Saw a pair of Ableton DJ’s last night do the odd bit of ‘miming’. Silly things like pretend to turn on basslines with the EQ’s, when clearly their laptop wasn’t wired up to the mixer anyway. And it’s not as if a producer is ever going to release a tune where a DJ is going to have to trigger an integral part of the track every 2 bars by twisting the bass dial to 4 O’clock (in real life that might blow the speakers!), because that would be an unfinished song.
I’m not hating on Ableton Live users because they don’t beatmatch, after all it’s still an improvised DJ set. But this comedic miming further confuses people as to what a DJ really does. So, how often do you see this in clubs, and if you’re an Ableton user are you guilty of it?
i presume they had some sort of soundcard connected to the mixer, 1 of the wires might of been a connecting to the mixer.. might of been a midi mixer? might not of been a track could of be sounds produced on the fly live.
if it was just a track then imo ableton sets take alot of prep prior, beat gridding takes practice, 4 x 4 is easy but anything with a off beat or breaks can be more taxing. its defo a skill you learn.
No this was definitely ‘miming’, they weren’t doing loops or re-edits. Just DJing in the traditional manner, one track into another like you would on two decks & a mixer, albeit without a mixer and on Ableton Live. The EQuing was blatant false showmanship on their part. I suppose it’s all part in parcel of DJ’s unfortunately being something the crowd looks at, so without the physical demands of 90 seconds beatmatching and cueing a record back & forth they feel they have to do something to ‘justify’ their presence on the ‘stage’ by faking it. It should all be about the music IMO.
It’s not something I’ve seen before so I was wondering how common it is. And this is in England. No doubt theres parts of the world where its more common.
I’ve played back to back with another DJ (both using S2s and Traktor) before and watched him twist knobs and throw faders when I was mixing and he was off. I think its a pathetic DJ thing more than a software thing.
I wish people would stop looking at the DJ and just dance, but unfortunately this has been going on for years and apart from clubs having the DJ booth hidden from prying eyes this is unlikely to change anytime soon. The music wasn’t to my taste but the crowd liked it, most weren’t looking at the DJ so the fake EQing thing was totally unnecessary.
Don’t forget - Ableton DJ’s can have a LOT of shit going on. I have templates that require A LOT of knob turning BEFORE you can even hear anything happening in the mix.
In Ableton, the CHAIN SELECTOR rules all. MACRO’s are also AWESOME. Knobs assigned to either of these may not have an effect on the audio - but may be setting up for some fuckingawesomejiggerypokerymagic…
the general crowd does not really care what DJ’s do as they are too busy having fun/getting drunk etc. they do not know what he’s doing, how he is doing it and why because they do not know what a DJ actually does unless a good majority of them understand how DJ’s work and how to operate DJ equipment then they will care what he is doing. think of it this way if the DJTT community was the audience i’m sure miming DJ’s will not be something that would be tolerated, but for the general non-DJ public im sure they dont give a rats ass what you do as a DJ as long as you get them pumping. im not contradicting professional DJ’s who actually do their shit or DJ’s who mime just voicing out my opinion
First of all, Ableton is not a DJ software, so the definition word of “Ableton DJ” should not even exist.
I would understand if they remap the APC for DJ softwares such as Traktor or Serato to control all those functions then it should work just fine like mapping midi fighters to control DJ softwares. otherwise, loading all those TOP40 or hiphop or edm tracks in Ableton is a joke.
I do not think you can import tracks while playing in Ableton Live, also not able to change tempo bend for next cueing song while mixing right? which means most of ableton players make the whole set at home and bring it to the club. and just play it around by doing EQ/Effects on APC and fist pumping.
If he brought alot of fans and crowds, that means people just came to see him and he makes the most profit of the night, then, should leave him alone.
if not, please leave your APC at home for production use or play it in front of your own fans and crowds who knows your music already.
people usually don’t come to the club to try strangers music production, and you don’t even know what type of music would work for the night and what type of people going to be filled on the dance floor.
Thought you chose Ableton to become a producer, not a DJ.
[quote]First of all, Ableton is not a DJ software, so the definition word of “Ableton DJ” should not even exist.
I would understand if they remap the APC for DJ softwares such as Traktor or Serato to control all those functions then it should work just fine like mapping midi fighters to control DJ softwares. otherwise, loading all those TOP40 or hiphop or edm tracks in Ableton is a joke.
I do not think you can import tracks while playing in Ableton Live, also not able to change tempo bend for next cueing song while mixing right? which means most of ableton players make the whole set at home and bring it to the club. and just play it around by doing EQ/Effects on APC and fist pumping.[/quote]
My God - there is so much fail in that post I don’t know where to start.
