Ableton Forum

I have an indie rock background. In 2004 my band broke up (I was the songwriter + singer + guitarist of the band). The break-up happened a couple of months after I discovered Live and started using it (Live was in no way responsible ). I'd always liked electronic music, but when I started reading this forum I realized how truly difficult it is to create compelling electornic music. You can crank out generic sounding tracks all day, but to truly make something special is really really hard. I was working at Guitar Center at the time too.

It was a shitty time in my life, but using Live gave me hope for the future.

I used to go into the DJ section at Guitar Center to amuse myself. At the time the whole DJ thing was very alien to me. I would play with the mixers and goof off with effects and sampling. It wasn't until I left that job that I realized how badly I missed playing with DJ gear. I missed the equipment soo much that I ended up buying two used 1200s off of Craigslist, and a Rane TTM 57 SL mixer (with Serato Scratch built-in) last year.

So, I've been DJing for a year now. It's sooooo fun. I love it. I still suck really really badly, but someday I might actually be good. I don't care! It's just fun and it's helping me write songs.

When you DJ with a traditional set-up (sorry but laptop-only djing just isn't the same), you are forced to pay very close attention to the inner details of the songs you are playing. You have to listen to it more closely to beat match. After a while you start to really know the material on an intimate level. Even though you're constantly taking in new music, new records and MP3s, you get to learn the music very quickly. You develop a relationship with it. It's weird!

I'm in the process of starting a band again. I've written new songs that kind of sound like Okkervil River, and I think it's the best material I've ever written. I'm looking for the right drummer (a creative one who has a laptop and triggers all kinds of craziness with a certain progam whose name sounds like Love) and I'm going for it. That's why I've started posting with my Hidden Driveways login here on the forum (I'm Sales Dude McBoob). I'm back on. The soup is on!

I'm not looking to hurt the feelings of laptop DJs. I do it sometimes with Live and it's really fun. It's live remixing to me. DJing the traditonal way is just so much harder, and so physical, and sooooo deeply intwined with the music. That's all. Your experience with laptop DJing may be totally different than mine. I'm not saying my method is better than yours. ::peace symbol::

andrewbrewer wrote:half-assed experimental pop/hip-hop/dance with too many vocal effects:

http://www.myspace.com/ossicandyboy

Cool tracks. I really like the vocal in Hog Hunting, it's a good track.

I'm not a DJ either, and have no interest in that at all.

However, I find Live 7 to be a superb piece of studio software for composing and recording stuff. I too am a keyboard player - also a classical pianist and teacher. In terms of genres I try a bit of everything, but for the most part I do classical and "chill-out" stuff. I totally agree that Live is way more intuitive and smooth to use than older DAWs like Sonar (which I also used for a while).

NOT a DJ. Not even an incredible simulation. I use Live because it let me do the things that i wish Logic did. Things like using session to record into arrangement, and then editing the arrangement, are very powerful. I recently upgraded to 7 Suite and am exploring drum racks and some of the symphonic instrumentation. Style? Hard to pin down, but I lean more toward avant garde jazz and serialist composers than toward pop music.

I basically learn as much of live as I need to learn for each project. If there is a feature that I am having trouble with then i start a new set and find a way to learn it. I am into my second major project of collaborative composition where I describe the project to the other musicians, we exchange material by ftp or email, and then I compose in Live. I usually work with manually sequenced samples as opposed to MIDI instruments.

I appreciate the dance music community because they seem to be pretty good about sharing tips and techniques, and I have learned a lot about using live from some of the threads here. But really, I have no idea who many of the DJ's or producers mentioned here are.

I am a big fan of sites like Matrixsynth and CDM, and less of a fan of a lot of the off topic posts on this forum

No DJ here.

Not a DJ...

I do a little bit of everything... I love to experiment with music in general. I don't consider myself locked into any certain genre, as I can always find something I like in any genre.

I first found out about Live while reading reviews on Amazon.com. I can't remember who it was, but the reviewer for Ableton was a guitarist from a big name 70's rock band and he kept going on and on about how great Ableton was....

