Thoughts about Itch w/ The Bridge?
Aside from the benefits of the S4, when this gets announced in January - and hopefully released…
Should be quite a powerful combo, no?
Pretty excited to see what this might entail since the flexibility of Ableton Live offers a severe amount of options not found elsewhere (except maybe the current SSL implementation of the Bridge)…
hm.
thinking this through a bit more, it would be awesome if there was someone on staff at DJTechtools.com (or a solid contributor) who would do tutorials with the two pieces of software linked together SSL/Itch (when it comes out) like has been done with Traktor.
So many different ways to exploit Live vs. Traktor (if you want to make that kind of comparison).
I’ll probably help here when it comes out since I use Itch now after moving off of TSP.
rob.
Dude jump on it now. They need some Itch contributors.
Rob,
Whats up brother. You know I’m an Itch fan and deep down pulling for an awesome release at NAMM for Itch. These are my thoughts on Itch/Bridge and what they are up against. I think many would definetly benefit from some good tutorials. There are some things that Itch does much better than Traktor (grids, waves). But I’d be willing to bet that a lot of guys are in the same shoes I’m in — I’m just not that proficient with Ableton. So the S4 provides ONE controller that can do a bunch of stuff. I think if were some good tutorials on using Ableton and Itch together more folks would get excited.
Do you think at some point too much is too much? S4 has a pretty quick learning curve vs. while Ableton has more to offer it’s also more lot learn.
I do however really think for Itch/Bridge combo to really hit a homerun they need a varsity level controller to take the stage.
What are the significant advantages of using The Bridge. And I don’t mean – you get a “sampler” or “more effects”. Not really knowing enough of features the Bridge is supposed to have. Can you run through some scenarios where you’d use The Bridge with Itch?
Thanks man.
When Itch 2.0 is released with the Bridge as part of the feature set, I’ll throw myself into doing tutorials.
I’ve been using Live since version 1.5, so I’m pretty well versed how to use Live with the perspective of a DJ who dabbles in production as well.
I think there is a big hole on DJ Techtools for this combination - which frankly, if used right, has way more potential than Traktor S4.
Of course, if NI ever integrates Maschine directly into TSP, then both camps will be the winner.
hmm interesting… itch user here myself
Bingo! Not alot of people see this advantage.
I tried ITCH for like the second time ever the other night, I do quite like it but I’m far too much of a Traktor nerd to be tempted away! The Bridge is a sexy idea though.
as it stands right now the bridge with serato is still a bit buggy
but when itch 2.0 comes out with the bridge i hope all will be sorted
I’m weird. I mean…if I used Itch, then I’d use Bridge to record mixes just like everyone else would. But, I keep vacillating between “I want a xone:dx for when this comes out” and “I don’t ever want to use Bridge”.
Dropping samples over what you’re doing would be one obvious advantage, but Itch has up to 4 decks with hot cues, Traktor Pro S4 has 8 sample decks (that are usable whenever they add key lock to them), and SSL has SP-6, assuming it’s implemented well. How many ways do you need to trigger samples? I guess being forced to buy Ableton means that you’ll have a way to make them, but…whatever.
You can probably run each channel of your sound through Ableton between your (software) mixer and your sound card, so you’d get to use Live’s effects. Well…the biggest challenge to DJing with Live is not overusing effects (IMHO), so I don’t think of that as a huge advantage. I’d miss fade to grey if I switched to anything else. The big advantage here–as I see it–is running your audio through Live and then being able to use Dummy Clips to control effects. That would be huge, but it’s really easy to get carried away and ruin what you’re playing. It also absolutely requires a second controller. I’m weird…I’d love an all-in-one controller. And unless Akai or somebody brings out a joint controller (which I don’t see happening), that means you just added an APC40 or a xone:1d to whatever you’re using.
If you could route midi through Itch well enough, then using Live as an effects box would be kinda cool. I’ve done this before with CDJs, and it works really well as long as you’re okay with a tiny bit of latency.
I’ve almost convinced myself to try and get a xone:dx for myself for christmas and just see what happens with Bridge. But, the only way I’d be able to justify it to myself it would be to sell my VCM. I don’t really have a huge problem with that, because I’d rather have a black one anyway (if I could find it) but it might leave me unable to mix for a while if I decided to go back. Then again…I still have my CDJs and behringer mixers seem to be made for exactly that situation.
And then I realize that my sets would be no different…I’d just have a bit more stuff to break and an interface that looks more like traditional DJing. Maybe Itch is better at auto-beat-gridding than Live is at auto-warping (it sucks at it). That might save some time, but it’s not worth it. The differences in workflow and what I’d actually do are very small and entirely hinge on how I have to navigate Live to switch to looking at the waveform of the other playing track. And Itch has looping and cue controls for 2 decks at a time instead of 1.
That’s really it.
Hmm………
My advice would be to wait until after Winter NAMM (in January) to see what your options are.
I don’t know if you have a lot of gigs between now and then and whether that wait might interrupt your schedule, but there are going to be some new releases announced then and before plunking down $1k for the DX (which is a nice controller for sure), you might want to see what will be available after that show.
If it new stuff that will take a few months to release, then maybe you go for it.
But if the stuff is supposed to come out in 30 to 60 days, then you might find something even better with Itch 2.0 than what is available now.
Numark is going to release a 4 channel controller - so you know that is coming…
rob.