Questions for eclectic DJs using live

[squidot]

so i have a ton of music (thousands of tracks i will probably put into live), like im sure most of you do, and i was curious how everyone goes about managing their vast eclectic musical collection in live.

im running live 8 on a desktop with vista 64, quad core processor, and 4 gigs of ram.

01a). is there a limit to the amount of clips/songs that you can put into 1 session?
01b). if there is not a limit, is there an issue with quality or cpu processing when you have a huge amount of songs in 1 session (other than it taking longer to load the session when you open it)?

02a). do you think its better to have a separate session for each type of broad genre? i.e having mostly house tracks in 1 session and putting stuff like d&b and hip hop in another session?
02b). if so, is there a way to open up the different session simultaneously and mix in everything still synced with the time/bpms?

im asking this because ideally i would like to have my entire collection in 1 session divided into separate areas within that session. since im eclectic and i have musical a.d.d. sometimes i like to change vibes up mid set. it could be something minor like a transition from prog/electro house to funky house...or it may be something more drastic like going from breaks/house to d&b/hip hop/dubstep or vice versa.

thanks for taking the time to read and respond to someone who is new to live like myself. any insight would be appreciated.

[TRS80]

Hmmm. Well, this is just a guess, but if you're an eclectic DJ I am guessing that you play all kinds of shit and do not mix. If that is indeed the case, you should look into winamp or itunes, both of which have vastly superior organizational capabilities compared to Ableton.

If you do mixx, and you want to access thousands of tracks, then in that case you can either take on the truly monumental take of prepping them in Ableton, or you could try a DVS software, such as Torq etc. Torq does just a good as job as Ableton of 'warping' tracks and it does it for the most part automatically in the background when you add you track to the program. If the warping is off in Torq, there is always the ablitlity to go in and manually warp it. Sorry, the effort you will put there is not transferable to Ableton, and probably will not me in the foreseeable future. Ableton and Serato are currently sniffing asses; who knows what shall come of that.

I just do not think Ableton is the software you want to use if you want to manage a vast collection on the fly. If any of you actually do sit around and warp dozens of tracks each week to keep up with the nausea inducing amount of tracks that pour out every month.... I hope you are well paid and hookers lick your chucklehut nightly.

[squidot]

Hmmm. Well, this is just a guess, but if you're an eclectic DJ I am guessing that you play all kinds of shit and do not mix. If that is indeed the case, you should look into winamp or itunes, both of which have vastly superior organizational capabilities compared to Ableton.

If you do mixx, and you want to access thousands of tracks, then in that case you can either take on the truly monumental take of prepping them in Ableton, or you could try a DVS software, such as Torq etc. Torq does just a good as job as Ableton of 'warping' tracks and it does it for the most part automatically in the background when you add you track to the program. If the warping is off in Torq, there is always the ablitlity to go in and manually warp it. Sorry, the effort you will put there is not transferable to Ableton, and probably will not me in the foreseeable future. Ableton and Serato are currently sniffing asses; who knows what shall come of that.

I just do not think Ableton is the software you want to use if you want to manage a vast collection on the fly. If any of you actually do sit around and warp dozens of tracks each week to keep up with the nausea inducing amount of tracks that pour out every month.... I hope you are well paid and hookers lick your chucklehut nightly.

ouch, that doesnt seem very fair to categorize me as a non-mixing dj right out of the box simply because i have a love for all types of music and cannot be pigeonholed into one type of sound. i also asked about bpm management in the second question so you should be able to ass-u-me that i am indeed mixing music yet i occasionally want to transition into different genres...djs at the extreme end of this example would be coldcut or anyone from ninja tune really, but i digress.

i am well aware of the "daunting" task of prepping all of my tracks to make them playable by warping, level correction, mixed in key, etc. i do not find it that bad seeing as how i can generally warp most tracks in under a couple of minutes and i usually just do them while im practicing anyhow, so its not really that tedious for me. i also do have traktor scratch and im finding that i am enjoying live to dj more than i ever have using my turntables, cd decks, or any other software. it just seems to be the right fit for me at the moment and i love all of the possibilities that have opened up since i started djing and producing with live.

my main question was: is there a limit to the number of tracks you can put into a single ableton session before running into issues? i was also asking if any other eclectic djs in a similar situation have a work flow or template that works well for them, so i may get some ideas on what to try.

[Alextronica]

Wow dude thats Harsh. I got 2600 + songs warped in Live. It's easy and fun. I do use Itunes to organize and then just drop them into Live. I did make a bunch of mistakes and lost everything a few times but that how I learned. Once your done Your done and saved and It's on to the next track. I label everything in Itunes so I can search Itunes for the perfect next song.

