I’ve played a couple sets in the past few months as my immersion into the DJ world continues and one thing bothers me. First let me say that I use Ableton Live 8 with an APC40 and Saffire 6 sound card. My sets have pretty much been Deck A and Deck B style setups with extra columns for extra sounds etc. One thing that bothers me is sometimes I will be playing a song and feel like I have nothing to do. Sometimes I will use effects but don’t want to “overdo it” I guess. For my set I am working on now I have been breaking up songs into smaller pieces so I can jump around and mix beats that way. I’ll post a picture later when I am at my home to hopefully make it more clear if it isn’t. Thanks for any help!
So your asking why you have nothing to do? If that’s the case then try setting up some more labor intensive mashups… Otherwise Ableton is all about preparation and knowing what your going to do, so there won’t be a whole lot to do because you’re prepared instead of being spark of the moment like many Traktor users.
Dance? Do Taxes? Troll the forum with Pro-Serato post?
Enjoy the Vibe, concentrate on the crowd and do some Jesus poses during the breaks
The most enjoyable dj’s to watch sometimes are the ones who make it look too easy … watching one sweat it out and “work” too hard makes me uncomfortable (dunno bout anyone else).
Breakin down the tracks into their respective intro/drop/phrase/outro can be fun though (so long as you make it look easy)
Routing in Ableton is the key to keeping it interesting.
I used to have a template made up of 2 “decks”. Each deck consisted of 3 channels in Live, routed into a single channel. Each “deck” had a Track (tune) channel, an accapella channel and a loop/one hit channel. There were insert effect chains/racks on each channel, and send effects on the two send channels.
I used a UC-33e - so each “deck” had 3 faders, and 9 knobs. The 2 “decks” were routed into 2 send channels, and the remaining faders/knobs on the UC-33e controlled volume and send FX.
Changing the way you route things keeps it interesting.
This is one thing that bugs me! WHilst a tune is playing, I’m too fiddly to just let it play to insert slices, echos, loops etc just to keep it interesting for myself.
just a thought: you could do a drum rack or some quantized clips and ‘drum’ along with the song. could be different hits, vocals, etc. Keep it low in the mix, and it won’t really be ‘overdoing’ it. The other thing is you might want to do is have a master ‘mix’ knob for your effects like this guy DJ Template For Ableton Live & Akai APC40 – Synthtopia
Basically you can mess around and just keep it really subtle. You can trigger dummy clips and things with your buttons, keeping the modulations consistent, do alternate builds, etc. As long as you keep what you’re doing low in the mix, you can’t overdo it unless you want to.
how cool is it to get to DJ exactly what you want to listen to and then be able to dance and party at the same time as opposed to be constantly looking down and worrying about the mix…i dunno just my opinion
The Marshall template posted is really awesome. I want to try and make the dummy clips in my set just have no idea how to start so probably gonna have to reverse engineer.
Disclaimer: I didn’t read any of the responses because I think I know what most of them say. I might go back and read them after I post.
Umm…welcome to the hard part of DJing. I don’t care what format you use, DJing doesn’t take that much intensive effort compared to actually making the music you’re playing. At least…not in a fingers moving kind of way. It takes a lot of thought, skill, artistry and preparation…but it looks like–and kind of is–a lot of standing around listening to music.
And for some reason it’s a lot easier to stand there and listen to music if you’re watching a record spin instead of watching a little bar get shorter in Ableton.
The hard part of digital/computer DJing is convincing yourself that it’s okay to stand there and let a good track play. I get it. It’s hard.
Tough it out.
If you do stuff because you’re bored, you’re going to ruin everything you play just like the vast majority of computer DJs I’ve listened to.
Also, he has some stuff on his website about dummy clips. So do a lot of other people. Just google ‘ableton dummy clips’ without the quotes and you’ll find out how to do it. It’s not rocket science.
Either you don’t know how to use Live or you suck at it. The whole point of it is that it allows you to be spontaneous.
This view that Traktor is somehow more in the moment is complete bullshit perpetuated by people who don’t know what they’re talking about and supported by a couple of bad apples that just press play once and let Ableton perform a pre-recorded set. They’re no different than the people who did the same thing with CDs or effing tapes.
Everything I can do in Traktor, I can do in Live. I just enjoy Traktor marginally more because it takes slightly less preparation. The only real difference is that Live can do a ton more than Traktor if you want it to.
I sort of meant the fact it takes more thought beforehand to DJ in Ableton Live, whereas Traktor is less flexible and makes setup or preperation quicker. Also, setting grids and hotcues can be done quicker and on the fly. I didn’t mean that Ableton did the work for you.
Sweating feverishly with lightning fast fingers over the gear for 3+ hours is actually not always the most fun. I like to be busy during transitions, and otherwise keep it relatively simple. Drinking, dancing and talking with friends while a great track plays out is excellent. It’s a party - it’s supposed to be fun!
But if you’re bored, either start taking some risks, or chat up more chicks. Don’t always just think effects or modulation either. Some good old fashioned teaser drops and cutting back and forth before the mix can work wonders.
[quote]cos then you may aswell just put on a cd…
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Better to be part of the night, play wicked tuned and have everyone enjoy it rather than being disconnected from the punters and technically brilliant IMHO… i know there’s always a minority at gigs who appreciate and respect the technical challenges, BUT it is the minority with the majority there just to have fun and spend their hard earned cash on a night out.
Not suggesting putting on a CD BTW
If you know how to mix, you wont worry about the mix anyhow it’ll be second nature regardless of the platform.
Where I work all weekend, sometime they enjoy complicated mixes and live Mashup, while sometimes you could receive some beer bottle… I think being able to balance both is an art. Always make things complicated may sounds boring, break the tracks build-up and overall feeling. It’s not a DMC championship but a party.
lol, um, i think thats a bit extreme…so if im not a controllerist and constantly beat mashing all night i might as well be a CD?
Whatever happened to picking and playing good music? When im out i dont give a fuck how many nobs or buttons you can push during the song, i care about the quality of your tunes and the smoothness of your mixing…
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