Low On Cash & Want To Make Mixes

[dubmatters]

As long as the technology extends your creativity then its all good.

Some of the best sets I've seen have been computer based.

I enjoy mixing on vinyl but don't feel that the people who use the sync button are shit and have no talent as long as they use the spare time to do something creative.

I think I may go down the laptop midi controller path not for any ideological reason, but I want to play a certain type of track for people, and I don't have a lot of money to spend on turntables, mixers, and audio boxes.

I don't really think I want to start messing with the songs I'm playing, so I don't want to take the tech in that direction. I just want to play the music.

I'm mainly a techno head and when I first saw The Advent play a live set I was blown away(mainly because he is totally sick!). I'm not fussed what a dj uses as long as the tunes are banging and he/she brings something different to the table.

I used to hate the 'fake' dj's who you see playing in cheesy clubs simply clicking play when the previous tune finishes. However after talking to a few of these guys I got the impression that most of them love music but are forced to play cheese just to get some time on the decks/do their promoter mates a favour. They hate the music as much as I do but have to stick to the promoters/clubs god awful playlist.

After all cheese brings in the punters and makes money with 90% of clubs.

Fuck that shit!

[nowaysj]

After all cheese brings in the punters and makes money with 90% of clubs.

Fuck that shit!

Cheese makes tha chedda!

More appropriate to twist up tracks live in techno though. I don't want a bunch of tom foolery with my kind of dubstep.

[mks]

Basic A, you seem to be one of the most opinionated people about Ableton Live and DJ's...

1. Have you ever actually used Ableton?

2. Do you spin vinyl or are you just on CDJ's?

3. Do you have any DJ sets that we can hear?

Cheers

[dubmatters]

After all cheese brings in the punters and makes money with 90% of clubs.

Fuck that shit!

Cheese makes tha chedda!

More appropriate to twist up tracks live in techno though. I don't want a bunch of tom foolery with my kind of dubstep.

For genres like house and techno the live set is ftw.

I'm yet to see some Ableton Dubstep Shenanigans, but look forward to it(if its not too glitchy and robobrostep esc)

Safe

[Basic A]

3. Do you have any DJ sets that we can hear?

Yeah my sets are all over my soundcloud and the regs around here know I record once a month.

1. Have you ever actually used Ableton?

Ive used ableton but wouldnt use it. I see now point. I understand why people do. But THE ONLY THING that can be done on ableton that cannot be done on my setup, is cheating. I can make sequences, live loops, synths, I can use vsts, pitch correct tracks, ect. However I have no button that says 'sync' or 'do it for me' or 'click here to be uber dj'. ANd I have no waveform display, except on a single player. I have my ears. And my faders/knobs/whatever the fuck the pitch/speed control for that particular player is. 4 total track players, and an infinite number of samples/loops/vsti, infinite effects to be laid on all of it, and live sequencing and looping modes. And yes I can stretch tracks without damaging key/pitch only shifting time.

Anything Im missing out on in Ableton? I only played with ableton for a few hours, but while i did, I didnt see anything I was missing out on, aside from sync.

2. Do you spin vinyl or are you just on CDJ's?

I am totally coherent on vinyl and timecode vinyl (though Ive never used serato, I have used traktor more then extensively)... However at home I only have my rig, which is a combination of CDJs, Mixxx, and FLStudio. I combine them all three into one beast using JACK audio. But, yeah, home, just cdjs, decks are a privelage only enjoyed at friends.


At the end of the day man I wouldnt care if you were using sync to ajoin 8,000 loops and 6 accapellas live on stage and were slipping up. But thats not what these kids are doing. They are mixing track to track. Not being creative live performance/production geniouses. They are pretending to be ds, out of laziness, cause ed of the day, its easy to learn.

[alex_l]

I have decided to get back into DJing. I want to play my own stuff, my friends stuff, and stuff from my extensive record/cd/mp3 collection of all genres. I no longer have room for vinyl and decks so I am going to go all digital.

I also want to learn how to program Reaktor better, so I have been thinking about the possibility of building my own custom Reaktor based DJ software, fully triggerable via MIDI, with the possibility of both auto-pitching and beat matching, and effects / live remixing.

I am excited by the idea. I learned to beatmatch in the 1990s and I reckon I have done enough of it to know it isn't that difficult; and this way will be a lot more creative and flexible than straight DJing, and if you are playing your own music on your own custom software that is probably more of a live performance thing anyway.

so it depends on how you use your tools really

[tylerblue]

At the end of the day man I wouldnt care if you were using sync to ajoin 8,000 loops and 6 accapellas live on stage and were slipping up. But thats not what these kids are doing. They are mixing track to track. Not being creative live performance/production geniouses. They are pretending to be ds, out of laziness, cause ed of the day, its easy to learn.

