Official DJ Thread using Ableton 8

[DJHiKe]

I saw many threads with different topics and decided it will be a good idea to have one place us DJs can help one another out using Ableton to DJ. Quick bio about me: I been DJing/mixing for over 10 years and like many have been dragging my vinyls, CD books, CDJs, and at time even turntables back and forth for years. I mostly spin Trance, Progressive House, with a touch of tribal. DJ I idolize most is no other then Armin Van Buuren Anyways after many years I finally decided to go with Ableton 8 and pick up APC 40 for mixing live for the new year to come.

Right of the back I am having probably more issues that anyone. Not sure if anyone else is using APC 40 with Ableton but my APC 40 orange lights don't light up when I have tracks dropped in the slots. I can trigger and map all keys but for some reason the board is not indicating that I have a track ready at the location. I opened a ticket with both Ableton and Akai and lets see what they say. So if you had this issue or know how to resolve it please let me know.

Next on the list my good friend warping. Seriously it seems like rocket science to me. I must have watched 100 youtube and instructional videos on how to do this. This is what I gathered so far encase you are in the same boat as me.
1.Make sure auto warp is set to on in preferences.
2.Place start 1 marker at the beginning of the track
3.Set 16 bar loop marker and verify warp markers along the way and adjust
4.Use the metronome to check accuracy.

My issue is I can get the track to warp fine at the first 16 bars but after that the track becomes a mess and drives me crazy. So I did more research on youtube and found a really good and once again another video that loos simple. I will try this method at home but again if you having trouble check this out hope it helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOKPKkkgFqU

Well that's it for now. I haven't even started messing with effects yet but I gotta do one thing at a time. Right now I have to get my APC 40 to function properly and get my Warping down pact before moving forward. I would love to hear from others how they warp and if they use APC 40 what suggestions they have.

[holistic]

Hi DJ HiKe!

When I warp a track I don't have autowarp on. Here's what I do:

1. Assign the "Tap Tempo"-thingy in the upper left corner of the Live-windod to a key on your QWERTY-keyboard.
2. Play the song, tap the tempo with the key. (You could also tap the tempo with the mouse)
3. Click the "Warp"-button on the clip properties.
4. Find the first "1" on the track (i.e. the first beat of the first bar), right click on the sample at this position and select "Set 1.1. Here".
5. Once again right click on the first beat and select "Warp from here".

Sorry if my description is kind of messy, I'm not sitting on my computer that has Live installed so I may be incorrect on some of the wordings.

The thing with this method is that you give Live a clue about the tempo of the song by first tapping the tempo. Then you warp the track and find the first beat, then warp from there. Live does a decent job of finding the right beats after you've given it a "heads-up" about the tempo.

Then I of course listen to the song with the metronome and correct any small incorrections. But mostly I don't have to do anything.

Good luck!

Peace,
Henric

[S4racen]

It sounds like you've hard mapped your clip launch buttons, the lights won't then work....

Have you set it up as a control surface? Best bet is to enter midi map mode and delete all your midi mappings....

Cheers
D

[DJHiKe]

It sounds like you've hard mapped your clip launch buttons, the lights won't then work....

Have you set it up as a control surface? Best bet is to enter midi map mode and delete all your midi mappings....

Cheers
D

Right out of the box it didnt work. So is it hard mapped right out of the box? Sorry for the newb question but if it hard mapped how do I delete all the maps? Can you give me directions?

Thanks

[DJHiKe]

Hi DJ HiKe!

When I warp a track I don't have autowarp on. Here's what I do:

1. Assign the "Tap Tempo"-thingy in the upper left corner of the Live-windod to a key on your QWERTY-keyboard.
2. Play the song, tap the tempo with the key. (You could also tap the tempo with the mouse)
3. Click the "Warp"-button on the clip properties.
4. Find the first "1" on the track (i.e. the first beat of the first bar), right click on the sample at this position and select "Set 1.1. Here".
5. Once again right click on the first beat and select "Warp from here".

Sorry if my description is kind of messy, I'm not sitting on my computer that has Live installed so I may be incorrect on some of the wordings.

The thing with this method is that you give Live a clue about the tempo of the song by first tapping the tempo. Then you warp the track and find the first beat, then warp from there. Live does a decent job of finding the right beats after you've given it a "heads-up" about the tempo.

Then I of course listen to the song with the metronome and correct any small incorrections. But mostly I don't have to do anything.

Good luck!

Peace,
Henric

Thank for the reply Henric. Let me make sure I understood your correctly.

1. Load track in session view and play it while hitting the tap key on the interface
2. Then load track on wave view and mark start point 1:1 with Warp on
3. Right click same 1:1 marker and select warp from here on

Damn that sounds to easy. Now does this work with all songs? Again I play mostly electronic dance music so the beat and temp don't change much but what if they do will Ableton be able to pick that up?

[S4racen]

Have you set it up as a control surface?

