my unique live setup (dunno if ANYONE else does this)

[djaeke]

Here's the basic idea:

I have ableton set up with a novation launchpad and nocturn. not too fancy right? well what makes my setup unique is that every track I play (every. track.) is a mashed up in some way. no lie.

I'll have my set divided up into 8x8 grids, each contains parts from anywhere between four and seven tracks that are in the same key (or they were one semitone away and I transposed them), and each of those sections gets played for about 5 minutes. that seems like a lot, but usually only one or two of those gets to be in the spotlight, the others get layered on top with highpass filters so the bass doesn't clash). I try to put in at least 1 track per mashup you almost definitely won't have heard, so that there's always something new. like "hey, that's shotgun by zedd....but I hear something else on there! there's a synth on it!"

AND because of the way ableton works with track warping, I can warp any track that's in 4/4. any genre. literally. some things I've done (or ideas of had but I need to get to actually doing haha) are mixing edm (my usualy genres are house and dubstep, but glitch-hop, dnb, and breaks aren't uncommon) with classical (I love beethoven), older stuff like classic rock and pop (the beatles, the who, america, boston, michael jackson, etc), grunge rock \m/, alt rock, smooth jazz (ella fitzgerald is my fave), disco (works real well with house) and so on. I always try to find a creative way to make it sound natural. who says stevie wonder can't go with skrillex, or flux pavilion can't work with carly simon?

this wasn't a completely contest-promotion post though, that's just a bonus. the main point is, I'd love some feedback/ideas/questions/comments on how my live sets work. does anyone else do this? I've wanted to see someone else doing that for some ideas, but I don't know of anyone who does, haha

[narcissus]

holy shit! you can warp ANY song?? in ANY GENRE?!??!

i play only my own tunes when i play live. i cover territory in DnB (jump up to liquid), trance (uplifting to progressive), psychadelic, various hard dance styles, dubstep (deep to lazerbass), dutch, minimal, glitch, juke, and fusions of all above. i used to play with live until i got sick of being constrained by a master tempo and learned to spin for real. used to mash up acapellas with my tunes live and glitch it. it was all right but there's something to be said for just playing records


(and just so you know... saying ella fitzgerald is 'smooth' jazz is offensive to every jazz fan... just sayin)

[Hircine]

yo post a video yo

[nowaysj]

this wasn't a completely contest-promotion post though, that's just a bonus.

This day started with a bonus! Yes.

[Mad_EP]

i used to play with live until i got sick of being constrained by a master tempo and learned to spin for real.

Umm - I use Live and my sets start at 80 bpm and end at 180-200 bpm. What constraints are you talking about?

[__________]

I use a box of dubplates and two turntables. Dunno if anyone else even does that, haha

[Attila]

Not since the 90s

[Today]

OP kill yourself

[Pyrez]

I use a box of dubplates and two turntables. Dunno if anyone else even does that, haha

^^^^^^^^
THIS. Although, I myself have taken the digital plunge, and have Serato now haha. Kids think I'm some kind of wizard mixing songs without a controller hahahahaha

[djaeke]

OP kill yourself

I use a box of dubplates and two turntables. Dunno if anyone else even does that, haha

^^^^^^^^
THIS. Although, I myself have taken the digital plunge, and have Serato now haha. Kids think I'm some kind of wizard mixing songs without a controller hahahahaha

I have done turntable-style mixing before and I get the appeal, I see the challenge of it (no I didn't use a sync button...too often) I just don't really see why EVERYONE does it. Technology the way it is, the possibilities for live performance are UNMATCHED. why are we living in the past?

it's like...if you like the simplicity of older phones, you don't like all the features of the iPhone and all, cool. that's a personal choice. but don't get on my ass because I AM okay with using my phone for directions and surfing the web. technology has gotten to that point and gosh darnit I'm gonna take advantage of that.

not focusing so hard on beatmatching, I get to focus my energy on making a unique live show, mixing multiple tunes at a time, and people enjoy it.

thanks to those who sound interested, but the turntable purists are just being immature and silly.

