Using Live to DJ (Equipment, Tricks, samples, etc)

[rengel]

Hey guys,

I've been reading the Ableton Live 4 Power! Book, written by Chad Carrier/Dave Hill Jr.
Coming from someone who knew nothing (only now know 2%!), this book is ABSOLUTELY fantastic
10/10 !!!

I've finally got my head around warp markers, and using the Session View as my primary screen for my dj'ing..

I want to get a little creative, and Iwonder whether this will work, are there any tut's out there to demonstrate how this would work, or can someone point me in the right direction?

I've just read a huge chapter on loops, bringing in samples/vocals/bass/breaks/synth whilst playing your normal 'songs' as well, (to make the mix ever-more transparent). Instead of using ordinary loops of samples like basslines and beats/breaks/synth, etc... I want to experiment by cutting up tracks that I've imported into Live.. I want to cut them into pieces, and then assign them to triggers, i.e -

1. Intro (20 seconds)
2. Build Up (20 - 30 seconds)
3. Main Body (60 - 70 seconds)
4. Wind Down (20 seconds)

Obviously 1, 2, 3, 4 will all be pre-warped (right?)

I'll cut the songs up perfectly and have them imported or add them to my session view as 'clips' then during certain parts of my mix, I'll trigger of 1 or 4 or 2 or 1, etc...

Question:

Is this done on the fly? For example, while I'm doing my gig, and playing a particular song, and let's say I want to loop a certain part of it, does that mean I need to import an already warped loop/section of the song, or can I do it 'live' ?

The Live book demonstrates how a DJ would typically have his Session view setup (i.e - the equivalent to a traditional DJ setup)..such as:

Deck A = left turntable
Deck B = right turntable
and the Mixer with the crossfader (under the master volume)

How would I know that Track 1 on Deck A is about to finish, so that I can cue up my next track ready to bring it in, or start triggering off my loops, samples, etc? Do I switch to Arrangement view? does that show me a timeline type look? (showing how many section are left, or some sort of a visual guide?).

Also, I've phoned around to a 1,000,000 places to find out what MIDI controllers they recommend and use for Ableton (Ableton resellers), they have all pointed me along the lines of either:

a) Evolution XSession17 in conjunction with Evolution UC33E or;
b) Korg MicroKontrol

Some have also recommended different soundcards, i.e

a) Maudio Audiophile/Firewire 4/6 or;
b) Indigo
c) Endrinol or something?? (can't remember the name)

One of the shops said don't use MAudio, as its got limited inputs, so if you want to hook up additional equip your in trouble once you've filled it up?
I can only think of plugging up my Mac G4 to the Soundcard via firewire, how would this use up more ports?
The only other ports that I'd be using on the Maudio are outputs to my headphones for cueing and outputs to my Amp/PA System, correct?

Input would be my 2 MIDI Controllers via USB directly into my G4?

Open to suggestion/recommendation on all of my questions hope you can help....

[nuperspective]

first of i use a UC33 and i own a X-session. the X-session has been retired for the moment as the UC33 has more that enough control for my DJ set up. the soundcard is a indigo DJ. the whole setup works a treat no problems what so ever.

im a little confused by your question. i usually have some samples of a track but still have a copy of the whole track ready. that way i can make any loops up on the fly by setting loop points in the whole track while loops are running. im not sure if this is what your asking.

ALL songs and loops will need to be warpped to stay in sync.

when a clip is launched i listen and watch the loop counter [circular disk above the mixer fader on each track] to see how far of the loop is from finishing.

i dont no if you intend to work this way but i launch a full scenes instead of individual clips.

BTW: i'm moving to melbourne in september. just got back from there last week. great place. whats the scene like there for progressive house? i didnt have much chance to check out any clubs when i was there.

[rengel]

So how do you use your crossfader in live? Or do you just volume up and down with your channels on the UC33?

Ok, about my samples/track cutting question..

