My First DJ set with Live

[kiddy]

Hi all, Finally bit the bullet on Fri night and did my first DJ set with Live.

I found it quite interesting and came across the odd problem (none to serious) and other bits and bobs that worked better than expected.

Points to note for next time;

Be extremly careful when adjusting tempo.
Give the Auto Filter and Delay a break


One thing that I found much easier that i expected was syncing between my cd decks and live. I just put the output of my DJ mixer into channel 1 of Live, using the space bar to cue up the next track on Live when required.

I didn't get a full on crash which was nice!

Overall I felt a bit lame though just staring at a screen and clicking a mouse though. Not having to beatmactch left me pretty bored. I'm going to get them to put wireless internet in so I can play online poker inbetween songs next time

[Simon L]

One thing that I found much easier that i expected was syncing between my cd decks and live. I just put the output of my DJ mixer into channel 1 of Live, using the space bar to cue up the next track on Live when required.

Sounds cool, how did you do this, I'm interested to learn more (being a newbie to Ableton).

[ryansupak]

i agree about not overusing special effects. i think the core of the set has to be good selection, good ordering, and good crowd interaction.

rs

[kiddy]

Sounds cool, how did you do this, I'm interested to learn more (being a newbie to Ableton).

Just set a channel to receive audio from the inputs on your soundcard. Arm this channel and the audio should play through it. You can stop and start a set in this state whilst the audio continues. When your ready to slip an new track in, just stop/start the set as you were cueing up a cd.

[Simon L]

Sounds cool, how did you do this, I'm interested to learn more (being a newbie to Ableton).

Just set a channel to receive audio from the inputs on your soundcard. Arm this channel and the audio should play through it. You can stop and start a set in this state whilst the audio continues. When your ready to slip an new track in, just stop/start the set as you were cueing up a cd.

Excellent will give this a go tonight.

[mac 10]

Sorry, but i dint get it at all. I know im not addressed, but it would be very kind of you if you could explain it a little more detailed to me...
the "set", is that the sound people hear or not, i think not because it would make no sense to me to start or stop it during a live show...
With syncing i assume, like you wrote, you mean the beatmatching, does this only work with special cd players or is it ableton that saves the signal in a kind of buffer and then syncs it automatically with the already going track? would this work with vinyl, because i am using vinyls and two mks plugged to a mixer, only the mixer would be directly connectet to the laptop...
does it make sense to use ableton at a show when playing with vinyls? I thought of maybe enrichen my collection with songs i cant buy on vinyl anymore and play them via ableton, or would a final scratch etc. make more sense? would ableton be able ( ) to sync a mp3 or aiff or whatever to a going vinyl track?
How would that work, is the mixer connected to the live system (the one in the club) and the laptop connected to the mixer as a input "instrument" or is the mixer connected to the laptop and then to the system??
please excuse my english as i am swiss...
thanks for your reply
mac 10

[Justin Kayes]

I don't get it at all either. You say you connected the dj mixer to the input of your soundcard and open it in track 1 of Live. So where does the output of your laptop go to?
How can you cue up and start/stop a "set" (whatever you mean by that) if it is audible on the mains? in other words, how do you pre-listen something over the headphones without it going through the main output?

If the outpuit of the laptop goes back into the dj mixer on a seperate channel, how do you avoid that that channel puts through both the sounds from ableton itself as well as the sound comng in at track 1?

Maybe I'm completely overlooking something. But I really don't get it.

[SimonPHC]

a "set", in this context, is an ableton file on your computer.

You route the mixer output to your soundcard, and to the amplifier.

in your ableton file (the ableton set) you create one audio channel and set it to receive audio from the dj mixer. now you can prelisten and set the tempo and hit play/stop as much as you want.

[Justin Kayes]

Oh wait, so the only reason why the audio comes into Live, is so you can let Live do the beatmatching for you? And as soon as you drop the Live audio in the mix, the audio of track 1 in Live is off I guess.

So if I understand this right, if you would beatmatch Live manually, the laptop is nothing different from just another audio source.

When he was talking about using Auto-filter and delay I thought he was using these effects over the audio coming from the mixer.

[Justin Kayes]

But how do you start the next track in live? You can't pre-listen without it being audible over the live output, so I guess you have to alternate between Live and CD/turntable?

[Justin Kayes]

Help, I still don't get it! There's no way Live can pick up the BPM from the incoming audio. Or is there?

So what's the use of the incoming audio in Live?

[MarkH]

Help, I still don't get it! There's no way Live can pick up the BPM from the incoming audio. Or is there?

So what's the use of the incoming audio in Live?

Assign the "T" key on your keyboard to tap tempo. Tap to the CD's audio so you get the BPM right in Live, then when you play your song in Live it will match to the beat of the audio on the CD player.

[Justin Kayes]

Assign the "T" key on your keyboard to tap tempo. Tap to the CD's audio so you get the BPM right in Live, then when you play your song in Live it will match to the beat of the audio on the CD player.

But why do you need the audio coming into live for that. You hear the main audio from the speakers and you can tap the tempo from that. What's the use of having the audio coming into Live?

[MrYellow]

Sounds like he's using Live as the mixer before the front of house....

To clear up one bit... Live doesn't automatically beatmatch to incoming
signal..... He's matching the tempo manually then hitting Play in-time with
the CD. Probably a bit risky but yeah.... To get it back more towards your
way of thinking.... You could pre-listen your loops in Live while the CD
plays, and only send the loops to FOH once you were sure they were 100%
in sync.... or... you could pre-listen your CD while loops play and drop it in
once you were happy with the beatmatching.... He's just dropping it with the
space bar because he feels safe in his ability to tap the tempo and press
play in-time with beat 1 on the CD.

CD -> DJ Mixer -> Live -> PA
or
CD -> DJ Mixer -> Live -> Mixer -> PA
or
CD -> Live -> Mixer -> PA
or
CD -> Mixer Chan1
Live -> Mixer Chan2
-> PA
or
Guitar -> Pre-amp -> Live
Bass -> DI -> Live
Vocals -> Pre-amp - Live
Drums -> Mixer -> Live
MIDI Keys -> Live
-> Mixer -> Outboard Effects A
-> Mixer -> Outboard Effects B
-> PA

Whatever you like best.....

When he was talking about using Auto-filter and delay I thought he was
using these effects over the audio coming from the mixer.

Yes you can apply effects to anything coming through Live be it an external
CD, a Guitar, a loop being played or whatever.

-Ben

[MarkH]

Assign the "T" key on your keyboard to tap tempo. Tap to the CD's audio so you get the BPM right in Live, then when you play your song in Live it will match to the beat of the audio on the CD player.

But why do you need the audio coming into live for that. You hear the main audio from the speakers and you can tap the tempo from that. What's the use of having the audio coming into Live?

You don't need audio going through Live for that. Not sure why he is doing it that way.