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dj'ing live is better

Honestly I have used it but I think I love to spin the good old vinyl. Even spinning cd's doesn't feel right either.

I dont believe using ableton to dj live is what djing is all about. I think its fine to use in production producing tracks and so on but for me djing live it has to be vinyl or cdjs. just my personal opinion i see it as cheating whern using it live. If every dj used a program to do it for them while playing live then every single person who has basic computer knowledge could dj. It takes the skill away.

I am working on LIVE 6 for last two months...and with it i have new ideas for my production based on electronica subgenre's..good 4 dj's..

Hey guys, I've been Dj'ing for some years but until now have never gotten into producing my own remixes. A freind of mine had cool edit pro so I dabbled a bit, grabbed an instrumental and an acappella and tried to mash them together. the main problem I had was tempo matching. In my brain I think two records, on turntables, with pitch sliders and the occasional nudge to match up the beats. That doesn't quite translate in software. Can anyone give me a very brief outline on how this is done in something like Abelton or CoolEdit?

ableton live uses warp markers to determine tempo
the best way to really understand is. download the demo and load up a beat or two. there are also lots of videos on their site. which is great for new users

I dont use ableton right now, but I'd like to try out in the future...

Thing about using Live for DJ-ing IMO is that if you just use it to play other people's music one track after another it will feel like cheating and also will probably get boring. You gotta add loops, samples and even create some of your own beats/loops, use the effects to do more than traditional Vinyl DJs do.

There will be some who say that Vinyl will always rule and the feel of it, or the sound of vinyl can't be replaced. I do understand that feeling but I think that it may be a misplaced emotional attachment to the media. I mean, we all really love music and want to feel it and touch it in a very real sense, Vinyl allows us to do that but at the end of the day it's an emotional attachment to the music that we want. Get over the superficial attachment to the recording media and learn how to get closer to the music you love. (One way to achieve this is to learn just a little bit of music theory) Drifting OT here, so... how about the pitch nudge feature in Live 7! Anyone used it yet?

This is an age-old discussion that gets beaten to death on various boards. i agree, someone who plays full, unedited versions of standard tracks and mixes A>B with no added benefit using Live is cheating if they want to call themselves a proper dj...and this is coming from someone who does use Live in a dj environment on occasion. I also have been dj'ing the traditional way for over 23 years, so it's not like I don't know how to beatmatch.

The beauty of Live is all of the other things you can do. i look at people who use it as more of a performer rather than dj. The best way to view this is to observe someone like Paul Van Dyk, who uses two laptops running live in his sets. He has every track chopped up into pieces, VST soft synths, and all sort of extra loops going. He's not beatmatching in the traditional dj sense, but is actually remixing and producing on the spot...playing basslines and synth parts live and looping them in real time. It is a hell of a lot more work and can almost liken it to comparing a turntablist like Qbert vs. a guy who shows up and mixes A>B on CDJ's. It's the next wave and is not going away...and yes, you are going to get a few suckas who show up and pre-mix their sets...but, we have those people already who use other people's mix cd's in their sets.

In the end, those who are experienced will know who is doing real work and who is cheating...know matter what format they use


on the OT post...I heard the beat nudge on Live 7 is a little too touchy (not like a CDJ) but a step in the right direction...they'll have it perfected before long.

i live for Live as full music production and djing, ableton is my savior

i love djing with ableton. the flexibility and creative possibilities are fantastic.

Me too. Live rocks.

LIVE =)

i've been messing with Live lately and i think a midi controller of some sort is essential. it has a lot of features that can make your set amazing, but the whole just standing there behind your computer is somewhat lame.

I'm in agreement with some of the cats on here..
Djing live (Not Ableton Live) is better..
I started with Vinyl and now spin CD's..
Vinyl is the best for how it feels..
CD's are the best for the money..
Who wants to spin an awesome set with a computer?? Not me.. I want to be the one to spin an awesome set..
I hear ableton is pretty good for production and for Live performances of original material..

how does it work? i've never used it before

live is wicked for producing
but nothing can replace technics ans vinyl for me

I've mixed with more or less every format. The best for me is the handz on appeal of vinyl, but if you want sound quality opt digital mp3, best manipulation of sound go for CD and if you darn right lazy go for computer mixing.....

Has anyone tried Live 7 or Suite?
I heard that 7 has some problems...and I haven't upgraded yet.

i use live 7 and havent had any problems ...yet.cant say i have pushed it to the limit though.cd+1200s+live=infinite possibilities.mixing your own stuff on live into your vinyl/cd set is fun,fun,fun.effects on samples and loops of your vinyl cd material can make your mix very personal.would go all the way if i could be bothered turning 16 yrs worth of vinyl collection into digital!

does anyone know if there are any extentions for the instrument rack of live 7?