Cheers
D

[DJHiKe]

Have you set it up as a control surface?

Cheers
D

Whats up S4racen. Well this is the tricky part I did set it up as Control surface. In my Midi/Sync options I chose APC40 for all 6 options on the left, the middle/input is all set to USB, and the right/output is set to my sound card. Now someone from the Ableton team did email me asking this and not sure if I read his email right but I think he said to set both input and output to usb?? I didn't think you could set the output to USB. Also what about all those On/Off buttons on the bottom what are those suppose to be set at? It would help if I had a manual to read lol But with APC you are just given the disc and thats it. Anyone know if there is a PDF to set this all up? IF anyone has APC 40 please go over the settings in the preferences screen with me.

[DJHiKe]

A question that came into mind. When warping a track and there is a marker set lets say during a instrumental break in the middle of the track do you remove it or keep it in? I guess this is what confuses me the most I know warping markers are only meant for kick and snare but what about those long instrumental intros, or mids, or even built ups? I wish I could give one of my tracks to someone to warp so I can see exactly where the markers are placed. Again all your help will be appreciated.

[DJHiKe]

Operation is a Success !!! Thanks to everyone that helped but after a long battle I got my APC40 to sync with Ableton 8 and my orange lights are back in session. It's kind of hard to figure all this out without a manual. So I had to do it the hard way and ask around and try all possibility until issues was resolved. Anyways if you own a APC 40 and having issues like I did then hit me up will be glad to walk you step by step.


Next task is warping ! Stay tuned and I'll let you know how I make out with that portion.


Anyone else who has easy steps to follow please post it in here I'm sure many of us will benefit from it.

Thanks again guys and keep this thread going

[holistic]

Thank for the reply Henric. Let me make sure I understood your correctly.

1. Load track in session view and play it while hitting the tap key on the interface
2. Then load track on wave view and mark start point 1:1 with Warp on
3. Right click same 1:1 marker and select warp from here on

Damn that sounds to easy. Now does this work with all songs? Again I play mostly electronic dance music so the beat and temp don't change much but what if they do will Ableton be able to pick that up?

Not sure if that's what I mean Unsure of what you mean with "wave view"...
I just drag the track to a slot in session view. Keet it unwarped. Tap the temp. Warp it. Then I do the "Set 1.1" on the graphical representation of the wave... aaah is this what you mean with wave-view?

It works really well on most songs. I think it will definately work well on electronic dance music. I mostly play RnB/Hip Hop/Soul. When I tried this method with old Motown-songs that drifts alot in tempo it still worked reasonably well. But with a little more moving of the warp markers...

When I adjust the warp-markers i always make them stick to the snare (i.e. often the second and fourth beat of a bar). Because when you mix I think it sounds sloppy/unbeatmatched if the snares are not in tempo with each other..

Cheers!

PS. You could PM me the name of a track you're having problem with, maybe I can get it warped. For long drum-less parts I just make sure that the first beat after the instrumental passage sits tight. Try counting the bars while listening to the track... DS.

[S4racen]

Hi Mate,

You should only have one control surface set up for the APC40...



I've not got mine connected at the moment which is why the APC40 is greyed out....

If you want to do your own midi mappings then it need to be set up in the bottom half like the Launchpad is shown here, i'm not sure on whether track and remote need to be enabled on both the input and output but thats the way i do it, someone else might want to jump in here with an official answer?

Cheers
D

[DJHiKe]

Just curious how long it takes you guys to actually warp a song? At this point I have come to conclusion warping is like beat matching its not going to happen over night and takes a lot of practice to perfect it. So far I find this the hardest part of using Ableton for DJing. I had few suggestions and have a lot of notes on how to make this process faster. But, still curious to know how long the whole process takes for some of you that got this down pack? Right now it takes me about 30 min to warp one song because I have lots of issues having the metronome match up with my song.

[S4racen]

Dump the metronome and warp to a 4 x 4 kick drum, and do a warp visually first zooming in to set the first marker, then warp straight from here.... 30 seconds a track on average for me, older stuff grabbed from vinyl would take longer....

Cheers
D

[DJHiKe]

Thanks for all the good tips Racen!


Here is a quick question which I hope I can describe well without any screen shots since I'm not home at the moment. Say you are warping to 4 bar loop or 8 or 16 dont matter. If you have a temporary marker placed in front or in back of that 1st bar loop line do you have to drag it to match? Hard to explain I'll take some screen shots at home and post it. But, basically when you shit up and down ever few number of beats does that segment that you highlighted have to start with a beat? Also what about breaks with no beats? Or Accapelas ? Do you just let them as is and it automatically matches the master tempo?

[holistic]

Dj Hike;
For me it takes maybe 30 seconds lik for S4racen. I warped maybe 10 tracks in 5 minutes yesterday.

I'm in a helpful mood today. Do any of you guys know of a software that let's you record your screen? I could make a video of how I do it and put it on Youtube.

Have a great weekend.

/Henric