Quick DJ Questions about 5

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:10 pm

1. Making the jump from a traditional mixer to live - when mixing one track into another, how is this achieved. On a normal mixer you use your volume and bass, middle and treble.

2. What is the best format for recording vinyl, mp3, wav, aif. Going forward would mp3 not be the best considering I am not going down the vinyl route anymore and can purchase mp3 tunes online.

3. What are the Sends used for

mjmedik · Post by **mjmedik** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:48 pm

You can find many of your answers by doing a forum search, but to answer it in one sentence: Ableton is the DJ platform of the future.

1. Get a Midi controller. I don't use a crossfader when I DJ so the Evolution UC-33 controller worked best for me. It has 8 volume sliders (comparable to an 8 channel mixer) and 3 rotary knobs above each slider (bass, mid, and treble)....the Evolution X-Session has a crossfader and 16 knobs, but the layout is not as good in an EQ sense in my opinion. With Live 5, the more Midi controllers you own, the more you can control. Then you assign an EQ to each track (I prefer EQ4), and assign the rotary knobs on the midi controller to control bass, mid and treble....just like a DJ mixer

2. The best format for recording vinyl would be wav in my opinion. That way you don't lose sound quality while recording in. Then you can use a good file converter to convert your tracks to 320 mp3s which (in a club atmosphere) sound almost identicle to wav (if converted properly). The problem I have found with purchasing mp3s online (which I am a firm believer in) is that your selections are limited as opposed vinyl....although Beatport is becoming an excellent site for purchasing mp3 tracks as they are released.

3. Sends are channels that you "send" your tracks to, to get processed by the effect(s) that is in that send channel.....just like an effects processor.....and you can assign midi control over all of these as well.

Come to the dark side my friend!

cheers

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:04 pm

Can you name a good wav to mp3 converter

inis · Post by **inis** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 7:08 pm

iTunes seems to be the standard.

ben_blue · Post by **ben_blue** » Wed Jul 27, 2005 10:30 pm

iTunes, Wavelab, soundforge, Winamp all have the capability to convert wav to mp3 and mp3 to wav.

ideally, for recording records, (plenty of tunes still only on vinyl!) you want the highest quality sound interface you can get.

keep reading and searching here youll find answers to your questions for days!
b

PS if i told you had i used my sends, i'd haev to kill ya..sorry

Pyros · Post by **Pyros** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:20 am

iTunes, winamp, media player etc. will make MP3's, but your control is limited, and quality NOT guarantee'd.

The best way to ensure perfectly ripped MP3's is to use the LAME encoder, and use EAC for ripping CD's. http://mp3.radified.com/eac_lame.htm looks like it has a pretty decent explanation of whats going on.

I've found LAME's "--alt-preset standard" mode (which creates variable bit rate mp3's around the 190-220kpbs) creates MP3's indisginguishable from CBR 320kpbs MP3's made from Winamp.

klarky · Post by **klarky** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:44 am

i either put an eq 3 plug in on each channel and assign midi pots to them or i run the audio through a dj mixer anyway so id eq on that

jeskola · Post by **jeskola** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:05 am

inis wrote:iTunes seems to be the standard.

has anyone else noticed that wavs rendered from ableton dont work in itunes.
i have to open the wavs in audacity , convert to wav, then they work in itunes ??? sounds ridiculous... they are also about 5mb lighter.

djlt · Post by **djlt** » Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:27 am

Any reason why when I use my 3Eq and kill the Middle and Treble the work fine but the Bass does nothing. Is it the way I recorded the mp3?

Another thing is that when I record my Mp3 I cannot see the track in Arrangement view? it is just blank? is this normal

helixx · Post by **helixx** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 2:09 am

i play my live-rendered tunes in itunes all the time. are you using a pc? maybe its something weird with the pc version

jeskola · Post by **jeskola** » Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:32 am

helixx wrote:i play my live-rendered tunes in itunes all the time. are you using a pc? maybe its something weird with the pc version

apple with tiger

zeropoint · Post by **zeropoint** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:15 pm

djlt wrote:Any reason why when I use my 3Eq and kill the Middle and Treble the work fine but the Bass does nothing. Is it the way I recorded the mp3?

Another thing is that when I record my Mp3 I cannot see the track in Arrangement view? it is just blank? is this normal

The Low frequency has a default setting of 50Hz.....so you aren't going to notice much kill especially on smallish nearfields.....dial it up a bit and your bass kill will work fine

zeropoint · Post by **zeropoint** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:16 pm

djlt wrote:Any reason why when I use my 3Eq and kill the Middle and Treble the work fine but the Bass does nothing. Is it the way I recorded the mp3?

Another thing is that when I record my Mp3 I cannot see the track in Arrangement view? it is just blank? is this normal

The Low frequency has a default setting of 50Hz.....so you aren't going to notice much kill especially on smallish nearfields.....dial it up a bit and your bass kill will work fine

zeropoint · Post by **zeropoint** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 7:16 pm

Whoops....double post.....sorry

henryoid · Post by **henryoid** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 2:54 am

I've just jumped from strictly vinyl to laptop/Ableton/X Session/decks and it's given back a lot of enthusiasum I'd lost recently for DJing. Still at the early stages of getting to grips with Ableton 4 but already I can see pretty much no limits on what I could now do as a DJ.
Not being particulalry clued up with techie talk and jargon I'm just learning by trial and error which is the route I went down when I began producing with Reason/ReCycle/Soundforge/ReBirth/T Racks.
Luckily I've got a good mate who is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to digital audio so he gives me hints and tutorials when needed.
Generally the learning curve seems steeper than that of a beginner DJ in front of his first set of decks and a mixer...but the rewards are immense.
Already I've been able to drop demo versions of my tracks into mixes, shots and samples peppered over a mix to give it more depth and a sense of story telling. It's like starting again but with better toys to play with.
There's a great example of a electronica/breaks mix done with Ableton on www.nuskoolbreaks.co.uk in the Webcasts section on the thread titled 'My Mate Dans New Ableton mix'.
Oh, it's nice to be here