Ableton Forum

Hello

So basically I want to know how to record my dj sets, which are played on CDJs and a Pioneer mixer.

Before it was just a case of plugging the "Main out" from the mixer into the speaker jack on my laptop (windows with Logic), the problem is I no longer have my laptop, I have a Mac tour G5 with Ableton?

Is it still as easy? will Ableton/Mac recognise the signals coming from my mixer?

Cheers

If you've got a line-in on that G5 tower, you should be good to go; you'll just need to get some converter to go from the RCA on the mixer to whatever the tower has. If not, you'll need to invest in an audio interface of some kind.

But yeah, your Pioneer mixer is just outputting audio; Ableton can record that audio into a clip, just like any other audio source. Conceptually it's the exact same thing you did with Logic.

Somebody more knowledgable than I am should confirm that audio from those mixers is line-level. I'm pretty sure it is.

ok nice one thanks.

Do you know how to set up a channel so that it will accept the audio output from my mixer?

I've no idea how to do this.

You'll need some kind of audio interface hardware. The tower might have something, but I don't know much about them so I can't say for sure.

In Ableton, make an audio track, set its input chooser ("Audio From") to that interface, and its channel to whatever inputs on that interface correspond to the left and right on your mixer (probably 1/2 but could be different depending on what you're plugged in to). Arm for recording.

You can have it monitor playback if you want - that's what the "Monitor" buttons are for. I imagine you probably don't since you've probably got your headphones or some speakers coming out of the mixer.

You'll have to make sure that Ableton recognizes your interface. You can do this from the Audio section of Preferences. I believe there's a lesson about this in Ableton's built-in tutorials.

Good luck and happy mixing!

ok thanks alot, i'll give it a go once i get time. I hope i wont have to buy an interface just to record my mixes.

Safe

Thanks again.