I have been following a guide someone made on another forum to set up my DJM800 as a control surface for Ableton Live 8. It took me quite a while and a fair amount of reading to figure it all out, but I finally did it (almost).
My problem is that when I go into the MIDI mapping area and assign controls to the DJM800, Ableton then decides to quit unexpectedly on me every time I try and do it (tried about 10 times).
This is my setup:
Macbook pro
Focusrite Saffire 6
Ableton live 8
DJM800
And here’s how it’s set up:
RCA’s from channel 1 in DJM800 to channel 1 in Saffire 6
MIDI out on DJM800 to MIDI in on Saffire 6
Has anyone else had this problem? Am i doing something wrong?
Do you have NI controller drivers installed (like the X1)…that caused problems on my system.
Is it a legal copy? People say cracked copies wouldn’t work as well…I wouldn’t know.
Also, what did you have to do to set it up…not being able to map things seems a bit far off from being almost done.
And you might need to look at the Audio MIDI Setup utility in OS X to send the midi to the right place…I’ve read about needing to do that before, but I didn’t have to do it for my vcm.
I have tried to use ableton a few times since then and it’s crashed again, this time through doing various other functions (editing a track, playing a set etc.) The soundcard always needs to be reset after the crash.
I dont have the drivers installed.
It is a legal copy.
I will have a look again at the MIDI setup utility and try it again.
I also sent the crash report to ableton, but haven’t heard anything back yet.
it might be your sound card, have you checked that the drivers are updated? google ableton 8 and the saffire 6 and see if others are having similar problems.
i used to use ableton with a DJM-800. lots of fun mapping out the effects! although when i did it i didnt run any audio through the 800 at all. just midi. what are you using the channel 1 RCAs for… just master volume out from the 800?
After I did the ableton upgrade it’s been a bit more stable but has still crashed a couple of times.
I will double check that all the drivers are updated, but I only installed it a week or so ago so I’m assuming they are all up to date.
I will eventually upgrade to some sort of controller (APC, Launchpad etc.) but for the time being I wanted to play around with the DJM800. I was hoping to use it to control the 3EQ on each channel as well as use the volume fader just like a DJ mixer. This is possible right?
I may be doing something simple wrong, keep in mind I am new to this whole digital DJing thing!
I would suggest not routing any audio through the mixer and just routing audio straight from your sound card into the PA/Speakers. This allows you to use all 4 channels on the DJM800 for midi control.
Also, as far as sound cards go, a lot of times these things get shipped with out-of-date drivers, especially if its not a just-released device and even then often driver updates can be quick after initial product release. Check the manufacturers website for most recent drivers if you havent already.
You can most definitely map the EQ’s and up-faders on the 800 in ableton. Although I would recommend using the EQ 8 as opposed to the EQ 3 because the EQ 3’s zero values are not at 12 o’clock like they are on most hardware mixers, which i think is a major oversight on ableton’s part because ive never found a good way to map the EQ 3 to a 12 o’ clock notched MIDI pot and have it function correctly.
To do it with the EQ3 w/ knobs @ 12o’clock just add the utility plugin BEFORE the EQ3 and bring the UTILITY to +14db, Now Take your EQ3 Knob & bring them to the center position (-14db)
This is a fucking horrible idea. Don’t do it. In my experience, tracks peak at around +3dB to +5dB after warping (Complex or Pro mode) anyway…and the only reason it doesn’t sound like utter shite is getting lucky with the fact that Ableton does floating point calculations instead of integer calculations…it still sounds worse on the output stage even with a limiter. You add another 14dB to that at any point, and you’re playing with fire. Just because you don’t watch the little digital PPMs inserted between every device in live doesn’t mean they’re not clipping.
Also, OP, try upgrading OS X. I know it costs money, but Snow Leopard has been out for a while and it’s better…maybe that’s a problem. Just make sure that nothing you’re using requires a version that old.
i would have to agree that setting up your gain structure in that way for the EQ 3 is probably going to degrade sound quality quite a lot (its already bad enough if you’ve ever played warped tracks not at their default BPM on a big club system)
in my experience the EQ 8 sounds better anyways, and you can easily set up macro grouping knobs to simplify the MIDI mapping process.
I actually disagree about EQ3…I think it sounds fine if you’re not dumb about levels.
Live’s pretty good about handling some clipping for the sole reason that it does a lot of floating point operations when it doesn’t really need to, and floats can get a lot bigger than 16-bit integers, which is what sound files normally are. You lose the sound going back, but there’s still a limit. And it’s going to lose data going +14dB and then into EQ3…whether that data is important or not depends on exactly how it does things and it’s something I don’t know off the top of my head.
Still +12 for no reason is dumb. I’ve been working lately to make sure that nothing clips ever (with warping), and EQ3 really does sound okay. EQ8 sounds better, but I usually leave EQ3 having no effect…when I want to use it, I want it to be a full kill, which EQ8 can’t do. It’s also simpler to do more advanced things based on frequency bands with EQ3s because of how its setup with tunable crossover frequencies.
A quick update. After sending loads of error messages to ableton, they couldnt find any error in the messages i sent! They told me to download the beta version and i did. I have used it a couple of times, saving my work every step of the way. It hasn’t crashed yet (knock on wood).
I am having an issue getting the controls to work properly though. I assigned the faders to the volume faders in ableton, and the EQs to 3EQ. When i turn a knob or use the fader there is a massive delay, sometimes it doesnt move at all. Sometimes ill have to wiggle the fader up and down to even get it to move. Any ideas on how to correct this?
I am still no closer to being able to use Ableton in a live situation
How long have you owned the DJM800? Can you return/sell it and use a real midi controller? You could probably sell it used and buy a VCM-600 with more controls and something like a focusrite saffire 6 usb or an Audio 2DJ…you’ll have more capabilities and everything will be simpler.
The only “problem” is having to bring in your midi controller instead of using a club’s DJM800, but what happens if you go to one and they have a different mixer or theirs is somehow broken? I think it’s worth doing anyway.
It looks like no one here is really able to help. Maybe if I were sitting at your computer, I could check a couple things, but I don’t know of anything off the top of my head…and apparently Ableton isn’t being that helpful.
IDK if it’s a lost cause at this point, but it’s starting to look like that. I’m not sure Pioneer ever actually intended the DJM800 to be used that way, even if they said it could. Have you contacted them for more details?
Other than trying someone at abletonlivejd.com’s forums (have to register even to lurk), I’m not sure what else to suggest. Ableton’s caused me a few headaches, but that part of it has always been so straightforward that I kind of can’t imagine it screwing up that bad unless there’s something wrong with the DJM. Have you tried any other controllers?