True Tracktor or Serato get you more ability to mix quickly songs you've never heard but Live gives me the ablity to do both mixing and creating and Thats why I love it. Plus I aint got the money to get it all So Live works and thats what I use.

[Green Lemon]

I'm pretty similar in my style, taste and desire, also a big Ninja fanboy. And, yes, we do mix. That's what's fun.

I don't know if there is a limit on how many clips can be practically loaded into a session at once, I do two types of Live set:

1) The "broad genre" set where I load a lot of one type of music that is intended to be played like picking records out of a crate. This allows spontaneity and fitting the music to the moment.
2) The "mixtape" set where I basically know what I will play in advance and in what order. This allows increased attention to detail and pulling off more of those "whoa-how did he do that!" moments. I basically record a take into the arrangement, tweak it to satisfaction, and then deconstruct it back into session so I can play it out.

[squidot]

I'm pretty similar in my style, taste and desire, also a big Ninja fanboy. And, yes, we do mix. That's what's fun.

I don't know if there is a limit on how many clips can be practically loaded into a session at once, I do two types of Live set:

1) The "broad genre" set where I load a lot of one type of music that is intended to be played like picking records out of a crate. This allows spontaneity and fitting the music to the moment.
2) The "mixtape" set where I basically know what I will play in advance and in what order. This allows increased attention to detail and pulling off more of those "whoa-how did he do that!" moments. I basically record a take into the arrangement, tweak it to satisfaction, and then deconstruct it back into session so I can play it out.

ah good to meet a fellow ninja tune fan. i love that label and how diverse they are, plus some of those solid steel sets are amazing. coldcut's journeys by dj blew me away when i heard it...that was the first time ive heard such an eclectic blend of music pieced together so seamlessly, plus all of the wicked turntable shenanigans and trickery that just make your hair stand up on end...brilliant!

thanks for the input on how you work. i can dig the two styles you are using there, and thats along the lines of how my session builds are coming along. i guess i'll find out if theres a cap where everything starts to fall apart, until then i'm just going to keep filling that session up with tracks.

[squidot]

You got a mix online fella , I'd be interested to hear you in action?

i dont have any up online and i just started working with ableton so i dont have anything new completed yet. i'll let you know if i throw any of my previous sets up somewhere.

[Zygi]

tried launching multiple instances of live with different sets?

[anachroschism]

King megatrips Ninja sets were ill, zombie movie samples all the way through.

If I get you correctly, youre asking if you can load every song you have into a session so that everything is available should the mood strike you? This is kinda what i want to do as my feeble attempts at consolidation failed in the face of huge downloading sprees.

No idea really, not sure it would be a great solution anyways but its quick and dirty and thats how i usually do everything. Im trying to get better at warping so that preplanning wont be neccessary in a dj set, ill just get an idea import it, warp, chop loops while the previous song plays along. not too hard to do that in 5-8 minutes i suppose but i need practice.

"mixtapes" are tottaly different, I also have those meticulously laid out ahead of time and know what im going to do before I start. Thats where I can get some fun experimenting going on and try out all kinds of racks plugins or whatever.

[oblique strategies]

Rather than a huge master set containing everything, I make new sets all the time. I DJ both from pre-programmed set lists & on the fly, & frequently cross back & forth between the techniques. Fairly standard approach.

When I want to bring in music not in the session I just use the browsers. I've made record crates by using folders & aliases, so there is a bit more organization. PLus I can drag tracks in from both iTunes & Finder folders.

I manage the data with iTunes, & playback in Live. Problem with iTunes is that it can "forget" the songs in a Playlist (I think this is linked to having multiple hard drives -I have A LOT of music), so it is not 100% reliable. I may start using text-based word processor set lists (like in the good old days!), or make screenshots of iTunes playlists & Live sessions to refer to on the fly.

Don't know about your other questions, but kind of doubt that lots of songs would wig out Live. Try it & see!

[squidot]

yeah i think im going to give it a go. if i notice it taking way to long to load or if i run into any issues i will probably just make main sessions for general genres and if i decide to switch i can just drag files in or try to link 2 sessions.

i imported my first dual genre song today and im having kind of a hard time dealing with it. its a 128bpm house track but in the middle it changes gradually to d&b and then gradually comes back out.
im not exactly sure how to get around the warping process with that one.
do any of you guys have any songs like this or tips on how to go about transitioning into d&b during that part?
is there a way to make a tempo change envelope or something along those lines?

i suppose if there really is no way around it in live i could always just use traktor for the transition and then back into live with a new template at the proper bpms.

thanks for the input everyone.

[Green Lemon]

Have you tried breaking it into separate clips and then using follow actions so they all trigger correctly?