hi! would appreciate some help if you can!

[gordon_strange]

Hi. Clearly i'm new to the forum, but i have been lurking around for sometime!

I have some questions, that i would really appreciate you answering for me.

I'm gonna give you some background if thats ok, and i hope it will enable you to help me out. I have been a traditional dj for the best part of 20 years. using vinyl and cd, in club set ups.

I'm not very technically minded and don't really understand about midi, vst's, racks, etc etc. i have an idea of what things are, and how they work, but i wouldn't say i have a working knowledge.

i have been playing with ableton 7 on my desktop pc, for the last 18 months, and have fallen in love!

i use the arrangement view to make dj mixes, and really enjoy using it. it feels more like i'm producing something rather than making a dj mix.

anyway, i've decided to take the plunge and buy a midi controller, and do more of a live dj thing.

i would like some help in choosing a controller (i have a spec heavy laptop, as a friend of mine is tech savy and its going to be fine).

from looking around here and other places, it seems that for a complete noob like me, the apc 20 or the m audio uc33e

as apparently you just stick the usb in, and it all syncs up and works, but you can map things later if you want.

what would you guys reccomend?

also, i like to loop things on the fly, like on the cdj's. can i do that with ableton in session view? and if i can, would one of these controllers let me do it (ideally two buttons one in sample, one out sample-like the cdjs!)?

i have tons more questions, but i don't want to take up too much more of your time as this is quite a long post already!

i juts want to say i am really enjoying learning all about ableton and what i can do with it, so appreciate that i'll probably have to learn lots more. also please please please make any answers as simple as possible please as i am not the most technologically knowledgeable guy around! that being said i'm a demon on the decks thanks gang!!

[Rabalder]

"just stick the usb in, and it all syncs up and works, but you can map things later if you want" - This is correct.
"also, i like to loop things on the fly, like on the cdj's" - Also possible in Live..

READ THE MANUAL.. There you will find most answers.

[bosonHavoc]

check this site out too
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
has allot of good info

youtube is the shit for learning ableton and checking out gear

check out tom cosm
http://www.cosm.co.nz/
he has a ton of learning resources
you can also see if their is an ableton user group in your area too
just dig man, their is sooo much learning material out their

[gordon_strange]

"just stick the usb in, and it all syncs up and works, but you can map things later if you want" - This is correct.
"also, i like to loop things on the fly, like on the cdj's" - Also possible in Live..

READ THE MANUAL.. There you will find most answers.

Thanks for your reply. Thanks for the advice of readin the manual, however I have done this, and it doesn't give mr the answers to the questions asked. Especially thE question about looping ala the cdj's. I understand how to loop in arrangement view, by selecting the point I want it to loop from and then adjusting the lengh, but I don't see how this can be done 'on the fly'. I am also aware that I could just set the loop point and then assign a button to turn it on and off, but I don't always want to loop that same section, sometimes I may just want to hit loop on the breakdown for instance.

[gordon_strange]

check this site out too
http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
has allot of good info

youtube is the shit for learning ableton and checking out gear

check out tom cosm
http://www.cosm.co.nz/
he has a ton of learning resources
you can also see if their is an ableton user group in your area too
just dig man, their is sooo much learning material out their

Thanks for your reply and I agree there is a lot of stuff about. I have checked Tom cosom and found him to be very helpful. The problem I guess is that it's assumed you already have a clue about what your doing
Ost of the time

[Rabalder]

"just stick the usb in, and it all syncs up and works, but you can map things later if you want" - This is correct.
"also, i like to loop things on the fly, like on the cdj's" - Also possible in Live..

READ THE MANUAL.. There you will find most answers.

Thanks for your reply. Thanks for the advice of readin the manual, however I have done this, and it doesn't give mr the answers to the questions asked. Especially thE question about looping ala the cdj's. I understand how to loop in arrangement view, by selecting the point I want it to loop from and then adjusting the lengh, but I don't see how this can be done 'on the fly'. I am also aware that I could just set the loop point and then assign a button to turn it on and off, but I don't always want to loop that same section, sometimes I may just want to hit loop on the breakdown for instance.

Check out the "looper" or "beat repeater". Both of these can loop on the fly..

[pepezabala]

You can set the loop brace in a clip "on the fly". Check in the clip properties, there is a section for the loop start and the loop length. You will find two little buttons beneath the number boxes. Let a clip play unlooped and then click on the loop start button and then after one or two bars the loop length button. Voila, clip loops.

Next thing is that you can midi-assign those buttons.

Note that the assignment is generic, meaning it's working for every clip that is selected/in focus. The behaviour of the buttons depends on the global quantize setting - if this is set to one bar, the loop segment will always be one bar or multiple of one bars, depending on when you press the second button.

Play a bit with the buttons to learn how to use them in a live situation, it can get tricky sometimes.

[Z3NO]

"just stick the usb in, and it all syncs up and works, but you can map things later if you want" - This is correct.
"also, i like to loop things on the fly, like on the cdj's" - Also possible in Live..

READ THE MANUAL.. There you will find most answers.

Thanks for your reply. Thanks for the advice of readin the manual, however I have done this, and it doesn't give mr the answers to the questions asked. Especially thE question about looping ala the cdj's. I understand how to loop in arrangement view, by selecting the point I want it to loop from and then adjusting the lengh, but I don't see how this can be done 'on the fly'. I am also aware that I could just set the loop point and then assign a button to turn it on and off, but I don't always want to loop that same section, sometimes I may just want to hit loop on the breakdown for instance.

Check out the "looper" or "beat repeater". Both of these can loop on the fly..

He doesn't have those in Live 7

[gordon_strange]

Thanks z3no. I know how to loop a track, I know I can set a loop point in a track, and then turn that loop on or off by assigning a button to it. But I want to know if I can just pnch in a loop start and end point, using assignined buttons, just like on the cdj1000's. So one button press and the loop point starts, another button to signify the end of the loop. Perhaps I'm not making myself clear.

[S4racen]

Hi Gordon,

When the clip is in focus you can midi map a loop start and end button (they are entitled set) you could map both buttons to the same midi button which will then set a loop automatically at the size of the Global Quantize....

This can only be done on the clip in focus however!

Cheers
D

[gordon_strange]

Fantastic. That sound like a great approximation for what I need. What is focu view though!

Sorry for the spelling I'm doing this via the iPhone and it tends to make words up!

[S4racen]

In session mode double click on the clip and it'll bring up the waveform, this is what you need to do to midi map the set start and end buttons....

As long as the track is highlighted then it's in focus!

Cheers
D

[pepezabala]

or lets say it like that: The loop start and loop length button are working for whichever selected clip.

This can get confusing when you have several clips playing and want to loop one of them. Then you first have to select that clip.

It's not like on CDJs where you have loop buttons on each deck.

[S4racen]

Sorry to say it but unless there's a major revision of Ableton i can't see it happening....

I've built a max4live device for my Apc40 that allows me to set a loop on the track in focus or any track within the Redbox...

http://thestudiosessions.co.uk

Having seen what it takes to create you'd need to be able to hardmap a tracks looping functionality which i can't see happening in the immediate future!


Cheers
D