PS I don't see why I should get criticism in the category of "not real djing" such as comparisons to turntables and such, being as I never said I was a dj. because I'm not.

[djaeke]

holy shit! you can warp ANY song?? in ANY GENRE?!??!

is that sarcasm?

(and just so you know... saying ella fitzgerald is 'smooth' jazz is offensive to every jazz fan... just sayin)

I'm sorry! I'm just really getting into jazz, while I've casually enjoyed it the past, I only very recently started to take the deeper plunge. saw her on some smooth jazz comilations, assumed they knew what they were talking about guess I shoulda known better

yo post a video yo

I plan to, as soon as possible! I tried to last night but was having trouble setting my camera at a good angle. is it worth trying to figure out how to see the controllers and the screen, or is just seeing the controllers fine? I considered doing a screen-capture thing, but I dunno if my cpu can handle video recording, screen recording, and ableton running a bunch of plugins and clips, recording the hq audio into live. might be worth a shot, though, who knows.

[nowaysj]

holy shit! you can warp ANY song?? in ANY GENRE?!??!

is that sarcasm?

Only to disambiguate.

[djaeke]

holy shit! you can warp ANY song?? in ANY GENRE?!??!

is that sarcasm?

Only to disambiguate.

I only emphasized that point because sometimes people seem to think I mean "dubstep AND house" when the truth is a bit wider then that, haha

and one more clarification: I of course wouldn't do that in clubs. I've never actually done a DJ gig (being that I'm not a DJ), it's always as a performer, but if I did do a real DJ set I'd probably use a more traditional deck setup, stick to a genre, etc.

[narcissus]

i used to play with live until i got sick of being constrained by a master tempo and learned to spin for real.

Umm - I use Live and my sets start at 80 bpm and end at 180-200 bpm. What constraints are you talking about?

you can't scratch, can't do backspins or other fun record tricks. i like the way cue button works on digital decks. it's just easier for me to mix tunes when they BOTH have a pitch slider. don't take it wrong, i wasn't hating. i just like the feeling of freedom.

serato is probably my favorite. really has the best of both worlds.

[djaeke]

i used to play with live until i got sick of being constrained by a master tempo and learned to spin for real.

Umm - I use Live and my sets start at 80 bpm and end at 180-200 bpm. What constraints are you talking about?

you can't scratch, can't do backspins or other fun record tricks. i like the way cue button works on digital decks. it's just easier for me to mix tunes when they BOTH have a pitch slider. don't take it wrong, i wasn't hating. i just like the feeling of freedom.

serato is probably my favorite. really has the best of both worlds.

while I kiiiinda see what you're saying, I think saying you don't prefer ableton because you want musical freedom sounds a little silly, I think even you know why

I am curious what about "the way the cue button works" is better than dividing up song sections in ableton?

[baseband]

i wonder if atlascesar has a unique live setup

[Mexztah]

How about we mix using Serato and Ableton
THINK OF ALL THE POSSIBILITIES GUYS

[djaeke]

How about we mix using Serato and Ableton
THINK OF ALL THE POSSIBILITIES GUYS

I thought you were being sarcastic for a second then I saw your signature with "ableton live user" so I figured that's a legit idea, and not a bad one. I've seen people mix ableton and traktor, to great effect

[Mad_EP]

you can't scratch, can't do backspins or other fun record tricks. i like the way cue button works on digital decks. it's just easier for me to mix tunes when they BOTH have a pitch slider. don't take it wrong, i wasn't hating. i just like the feeling of freedom.

serato is probably my favorite. really has the best of both worlds.

That's all fine - but they have nothing to do with the so-called Master Tempo constrictions that you were complaining about before.

[hasezwei]

live performance eh?


this was 5 years ago.
back then people doing laptop performances left people wondering what kind of fucking magic they just performed, not "oh jeez, another ableton set"

i mean i dont wanna diss what you're doing, ableton+launchpad/apc is certainly one of the ways forward for dj'ing but it's just that: glorified dj'ing.