I would have the whole track (warped, etc) ready to go, and before I start playing it, I'd like to tease the audience with a 20 second clip or sample of the song that's just abuot to be played.. and then during the song that's playing I'd like to loop certain parts of it so that I can bring in another different track over the top of it, and then end the loop so the original song continues to play, know what I'm getting at?

When you say you launch full scenes instead of clips, do you mean you launch the whole song, instead of bits of it?

Melbourne is fantastic for progressive house, heaps of gigs on all the time, nice people, good litle vibe..Anthony Pappa was here last year and tore the roof off a few places heheh.. Melbourne is great

When you're down in September, PM me, and we can catch up or something..

Have you heard the James Zabiela Kiss100 Mix he did a month ago?
Apparently he made the mix in the plane on his way back to the UK from Australia, WTF!!!??? Hats off to him, that was brilliant mix, 100% ableton. LOVE IT.

[MrYellow]

How would I know that Track 1 on Deck A is about to finish, so that I can
cue up my next track ready to bring it in, or start triggering off my loops,
samples, etc?

In session view, under each playing track you have a little pie chart thing
that shows the progress thru the loop (or a progress bar or unlooped
clips). It shows how many times the loop has played and how far you are
through the loop. I don't DJ.... So most of my loops are 4 to 16 bars, thus
I can quickly see when a 16 bar doublebar line is coming up and fire my
next scene, clips or whatever. By setting the quantise to 4 bars and
watching these pie charts I never had to adjust the global quantise.
Combined with setting some clips to 8 bars and some to 4 bars I'm able
to get things to fire exactly when I want them with little messing
around...... Given I'm not mixing songs in a DJ way tho.

Also... something you may wish to look at, rather than breaking the wav
files up into sections you can simply use clip loop markers to loop
different sections without having to adjust the wav file. Saves HD
space.... This however means you can't quickly drag the same wav in 5
times and have them instantly be setup with 5 different loop settings as
Live only allows 1 ASD file per wav and thus you can't have 5 different
loop setups ready to go unless they are saved with your live file.

That last bit sounds like giberish, but you'll get it.

-Ben

[MrYellow]

oh btw.... If you have a loop setup within a large file, you can advance
the loop along by using the cursor keys when u have focus on the clip
properties.

i.e. 4 bar loop starting at bar 30. Hit right cursor key....
Now 4 bar loop starting at bar 34.

-Ben

[nuperspective]

when using scenes i drag around 6 clips of the same file in. 1 will be the whole song the rest will be loops. there all in assending order. that way i can scroll up and down the scenes with the midi controller and start clips.

i use four tracks. two main mixing tracks. two for perc loops or whatever. the next set of clips for the next track i drop in position to overlap the parts i want to mix over.

[FatCat]

I'm kinda similar to nuperspective in the way i cut up the tracks. This is how i do it:

intro - normally 16-32 bars
main - bulk of the track, always starts 'with a bang'
outro - the trailing end of the song

Plus then i create various drum loops from the track, plus for at least half of the drum loops i'll make a 1 bar fill which helps to transition between loops (but it's irritating that abe doesn't save follow-on actions for clips). I sometimes cut out single choruses to make a 16 bar loop of the most significant part of the track, and also sometimes break downs and build ups (normally 8-16 bars).

I also name and colour the clips too. I was cutting up the chemical brother marvo ging last night and my channel looked like this:

INT - Marvo Ging (introduction)
MAIN - Marvo Ging (main track)
OUT - Marvo Ging (outro)

BD - Marvo Ging (breakdown)
BU - Marvo Ging (build up)

DL1 - Marvo Ging (1st drum loop)
DL2 - Marvo Ging (2nd drum loop)
FL2 - Marvo Ging (fill for above loop)
DL3 - Marvo Ging (3rd drum loop)
FL3 - Marvo Ging (fill for above loop)
DL4 - Marvo Ging (4th drum loop)


I create the clips by cutting down the original in sound forge. The file names have a number at the beginning so when i drag all 11 into ableton they're in the correct order. They're all warped in ableton.


This is very much work in progress - i'd be really interested to find out how others cut up, name and colour thier clips!


Cat Man.