How do I mix in with other DJ's?..... HELP!

[StephenRose]

Hey everybody, long story short I work at a club and the promotor is getting really upset that I don't know how to mix in with the other DJ's who are DJING on Serato. It seems really difficult to blend ableton in with somebody else Serato set... any ideas on how to do a good mix in from another dj on serato to me playing ableton?

[yur2die4]

Practice at home first. Play a random song on a cd player (or record etc. anything with pitch control would be a bonus!) into a channel of a dj mixer. On the other channel have Ableton Live. Use the cue with the headphone to listen to a loop in Ableton live through the mixer. Compare it to the sound of the music playing through the monitor.

[StephenRose]

Anybody else have a method that works? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[jestermgee]

shouldn't matter on the DAW...
Remember, the actual term "DJ" derived from people spinning discs of wax, not playing beats from a PC but in any event...

As the yer2die4 said, practice!

What does he mean about your trouble "mixing in"? Are you not as cool as they are, is your taste in music not on-par? or is your beat matching \ choice of tune just mot sitting quite right?

There is no magic mix button when talking professional. If timing is an issue then maybe a sync over MIDI could help but what I would be doing is taking the critisizm as a chance to get better. Anyone can play a track from speakers and call themselves a "DJ" but like most things, there is actually skill involved to do it well. And like driving a car or playing guitar, to become better you need practice.

A simple suggestion, as mentioned, just practice! Get the set of songs that was played, do it at home and just record it (tape is fine). Listen to it and see what you can improve, go back and do it again... And again... And again until you can picture the exact points when the beats are matching and everything is clicking. When you can "see" ahead of what you are doing then that is what will help you in the live situation.

Playing a set of your own is one thing but it is harder to match someone elses style. If the thought of all that seems too hard, look at collecting stamps or something. That may be fun

Seriously though, just practice.

Just for our sake, how long have you been DJing and how many gigs have you performed (if I can ask)?

[drchoc]

If you are straight up DJing then either use a song with a beatless intro and use the faders to add some rythmn or use use the nudge buttons in Live to sync something with a beat:

To make this as easy as possible you should control map the following parameters;

fine tempo
stop
play
nudge +
nudge -

[StephenRose]

I've been practicing for 10 months, performing for 2 1/2 months and I've played 3 house parties and 4 club events. My next event is this Friday.

I like the idea about using the fine tempo or a beatless intro. I will practice those things.

As far as getting better and practicing and all that. I'm practicing, I'm getting better at my own pace. I'm doing really good I think

[yur2die4]

Sometimes I'll have the tv on, and have Ableton Live's metronome on (nothing else), and just try quickly to beatmatch to all the random commercials haha. Tap tempo is helpful in that it gives you a rough idea of the tempo, but I'm not super precise and can end up being off in decimals. A lot of tracks are in pretty exact bone these days (turntables aside), so it can get in the way.

If the commercial is long enough, I can turn off the gnome and start adding elements