DJing Advice

[aT]

hi guys, just got ableton 5 but ive never used this software before so im looking for a bit of advice.

If you want to DJ live with the software do you have to arrange the tracks beforehand in the arrangement window or is there another way?

thanks anyway

aT

[anti-banausic]

There is a better way, in fact, that may be the worst way, unless you want it all to be preprogrammed.

There are a lot of threads on this, so do a search, but here goes a little:

Djing (or performing live) is absolutely what session view is for.

For instance:

Drop one song in an audio track, drop a kick loop in another audio track. Then beatmatch the song to the kick track (some like to do it to the metronome, but not all kicks line up quite the same way sonically).

Then you can put other loops, one shots on other audio tracks to trigger during the song.

Now here is the kicker. Set the first song to crossfade A. Drop another song in yet a different audio track and set this to crossfade B. Beatmatch song 2 to the kick. Then you can crossfade between the songs while the other loops and stuff are still going!!!

And that isn't even the beginning, that is before the beginning of what you can do with live. MIDI mappable eqs for kills and good crossfades. Filters for the occasional (and I repeat occasional sweep). Beat repeat goodness. Delays on sends. etc.....

Also, check out sticky in the tips and tricks forum....lots of goodness there as well.

Cheers.

[aT]

cheers mate

[aT]

ok mate, tryed that but its still not really working,

ive got track 1 playing, and i want to bring track 2 in, in time with track 1. So i drag the second track it into a new audio track and when i want to start it playing i click the little play symbol on the audio track. But this just plays the two tracks and does not seem to have them beat matched or tempo matched . Any idea what im doing wrong?

Thanks alot

[j0shu@]

before they will line up correctly the tracks need to be properly warped. ableton does its best to guess the warp for each track, but often times it will require input from the user as well.

the first thing i would check is that the first beat on your two tracks are correct. if they are dance / electronic type tracks live usually does an excellent job of guessing there tempos and whatnot.

you are going to need to go through some of the included tutorials to really get a grip on the software.

and searching the forums for warp or warping wouldnt hurt at all. there are several tutorials and videos floating around.

[anti-banausic]

Sorry, when I said beatmatch, I meant to warp the track so that it will play in time with the kick loop over time. There is a tip/trick in the sticky for this. This is the entire key to using LIVE for DJing. You should warp the track ahead of time, then it will play back in time with another track.

It may seem strange at first, but once you get the concept, it is pretty powerful.

And you have come in on LIVE5, where LIVE makes a reasonable guess at the original tempo of the track. those of us from earlier versions were a little more in the dark.

Good luck.

Here is a link:

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11736

[colossus]

Just to add my two penn'orth to the comments above.

For DJing with Live, you must pre-prepare your tracks. Once you've warped the track to the start beat you require, you should at least create a clip for an intro loop, a clip for the main body of the track, and a clip for an outro loop. If all your tracks are prepared like that, you can at least create a successfully sequenced mix on the fly.

Really though, limiting yourself to that is no better than using two track DJ software. Far more creativity is permitted by splitting your tracks into a greater number of clips. Not just portions of the song, but clips of a bassline or cymbal pattern, with the rest of the mix EQd out allow a greater palette of sounds to work with. If electronic music is your thang, I strongly recommend the new Richie Hawtin DE9 mix. It was mixed on Ableton, and if you watch the 96 minute DVD mix, the tracks being used are displayed on screen - and there are often 6 different clips going at once.

I'm still trying to perfect DJing in Ableton, having previously used a DJ program and kept Ableton for home use. FWIW, I've kept my DJ mixer, as it's got a Korg KAOSS pad built in. Having a master crossfader also allows me to occassionally play a solo track while I set up a batch of clips and scenes. I'm also using a MicroKontrol to control some of the parameters, and trying to work out a decent system for triggering scenes/clips using the pads (anyone any suggestions?).

I have the session view set up with eight main tracks - three audio and one MIDI for each of the separate channel sends to the mixer. One audio track on each side is left 'vanilla' - for playing uneffected clips/songs, and the other two have EQ and FX for adding extra layers to the sound. The MIDI channels allow the possibility of Impulse drum patterns, or synth lines played on a keyboard.

That's my take on it anyway (for now). I'd welcome any comments, questions or suggestions.

Cheers !

[The Phat Conductor]

welcome to the board aT. this place is a waelth of musical knowledge that easily surasses every other board i have yet encountered.

you are going to need to learn to warp tracks beforehand and organize them so that any track you want is at your fingertips. i suggest making a new folder for each track you intend on playing out, and then dragging the warped clips from the arrange window, to the folder you have made in the browser. if you drag more than one clip in at a time, it makes an .als* file with all of the clips in it. drag the als onto the mixer track you have chosen, and WHAM, there are all of your clips, ready to rock.

*.als aka 'Ableton Live Set' file format:

-this is a brilliant file format for saving elements of your ableton creations which are not single clips. you can use a .als file to store anything you like. a bunch of clips for later use in a dj set, an fx chain on a mixer track, or even PREVIEWABLE instruments complete with midi, patch, fx and automation.

-> don't fall prey to the idea that the .als format is only for whole projects!

-if you want to see how to fully take advantage of the .als format's features you should check out the soundwrecks archive the covert operators have going on. soooo insightful.

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SPAM: if you want a head start I do remote lessons over the phone with msn's application sharing and some templates i've made. that way we can be in voice contact while we both use your computer. even some of my students who are in toronto have come to prefer it over lessons in person because it is so conveniant.

i'll can make you a dj template to order, and show you how to warp tracks, seperate them into clips, and then organize your library of clips so that you just drag and drop the tracks you need, as you need them. i can also show you how to take advantage of scenes, without making a big mess of the session view window, or limiting yourself in regards to spontaneity.

all the best!

dylan

[John Sweet]

Hey Colossus - the most versatile system I've found for triggering clips from drum pads is mapping them to the track stop & track play controls at the bottom of each channel in session view.

I have a Trigger Finger with the same # of pads, and I control 6 channels with it. My right vertical column of pads are mapped to Tap Tempo, Launch Scene, and the Scene Up/Down buttons. This leaves 4 horizontal rows of three pads each on the left: 1st row Track Play 1-3, 2nd row Track stop 1-3, 3rd row Track Play 4-6, etc. To accomodate more tracks than 6, you could use an extra preset on the MicroKontrol. Just duplicate every other control but the pads so you can jump back & forth between them seamlessly. Maybe one preset controls the 4 channels on the crossfader A side, then vice versa.

Set a nearby knob to control Global Quantize so you can make yr crucial song drops in quarter note or 1-bar mode, then go to 32nd or "none" to stutter-start extra clips on the other tracks. You can set the clips to gate mode or cut them out with the track stop buttons like you would the crossfader.