Ableton Forum

Hello, I use Live 5. I'm hoping to get an answer to my question that doesn't require me to buy new software! =P

I DJ using unwarped songs, beatmaching with the fine pitch shift (which, by the way, you can't map to midi. Ugh.) Because of this, I don't use any kind of BPM function, counter or MIDI clock, either in Live or in my controller (MPD32). This poses a problem when I want to loop things. I have searched for a long time trying to find a way to loop unwarped files, and still can't figure it out. I could use the beat repeat on the MPD32, HOWEVER, the beat repeat for some dumb reason is locked into its internal BPM and clock, which means that my beats have to be synced to that in order for the beat repeat to come in at the right time, and like I said, I don't use any kind of BPM or counter or clock, because I like the fluidity and the vinyl-style feel of doing everything by ear. I know it has a tempo tap, but that doesn't change the fact that the 1 beat has to be synced with whatever I'm playing, which isn't going to always work because what I'm playing is not always the same tempo or even mathematically on beat. I don't even know what tempo I'm playing at most of the time, I just know the general integer (I start with a blank slate and pull songs from iTunes).

I've thought of some ways around this, one way would be if it was possible for Live to reset its clock every time a clip is launched (my songs are all clips in session mode which are launched by the MPD). If Live's global clock reset itself each time a clip was launched, I could lock the MPD's clock to Live's clock which would theoretically reset the MPD's clock each time a clip was launched, which would sync its beat repeat to my triggering. However, this doesn't work of course because if the clock is reset, any song playing in any other track other than the one I'm looping will also reset. I could warp files and set the seg. tempo to the global tempo, but the warp markers are not always in the right place for looping whatever I want. I am sort of dumbfounded that I haven't come across a solution to this, a simple loop function like on CDJs or on those fancy mixers. Am I looking in the wrong places? Should I just start warping tracks? Is there any way to do this that doesn't cost me extra money?

Oh yeah, and for some reason my copy of Live (5.2.2.) crashes when trying to use VSTs. Maybe I should just upgrade. I'm also in the middle of trying to figure out how to use a DJ-style EQ with infinite knobs....ugh....

Thanks!

Also, I use a standard DJ mixer, I know I could solve this by getting a mixer with a sampler on it, which I might have to do.

What style of music do you play? If you're gonna beatmatch anyway then really the only proper way to do it in Live is to start warping your tracks. Otherwise, maybe you really should think about using something like Traktor because it sounds like Live isn't really suited to what you want to do.

Yeah, it's starting to look that way. Though, if I'm going to spend money on a controller for traktor, I may as well cough up the money for a mixer that has a sampler on it. Thanks though!

One of the things I don't like about Traktor is that, as far as I can tell, you can't make the waveform appear larger, so you can't be very precise, and I don't want to use the auto-sync feature, so I'm kind of out of luck there. It's really nice software though, and if I had a controller for it I'd probably use it.

I still can't get used to ableton for dj'ing. I use Traktor with a controller & mix the "oldskool" way! As in I don't sync or warp or beatgrid etc. I use Live for production & i'm happy with it set up this way. Everyones different so maybe a different set up is what would suit you.

What controller do you use? If I were to use traktor I would want a full size jog wheel, something that really compare to vinyl so you could scratch or juggle. The NS7 looks really amazing, I wish I could just buy the individual decks.