Creating a set using Ableton 6 & CDJs?

DanClarke · Post by **DanClarke** » Tue May 01, 2007 8:46 am

Hey all,
haven't posted here in a while, but this is something i've always wondered and never quite fully understood how it could effectively be achieved. Myself and a friend i DJ with have a set coming up, and ideally we'd like to mix between CDJs and Ableton, is there a way we can do this effectively?

I understand that mixing a track out of Ableton and onto a CDJ wont be a problem, but is there an effective way of having enough control over the speed/bpm/etc on a track in ableton so that i could mix into a CDJ track? I know there's the nudge feature, but from what i've seen this only seems to nudge in bars?

Sorry if this all sounds a bit n00bish, but i tend to use ableton in quite a traditional sense, so i dont delve all that deep into the techy side of it.

cheers in advance

Dan

Patch · Post by **Patch** » Tue May 01, 2007 10:17 am

There's a utility called Push n' Pull, that is used specifically for Live, which makes Live much more controlable in terms of pitch adjustment a la Turntables/CDJs.

Try it here:

http://smartextensions.gustavobravetti. ... lintro.htm

Another way to do it is with your arrow keys. Click inthe BPM box, then Use Up Arrow to increase BPM by 1, Down Arrow to decrease by 1, Shift + Up Arrow to adjust up by 0.1, SHIFT + Down Arrow do adjust down by 0.1.

DanClarke · Post by **DanClarke** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:30 pm

Patch wrote:There's a utility called Push n' Pull, that is used specifically for Live, which makes Live much more controlable in terms of pitch adjustment a la Turntables/CDJs.

Try it here:

http://smartextensions.gustavobravetti. ... lintro.htm

Another way to do it is with your arrow keys. Click inthe BPM box, then Use Up Arrow to increase BPM by 1, Down Arrow to decrease by 1, Shift + Up Arrow to adjust up by 0.1, SHIFT + Down Arrow do adjust down by 0.1.

Ahh that looks pretty ideal, unfortunately i forgot to mention im running a Macbook Pro with OSX 10.4. Doh!

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Tue May 01, 2007 9:31 pm

I was just reading about this so I haven't done it in practice yet, but as far as nudging goes what you want to do is change the global tempo at the top to "none" instead of one bar and that will give you a lot more control over nudging the track. I don't have Ableton in front of me but the global tempo is at the top between the 2 punch in/punch out icons (um, I think). Just look at the top about the middle where it says "1 bar" (the defualt setting) and change the pull down to none.

Also it is recommended to assign the nudge to a knob on a controller if you have one.

Those 2 things should help out greatly.

kinnik · Post by **kinnik** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:02 am

I don't know what your trying to explain, beats me. where it says "1bar" is control over quantize. ie, when you trigger a clip do you want ableton to wait till the next bar to start, the next beat, no wait and start right away..? parhaps explain alittle further..

Dan, I just tackled this problem as well.
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=63734

Two methods uncovered..

one useing Bidule
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=

The other Push/Pull
it take time setting up. I went with Push/Pull as it sounded easyer to me.
On P/P's forums it's said the next version should be availible for Mac but we've no idea when it will come out. It's only been around for afew months anyway.

Works GREAT!
I use the TAP button to get close to the bpm of my turntables and then use push pull to get it exact and to moniter it's slipping.

If anyone knows any other methods will you please post them here?
or if you get bidule working for this, how you did it?

I'll make a post if Push/Pull gets a new version.

brandon a · Post by **brandon a** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:44 am

red sound's soundbyte micro turns analog audio to midi clock and feeds ableton.

micro has a push/pull function on it as well for slight adjustments and does sampling & looping

killer piece of hardware

beats me · Post by **beats me** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:32 pm

OK, still haven't tried my own tip that I read about but it was mentioned in reference to DJing and explained as the global quantize set to "none" will make clips start the instant you hit play and will also give you the ablity to nudge it in tiny increments as opposed to nudging it a full bar, quarter note, or whatever the global quantize is set to.

In other words both the clip start quantize setting AND the amount you can nudge a clip are linked to this setting.

Given that, I believe if you were going to do a few songs within Ableton you would want to set it to "1 bar"...out of Ableton with a CDJ set it to "none" and adjust back and forth depending on where your next song is coming from.

It may sound complicated but it really isn't. Let me know if you need another try at me explaining it. I get it but I maybe am not explaining it too well.