Live for DJs

Purple · Post by **Purple** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 10:45 pm

Great to hear that P King!

BTW - after a few weeks of reading and researching, I've finally made my (almost..) final choice regarding what Laptop, Convertor and Controller to buy:

Laptop: Gateway M675X 17" screen (with 1Gb RAM)

Convertor: RME RPM (still not available unfortunately, should be in about a months time hopefully, so I'll start working without it, using the M675X own souncard)

Controller: Behringer B-CONTROL ROTARY BCR2000 (seems amazing, though - again - still not avialable, should be in a couple of months.. do without it until then)

Can't wait to start working, though I suspect it's going to be long and hard work until I'll be able to take my Laptop to the club for my first set with Live.

ducktail · Post by **ducktail** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 3:53 am

Hi Folks,

I'm just packing to go out on a gig when I found this thread. I haven't got long to chat but I use a 3GHz PC laptop, Firewire 410, MS Trackball explorer and a ReMote 25.

I run 8 channels. 1 and 2 are complete tracks, 3 is gated triggers assigned to the ReMote's keys, 4 is loops run through a filter, 5 is a bunch of loops with no low end, cut off with a 3 band filter, 6 is sustained atonal nonrhytmic loops, 7 is 4 on the floor loops, and 8 is just kick loops for when I need to bust some skulls

Each track has its own volume fader, mute, and stop loop button. The crossfader is assigned to the Remote touchpad. (You can tap to go from A to B instantly!) The master FX are a 3 band eq with kills assigned to buttons, Supatrigger's I/O switch assigned to a button, Tobybear's Alligator beatslicer assigned to an on/off button and a knob to to control the beat divisions from 1/4 note to 128ths, a master filter assigned to an I/O switch plus res and Q knobs, and a knob assigned to the dry/wet control of a flanger, which is always on. (I ran out of buttons)

Both of the full song tracks have buttons to activate beat synced envelope followers, and have low kill switches. All 8 tracks have knobs to bus to a DDL. There is a master I/O for the delay mute. This is so I can apply delay with a heavy regen to a track until everthing goes completely apeshit, then hit the delay mute button on a downbeat. The mod wheel is assigned to the delay feedback, with a minimum of about 2 o'clock. When you move the mod wheel up, feedback can go up to 100%.

All the keys on my laptop are assigned to reversed, non pitched sweeps, set to no quantize and gated. I can hit any key to activate a sweep (like a reverse cymbal) and release the key on a downbeat. I have no idea what sound is on any of the keys, so it's alway a surprise. Some of the sweeps are 10-12 seconds, so I'll often start chopping them with Alligater if the little sample progress bar looks like it's going to take a while before the sample ends

I'm playing less and less complete tracks and doing more "de novo" song creation on the fly. Here's an example of what happens if I create a track live. This was from a gig last weekend.

http://www.brucemurphy.com/mp3/BruceSongs/Building.mp3

Hope this all gives you a few ideas.

Ducktail

PS Great thread....needs it's own complete section on the boards!

digitalrust · Post by **digitalrust** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 10:04 am

damn, that sounds dope. i want to see your live set and pick up some pointers!

really, another section would be good to hear what everyone's doing on the DJ tip.

Purple · Post by **Purple** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 12:35 pm

ducktail,

Wow! The way you work sounds wonderful and exactly in the lines that I had imagined. And the audio you posted sounds absolutly amazing! That beat would go down great in my club toward the end of my set when I start to play harder in preparation to the next DJ. BTW - could I have your permission to use it one day? I think that would be really cool if we start posting bits of audio and use them and when we do let the person who posted them know how it went down.. What do you think? In my opinion, there is something so beautiful and right in sharing and learning from each other.

In the same way I am totally blown away by the GYBO forum, it seems that it's a great source for stuff to use.

Oh, and I fogot to add to my list above - I'm also going to get a separate Firewire HD with probably about 160 Gb.

Purple · Post by **Purple** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 12:37 pm

Oh, and if we're really into a separate section and posting audio and tips etc. (we can find volunteers to moderate it if needed), how should we push it? Who's the moderator of this forum at the moment? Should we contact him/her/them?

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 1:02 pm

Speaking as a non-DJ (Bah! Old School! Imposter!) Finding this thread very inspiring... going back to top to read.....
cheers
p

ducktail · Post by **ducktail** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 2:24 pm

Purple et al.

