Need your help to improve my DJ set setup

[Wakeon]

Hello friends

I need your help today to improve my live setup.
I use Ableton, a launchpad and a controller to mix songs but i've a major problem I can't settle.
When I want to play music from my library, some songs have different volume than others (some EDM songs are 99/100 db. whereas some others are 85/90 db.).
So it's very had to have a "clean" DJ set with that beau case I am always forced to try to fix the volume difference during the set.

It's hard to explain so I tried to be clear.

Do you have some advices / solutions to fix that problem ?

Thanks friends

[Fanu]

Like I said on FB, plugins like VUmeter and LUmeter might work, but you'd want to set the level before playing it out, as it'll dip (to the desired level).
Traditional DJs have to do this too: I usually start to mix the track in by fading it in, and there I pay attention to how its level is as I start to reach the top of the line fader and then adjust gain accordingly.

[jestermgee]

Well, hate to say this and be "that guy" but you as a DJ are kind of expected to make it work.

Songs will differ in not just volume but perceived energy and you need to learn how to rely on metering and reading things like waveforms etc. to apply the best on-the-fly adjustments for the situation. There are reasons many DJs play "sets" where they have curated a selection of tracks to play. Because they know them and can adjust to each tracks style. This is why mixers have all those fancy controls on them to adjust things as you go.

If you just want set and forget type approach then compressors and limiters will work to curb the volume but wont help to make it sound properly fluid. That is where practice and experience comes in and since you use Live and not a "traditional" DJ styled workflow, you have the convenience to make adjustments to the gain of every track to make them all fit BEFORE you start your DJ set.

[yur2die4]

To sort of echo others who have commented, many programs ‘made’ for djing do seem to analyze a track and take a stab at the perceived loudness in order to set a gain amount. This is something very desirable for djing, along with that, dj software is also extremely flexible with the beat grid. If you lose track, you can still usually have flexible options for making your way back.

Ableton Live on the other hand has a few challenges. For one thing, your tracks all need to be warped correctly, and verified, or you might be in for a few surprises during your sets. Also the levels... Live isn’t in the game of changing loudness of various tracks for people... that might upset more people than anything.

But, if I recall, a person who had at one point made a name for himself did really push ‘controllerism’ and mashups. And during that time, a few different people were sharing solutions for their ways of making sure levels were ‘ideal’ for all the stuff they were doing.

I think he went by the name of Moldover. Might be able to find some old videos on the topic.

[Tarekith]

When I was djing with Live, I would adjust all the clip volumes so tracks sounded the same loudness while warping the tracks to prep them. Takes time, but then you no longer need to worry about it.

The only automated way of doing this I can think of would be to use a program like Myriad. This is one of the only batch processing apps I know of that lets you normalize your audio files to a specific LUFS value, which would make them all roughly the same apparent volume. Sadly, at the moment it's not for sale to new users and only available to legacy users. Hopefully Zynaptic releases it again to the public soon.

[Fanu]

Ah yeah, good call on pre-leveling the files as a batch.
My favorite audio editor, TwistedWave (Mac only), can do this.
If you need this, you can get in touch and I can do it for a modest fee (depending on the amount of songs).