Fraa's Setup
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Thread: Fraa's Setup

  1. #1
    Tech Mentor Fraa's Avatar
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    Default Fraa's Setup

    I started DJing in '99 on a couple of old SL1200s and a crappy mixer, replaced everything around 2002 by 4 new SLs and a better mixer. I kept that setup until 2007 or so, then I updated the setup to two Super OEM turntables and a DJM800. I also switched to DVS with Traktor Scratch. A couple of thousand vinyls later I didn't feel like spending half of my paycheck anymore each month, so I pretty much sold everything (I guess I still have around a thousand vinyls left).

    I play techno and it was dying a little bit, so I stopped doing anything music related for more than a year. At the end of 2009 I wanted to pick up it again, but I didn't really knew if I would come back to the same level. The safest way to go was with controllers, because in the end you can set it up like you want and find your own way. I've had bunch of midi controllers the last few years, constantly looking for something better. 2 Xone 1Ds, an S4, a Launchpad, the SCS controllers from Stanton. Now I have a simple but effective set up, although I sometimes miss the old way, just beatmatching on 3 or 4 turntables

    - Akai APC20
    - Livid Code V2
    - Midi Fighter Classic
    - Roland Octa Capture Audio Interface
    - KRK Rokit RP6 Speakers
    - Sennheiser HD25

    I use it in Ableton, although I also tried mapping everything in Traktor, but since the LEDs on the APC20 are buggy, it gives me a lot of headaches. I can keep the LEDs on after I've pressed them (Send Monitor State), but when Traktor updates 8 leds at a time (for example hotcues on a deck load), the sound gets distorted or freezes for half a second, very annoying and unusable. It's only noticable on my Windows Desktop, on the Macbook it doesn't do that. I guess it has something to do with the USB bandwidth or something, although my PC is overkill according to specs. (Gigabyte Z68X, i7 2600k, 32GB RAM, Corsair Force GT 128GB SSD). That's why I stick to Ableton, Traktor just isn't doing it for me because of those bugs with the APC. I tried creating a patch in Pure Data to delay the midi signals, maybe that would help, but it's not very stable.

    Anyway, enough yapping, here are some pics:







    The APC20 works as the standard control surface.

    The Code is set up like this:



    The Midi Fighter Classic controls different Beat Repeat presets in each channel (using the momentary "trick"):



    And this is how I work in Ableton, I warp each song and cut it up in different sections or loops. I usually have 2-3 channels open at once, which makes things interesting



    Works pretty good

    I also have an old Pioneer EFX500 laying around here, but I don't know if I'm going to implement that in the setup.

    Greetings
    Last edited by Fraa; 12-24-2012 at 05:10 PM.

  2. #2
    Tech Mentor lucasmanning's Avatar
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    nice setup bro! Do you not fancy getting some more Technics in your life?
    CDJ 2000s + DJM 2000

    Check out my Mixes : Soundcloud

  3. #3
    Tech Mentor Fraa's Avatar
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    Thanks!

    Well I still live at home, so I'm a bit limited in space. I used to have my setup in the basement, which was nice because I could fit 4 turntables and a club mixer in there with speakers the size of a person =) I could also go wild with the volume

    Now it's up in my room, which a lot warmer though =) I'm thinking about moving out next year, so if I get settled somewhere, I think a simple setup with 2 technics and a mixer would be nice yes.

    I'm still a bit torn between Ableton and Traktor by the way, if the LEDs on the APC would work properly, I would probably go back to Traktor, but now I'm "forced" to work with Ableton.

  4. #4
    Tech Mentor lucasmanning's Avatar
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    yeah fair enough, tables take up a shit load of space haha!

    Why not use traktor and ableton at the same time ?
    CDJ 2000s + DJM 2000

    Check out my Mixes : Soundcloud

  5. #5
    Tech Mentor Fraa's Avatar
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    Well a lovechild of both would be perfection actually, I really like the fact that Ableton has an elastic grid. If it's warped correctly, it'll always be in time. For me this is very important since 90% of my techno tracks are ripped from vinyl in 320kbps mp3s (which was a bitch to do). But Traktor has the better MIDI mapping engine and the nicest browser, just being able to map controls to the browser in Ableton would also solve a lot I guess, but I don't think that's gonna happen until Ableton 13 or something

    How would you use them together with a setup like mine then? Because in the end you'll always have one piece of software that runs the show and the other one that's used for less important stuff.
    Last edited by Fraa; 12-24-2012 at 05:45 PM.

  6. #6
    Tech Mentor lucasmanning's Avatar
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    I'm not exactly sure I've never used them both together. I've seen posts on this forum about how to use them together so might be worth doing a search
    CDJ 2000s + DJM 2000

    Check out my Mixes : Soundcloud

  7. #7
    Tech Mentor Fraa's Avatar
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    I made a Traktor mapping today and solved the buggy LED problems on the APC with the most simple solution ever. Instead of letting the hotcue LEDs light up when I load a deck, I just leave em on all the time (through a modifier that's always "0"). Some might think that it would cause problems if you have a song with only 5 or 6 cues for example, but actually it doesn't. I usually assign 8 hotcues to all my songs anyway =)

    I only need to find something to switch effects, but I think I'm just gonna map some preset macros to my midifighter for that. Besides that, I think the mapping looks pretty good.

    Note: All the functions in bold are only activated when the SHIFT button is held OR when you click on the encoder instead of turning it. Pitch for example is only needed in rare cases where I need to up the BPMs for a transition, that's why I mapped it with the SHIFT button, things like unloading a deck or deleting hotcues are also mapped with that same SHIFT button.



    Enough fiddling around, time to play =)
    Last edited by Fraa; 12-30-2012 at 07:03 PM.

  8. #8
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    Nice. Loving the CODE.

  9. #9
    Tech Mentor beisi's Avatar
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    Great to see another code!

    Such a nice piece of kit, especially with v2 banks update.

    can I ask what are your traktor mapping settings for the eq encoders and their push reset are...
    eq mapped as 'knob'/'encoder', relative/abs, resolution etc?
    push mapped to 'eq reset' as 'button' in 'trigger' mode? or 'direct' to 'eq amount' = '0.5'?

    I tried to map this quite a few times and each time when pushing to reset it would reset but then when you start turning the encoder again it would jump around... i.e. not restart from the middle (0db)

  10. #10
    Tech Mentor Diskobeep's Avatar
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    Hi Fraa, nice to 'see' you again
    I was also on that dutch dj-forum for a couple of years, but I changed my nickname (and dj-name too).

    Your set-up looks good!

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