Please feel free to download or play the track "Building". Just don't try to release it as it's full of uncleared samples! And I'm not sure if Tom Waits is into techno.....

Oddly enough, this track happened AFTER some knob accidently disconnected my ReMote 25, so this was all done with the mouse, which explains why there ain't a lot of FX or edits.

Found and chopped a great Audrey Hepburn sample "You haven't switched from liquor to dope by any chance, have you Dexter?"

I'm gigging tonight and I think I can do a great mix with it. If it sounds half decent I'll put it on my FTP site.

Ducktail

kenan · Post by **kenan** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 3:26 pm

Hey Ducktail,

I recognized the Crimson and Waits. Where did you pull the bass line and kick?

I've been experimenting with using tracks 1 and 2 (x-fade A and B respectively) in the arrangement view for the primary records. Then as the record plays I can use the arrangement loop on a section and when the play head hits that section, it automagically begins looping. I then jump to the session view and trigger other loops, one-shots and effects. Eventually I fade the session clips out, switch back to the arrangement view, hit the back-to-arrangement button, turn the loop off, and I'm back to the original record.

I'm trying a similar tactic when bringing in a new record. In the arrangement view, I'll set a loop on record A (in track 1) with x-fader full on A. I'll pull record B in the arragement on track 2. I place record B's intro phrase within the arrangement loop. Then I use x-fader to blend in record B. The session view's loops and one-shots can be used to create 'interstitial' music during the blend. Eventually the x-fade is full channel B and I kill the loop and we roll into the rest of the record.

How do other people do these things?

Later

Purple · Post by **Purple** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 3:45 pm

ducktail wrote:Just don't try to release it as it's full of uncleared samples!

Bummer! I already planned to send it to a few labels under my name.. (Purple reconstruction mix..)

ducktail · Post by **ducktail** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 9:29 pm

Interesting. I never touch arrangement view. I'm not sure I understand. You set up all the songs in order beforehand in the arrangement window? I can't get my head around the interaction between session and arrangement. Perhaps you could send a screenshot.

I use Arrange as a live recorder. I click record before my show so I've got a copy of my show. Export it the next day and burn it. That's how the Building track happened.

I'm fascinated how others are DJing with Live. Amazing how so many people see completely different things with Live. I'm going to be in Toronto for a few months and I know a pile of software based musicians there, so I'm looking at setting up a laptop jam there. Should be a blast, and I'm itching to see how others work.

Ducktail

digitalrust · Post by **digitalrust** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 10:45 pm

yeah, you can set up the tracks beforehand in the arrangeview without any volume automation and then use the crossfader to fade between the tracks when appropriate. i haven't worked that way, but i've tried it.

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:20 am

Hey, is it possible to split lives master output? ie: mixer channel 1 to outputs 1/2 on the sound card and mixer channel 2 to outputs 3/4 - like traktor? This would make it possible to use an external mixer.

kabuki · Post by **kabuki** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:41 am

I THINK you can using the A/B mixer config... send A to 1-2 and B to 3-4, that way you can set up more than 1 track to each channel...

An external mixer would FEEL better (better fader curve than Live), but your level/fader moves would not be recorded...

kenan · Post by **kenan** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 1:59 am

No need to set up the arrangement view ahead of time. Just drag records from the browser pane and drop them on the appropriate track at whatever measure you want whenever you want. This will keep the set spontaneous.

But if you do this, you can't use the arrangement view to record.

If your emphasis is on playing records then the arrangement view works well; if instead your emphasis is on building up pieces from existing loops then the arrangement view isn't as useful.

ducktail · Post by **ducktail** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 4:57 am

Just got back from a gig, and after saying what a great record feature the arrange window is, I forgot to press record!

I still don't get the advantage of dropping tracks in arrange as opposed to session. Aha, there is one I guess. You can tell when the track is going to end!

Question; anyone recommend a little light so I can see what the hell is on the Remote 25?

BTW the gig was a riot! They had monitors around the club with a camera on the laptop. I dropped Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song into a Max Graham track.

I have two goals as a DJ; one, to make them dance, and two, to play really weird stuff without losing them. I really have to stop being such a dick!

Ducktail