should i move to ableton? (deejaying)

[DeadlyKungFu]

just skimmed over the thread, my $0.02...

I have a setup with my BCR that lets me mash/DJ songs without touching the mouse or keyboard at all. $120 and I've got mad control, I really should post the BCR and .als files someday.

This is what I can do, this is all for 8 tracks of audio:
EQ Hi
EQ Lo
Volume
Sends A-D
Launch dummy clips (send D) to apply to any track
control over FX in sends A-D
Pan
Individual clip launch
scene launch
bpm
quantise
master volume
fader a/b
assign fader a/b for each track
track on/off
scene up/down
LOOP on/off
metronome on/off
track view

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but anyway, it can be done and I'm loving it!

[Adonis]

just skimmed over the thread, my $0.02...

I have a setup with my BCR that lets me mash/DJ songs without touching the mouse or keyboard at all. $120 and I've got mad control, I really should post the BCR and .als files someday.

This is what I can do, this is all for 8 tracks of audio:
EQ Hi
EQ Lo
Volume
Sends A-D
Launch dummy clips (send D) to apply to any track
control over FX in sends A-D
Pan
Individual clip launch
scene launch
bpm
quantise
master volume
fader a/b
assign fader a/b for each track
track on/off
scene up/down
LOOP on/off
metronome on/off
track view

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but anyway, it can be done and I'm loving it!

all with 1 BCR?

whoa - you're on 6 though right?

how do you launch clips with the BCR - I'm looking at one now on another browser

I've been down this road before but Guitar Center didn't have any

curious

[DeadlyKungFu]

with 1 BCR, it's a combination of a few bcr presets I made, one preset is sends on top, EQ and volume on the bottom, another preset is all sends control, another is global stuff with EQ. Most of the time I use the preset with sends on the top and EQ on the bottom.

This works on Live 5 too.

The controls for clip launch are hidden, hit midi learn and the boxes pop up just above the track level. I use the buttons in the lower right of the bcr to scroll up/down scenes then I use the 8 buttons in the middle of the bcr to launch individual clips in 8 tracks. So, 10 buttons gets you scroll and 8 clips to launch, per scene.

Oh yeah, Adonis, you asked in your 'my 1st mix' thread about unlooping clips. I have a button set to LOOP, I launch a clip, it loops, when I hit the LOOP button it toggles LOOP for the LAST clip I launched. With this I can start a song looping, let it groove, then hit LOOP and it plays out. The thing is, I end up leaving LOOP off on a clip and the next time I play it, I loose the initial looping. I abandoned this and ended up making intro loops for each song, then maybe an interesting part, then the whole song. Check the screen shot I posted of my mash up set in your 'pick a computer' thread. light green means clean drum loops, bottom most clip for a song is the whole song, anything in between are fun loops. but I digress...

[robin]

Oh yeah, Adonis, you asked in your 'my 1st mix' thread about unlooping clips. I have a button set to LOOP, I launch a clip, it loops, when I hit the LOOP button it toggles LOOP for the LAST clip I launched. With this I can start a song looping, let it groove, then hit LOOP and it plays out. The thing is, I end up leaving LOOP off on a clip and the next time I play it, I loose the initial looping.

I'm not sure I know how to do this? Can you explain?

btw. Adonis, if I were you I'd be going the bcr route right now. As long as you don't want faders of course.

[DeadlyKungFu]

Oh yeah, Adonis, you asked in your 'my 1st mix' thread about unlooping clips. I have a button set to LOOP, I launch a clip, it loops, when I hit the LOOP button it toggles LOOP for the LAST clip I launched. With this I can start a song looping, let it groove, then hit LOOP and it plays out. The thing is, I end up leaving LOOP off on a clip and the next time I play it, I loose the initial looping.

I'm not sure I know how to do this? Can you explain?

btw. Adonis, if I were you I'd be going the bcr route right now. As long as you don't want faders of course.

midi assign a button/knob/computer key/keyboard key whatever to LOOP in any clip's clip view (it's global)

have a few loops ready to go, loops that are part of a longer piece.

click on a loop to play it

let it loop a bit

hit the control you assigned to the LOOP button

the loop stops looping and starts playing

play another loop

let it loop

hit LOOP, the last loop stops looping and starts playing.

Again, the problem with this is that if you save your set afterwards, you'll undoubtably forget to turn loop back on for a clip.


re: bcr vs bcf. for me it's all about real estate, more controllers on the BCR. Faders are a better way to FEEL volume but I do it fine with knobs.

btw when I move a control in Live or on my SL25, the LEDs on the BCR move with it. That in itself is hours of fun, or record movements and watch the bcr's lights move.

[robin]

midi assign a button/knob/computer key/keyboard key whatever to LOOP in any clip's clip view (it's global)

Stop. It's global?

Right, that helps a lot. The rest I understand, thanks man.


The only thing I'd need for mouseless operation is being able to move stuff from the browser to the clip slots. Obviously if I pre-planned a set this wouldn't be necessary but that's not how I work unfortunately.

[robin]

btw. there was a bug in one version of 5 that meant if you unlooped a looped clip whilst recording the recording wouldn't record correctly (err if that makes sense). I'm not sure if this is fixed in later versions....I haven't tried (yet).

[Adonis]

As usual no one in Seattle is carrying the BCR

I'm interested in this looping though

So as a track is playing I can assign a key command to catch a loop?

[DeadlyKungFu]

you can midi assign controls to the SET buttons in clip view for start and end loop, I haven't played with that too much, and not for a while, but it gives you the same feel as looping on the old Pioneer CDJs.

[robin]

you can midi assign controls to the SET buttons in clip view for start and end loop, I haven't played with that too much, and not for a while, but it gives you the same feel as looping on the old Pioneer CDJs.

Truly my eyes have been opened tonight.

Much playing around to do now...

[robin]

Dumb question: can I select a clip without launching it? And without using the mouse etc.?

[Adonis]

you can midi assign controls to the SET buttons in clip view for start and end loop, I haven't played with that too much, and not for a while, but it gives you the same feel as looping on the old Pioneer CDJs.

Truly my eyes have been opened tonight. :)

Much playing around to do now...

You and me both

I'm gonna read the manual about looping right now

but that would be awesome -

[robin]

You and me both

I'm gonna read the manual about looping right now

but that would be awesome -

Yeah need to read some too.

It's potentially a lot more useful if there's an easy answer to my dumb question above .

I love Live, it just keeps giving

[DeadlyKungFu]

Dumb question: can I select a clip without launching it? And without using the mouse etc.?

if you don't click on the triangle in a clip it won't play, it'll just be selected.

the workaround is to do the hands free scene scroll and clip launch, just have the volume turned down when you launch the clip.

then there's programs like bomes that let you turn midi into keystrokes, the sky's the limit with that voodoo. I haven't messed with those yet.

[robin]

the workaround is to do the hands free scene scroll and clip launch, just have the volume turned down when you launch the clip.

Yeah, I see. I'm using an LV1 so this is a doable maneuver. I sometimes work by apple-d (duplicate clip to the below slot) and then work on that clip to progress the "edit" from there. This solution doesn't really work that well for that.