live is NOT 'DJ software', it's a sequencer.

Therefore it doesn't have two decks, a recordcase/library with ID3 tag searching, pitch controls for each deck and so on.

Using Live to DJ is more akin to producing your own track. There is one master tempo that the project runs at, and any tracks you add to the 'production' will be warped to that tempo. It's not really designed for 'on the fly' work, where you have a track playing, then go and search your collection for another, and mix it in.

With Live, you have to 'think ahead' more, and arrange your mix before you play.

It will suit you for making a mix, although you will be 'constructing' the mix rather than recording it as you play, if you see what I mean.

[dubohno]

Yeah thanks for that advice... its become more clear now what I need to do.

You got right to the point of what I was thinking tho, so cheers!

[docprosper]

dubohno - the main thing to know about "DJing" with Live is that Live is NOT 'DJ software', it's a sequencer.

Therefore it doesn't have two decks, a recordcase/library with ID3 tag searching, pitch controls for each deck and so on.

Using Live to DJ is more akin to producing your own track. There is one master tempo that the project runs at, and any tracks you add to the 'production' will be warped to that tempo. It's not really designed for 'on the fly' work, where you have a track playing, then go and search your collection for another, and mix it in.

With Live, you have to 'think ahead' more, and arrange your mix before you play.

It will suit you for making a mix, although you will be 'constructing' the mix rather than recording it as you play, if you see what I mean.

true, although with the proper preparation you can arrange as you mix. I tend to put a ton of tracks in my dj template, arranged by bpm and sometimes genre. Each track is warped and saved off as a set of clips - intro, body, outro, etc. in advance. Before a set, I drop these clip sets into my template... basically everything I might want to play. Then I can get to the mix w/out mousing around looking for tracks. This is key, especially if using mp3s that can choke a live set during import.

...check out abletonlivedj.com, tons of dj-specific threads over there as well.
-Hamish