I've gotta get in on this Live action, sounds amazing!

tee947 had a great analysis -

I use Live 6. I use to be a CDJ but I wanted to expand, throw in some of my own loops, and make it more of a performance.

I mean, s**t, Daft Punk uses it, it must be good.

i dont know if this has been covered in this section......but..... a couple of years ago when live got full mp3 support instead of being a wav only prog. Superstar DJ Sasha used it live on tour. a hard drive full of tunes that he'd hardly even previewed let alone with a set plan in mind.

now i don't know this for sure, maybe an urban myth as they say. as i aint friends with him so i can't as him. lol.


i know DJs who do use it tho.

yeah it can throw a couple of curveballs your way if you're a bounce dj what with the odd feel of the genre. but if you're good, you'll catch it before the audience does

but i'd say Ableton all the way. the only people who don't really like Live for live are the purists who love decks. i say embrace the technology that is being presented to us. purists and technoheads can live in harmony. lol

live 7 rules it!the cue function and tempo nudge buttons + 2 settings for tempo control fine and normal(all midi controller programmable) make using it as another deck 2 easy.vinyl doesnt need to die just gotta more creative with the toys!i love my vinyl...so..so much!its like cutting the roots of a tree out IMO

found this to back up (almost) what i was sayign about sasha and live

http://www.ableton.com/pages/artists/sasha

heres a list of people that use it

http://www.ableton.com/pages/artists/list

i sound like a spokesperson for ableton innit? lol

I use Live for DJing and can quite easily say its the Dogs Nads. After mixing on Vinyl for 4 years you do 'Reach a Limit' of what you can do with 2 Decks, a mixer and an effects pad, and quite honestly, DJing feels more like a task rather than an enjoyment after a while because you feel you can't get any better with the tools your using. So as much as a Vinyl purist I was, Live opens up a whole world of possiblitys to an Experienced DJ. It takes away Beat matching, which although takes skill, you can master it in 6 months and 3 years later its just a chore.

I find myself doing a great mix on Vinyl, and think to myself 'It would be great if I could drop a 5 second clip just there that will get the whole crowd raving'. Hence I can't, because I haven't got a builtin sampler or an extra deck to do that. Live allows me to do this easily at a touch of a button.

Its a bit like a man having to dig a 10 foot wide 5ft deep trench, being offered a digger, and says 'Nah, I'll keep my shovel thanks.' Technology moves on, DJ's will sooner or later have to move with it. In my opinion an experienced Live DJ will crap all over an Experienced Turntable DJ.

If you really can't let go of Vinyl, then I suggest you check out Tracktor Scratch by Native Instruments, you mix MP3's on your Vinyl/CD Decks, my mates got it, and you cannot tell the difference between the Real Thing(Vinyl) and the MP3, bar the quality.

This is AWESOME!!

Lide01 wrote:I now own Live about a year. First i really liked live but was not able to work fine with this prog on stage without a controller. After checking the market i didn´t find any controller that fits my needs. So I decided to create my own controller. Here you can see it:

[img]http://home.arcor.de/lide01/Midibox/MB_LIVE_inner.jpg[/img]



The controller is created out of a kit of several modules that can bought/seen on the midibox.org website. By the way that is a great site too!

No that i can control all my functions i need via midi it really kicks ass on stage! The last 3 months i worked on a set for a live gig and with my controller this works definitely fine for on-stage-remixing!

Greetz, Lide

[quote="playmaker"]I heard that Paul van Dyk uses 3 laptops running LiVE when DJing, quite interesting isn't it :)

I'm still a Cubase addict tho, but rumour says that I gonna have a look on Logic too in the future hehe, that was very off-topic I know[/quote]

Your right.. very interesting about PVD.. why wouldnt he just use 1.. hahaa

I DJ completely with Live now, as most of the people in the glitch-hop genre do. I use mainly a Trigger Finger to control my mixes and I set up my sets with 4 audio tracks I use as my main "turntables". These I use to play full tracks. I then have 2 other audio tracks for juggling which I throw samples into, drums, acapellas etc. So it's like having 6 turntables, sometimes I get to the point where I'm playing 4 different songs all at the same time (this requires a lot of knoweledge of your tracks, what key they are playing in, when certain tracks hit. But with a lot of practice you can get so you have so much damn sound pumping from the PA system that sometimes dancers will drop their jaws as they reach overdose levels of sound.