@IZN - Im sure that wub wub one is a hit for the dub heads! I only ask because it seems like a lot of prep time for each mash, I imagine it would be hard to set up and work in on the fly. Some of my best mash-up’s are on the fly using Key-finder makes a world of a difference I’ve noticed
Side note - Using key detection and mixing with it properly almost seems more like a game changer than the sync button. Beat matching is easy compared to detecting key by ear. I use Key Finder to do it, but it makes every gig a banger when you can control the energy builds without people consciously knowing it
What I meant about ableton was, I think those routines are worth of production and you could probably clean them up and really nail them even more as a produced mash-up vs. playing a routine out and I think you’d have folks downloading your tracks and playing them out. That’s not even my type of tunes, but the somewhat commercial vocals samples make them very crowd friendly. Props.
^agreed^ lots of potential there. Ableton is very different (if your unfamiliar), but it offers a lot more options when it comes to creating actual songs or mash-ups. Build it in ableton, Rock it in traktor
@emery
mixing in key definitely adds onto a set. that being said, I think anyone with a good ear mixes in key, regardless of if they use key detection software or not, as mixing harmonically just tends to sound better
@haze324
you definitely make a good point and I could potentially drop cleaner mashes using ableton. the reason im hesitant in trying ableton is probably because i’m so used to using traktor. also it seems (this is probably a stereotype) that when you drop a ableton set it has to be preplanned for the most part. I think it would reduce my ability to make new mashes and stuff on the fly during gigs.
edit: sorry I misunderstood what you meant haha. Although making a mash up in ableton would be cleaner, its a lot of fun doing it on the fly during gigs
I used to plan my sets out all the time doing a lot of live mashups and mixes, but now that i have all my choons tagged with the Key, its hecka fun when you do mashups on the fly. Its really amazing how great you can get some really amazing sounding mashups.
My friend who uses Serato, came over and started playing around on my traktor rig. I have my entire library organized into playlists of genre…then in each playlist it is organized by key…He started mixing and he started grabbing songs and was like WTF how does all these songs sound so freakin awesome when you do this live mixing/mashups…i told him why and he was blown away. I love how easy it is in traktor to do so much stuff just on the fly, using samples loops, loop recorder etc.
It really does add a whole new dimension to mixing…and if u add a midi fighter on top…thats just icing on the cake
I agree, and never actually thought of it like that - for a mix to sound/flow well it has to be harmonious. But I’d rather know the key ahead of time than cue up 3 songs before finding one that sounds right, or planning a set ahead of time.
Would it be wrong to say knowing the key of a song is as important as knowing bpm?
Not neccessarily…because knowing the bpm you can still do intro/outro mixing just knowing the bpm and you can still pass as a DJ…espicially if u are playing like top40 dance songs where the crowd just wants to hear the song and sing along to it while dancing…then when it starts to just go boom boom boom u mix in your next song, there is no harmony clash…
I personally think this type of DJing is boring as fuck and i hate it when DJs do this for an entire set.
oh hey ma look i played for an hour and only used 13 songs! look at me GOOOO!!!
Yea I’d agree with that. I think overall its just good to know your tunes ahead of time. What I try to do is just buy as few tunes as possible at a time, listen to them for a week, and cue point all the parts that I think I could use during my sets.
When I play open format I never look a the key. When I play a house/edm set I always look at the key. I think it depends on what you are playing.
Any more sets recorded out there?
Gapout do you have any sets recorded. I always looked at the midi-fighter as a gimmick niche tool that would get old to the crowd if used through out an entire night, but you just called it icing on the cake!
I wana get a few more routines under my belt (I have about 4 projects planned for the summer), and I’ll probably put them up for download together once they are all complete
Check my mixcloud (in sig). Some of them were with sync, others weren’t…it should be easy to figure out. But, none of them with sync were because it was more creative or something. I used sync for a while because you had to in order to use Ableton Live and after that because X1s and TP seemed interesting…but mostly because I felt like being lazy. I only switched back to vinyl when I got so sick of setting beat grids that I realized I honestly preferred pitch faders. I guess you could say I got too lazy for sync……and Traktor seems to hate me: I never had it automatically set a beat grid correctly…not once.
