PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
WFTD
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by WFTD » Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:59 am

Still no more takers offering their little nuggets of knowlegde...

Come on peeps.......dont be shy

snakedogman
Posts: 852
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:04 pm
Location: the Netherlands

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by snakedogman » Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:13 pm

well I'm playing my second dj set with Live tomorrow for a dj contest. I'll let you know how I screwed up ;)
Nah I think it should go smoothly, at least here at home everything works.
Gear: Thinkpad T61 laptop running XP and Live 7. UC33 for midi control, and M-Audio Audiophile firewire for audio. Gonna be mixing in the box, 3 channels and two sends (one reverb one delay), autofilters and beat repeat on all channels. Nothing too fancy. Just a limiter on the master to catch any unwanted peaks.

vettjd01
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:36 pm
Location: indiana

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by vettjd01 » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:15 pm

I started messing with DJing in live after i lost the time and motivation to write.

I built my own templates.... then became a pro member on cosm's site.

then the DJ megaset came out. And basically.... game over. Everythings there. My "megaset" is now modified to my own liking with a few different things, but basically its nice to have all the send routing, dummy clip routing and key layout all setup for you. A few things i changed on Cosm's get up is i added few more dummy clips with my own automation... one i use alot is 2 and 4 bar loops in the beat repeat. also added in the C send (after all other effects) reverb with a BIG kick time, cut the lows out...then i send it through a simple BP auto filter for a nice airy swoosh effect whenver i need it for builds.

o yeah. i also added a 4th deck to his megaset and 2 impulse kits.

i love it.
M-Audio Axiom49, Trigger Finger, Live 7, Operator, Tension, Electric, Analog. Laptop HP 6105, 2gb, AMD Turion 2.1Ghz.

WFTD
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by WFTD » Wed Jun 17, 2009 11:41 am

vettjd01 wrote:I started messing with DJing in live after i lost the time and motivation to write.

I built my own templates.... then became a pro member on cosm's site.

then the DJ megaset came out. And basically.... game over. Everythings there. My "megaset" is now modified to my own liking with a few different things, but basically its nice to have all the send routing, dummy clip routing and key layout all setup for you. A few things i changed on Cosm's get up is i added few more dummy clips with my own automation... one i use alot is 2 and 4 bar loops in the beat repeat. also added in the C send (after all other effects) reverb with a BIG kick time, cut the lows out...then i send it through a simple BP auto filter for a nice airy swoosh effect whenver i need it for builds.

o yeah. i also added a 4th deck to his megaset and 2 impulse kits.

i love it.
Sounds good mate....I checked out the Megaset on Tom Cosms site too and its pretty neat and works the way it should!! So its an impressive bit of kit. Thansk for your input mate.....let us know if there are any issues!

vettjd01
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:36 pm
Location: indiana

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by vettjd01 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:59 pm

lol. yeah im usually not quick to give out secrets... but either way ive got mine setup a little different. just used his as a template.

I still use some of his key mapping, but now im running a trigger finger and nano control with this setup to use less keys.

mapped out like this.

trigger finger's 8 knobs are mapped to auto filter sweep macro, and filter type macro. first pad underneath each knob tunrs filter on or off. pads below them are all mapped to whatever dummy clips i feel like using.

nan control is a little more in depth, impulse time...faders are for each tracks C send, knobs are mapped to different values in the dly,fltr, and reverb C return, fader #4 is mapped to the impulse volume. but it changed very regularly.


Now if i could just get my hands on anm APC40 and have about 6months to really get the feel for it i think this would do alot for the capabilities of this get up.


-cheers.
M-Audio Axiom49, Trigger Finger, Live 7, Operator, Tension, Electric, Analog. Laptop HP 6105, 2gb, AMD Turion 2.1Ghz.

vettjd01
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:36 pm
Location: indiana

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by vettjd01 » Wed Jun 17, 2009 6:10 pm

i have had not a one issue so far with it.

only thing im asking is to donate to the guy. All his stuff is free... and its all top notch.
M-Audio Axiom49, Trigger Finger, Live 7, Operator, Tension, Electric, Analog. Laptop HP 6105, 2gb, AMD Turion 2.1Ghz.

WFTD
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by WFTD » Tue Jul 21, 2009 8:22 am

Any other input from the masses of people who have checked out this thread???

WFTD
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by WFTD » Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:43 am

Hey all....doesnt seem like many of you want to share your input....

