Ableton Forum

I thought Id try out the trial of live 9 and i really want to get into DJ-ing.
But I'm kind of really lost on how to use it XD
I've looked at a bunch of Ableton tutorials and some on YouTube but I'm kind of lost on where to start, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips or any really great tutorials that are sooo specific that dummies like me can understand XD XD
Thanks

Maybe you'd prefer to use Dj software if you want to dj. There will be a shorter learning curve and you can focus on making great mixes. Ableton can be used for djing, but it can be used for much much more.

But, if you still want to do ableton, then I'd start with the Ableton official videos on youtube.

http://youtu.be/QtE5hjF8Hb8?list=PLoh4M ... vmnCQpJko0

View the builtin lessons. Read the manual. Make some stuff. Read the manual again. Make some stuff. Read the manual again. View the built in lessons. Make some stuff.

wxnder wrote:I thought Id try out the trial of live 9 and i really want to get into DJ-ing.
But I'm kind of really lost on how to use it XD
I've looked at a bunch of Ableton tutorials and some on YouTube but I'm kind of lost on where to start, so I was wondering if anyone had any tips or any really great tutorials that are sooo specific that dummies like me can understand XD XD
Thanks

(1) The built-in lessons are really useful for learning about DJ-ing: start there.

(2) Then just practice. Load up two tracks, and use that crossfader!

(3) One key area you will need to learn is warping your tracks for beatmatching. A good tutorial here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOKPKkkgFqU. Spend a day or two prepping all your favourite tracks for play. Be sure to save the clips so you don't have to do it again

(4) Depending on the style of music you are playing, you may want to learn about harmonic mixing. One of the advantages of Live is that you can repitch your tracks without too much quality loss by a semitone or three. Using that plus the Circle of Fifths will make your music really smooth.

(5) There's a bunch of people out there who make really easy to use DJ effect racks to stick in your master channel. Tarekith's DJ plugins are pretty good. You can download them here: http://tarekith.com/assets/TarekithDJEFXv9.zip

(6) If you want to seriously DJ live & use effects, consider getting a MIDI controller to liberate you from the mouse. For me, the simplest MIDI controller out there is Akai's LPD8: used in conjunction with a MIDI remote script like SelectedTrackControl it can give you a huge amount of flexibility. But that's only the most rudimentary stuff: with a launchpad or similar you can do much more.

There, I've given you about six months' worth of homework in one post

Step 1: find crack dealer
Step 2: smoke the crack ( meth last longer but gives you the jitters so I don't recommend it)
Step 3: turn on your computer
Step 4: make music
Step 5: rinse and repeat ....you will get good or die



But for real just make music for hours, days, weeks, years, 15 years will go by and you may have some chops good luck

I bought my first version of Ableton Live in 2006. With one or two interruptions, I have been using it daily for most of the time since. After almost 10 years I believe I am starting to get the hang of it

yeah! if you really want have a quick learning stage you should consider to take lesson from a trainer -anyway you are the one who have to learn it, but for bedroomproducers 10 Years is a good average . i can just say its the same here. slowly you get a glue of the things you know you have no glue of it but at the same time you slowly start to really know what you are doing.
sorry i sound cryptical - g8@all

Warpacademy.com has a great monthly rate, sign up for a month, watch as many tutorials as you can, then unsub the next month if you want.

Abletonlivedj.com also has a lot of good info on DJing with Live. It's a bit older now, but a lot of it still applies. Good tutorials.

I'm still learning myself, but like most things in life, there are no shortcuts.

Nothing replaces the hours you spend working on the program. Keep learning new things and apply it to whatever you are doing as soon as possible.

Best of luck!

I can suggest www.abletontuition.com - they offer video call training on all aspects of ableton live including djing, performance production etc. You can learn from home via skype/google+ etc. It's 1 to 1 training from an expert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxMY9HAPmUg

Good luck!

Deleted post.

@wxnder, can I ask why you've chosen Ableton Live if you are wanting to do some DJing?

As others have said, Live is a DAW. It's not primarily designed for DJing. DJ software such as Traktor, Serato DJ, Virtual DJ etc. are designed for DJs to use traditional DJ methods.

DJing using Live does not use traditional methods. It's more like production-on-the-fly. There are no decks, no "DJ style" mixer, no easily searchable file browser, no scratching - the list goes on.

The one thing where Live excels (and why some like to use it for "DJing") is the track warping, where you can import tracks with variable tempos and have Live "straighten out" the variations, making it easier to mix.

I'm a big fan of Flume and his music and her, and a lot of other EDM musicians I like, use ableton live and so I thought I'd check it iut

Yes, there are a whole bunch of musicians/producers who use Live to make their music - and they'll often get booked to do a "DJ set" (because they don't perform as a band would).

However, the performance is actually more like an on the fly remix/mashup of their own material (as they've got all the data in Live) than what a DJ would normally do.

If that's what you're looking to do, then Live is a great tool. When people talk about DJing though, Live isn't what first comes to mind.

Yup not so sure for djing, there are other free software for that (on os x, not sure about windows, but surely).

To learn Live, I stress like others, that you should start with the in-software lessons.