Reflections on 1st DJ Gig w/ Live + Tell Me About Your 1st

[contakt321]

So...

I played my first DJ gig with Live last night, also first with the APC and figured I would share my thoughts in case anyone cared (and also, curious to hear some feedback and other folks first time impressions).

Before I start, just wanted to thank the folks from the board who came out to TURRBOTAX® in Brooklyn last night. Really appreciate the support and I hope you enjoyed your free gin!

Some background:
DJed for 14 years (vinyl, then in recent years Serato), toured, had monthlies, weeklies, etc
Using Ableton for maybe 1.5 years strictly for production until uhhhhh last week
Using the APC40 for a month or two (in all honesty, don't feel like I am utilizing it as much as I could)

My DJ Setup:
- Macbook, Live 8, APC40
- Limiter on each channel and on the master channel
- I set up tracks 1 and 2 to be my "dj decks" 1 & 2 and then I set up tracks 3 and 4 to be blank and 5 & 6 were my "crate" where I had more songs to choose from
- I midi-mapped the "Pan" knobs to be Bass and Treble for each channel, then I mapped a knob for a simple delay for each channel and a knob for a Low Pass filter for each channel

The Music:
A mix of Dubstep, 2 Step, Wonky, Garage and UK Funky (aka "vague genre" music).

The Good:
- Using Ableton forced me to prepare my set in advance (I used to be lazy w/ records and Serato and just come and figure out what I played on the fly)
- Being able to visually see the breakdowns and where the intro ends, etc made it possible to 100% nail every single transition at the perfect place
- Not having to worry about beatmatching, and keeping them locked during transitions freed me up use the aid of effects, and EQ-ing more effectively during transitions
- I felt much more relaxed (other than worrying about stopping the wrong clip or some other moronic mistake)

The Not So Good:
- The prep work, I did a couple of 5 hour sessions warping tunes
- I missed the fun part of djing with vinyl
- For the kind of music I was playing, I didn't want to go buckwild with effects during the song or looping, etc (maybe I am not being creative enough or don't have enough experience to know what I should do) so for the 1-3 minutes of each song where I would usually be picking the next track, beatmatching it, etc I felt like I didn't have anything to do
- While I felt more relaxed, I also felt like I personally didn't have the energy I usually have when djing with vinyl (maybe it's for the reasons noted in the bullet above)

Did anyone else feel this way?
Any ideas for being more creative when djing with Live playing Dubstep, Funky, etc?
How do you setup for DJing? (what effects? how do you map? etc?)

Anyway, just wanted to share how I felt, would love to hear about other folks first gigs on Live, transition from vinyl and their initial impressions.

[the_antagonist]

yes. but dont get bored as i use lots of effects. arrangement. sometime I warp as I go so i usually keep busy.


you are allowed to stop and just dance for a bit.

[contakt321]

yes. but dont get bored as i use lots of effects. arrangement. sometime I warp as I go so i usually keep busy.


you are allowed to stop and just dance for a bit.

Warp as you go? Damn, that's brave!

I would have stopped and danced but the booth was TINY. Peep the Laptop Jenga:

Yes, that's 5 laptops stacked in order of who was djing next.

[the_antagonist]

no bravery required. if you dont warp it good enough you just have to correct the dogy mixes as you go. you will only correct it once.


i live by two rules.

always save after warping.
if you start warping something, you finish. even if you arnt going to use the track.

[sparklepuff]

yes. but dont get bored as i use lots of effects. arrangement. sometime I warp as I go so i usually keep busy.


you are allowed to stop and just dance for a bit.

Warp as you go? Damn, that's brave!

I would have stopped and danced but the booth was TINY. Peep the Laptop Jenga:

Yes, that's 5 laptops stacked in order of who was djing next.

Hahahahaha, what's with the laptops?

[contakt321]

It's called "not doing that again"

The booth was so small there was no place else to put them. My APC was on a the Turntable, it was ridic

We had one person on Traktor, 2 on Serato, and 3 on Ableton

[Zygi]

maybe a lil bit offtopic, but watch this video to get some view on fast warping for dj usage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zLk3SH2lBg

it ain't much different in 8 - actually it's easier, cause you don't have to seek for transients manually. If you stick to digital track sources - that's the one and only way of warping. Vinyl rips are not welcome

[hurlingdervish]

yo man glad you had a good gig!

if you miss the improv aspect

try saving that dj set template

then warp all the songs you MIGHT use in that same project under the "crate" tracks, or better yet all your tracks. the file will take a few more seconds to load, but you wont have to touch the browser for finding songs and you can get that "on the fly " feel back

that way you can even color code them by the mood or genre of the song

it works great, as far as my bedroom fuckery can tell.

if you want some effects to use, try using them on buildups, like bringing in reverb slowly then cutting it one beat before the drop

or the more obvious beat repeat

i like using delay times from the largest to the smallest

all while cutting out the lows

[djazz]

well ... i agree ... you are more chilled out with ablton and you dont worry about dodgy decks etc ... also you can talk easier to the girls

im live remixing 5 years now ... when i play with ableton is something different ...

now im into live remixing and live electronic set.

the apc40 rocks but i think when you dj the uc33e is my cup of tea.

I love it ... now the apc40 does control the extra loops and i use the knobs for synthesizing kicks

I LOVE DUP-WOOP hehehe

my first experience with ableton live was live remixing benny benachi - love is gona save us on a party at my house where i was playing only with vinyl ... people went maaaaaad

my set up for djing and live remixing is mac + uc33 ... (i used the keyboard for the loops)

now ... apc40 + uc33 + 25sl + gr-20 + my custom midi controller = SOOO MUCH FUN !
check djazz.co.uk to see my custom midi controller .

regards

[contakt321]

yo man glad you had a good gig!

if you miss the improv aspect

try saving that dj set template

then warp all the songs you MIGHT use in that same project under the "crate" tracks, or better yet all your tracks. the file will take a few more seconds to load, but you wont have to touch the browser for finding songs and you can get that "on the fly " feel back

that way you can even color code them by the mood or genre of the song

it works great, as far as my bedroom fuckery can tell.

if you want some effects to use, try using them on buildups, like bringing in reverb slowly then cutting it one beat before the drop

or the more obvious beat repeat

i like using delay times from the largest to the smallest

all while cutting out the lows

Yeah man! Glad I didn't blunder anything!

The color coding idea I had in mind but need to put into practice.

I am gonna work on mapping more and different effects (like Reverb, etc) for my gig next week.

[benjaminFlack]

THIS is what you do with less conventional stuff (dj anemone's set, not mine).

my first gig, i had a blast. it was a three hour set, and in all the practices i'd done i was getting to the higher bpm's too quickly, but for some reason when i actually did it it was just fun and it all went great!

i was using Live 6 on a powerbook g4 with an m-audio o2 and an external mixer.

[aqua_tek]

CRIPES! i TOTALLY forgot about this show. Damn, sorry I missed it. I'll be sure to drop by next time. Keep us posted.