But here is something I found yesterday...Computer Music Magazine has and ABLETON special addition out on sale now with CD with samples.....you may want to get it for £6!! Some handy tips in there and Ableton 8!!

littlelosthorse
Posts: 46
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:01 pm
Location: London/Bangor

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by littlelosthorse » Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:18 pm

hey, just found this thread, you're doing a great job! Although its not free, sugarbytes have a great vst called Artillery 2, which allows you to map instant loops from 4 bars to 132nd notes on any midi button or key - My setup is on a ReMote SL 25 MK2 with each octave set to a different channel (just left and right) and each note set to a different loop value so you can play up the notes for great loops and builds getting really glitchy towards the higher notes. works a treat :)

horseman
*horse*

anachroschism
Posts: 176
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2009 3:19 am

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by anachroschism » Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:54 am

Great idea man, wish there was a thread like this few months ago, wouldve saved me hella time.

The best things ive come across for Live DJing, especially with the APC-40, are some of the custom audio racks posted up here on the forum. Tarekith has some KILLER ones and I especially like zalos juggler/rearranger, plus check out monosylabiks weeklyish posts as hes made some good efx too, sign up for his email update too.

http://www.msbkonline.com/

http://tarekith.com/assets/TarekithDJEFXv7.zip

http://www.wearerockstars.com/zalo/foru ... ranger.alp

alex.the.forge
Posts: 1424
Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:29 am

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by alex.the.forge » Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:11 am

WFTD wrote:Any other input from the masses of people who have checked out this thread???
hi

I have a video series (in my sig) - that ones aimed at getting beginners up and running, I have some more advanced ones in the works

davepermen
Posts: 2198
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 3:38 pm
Location: Switzerland
Contact:

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by davepermen » Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:51 am

I'm into harmonic mixing and currently trying out different layouts to be able to mix harmonically in ableton live (so far, always in traktor for djing). i had some first success on how to layout the tracks, but i'll have to wait till november and the little gift i get then for more information, if it works out successfully :)

other than that, i'm waiting for max4live for some detail stuff i want to do, but can't so far (i often beatjump in traktor, prefer that to looping, as it's more manual and realtime. i hope to be able to program something similar for ableton with max4live).
http://davepermen.net my tiny webpage, including link to bandcamp.

WFTD
Posts: 53
Joined: Mon Apr 27, 2009 12:01 pm

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by WFTD » Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:37 pm

Great stuff guys and thanks everyone for your input!!

Anymore is appreciated......to keep the thread alive...mmmwwwhahahaha

Spill It
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:26 am

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by Spill It » Sun Nov 15, 2009 9:36 am

I rely on the APC 40 for DJing in live, so its largely based around that.

-In clips view, I have my tracks arranged left to right by key. I can bounce between song keys by just moving horizontally and know itll sound good.
-I go through each track and use the yellow marker in the wav form view to mark where a DEFINITE transition point is, so I can use dummy clips, crossfader and etc and know exactly when I may need to transfer.

-Route stuff through dummy clips, easy enough.

-Limiter on everything, especially if you use stuff like flanger thatll make your track volume climb.

-Duplicate clips, choose specific segments of each track that would be a cool loop and set the loop there...

-Use apple 9, 8, 7 to control global quantization, and assign buttons to whatever controller you have for position set. When youre playing and want to transition completely out of key, use the position set button you have. Then progress through apple 9,8,7 on global quantization, pressing a button for position set for each interval, then just launch another clip and solo over to it. Easy cheap build that sounds good, and you cna move out of key really easily.

- I have a group of clips dedicated to cheap thrills, handclap segments, bass loops, etc. Nothing crazy, but it'll add more to your live sets.

-If youre using the APC, holy shit midi assign the STOP button above the crossfader to metronome or something completely unrelated. I had two incidences during DJ sets where I've hit the STOP button during a spirited crossfade. Just re-assign it and dont stress hitting that on accident.

Once I sober up i'll think more of tips and tricks i've picked up since ive gone to only using the APC.

darkroomrobot
Posts: 13
Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2009 9:40 pm
Location: Leeds, UK
Contact:

Re: PURELY DJing - Tips, Tricks, Tutorials

Post by darkroomrobot » Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:56 pm

cool tips... I've started a blog with my mate who i produced with as 'click & Zoom', making tech house stuff.

its not all ableton specific but some of it is...

http://lostinmusik.wordpress.com

will try an remember to add link to hear to post in future

Post Reply