Ableton Forum

OK so here's something I've started to mess around with, as I've got a show coming in January that my partner and I going to do a PA of sorts with 2 x CDJ1000s, a 600, a 300, my laptop, Ableton and my midi controller.

So, the idea is to rip all the tracks he'll be playing in DJing in the set... not having it pre programmed, but at least having the tunes picked out by both us before hand.

In ableton to re-edit, remix and do whatever to those tracks and drop them in over the top of his set and move over to me in ableton and so on. In essence this will be practiced but not rehearsed - allowing for an organic performance that isn't locked into a specific direction. It has the potential to be something different and cool if we do it well.

The main issue is the transitions between laptop and decks. I downloaded the BPM detect plug-in for ableton to see if that would be of use, and quite frankly I think it's crap compaired to my ear.

I can map the BPM counter in Live to something on my control surface and then beatmatch to the decks by ear. At least I could if I could control the BPM counter in small enough increments. I've tried the tap tempo thing, which is close but just not close enough for me to get it spot on.
With the BPM counter mapped it bounces around by about 1.25 bpm for every position on the fader/knob - which makes sense because it's mapping the full range of BPMs from 1 to the maximum BPM in Live... so if you're trying to settle around the 128 mark you have a hard time.

So, what do you recommend??

If you go into the arrangement view and check the automation lane for the track tempo, you'll find that you can set a range of tempo values. This range will then be spread across the MIDI values 0-127, so that you can get finer increments.

I think the most effective way to do it is to narrow your pitch range as much as possible before the set, and then during the set, match closely in Live and then adjust the CDJ.

That makes sense - I know it can be matched by using the CDJ that way, but I was trying to keep me from jumping onto the decks to do this... the idea is that we can each be doing our ownthing for the full gig. I'll try assigning the tempo range now - thanks

Tails wrote:If you go into the arrangement view and check the automation lane for the track tempo, you'll find that you can set a range of tempo values. This range will then be spread across the MIDI values 0-127, so that you can get finer increments.
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you will find this in session view as well. down at the bottom of the screen

you can set the minimum value higher then the maximum value as well, when you assign it to a fader it will act like the pitch fader for your decks

Hmm... This seems not to work. I switched to the arranger, selected in the master lane the tempo an put the range from 80 to 140. Then i assign a rotary to the tempo (upper left) and change the tempo: the range will be still 60 to 200, but on the lane only values between 80 and 140 will be shown.

Do i miss something?

x/grfld

Got it!

I used the wrong input-fields (right next to the master track) and didn't see the lower input field because my huskervu covered them...

Everything works fine now. Thanx for the tipp!

x/grfld

My partner and I do a live set similar to this but I am on the deck not the computer.

How I do it:

Basically like everyone above has said, choose your BPM and then set up a controller to the BPM in ableton, but set it over a 5 BPM range. I have the Xone 92 so I map one of the controller knobs to the BPM in ableton. Now I can adjust my partners BPM to match the speed of my records.

I would assume if you had a controller you could do the same but you're controling your own BPM

i haven't tested the midi output, but this software detects tempo from realtime audio and can put out a midi clock. i had a quick look at it a little while ago and it seemed to detect tempo pretty well off of an audio input, but it used up 10% cpu i wasn't prepared to sacrifice... might be useful to someone though.

thanks for the help on this - i think that there isn't an easy fix to this... sure it can be made easier, but it's a bit like DJing. It will take some time and practice to get right, but that's all. Thanks!

i haven't tested the midi output, but this software detects tempo from realtime audio and can put out a midi clock. i had a quick look at it a little while ago and it seemed to detect tempo pretty well off of an audio input, but it used up 10% cpu i wasn't prepared to sacrifice... might be useful to someone though.

i meant look here:

http://www.djdecks.be/

can't believe i forgot to put in the URL.... DOH!!!

grfld wrote:Got it!

I used the wrong input-fields (right next to the master track) and didn't see the lower input field because my huskervu covered them...

Everything works fine now. Thanx for the tipp!

x/grfld

Hi,

Can you elaborate on what you mean here please? Where are the other input fields. I'm having exactly the same problem and I used to have it working in Live 4.

Thanks

Ben

brjclarke wrote:

grfld wrote:I used the wrong input-fields (right next to the master track) and didn't see the lower input field because my huskervu covered them...

Can you elaborate on what you mean here please? Where are the other input fields. I'm having exactly the same problem and I used to have it working in Live 4.

When you click MIDI mapping mode and all the buttons turn blue, select the tempo field, then set the range at the very bottom of the screen, in the Info area. It's easy to ignore that area, and you only see the option to set something when you're in MIDI mapping mode and have selected something in Live to map.

Yea. All you have to do is look at the BPM on your mixer (like a DJM or Allen and Heath) or your CD Decks which will give you not an exact BPM, but good enough. You then set the overall BPM in Ableton "+ 3 or 4" to what the BPM says on your mixer or decks and "- 3 or 4" to what the BPM says on your mixer or decks. Then I would recommend mapping the overalll BPM to a MIDI knob and controlling it from there. Again, make sure that you drop your track from Ableton in the right spot (on a down beat) so your mix between your decks and Ableton aren't overlapping each other. This is going to take almost as much practice to perfect as you would with learning how to beat match on two decks. For just laying a synth/beat over a track playing on your decks, make sure you cue it in your headphones before you bring it out over the main mix. You don't want your synths on Ableton to be dragging behind the vocals playing on your decks.