Armin van Buuren - DJ setup explained

**djgstefan** · 09-05-2012, 12:57 PM

Very nice.

**Audeo** · 09-05-2012, 02:51 PM

Oh god what a cumbersome way to sync video to audio.. Why not use Serato VJ?
Do it like Joachim Garraud does. WAY easier.

**Otacon** · 09-05-2012, 03:09 PM

armin is such a cool guy. Level headed and chill

**deevey** · 09-05-2012, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by Audeo

Oh god what a cumbersome way to sync video to audio.. Why not use Serato VJ?
Do it like Joachim Garraud does. WAY easier.

1. Becuase he doesnt use serato, he uses rekordbox.

2. Because its more than just one person controlling a single video screen at a fixed aspect ratio. For one of his shows there might be 10 screens with various stuff running on each one.

This method allows him to get sync to whatever sources need sync (as he mentioned fireworks would be another example) . He doesn't need to concern himself with Video mixing whatsoever, the visuals crew do that. He can just concentrate on playing the music and just sending a sync signal to the crew who can plug / route to whatever needs syncing.

If he were to be actually playing the visuals himself a SVM-1000 would probably be better in his case than Serato, but I've only seen a handful of DJ's who can actually do anything worthwhile with video at the same time as playing a decent set anyhow, and fewer still who actually want to start controlling lights/visuals and play a set at the same time.

Steve Angello should look at this method of syncing for his fireworks after the whole "medley" fiasco LOL.

armin is such a cool guy. Level headed and chill

+1 I'm not into trance, but I've seen him a few times and I'd see him again, he knows how to rock a crowd, bigtime and the production of his shows are stunning. There's never the slightest doubt that he's a master of his craft and loves every second of it ... and he's not an Asshole.

**fullenglishpint** · 09-05-2012, 03:33 PM

interesting, thanks for sharing.

**Audeo** · 09-05-2012, 04:03 PM

With a show his size, he shouldn't have to worry about fireworks and other stuff being on time. Those are the technicians' worries.
The Skrillex Mothership tour I saw at LowLands probably had a few things running on SMPTE but the lasers and lighting is mainly done by hand by a few VERY good techs.
But I really don't see why he chooses to use two CDJ's per song when he could use any kind of software and two CDJ's total.
Hook a CDJ into traktor and map it to control two decks instead of one. One for the song, one for the SMPTE.

Now he has to fader start the song, putting it in the mix before having it sync'd correctly to the other song, adjust the song, then adjust the SMPTE signal to also run in sync, going back and forth to get it to match up. Cumbersome.

Really, with Traktor, an Audio 2 DJ, 2 CDJ2000's and a regular mixer this could be done way easier.

**deevey** · 09-05-2012, 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by Audeo

But I really don't see why he chooses to use two CDJ's per song when he could use any kind of software and two CDJ's total.
Hook a CDJ into traktor and map it to control two decks instead of one. One for the song, one for the SMPTE.

Really, with Traktor, an Audio 2 DJ, 2 CDJ2000's and a regular mixer this could be done way easier.

I can totally understand why though... he simply doesn't want to use software to run the Audio. Preferring to use Rekordbox prepped USB keys and keep the laptop out of the mix entirely.

Now he has to fader start the song, putting it in the mix before having it sync'd correctly to the other song, adjust the song, then adjust the SMPTE signal to also run in sync, going back and forth to get it to match up. Cumbersome.

My understanding is that he just beatmatches as normal, adjusts the pitch on the second deck to match, and fader starts from his cue point which sure, may be off by a few ms, which audibly would be a mess but for visuals acceptably in sync 99% of the time with very minor adjustments required if at all to the Timecode deck. In most cases the amount it would be off by would be less even than the audio delay between the DJ booth and Sound Engineers box (normally located the far end of the venue).

I somehow doubt he's doing this for every track during the course of a night either, just certain tracks he wants to have an Impact and needs in sync... I could be wrong but pretty sure thats the case.

**dope** · 09-05-2012, 06:09 PM

What I don't get is why the SVM 1000 is THAT expensive. They must sell like 10 a year or so.. ahahah that's ridiculous

I mean, it would be nice that the CDJ sends audio+video and the mixer processes video aswell, even with basic features. Fading in, out, DJM's color FX + other FX (delay, reverb mainly).

If you have dope and well prepared and fitting clips as raw material to go along with your track, no need to have some advanced video treatment mixer that costs 7000€..

Since I don't want to use a laptop for mixing, I'll stick to WhiteCap that cost me 30 bucks, and even though it's simple and a bit random (you can push things further if you want to but if you want to focus on mixing, automatic mode does the job), but the result is synced to the volume output and thus to the beat. That's not the Mothership tour, but so far it does the job for me.