DJing with Live

[Anti-Dope]

I've been using Ableton for a while now for just messing around with sounds, and I just recently got started into trying to get on the DJ/club/mix side of things. (Producing kicked my ass) Anyways, I hear a lot that Ableton is almost too easy to DJ with, but since there are many many ways to DJ with Ableton, I was wondering what the most prominent method(s) was/were.

Right now, I'm making up a set. I have 6 songs in arrangement view, basically premixed, but I kept a lot of effects to be done live. Songs fade into each other, and pretty much every song is comprised of 2 songs, A and B. 'A' usually plays through, sometimes cutting to a remix of that song, and 'B' is cut up to blend with song A.

Example:

(last 2 tracks are just drums I added in)

Most of the DJ sets I've seen have been in Session view, so I'm not too sure if this way is common in the DJ world.

I'm using a Macbook Pro with Live 8 installed, an APC40 with monomulator for extra midi, and a guitar hero controller for triggering samples. (I think it would be interesting to use live)

Can anybody give me some constructive criticism, or at least tell me how most DJs are using Live these days? (I don't have thousands to blow on decks)

Thanks a ton for any info.

[Pyro Z]

You'll see most people DJing in session view mainly because it generally allows more flexibility to do things "live". Because the arrangement view is a timeline based approach, it's meant more for studio use or doing things in a pre-determined way. I think since DJing is supposed to be more about doing unusual things on-the-fly, most people would see this as not being very creative. I'm not here to tell you you're doing anything wrong, I believe any method or set of tools is as good as it's user. I'm just saying that I think that's the philosophy behind DJing in session view.

But that's exactly why you have to love Live, it gives you that choice and freedom to do it either way.

[Tarekith]

There's over 11,000 of us Live DJ's over at Abletonlivedj.com, you might find more people to talk to over there.