djing with ableton, marking of favorites ???

spielor · Post by **spielor** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:25 pm

hi!
could anyone tell me if it is possible to mark favorite tracks i would like to use fr mixing in abeton. i have a hell of a lot digitized records, al with a & b site. i would like to start mixing them in ableton. of course i will not use all files. unlike records where i can associate the look of a or b site and the record in general with the tunes i want i have just the names in ableton. is there any way of marking them that i know which ones i already applied warp markers to? i thought f using a dir inside the dir where the files are located to place the unused files in but it would be nice if there was a more comfortable way out of ableton.
any ideas ???

cheers

pepezabala · Post by **pepezabala** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:20 pm

make a folder, drop all your warped favourite clips from session view into that folder. name them as you like. Note that the original audiofiles stay where they are, so don't move them around on the harddisk, otherwise the clips don't find the referenced audiofile.

spielor · Post by **spielor** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:38 pm

thanks for the quick answer

swett · Post by **swett** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:50 pm

The only problem i have with djing w/ LIVE is precisely this. With vinyl, you kind of build a relationship with each record, you can look at it and know exactly what it is.
I believe that you can get to that point with file names in the browser, but it's a lot harder (on your head and on your eyes).
What i do is that i rename the tracks and add details to the end of the name. For example:

4567343 Moan_Trentemoller_Lovely super mellow tech
6473727 Bla bla_dj bla_peak house zipper bass

and so on,

Another thing i do is i have a muted audio track where i drag the tunes that i have already played, that way i won't play songs twice. Kind of like placing the played vinyl at the back of the crate. At the end of the gig i save the set and that way i have a playlist of the previous party.

Paz,
Swett.

spielor · Post by **spielor** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:02 pm

god to see that you understand what i am on about. seems that this is the only possibility to handle the whole mixing thing digitally because as you already said there is a kind of "relationship" between you and the record.
thanks for the tip.

cheers

chrysalis33rpm · Post by **chrysalis33rpm** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:47 pm

Swett, in a more general way that's the problem with the entire paradigm shift from analog to digital...the feel of the record is just absent as a physical object that you build up a relationship with. Not only what it looks like, but how heavy it is, exactly where the track is on it, what the cover is like, these things are irreplaceable. Its for that reason that I insist on controllers that I have a good tactile relationship with, it makes up for some of the loss.

chrysalis33rpm · Post by **chrysalis33rpm** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:48 pm

Swett do you have catgories of decriptions for your genres? I really like your decription of Moan. And what do the numbers at the beginning of your clip names mean?

I've given up trying to describe music or sort it by anything but the most general types.

swett · Post by **swett** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:36 pm

chrysalis33rpm wrote:Swett do you have catgories of decriptions for your genres? I really like your decription of Moan. And what do the numbers at the beginning of your clip names mean?

I've given up trying to describe music or sort it by anything but the most general types.

The numbers are from Beatport tracks (and these ones i made up). If it's a track that i ripped of some vinyl or a cd, there's no number. I'm just used to seeing it and that's why i used it in the example.
Generaly, if i want to play a track that i own on vinyl, i just go ahead and play the record. I love going back and forth, and i always carry some records with me because you never know when your computer is going to refuse to play...

Oh and no, i don't exactly have categories of descriptions. Of course, i've only been djing with LIVE for about 6 months, (vinyl for about 10 years) so i'm still figuring it out. I've thought about dividing my tracks into different folders, and i probably will.
Maybe something like this:

Mellow, Elegant, Techy, Prog, Dark, BIG.

Or,

Detroit, Berlin, Chicago, SF, Ibiza, my house

Right now i have a folder for 80's music (<3), and another one called warped, and in there i keep the newer ones in dated folders.

A bit messy, but it works.

Peace people, S.