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No doubt one of the best uses of Ableton is to mix it in as a third source (as well as a pair of tables) as it has the convenient pitch bend buttons which you can midi assign. If you got a controller set up with a slider to control the pitch and a pair of buttons for pitch bending, you got yourself a third deck. Except with loads of extra functionality.

depending upon your soundcard setup, you can set up a cue channel (make sure to mute the channel so it can't be heard by anyone but you), and have a few channels to drop tunes in so you can get a live feel.

Brad Rychard wrote:If you haven't heard of it yet, also try going to http://www.abletonlivedj.com/ which is specifically geared towards the djing aspect of Live.

Yeah, that.

I've only ever DJed with Ableton Live myself. Never used vinyl or CD. I started last year, so thought that was the way to go.

L5D wrote:dude honestly, it doesn't take too long to learn to mix in ableton cueing tracks as you go, especially if you have a midi controller because you can then put an EQ3 on each channel and assign low, mid and hi to your controller!

Hella fun, and then route your laptop out to a third channel on a DJ mixer and mix ableton and two turntables at the same time as well, get's a little confusing and best not to do it if you've had too much to drink, but the results can get hectic!!!!

amazingly versitle program once you start really exploring the elements of it!

EQ3 is awful. I use the Sonalksis SV-517 VST, but it costs around £200. If you are stuck on free stuff, go on the the AbletonLiveDJ site linked above, and search for Jeremy Jive's EQ8 implementation.

At the very least switch to EQ8!

author wrote:any good online ableton guides you guys refer to?

You might want to start with this warping guide.

http://vinkalmann.com/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=26

Can I also suggest that you don't do things in arrangement view and just press play! That really is cheating, unless you're doing a live show with you playing guitar etc.

You should always use session view and always mix live. It's boring as hell, for one thing, if you do it all in advance!

collective wrote:why not spend some time creating a live pa instead. You'll probably learn more and be much more satisfied in the end!

Indeed. Here's an excellent video showing how you can take your fresh studio work into a live set within Ableton:

http://www.cosm.co.nz/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=94

Danny Stamp wrote:

collective wrote:why not spend some time creating a live pa instead. You'll probably learn more and be much more satisfied in the end!

Indeed. Here's an excellent video showing how you can take your fresh studio work into a live set within Ableton:

http://www.cosm.co.nz/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=94

Or you could do a LIVE PA!



Live sets are boring, pull up a couple synths, start making loops on the fly, no songs, no pre-recorded anything. Just some midi-controllers, synths and drum machines. Fun!

collective wrote:

Danny Stamp wrote:

collective wrote:why not spend some time creating a live pa instead. You'll probably learn more and be much more satisfied in the end!

Indeed. Here's an excellent video showing how you can take your fresh studio work into a live set within Ableton:

http://www.cosm.co.nz/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=94

Or you could do a LIVE PA!



Live sets are boring, pull up a couple synths, start making loops on the fly, no songs, no pre-recorded anything. Just some midi-controllers, synths and drum machines. Fun!

Well, nothing's boring in the right hands. I feel that people can get too caught-up on making it all from scratch, and lose focus on making good music which progresses and reacts accordingly.

Danny Stamp wrote:

collective wrote:

Danny Stamp wrote:

collective wrote:why not spend some time creating a live pa instead. You'll probably learn more and be much more satisfied in the end!

Indeed. Here's an excellent video showing how you can take your fresh studio work into a live set within Ableton:

http://www.cosm.co.nz/index.php?option= ... &Itemid=94

Or you could do a LIVE PA!



Live sets are boring, pull up a couple synths, start making loops on the fly, no songs, no pre-recorded anything. Just some midi-controllers, synths and drum machines. Fun!

Well, nothing's boring in the right hands. I feel that people can get too caught-up on making it all from scratch, and lose focus on making good music which progresses and reacts accordingly.

You are right nothing is boring if done right.

ill-esha wrote:I dunno. As an old school vinyl DJ who only grudgingly switched to Serato.. I still think there's something to be said for live mixing tricks.

Ableton has great advantage as a live PA tool, and I would hope that if you're going to do a set with pre-beatmatched tracks that you're at least incorporating some live elements into it. Get yourself a trigger finger, or a kaoss pad, or some instrumentalists fed into a mic that you can loop and layer on the fly.

See, I'm not trying to flame anyone. I would much rather hear someone who has accepted the fact they can't beatmatch using ableton to help them to save all our ears from the fearsome beast Trainwreck. But if you're going to let that element go... put another one in to replace it.

I have used Ableton to augment studio mixes, but live I use either Serato with my own vocals/MCing over the top, or I'll do an entire live PA set with Ableton, my Novation X-Station, mics, guitarist and cellist.

music production is too fricking awesome and malleable to be stagnant.

Which "live mixing tricks" are you referring to? You can replicate everything in live, save for turntablism. Although, with some clever engineering and rewiring you can pull that off with no problem too.

I don't think anybody uses Ableton because they can't beat-match. Primarily because you NEED to be able to beat-match in order to use it. Warping tracks requires beat-matching skills.

And it's not as if it's really a skill to beat-match. It's a robotic task which anybody can learn over time (as everybody who uses Ableton does), rather than a creative or interesting part of the process. It makes sense, in my mind, to remove unnecessary elements which don't add any value to the output.

Whilst the opportunities are endless with Ableton, I don't mind even if somebody is using it to do A->B mixes, so long as it sounds good. There are PLENTY of guys who can do all sorts of technically great stuff, but they could never DJ at a club, and the sole recipients of this wizardry are their mother and cat. Compare that to most of the great DJs I've heard, and they do relatively simple stuff, but let the music and groove do the talking.

Almost every great set I've seen has been A->B mixes for the most part. It's all about the output at the end of the day.

I want to hear the results of this!
any chance?

never find any sets, dj or not, that uses delays.

and I havent read the whole thread, but i feel i have to add:
a tight arranged set is usually way better to listen to for everyone,
than a dj trying to work with the floor but with no experience.
so bigup taking so much time preparing!