Just an example of why I've always considered Live's users a very diverse group.

Even performing with Live (I'm not a performer) is diverse in its use. Quite a few people here don't use it as a DJ. That's why I love this forum... so many different uses, that when folks share their experiences, there's always something new to learn.

By the way, much respect to those who use it as a DJ... I've been trying to show my future brother in law, how Live is used for DJ'ing... he wants to cross over from vinyl to digital.

So once again... very cool program.

dootdoot wrote:
I appreciate the dance music community because they seem to be pretty good about sharing tips and techniques, and I have learned a lot about using live from some of the threads here. But really, I have no idea who many of the DJ's or producers mentioned here are.

You know I should have mentioned something about this too...

The best tips I've learned have come from the dance music community. IMO they use Live to its full potential, so always great to learn more from these guys...

amigo wrote:

andrewbrewer wrote:half-assed experimental pop/hip-hop/dance with too many vocal effects:

http://www.myspace.com/ossicandyboy

Cool tracks. I really like the vocal in Hog Hunting, it's a good track.

thx for the compliment. wish i could take credit for hog hunting, but all i did on that one was a few fx and mastering.

i was listening to your tracks, freedom is my fav. man, project 80 gave me strobe flashbacks, almost jumped out of my seat and started poppin!

I'm not a DJ and so is my wife.

I DJ about as often as my friends get married. No Ableton involved, hardly any beatmatching or anything either. Just dropping one CD after the other of Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Al Green, la la la... So I don't really call myself a DJ.

Live is first and foremost my songwriting and recording tool and secondly a toy to experiment with electronic sounds. Comes together in a lot of different genres: http://www.andrewismusic.com

Definitely not a DJ. I'm an obnoxious purist who will NEVER use a single pre recorded loop, drum or otherwise, or any sort of deck.

Everything I do I start from pretty much ground zero. 1/2 the songs have me playing guitar on them, and at this point there isn't a single song in my set that doesn't have me actually playing keyboard or guitar on it. At some point I'll probably write something that would better be enhanced by me doing some sort of live mixing/knob twiddling on it, but it hasn't happened yet.

My feelings on the DJ/Producer VS Composer/Musician debate are that in essence they are very close, but DJ/Producers tend to have a 'global sound', in that key tonal and rhythmic patterns are standards (Amen break, club synths, club kicks, hip hop scratching, beat repeat/glitch noises etc.) Whereas Composer/Musician types tend to veer towards traditional rock arrangements or experimental electronica. Generalization for sure, but personally I tend to cringe if I hear something 'global' in my sound that pops out too much, whereas I can't imagine a DJ caring about that, it's about the bodies moving.

OK now I have to go compose the most obnoxiously stereotypical 'Producer' track, just to punish myself.

andrewbrewer wrote:

amigo wrote:

andrewbrewer wrote:half-assed experimental pop/hip-hop/dance with too many vocal effects:

http://www.myspace.com/ossicandyboy

Cool tracks. I really like the vocal in Hog Hunting, it's a good track.

thx for the compliment. wish i could take credit for hog hunting, but all i did on that one was a few fx and mastering.

i was listening to your tracks, freedom is my fav. man, project 80 gave me strobe flashbacks, almost jumped out of my seat and started poppin!

Cheers dude! Thanks for listening.

Oh and for the record and to keep on topic, I am not a DJ.

Not a DJ.

Jazz guitarist/guitar instructor, mess around with making intelligent (hopefully) hip-hop in my spare time...

me not a dj either. dont really like dancing, i prefer lying down

i use it to make noises and tunes, play live a little bit and manipulate clips and field recordings, background sounds etc. i use it to improvise and jam and record both alone and with friends and suchlike. also use it to compose sounds and songs (sort of) for my sonic art course. and to make and edit sounds for any little films i make. and i have a lot of fun with it

slatepipe wrote:me not a dj either. dont really like dancing, i prefer lying down

+1