Ableton Live 9 Intro - sufficient for making mixes?

[blakaneez]

Hi guys, I'm looking to create some mixes to play at an upcoming party and am thinking the best way to do it would be in Ableton Live. I do have Serato and could record it in that but my mixing still needs a bit of work plus it will be more time-efficient to do it in Ableton.

My requirements are pretty basic, I'll be mixing house tracks between 120-124 bpm. In Serato I usually don't pitch a track up anymore than 4 bpm and keep key lock on. With that in mind, will Ableton Live Intro do the trick? I've seen that it lacks the complex warp mode, is this something that I would require or is the warping in Intro sufficient?

[mega_john]

I you're only pitching tracks up very slightly then you might be able to get away with the beat warp mode but complex is the ideal mode for what you want to do. Best thing to do would be download it and see how your tracks sound in that mode.

[Patch]

Re-pitch mode is fine.

[William Gibson]

So wait, your looking to just mix a bunch of songs and like throw it on a cd to play through at a party?

[mega_john]

Re-pitch mode is fine.

If he wants to keep it in the same key, he'll probably have to use beat mode

[Patch]

Re-pitch mode is fine.

[SlayForMoney]

So wait, your looking to just mix a bunch of songs and like throw it on a cd to play through at a party?

No, he probably just needs that for mixtapes. I personally see no point in a mixtape that is not a live recording.

[William Gibson]

No, he probably just needs that for mixtapes. I personally see no point in a mixtape that is not a live recording.

I think you just said the same thing I said? He wants to make a mixtape in live and then play it through at parties. Maybe how I said it was confusing. That was the assumption I was under from his post.

[SlayForMoney]

I think you just said the same thing I said? He wants to make a mixtape in live and then play it through at parties. Maybe how I said it was confusing. That was the assumption I was under from his post.

Yeah, you are correct. I didn't read his post carefully enough.

If the purpose of his mixes is to "fake it" at a party ->
But if it's a small party and he wants to put a CD, grab a beer and talk to a cute chick that's ok. Just don't fake it. That's lame. Even if it's bad mixing - it's still practice.

Also, the time you're gonna spend learning how to make a mix for the first time in a DAW is probably gonna be 2x-3x the time it would take you to make a decent mix in Serato.

[blakaneez]

Hey guys, my post are being approved by a moderator before they actually get posted so apologies if my replies appear all at once (or somewhat out of order)

If the purpose of his mixes is to "fake it" at a party ->
But if it's a small party and he wants to put a CD, grab a beer and talk to a cute chick that's ok. Just don't fake it. That's lame. Even if it's bad mixing - it's still practice.

Also, the time you're gonna spend learning how to make a mix for the first time in a DAW is probably gonna be 2x-3x the time it would take you to make a decent mix in Serato.

Haha definitely would never consider faking it. I also agree that a mix made in Live shouldn't even be given to promoters, apart from song selection you're not really showcasing your actual DJing abilities.

In this case I'm planning on doing neither of the above with these mixes. The party is pretty big- it's a mates wedding and I'm a groomsmen. To cut down on costs he's not having a DJ so I'll be putting together around 4 hours of music together. We may jump on the decks later but we're not sure.

I know my limitations when it comes to beat-matching and mixing in Serato so I'd rather create it in Ableton. Trust me, nobody wants to hear a train wreck in a pre-recorded mix! I've always wanted to learn how to use Ableton too, even if I'll only be using 1% of it's capabilities, for $100 I think it'll be worth it. I know there is a steep learning curve with Ableton but with all the tutorials around I'm pretty confident I can learn the basics to make a mix.