Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Time to get back in the game.

So after meeting Anthony this weekend (nice to meet you, by the way) and listening to all of your stellar mixes, I've decided to get back into DJing. It's been a long time since I've used my turntables, and I want to use my laptop instead. I wanted to see what you all recommend. I really want to try Ableton or Traktor but I have limited experience with both programs. I basically want to throw in .mp3 files on the fly, but I only know how to do pre-arranged mixes in Ableton. Spontaneity is the key here. Can any of you (Ben? Alex?) help me out with this? Any good online tutorials I should check out? Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by Anonymous at 8:00 PM

10 comments:

  1. sqrt (Brian)April 28, 2009 at 8:40 PM

    correct me if I am wrong, but I think alex did his sunday mix with live.

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  2. tudikas wayneApril 28, 2009 at 10:13 PM

    ableton's only good for spontaneity if you've already perfectly honed the start point and beat measuring of the files you (might) want to use. otherwise it'll get all screwed up. you should just use your turntables. all that 90's drum n bass needs to be heard.

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  3. AnonymousApril 28, 2009 at 10:52 PM

    Thanks guys. I messed around w/Ableton and found it's really difficult to nudge a track if it's off-pitch a little bit. I just started playing around in Traktor, however, and it seems far more suitable for what I'm wanting to do. I would break out my turntables but I stopped buying vinyl ages ago and all my crates are ancient. I'm basically focusing on digital files and my laptop because buying vinyl on a weekly basis gets expensive as shit. With a laptop I can just get stuff from bleep or torrents.

    ReplyDelete
  4. a. g. l.April 29, 2009 at 5:38 AM

    KD

    Come out to roots rock recession tonight and i'll burn you a disc of the software I use.. It's rudimentary, but definitely rude.


    AGL
    dj1993j
    ps. i'll buy you a coke.

    ReplyDelete
  5. tudikas wayneApril 29, 2009 at 8:01 AM

    you could get your set together on traktor and then buy only the records for that particular set. kinda backwards, i know.

    or you could get serato scratch or similar. but paying $500 for it doesn't make sense...you could buy a lot of records with $500.

    anthony - do you have that new rustie "bad science" ep? if so, where the did you get it?

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  6. tudikas wayneApril 29, 2009 at 8:06 AM

    i did some googlage out of curiosity and...
    i guess m-audio's "torq" is only $350 and it does the same thing.

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  7. sqrt (Brian)April 29, 2009 at 8:59 AM

    you need that shit with the MIDI timecode records, and then spin records on turntables and use those to playback mp3 files. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/closeup/ScratchLIVE--image_contents.jpg or something like it. Final Scratch Pro rings a bell too, but I can't remember if they have Timecode records.

    o yeah,

    I said Fuck DJ,

    O yeah,

    All of you DJ's surely your taken a lesson, start talking trash and I will come with my Smith and Wesson.

    o yeah,

    I ain't a DJ cracka so I don't need the wax

    ReplyDelete
  8. a. g. l.April 29, 2009 at 9:59 AM

    TWH,

    I've been ripping the shit off of youtube and then re-EQ'n it in sound forge to use on my DJ warez. I can post some of my my rips to Zsharez if you want. I got buttloads. Not the highest fidelity, but if you get a little high, it doesn't even matter.

    ALSO... seriously, V-DJ and an external soundcard to split the program's channels to an out board mixer is all you need. Bump a timecoded disc. That's "oldskool".

    Aye Gee El
    DJ-1993-J the imperial sound warbler

    ReplyDelete
  9. alexApril 29, 2009 at 4:10 PM

    Yeah I did use Live for my mix that I did. Ben is right, you have to spend some time getting the beat/tempo mapping and any loop points set for your tracks before trying to do a mix. Some tracks live will analyze pretty spot-on when you bring them in, but others need a fair amount of help. It works fine for me because I have no real DJ skills and don't know how to mix with vinyl at all, so it's the only thing I'm used to. Something like Traktor or Serato or maybe Anthony's deal is probably more what you need.

    As far as nudging tracks, Live does have a tempo nudge (up near the main tempo control), but that affects global tempo. I don't think there's a good way to adjust timing of two tracks independently of one another unless you disable all the warping and quantization, in which case you might as well be using a sampler.

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  10. AnonymousApril 30, 2009 at 4:34 PM

    'Preciate all the suggestions guys...most of you know how much of an idiot I am when it comes to these matters. I was able to figure out Traktor rather quickly but my laptop died as a result of an 'experiment' I was trying out. Anyway, I will probably settle with Traktor, but I wish it had effects. May end up buying one of those little x-y touchy pad joints eventually. Anthony, I may end up requesting that V-DJ program if things go south somehow. Thanks for the offer though. Also, I'd like to hear any other mixes you guys may have been working on.

    ReplyDelete

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