I don't think that anyone here is arguing that it's cool to cheat. But I think you may be giving Ableton a bit too hard of a time. Yes -- you can cheat in Ableton. But you can cheat using anything. People have always cheated, and will continue to cheat no matter what tools they have at their disposal. Shit, I used to consider it cheating when vinyl DJs would slam the crossfader from A to B and the crowd would go nuts.

It's not Ableton's fault (or any live DAW/setup). It's the idiots that use them.

[nowaysj]

Why does a dj have to be doing a one handed handstand while dj'ing? Is the music more impressive that way? For that matter, why does everyone look at the dj? Just dance, or wobble, or sway or whatever you wanna do.

[Basic A]

At the end of the day man I wouldnt care if you were using sync to ajoin 8,000 loops and 6 accapellas live on stage and were slipping up. But thats not what these kids are doing. They are mixing track to track. Not being creative live performance/production geniouses. They are pretending to be ds, out of laziness, cause ed of the day, its easy to learn.

I don't think that anyone here is arguing that it's cool to cheat. But I think you may be giving Ableton a bit too hard of a time. Yes -- you can cheat in Ableton. But you can cheat using anything. People have always cheated, and will continue to cheat no matter what tools they have at their disposal. Shit, I used to consider it cheating when vinyl DJs would slam the crossfader from A to B and the crowd would go nuts.

It's not Ableton's fault (or any live DAW/setup). It's the idiots that use them.

Its like I said man, if I had ever seen a single person using live to put on a live production show, Id be nothing but respect. Ive yet to see this though (once but it was psytrance n goa)... All Ive seen, are kids hitting sync buttons, and then doing track to tracks. NEver have I said anything bad about ableton other then that.

[frank grimes jr.]

Shit, I used to consider it cheating when vinyl DJs would slam the crossfader from A to B and the crowd would go nuts.

This is my go-to move.
Also, pointing in the air whilst closing the eyes.

[Basic A]

Also, pointing in the air whilst closing the eyes.

Nah dude you got it all minute the audience goes pirate eyed and is pointing at the nearest speaker... then its a choon.

(pirate eyed, for those not aware = one eye, very tightly squinted, as if in need of a patch, while the other, has become uch overly enlarged, to compensate for the extreme increase in facial blood pressure...)

[nowaysj]

Also, pointing in the air whilst closing the eyes.

Dood, I am very good at closing my eyes and pointing in the air. I think I was born to do this.

[deadly_habit]

Also, pointing in the air whilst closing the eyes.

Dood, I am very good at closing my eyes and pointing in the air. I think I was born to do this.

are you tiesto or paul oakenfold?

[nowaysj]

Both, rolled into one eye closing finger pointing BAD ASS!

[deadly_habit]

Both, rolled into one eye closing finger pointing BAD ASS!

you forgot checking you facebook on the laptop or iphone
tweet: these guys think i'm really mixing and loving it lol

[nowaysj]

Shit I gotta buy an iphone? Deal is off.

[deadly_habit]

Shit I gotta buy an iphone? Deal is off.

yes you must ignore crowd and look bored when spinning
true sign of a superstar dj or producer
i've never put on a long tune to leave the station and do a quick shot with fans or dance with heads for a sec

[nowaysj]

What happened to all this close eye'd finger pointing?

That is where my strengths lie.

[deadly_habit]

What happened to all this close eye'd finger pointing.

[dman5000]

yo this is sort of off the main topic but is there something im missing in ableton? i use that program sometimes for productions and it seems like even if you do warp the track to a certain bpm, you most of the time have to tediously go through all the beat markers and make sure its on point and stuff, and with complex drums its a millisecond nightmare... i dont know.. i never djed with it, i see how you can have alot of stuff prepared ahead of time if you go that route and i agree thats corny if you arent really tweaking it live, but it seems like a lot of work so i guesss theres credit in that... unless im missing some way of syncing audio in ableton

to contribute to the og poster i would say get cheap cdjs to learn/start out, that way you can still play digital music but still have the feeling of letting the track go into the mix and kinda making small adjustments to get a perfect mix, i find that to be real essential for mixing, for myself anyway. alot of cd decks have looping too, which aside from selection i find that to be the best part of digital mixing