DJ ing with laptops

[victorgonzales]

In essence, if your mixing other peoples tracks just in live your cheating imo

I think this is a good point. let me tell you this story: I saw a guy at a local club djing with ableton. he wasn't playing live, he was "just" djing.
basically, he loaded a live set, set up some some efx (eq 3, some filters, some delays) and that was it. he was cross fading between songs.
the end result was brilliant. he chose a terrific set of songs and the audience loved it, but it felt a bit strange to me.
what do you think about this?
I think the so-called purists might throw up in disgust at this.
one more question: you can only play live with ableton when you have your own songs, can't you? how could you with other people's tunes?

well you can load mp3s from beatport into it and mix them just as you would pick your vinyls. I know some people arrange their set order before hand. I prefer to pick the songs on the fly and program midi functions for everything. the midi controller is essentially the mixer. you have the volume his low and mids. I mix in ableton the exact same way I mix CDs and Vinyl. Only different is without spending the time beatmatching, which enables me to trigger loops and samples and even a third or fourth track into the mix to spice things up.

[S.D.L]

It still comes down to this... Beatmatching! The essence of djing is beatmatching . Where in a new day and age people. It's not about holding 2 tracks with each other for a couple of minutes. It's about giving a freaking great set for your audience. Filling in it the way you want. Freedom that's what's it all about. Somebody over here said he liked that Villalobos has a train wreck every once and a while. Well I don't, it breaks the flow down and instead of listening to his great track selection, you're listening to beats walking away from each other. Saying that gives a feeling to the music is total BS.

[plastik]

well you can load mp3s from beatport into it and mix them just as you would pick your vinyls. I know some people arrange their set order before hand. I prefer to pick the songs on the fly and program midi functions for everything. the midi controller is essentially the mixer. you have the volume his low and mids. I mix in ableton the exact same way I mix CDs and Vinyl. Only different is without spending the time beatmatching, which enables me to trigger loops and samples and even a third or fourth track into the mix to spice things up.

ok, so do you use ableton's built-in cross fader? or there's another way of beat matching tunes with ableton?
I reckon you will agree with me that djing with ableton is much easier than spinning and beatmatching vinyls. it took me half a day to learn how to do a dj set with ableton.
p.s. what do you mean, you throw a 3rd or 4th track into the mix? how can you layer them all?

[victorgonzales]

Im not a pro at live so I dont know the technical temrs but if you use the view where the audio tracks are verticle you put 4 audio tracks in and you can mix four tracks at once.

I keep all my tracks in a bank on the side and pick them out on the fly just as I would cds or vinyl that way if the crowd is not feeling it I can easilly chantge the direction of the mix.

Im not saying this is always a good idea but on and off it works great with minimal especially. YOu can have the highs from one track, bassline from another and blending in mids from two other tracks. If you know your music well you can get very interesting results. As for beatmatching it doesn't really do it for you. You have to go through before hand and match each song to a metronome click. Then when you mix them later they are all beatmatched. Call it cheating if you want but I can do the same thing with three turtables and vinyl but then I loose valuable time I could be spending on the mixing aspect.

[plastik]

1)As for beatmatching it doesn't really do it for you. You have to go through before hand and match each song to a metronome click. Then when you mix them later they are all beatmatched.

2)Call it cheating if you want but I can do the same thing with three turtables and vinyl but then I loose valuable time I could be spending on the mixing aspect.

1) well if you choose a tempo for the whole dj set then all the songs are gonna be beatmatched accordingly. you just have to choose how you want to warp the songs (i.e. beats, textures and so on). to me this is easy 'cause all the songs for my sets range around 125-130 bpm.
still I haven't understood how you mix (crossfading or else?)

2) no no I don't call it cheating. I was just wondering what old style djs and pro djs would think about djing with ableton. one thing is playing live, another is djing with it. I have this feeling that djing with ableton is not "proper djing" but in the end it offers great chances for fun and entertainment. I myself would love to dj with ableton but I'm afraid people might take the piss out of me.
anyway hats off for the 3 turntables. respect.

[MINIMALTECHNOHOUSE]

It still comes down to this... Beatmatching! The essence of djing is beatmatching . Where in a new day and age people. It's not about holding 2 tracks with each other for a couple of minutes. It's about giving a freaking great set for your audience. Filling in it the way you want. Freedom that's what's it all about. Somebody over here said he liked that Villalobos has a train wreck every once and a while. Well I don't, it breaks the flow down and instead of listening to his great track selection, you're listening to beats walking away from each other. Saying that gives a feeling to the music is total BS.

Dont take it to heart kid, its only music....

[victorgonzales]

It still comes down to this... Beatmatching! The essence of djing is beatmatching . Where in a new day and age people. It's not about holding 2 tracks with each other for a couple of minutes. It's about giving a freaking great set for your audience. Filling in it the way you want. Freedom that's what's it all about. Somebody over here said he liked that Villalobos has a train wreck every once and a while. Well I don't, it breaks the flow down and instead of listening to his great track selection, you're listening to beats walking away from each other. Saying that gives a feeling to the music is total BS.

Dont take it to heart kid, its only music....

LOL I get a little upset when I pay hard earned money to hear shoes in a dryer all night.

[livecollective]

the future will only bring a blend of everything. Hybridization is almost music evolves.