Ableton + Decks setup... Is this a good idea

JoolsMF · Post by **JoolsMF** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 10:37 am

Hi everybody.

Basically i've been thinking about playing out live for a while now and i've been toying with the idea of getting some CD decks (CDJ800s) so I can play out. However, I am also really into Ableton Live and being a remix/bootleg artist I am fascinated by the creative possibilites for DJing with it. Ideally I would only use Ableton but I have one major problem. With CD decks (the good ones at least) you can scratch on them but with Laptops you can't do live beat/vocal manipulation in the same way. I do a lot of glitch stuff but I really want to able to chop up tracks live in a turntablist fashion.

One thing I was considering was getting one CD deck and mixing that with my Laptop. Is this a good idea and how easy is it to beatmatch a deck to a laptop? I guess it can't be that different if you're mixing the CD to the laptop (the other way round would be much harder I guess). Also, are there any program/plug-ins which enable you to do the equivalent of scratching etc?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 11:18 pm

if you're an openminded individual, I'd go with the cdj1000mk2 and the laptop. you can beat juggle within ableton on 2 or more tracks and use the cd deck for cutting samples. the reason to use that deck in paticular is because the other pioneers don't track audio instantaneously, not even the original 1000. when you first try to grab the sample you will hear a long pause until the deck has tracked the audio propperly, then you can do
what you will with it and it does a good job, for studio production this is fine, but for playing live this will mess you up because you will need that sample imediately and won't want to wait til the deck catches it, hence the need for the model '1000mrk 2', it's identical to the 1000 with the addition of that fix so it tracks instantly.

-mic-minimal