I’m like the OP seems to be…I think it’s just an excuse that some people use because they don’t have the balls to admit that they’re being lazy. Unfortunately, it leaves them with a lot of time to sit around and listen to music…which would be good in and of itself except not having those balls means probably not having the balls to admit that you’re basically just working a glorified stereo system and they compensate with bad phrasing, thoughtless mashups, and loads of effects that only detract from the quality of the music. Obviously they’re exceptions, but they’re rare…at least on the internet.
puts on flame-retardant suit
Also, don’t think for a minute that I don’t think DJs are creative or that they’re not musicians in some sense. That’s obviously not the case. I just don’t think that worshiping DJs is good for the music, and I think a lot of that happens because people already assume DJs do more than they do………no need to exaggerate it at the cost of musicality.
The 3-4 tracks thing is really hard to pull off. I’ve heard it done well, but not by anyone who couldn’t also do it on vinyl (Hawtin, Cox, Mills, etc.). And IMHO it just doesn’t work for anything but minimal or minimalistic techno…well, it can, but at least one of the tracks has to be really minimalistic…filters don’t work like that no matter how hard you try.
Layering different parts of a track is a lot of fun…as is layering different remixes of the same track (check the Breaks 2007 set on my mixcloud for the first time I did it). But I still haven’t heard someone do it well who couldn’t do the same on 3 turntables or CDJs.
I’m not calling you out specifically…just saying that I don’t buy the idea that sync makes these things possible. If no one else, Carl Cox and Jeff Mills have been doing it since before CDJs…and it was already easier to mix on CDJs than vinyl (having done both, I don’t think that claim is debatable…so obviously someone will flame me for it). Sync just makes it easier. Again, I don’t think that’s a bad thing…I just wish more people would accept it for what it is.
For the price, the MF doesn’t do much. My MF had a lot more use before my S4. It has responsive buttons and a super durable design, but besides that it is a bit gimmicky.. he does however have a MF pro
@Gapout - A video would be awesome if you have one
I have the Midi Fighter Beatmasher…and i wont lie when i got it i was going nuts on the thing…and yes it sounded very annoying…and really abrasive…and i would never play like that out in public lol.
But now that i have had it for a while it definately adds a different dimension to my sets…I have also made some changes to mine than the stock mapping.
The knob is now set to Key instead of filter, and its in 4 banks mode with instant grat on the 4 x 4 grid and the faders still work like the original beatmasher.
With that said…do i use it alot…nope.
I do a lot of layering with my style of DJing…i hardly ever have just 1 track playing its usually 1 and a sample/loop or 2 complete songs. and ill apply effects to only 1 of the songs…i will chop up vocals for stutters and glitches while the drum of the 2nd song will still be playing…and just little bits here and there to change things up.
One thing that i love to do, is lets say song 1 is during the buildup…while song 2 is on the outro…i will use the beatmasher row to creating a drum buildup 1/2 note 1/4 note 1/8th note and then hit the echo delay right as the Big drop hits…I find this can often create a ton of energy out of a build that doesnt have that much energy
Same thing with the delay with Reverb then the filter sweep.
If done right u can add a lot of aptmosphere with it…you can also annoy the fuck out of the crowd if done wrong lol
oh forgot to add with the key knob…I will grab like a 4 beat vocal loop and create my own builds while i bring in the next song by slowly adjusting the key up every 4 beats while the 2nd songs buildup is being brought in creating my own little builds out of a simple 4 beat loop.
I dont have anything to record video on, and i dont really do routines…more just straight mixing…I will try to do something later on this week with my iphone cam
