How do u guys DJ on ableton.

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

How do u guys DJ on ableton.

My real question is…how do u not run out of music…like in traktor i have a bunch of songs. How could i get most of them in live so i can dj…is their some sort of trick or…? How many songs do u have in ur live set?

Thanks

2

all of them. No trick just drag and drop them into your live set.

3

While ur playing like at a gig?

4

Warping is saved as a separate file with each archive, you don’t need to have it already in the opened project.

5

if you make sure all ur tracks are pre-warped then you can just drag them in at will, some people do warp as they go but fuck that tbh

6

Oh snap for real? i didnt know that

7

yeah but tbh to use ableton properly you should be planning your sets, if your using it to dj spontaneously then other than some cool effects theres not many benefits over the likes of traktor.

8

well i use traktor but im like looking for more. and i want to get into production too.

9

If you’ve already been using Traktor then it would be easier to stay with that instead of moving over to Ableton.

Unless you are prepared to sit down and pre warp all your tracks and setup what can be extensive effects and midi maps then its easier to use Traktor.

It can be alot of work so you should really ask yourself if its really worth it for what you want from it.

10

To be fair, after a while warping isn’t much harder than beatgridding.

I’ve been playing around with DJing in Ableton and I’ve found it is very possible to improvise. The best bet is to have something resembling a starting point and just go. It’s even easier with the right controllers and templates (the Launchpad comes to mind) put together.

I have a folder of just songs I spin in Ableton (usually things I have access to in WAV) so I can really limit myself and therefore do more with what I have. Definitely recommended :slight_smile:

11

this

But, you can warp stuff on the fly its just not the most efficent thing in the world to be doing. Like DvlsAdvct said eventually warping isnt so bad tho, the real bitch is cutting up all your tracks with follow actions into the various parts, warping is the least of my Ableton worries :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Its a bitch when it isnt computer generated drum loops and such. All depends on what you are playing and what you want to do with it.

13

yeah i would hate to play anything other than electronic stuff with ableton, to hell with warping anything live lol

14

honestly Warping is not that hard. I used to think it was rather time consuming but after I got into it, I found that it could knock 20 or so tracks in 30 min time slot. Also, once you get the hang of how warping works, warping on the fly is SUPPPPPPER easy. Not that I would want to have to warp live, but if it comes up its not a huge issue now.

15

i know how to do it, im just saying having to go through and warp live recordings is a hassle imo, compared to electronic stuff at least.

16

I don’t get it. Why would you play a non-spontaneous dj set? Isn’t that what it’s all about? pre-planned seems like … work :[

I do use ableton with Traktor though. One shots and drum loops. crazy fx. Slowly getting the hang of my apc40.

Ableton just rocks for loops and fx but I don’t think i would ever dj on it. doing a search for a track in traktor is so much more spontaneous. I use keywords in the comments, have playlist, group by genre, etc.

17

Ableton is fantastic for loop based sets - think about infinite sample decks… I like the sample decks in TP2 but it is clearly more limited.

A good thing if you do not use timecode is to use both, check Endo tutorials they are great for that.

Some VST used in Live like the finger, Artillery, Stutter edit or the Mouth can be very interesting.

18

So im thinking of either routhing my 2 traktor channels into ableton and mixing in ableton but id have to use a virtual audio cable and the demo one i found is laggy. So ive run traktor to channel 1 and 2 on my mixer and ableton to 3 and 4. but i cant use the vst’s on the main channels which is what i want. Does anyone have any experience with a virtual audio cable that works well for pc? if not ill just do like deadmau5 and use ableton for fills and add ons.

19

Warping is easier than fixing Traktor’s beat grids. Granted, Traktor occasionally gets things wrong and Ableton’s auto-warping is never right. But it’s basically automatic to warp new tracks once you get the hang of it, and you know you’re right because of how well it shows waveforms and how far in you can zoom.

In that regard, Traktor still feels like a toy compared to Ableton.

As for everything else…I always just warped tracks as part of the stuff I did right after I bought them, put them into a halfway sensical arrangement, and put them into my live set. Every track I’d actually think about playing was in there, usually cut up the way I wanted it (sometimes not).

It made it very spontaneous. There are times I really miss it, especially when I try to play with the new sample decks (they’re a giant joke in comparison).

20

I’m toying with the Idea of switching from Traktor to Ableton since I got my APC 40…here’s pretty much what I started with.

  1. Create a template for yourself, I did 4 Straight up Decks + 4 fx/rec/loop channels mapped into each respective FX channel, I can use these channels for recording Live loops once I remapped Cue/Solo to Monitor Type.

  2. Mapped the X-fader to the FX Channels Decks are A=Decks B=FX

  3. Map some EQ’s per channel.

I just went for a Base drop and HP filter instead of B/M/T .. most mixes I just end up killing the Bass anyhow,

I have a Three band EQ per channel as well which I can access in device control if I really need to access them.

  1. Set up a Utility on each channel to provide you a 100% volume Fader so I can just slam them up. I’ve also set a compressor per channel with Makeup Turned on, probably not everyones cup of tea though.

  2. Download some good “DJ” effects mappings (Tarekith’s ones) and add some per FX channel.

  3. Remap nudge on clips select rather than global

  4. Set up folders correctly so you can easily access and drag n’ drop.

  5. Remap Clip stops / Play / Stop / Rec buttons (these are WAYYYYYY too dangerous to hit mid set IMHO and too close to the x-fader)

I’m still playing around with some dummy clip and one shot FX ideas from Will Marshall’s Ableton Template… but for now thats where I’m at, and its beginning to get comfortable.

Oh and warping on the fly really isn’t too big a deal at least with electronic 4/4 tracks just make sure you have lotsa hard drive space for Ableton’s cache if you dont plan on pre-planning.