Me and Buddy Starting a Group. Need some advice.

[ssjaken]

Me and my roommate want to start a musical group of sorts. A "BAND" persey. He's creative and "can plays guitars" while the only instrument im capable of is the Trumpet (not alot of Ska in Alaska).

Let me tell you what we have available and then where we are going to go and my questions.

ME
I have a Numark Battlepack. 2 tt1600's, mixer in a nice hard coffin i got for $150 bucks (couldnt pass up that deal).
Computer and Music

PARTNER
Ableton Live. Deckadance. VST's. Novation 25sl MKII.
Computer. Music. Talent

WHAT WE WANT TO DO
We want to do a Ratatat/Daft Punk/Justice type of thing. Him playing live with me on tables mixing/scratching songs or his beats(is this possible?), crap like that.

QUESTIONS
What's next besides getting sound down? I want to get a controller/timecode vinyl. But if i go with an all in one system (s4,mixdeck,VCI-100) how could we hook up the other computer to the setup (if possible) and pipe his sound to the speakers.

Second, we wanted to get the B52 Matrix 1000V2 speaker kit. Easy setup and stuff, but i dont know how two separate sources sound coming out of it.

We know money must be spent, but we are "starving artists", so price is always a factor.

Should i just get Serato and use bridge? Should i get a controller and forget the vinyl. External mixers? Amps? Bamps? BAMFs?

All input is accepted and if you have any questions please ask, we are new to this sort of thing

[Str8upDrew]

Start by writing your music with whatever tools you have available now. Then when you know that you need a certain piece of gear, buy it then. If you don't know what you need, then chances are you don't need what you're going to buy. I see tons of people with gear they bought because they thought it was cool and tried to force it into their setup, and when they're frustrated, that's when i come in and snatch it up at a cheap price.

[Bassline Brine]

IMO you're "group" sounds like it very well could make good use out of SL3 and The Bridge.

You using two decks, and him working The Bridge on the third, or some sort of business.

Either that or getting yourself Traktor, and syncing MIDI clocks with Ableton. It can be done via two separate computers.

Really, the ball is in your court. I think the big thing for you is going to be able to decide which DVS you want to use, and how it will sync up with his setup.

[fellis]

yeah you can sync the two computers with the MIDI Clock send function in Traktor. So you'd have two computers both synced to the same MIDI clock so you could both be in time. Then you output both computers to one mixer, he would lay down some original sounds/beats from Ableton on his computer, then you would use the mixer to mix that in with some tracks coming out of Traktor running on your computer. And you can swap between you like that.

You can also route some of your audio into his Ableton and use Ableton effects on tracks coming out of your computer.

Alternately, you use the internal mixer in Traktor and so the output from his Ableton comes into an input on your Traktors internal mixer. But you already have a mixer so this isn't really necessary.

[ssjaken]

thanks for all the input. we are writing music (him mostly, im doing mixing of the sets) and getting our idea down. an SL3 didnt even cross my mind and i didnt know of the midi clock syncing. how would this be done? or could i just google it.

i have a basic mixer i got with my two numarks, super basic, its a battlepack mixer. If i got a mixdeck or an S4 or (input proper controller) could i route his sound output into it? he has an external midi controller that goes to the computer via USB

[PartyMcFly]

How about you just DJ and your buddy works his talents and limitations out? I'm not sure if it can get more complicated than that.

[ssjaken]

How about you just DJ and your buddy works his talents and limitations out? I'm not sure if it can get more complicated than that.

well DJing is kind of a solo gig, and doing midi performing is also pretty solo. We wish to join forces and become Genghis God Kings

could i just get a new mixer that has Serato built into it (sl3) and be able to share timecodes with ableton? cause if thatll work then it may be cheaper than everything