When I first started I watched EVERY Traktor YouTube video I could get my hands on. I felt the ones that helped me improve the most were 15-30 minute mixes where I could focus on their transitions and effect use. There is such a massive lack of videos for DJ’ing in Ableton that feature the actual hands and controller. It’s taken me a massive amount of trial and error to get my setup and am always looking to improve it. How do you guys mix? How do you guys transition? What were some big breakthroughs for you? How do you control your master tempo? Do you have any videos of you mixing?
Here is a year old video of how I mixed. Template has changed a lot since then as has my track selection . What would you change? What do you use your jogs for? Tips? Tricks? Thanks in advanced!
I started out 2 years ago with no idea how to use live (never used it before), an apc40 and the ill gates template. That was the biggest hindrance for me looking back in retrospect. With a powerful DAW and a super powerful script it was very easy for me to get lost in everything. The breakthrough for me was getting an ohm rgb and the will marshal script. It dosnt get any more straight forward and simple then that.
I have spent the first year and a half not touching any effects but working on phrasing, EQing, and choppimg all my songs up into parts for live remixing. It has only been the last 6 months that I started messing with effects racks.
For transitions of bpm I use a bpm m4l script. I love jumpimg all over the place with bpm. I dont stick with 1 genre and I dont stick with 1 bpm. Im kind of all over the place.
I have went through a bunch of gear but my rbg slim and midi fighter pro is really what is standing the test of time. I guess I could actually post a pic of my gear since I have been here so long…
Shy, Just watched your mix vid. Good shit. I dont think I could ever record a mix of what Im doing. It would be to boring to watch. I touch knobs about half as much as you. Im lazy as hell. I just cut lows and mids out of incoming track and bring it in with a LPF then swap the EQs and and use one of a few effects chains to wash out the last track. I have went to record something several times then been like, “no one wants to see this…”
I want to see it even if it just sparks one idea it was well worth the time invested. Most of the knob touching is just trying to tweak the EQ’s to what sounds good to my ear. The only effect I used in that video is the Fade to grey which honestly is a godsend IMO. That’s funny you started out nearly the same way as me. APC40 + a Frankenstein merger of Dave Winnel and Will Marshal templates. Like you say there is a steep learning curve when it comes to finding your own way vs out of the box setup software (Traktor, Serato, Etc) You mentioned a BPM M4L script. How does that work? Thanks for your insight!
Yup out of all of Wills Effects the Fade to Grey is the only one that made it over into my own template. I actually use a RMX-1000 VST mapped to the large filter knobs. YES! this script looks absolutely amazing thanks so much for this it’s small things like this that make huge breakthroughs in your flow. Time to get mixing!
I have wanted to get a gopro for a while now to record some other stuff. Maybe its time I get one and put one of the mounts on the wall right behind my kit and start filming some mixes…
I always just used a crappy webcam but If you have a decent phone I’ve found that there isn’t really a need for any fancy cameras provided you light your scene well enough to avoid grain. I use the http://www.filmicpro.com app on a iPhone 5 and the quality is VERY good.
5 minutes? There isn’t an app that can override that camera setting? Or is 4k video just taking up that much space (I imagine it would) might want to drop it down a tad! Jot me a link whenever you get it going!
I meant to reply to this thread last week but I was on vacation at the time.
I have dabbled in ableton DJ’n for a while and I found the best way for me to do it is to have my songs listed out in the decks I want to play them in and I would trigger the songs on my APC40. I would have each of the decks setup to a channel on a DJM900nxs through USB.
If my songs are warped properly I have a much easier time doing all the EQ and FX work on the DJM. I also gotta say that live tempo automator is sick. I have used it a few times. I actually modified the original code a little bit. I made it so if I create a blank midi clip and rename it with a number(for example ‘128’) if I launch that clip the automator will change the current master tempo to that number in however bars I have selected in the automator(usually 4 bars).
Also for the 5 minute recoding in 4k mode, it is because if the phone/tablet senses that the image sensor is getting too hot it will stop recording. My xperia z2 shoots in 4k but after about 5 minutes it gets really really hot and the phone stops recording before it has a chance to do permanent damage.
I always wondered how Ableton + DJM900’s worked. When you hook it up does it show up as a sound card in Ableton? How is the latency? Are you able to route each channel in Ableton to a channel on the DJM900 without an external sound card? That modification to the Tempo Automator sounds like it would be incredibly useful! I had a look inside the plugin and honestly it’s way over my head at this point in time. So much to learn so little time!
It is pretty much plug and play once you have the drivers installed. When setup properly Ableton will see it as a 8in/out sound device. All you need is one usb cable. I will try to do a short video demo sometime this week. I know the artist 3lau uses a djm900 in his sets.
well I was going to try and record a short demo today but I felt so sloppy. I haven’t done an actual ableton set for several months.(need to get a new laptop) Anyways I got some screen shots of one of the setups I did.
In the first screenshot you can see ableton detects the DJM900 as an 8in/8out device. I had the default device set as the input so you can record your entire set using a rca to 3.5mm. That way I can get the filters and effects from the DJM recorded as well.
In the second screenshot you can see how I setup my decks. In this one I had it setup to play Decks 1&2 playing through channel 2 on the DJM. Decks 3&4 are playing on channel 3. I then also have one shots playing on channel 4.
. What would you change? What do you use your jogs for? Tips? Tricks? Thanks in advanced!
