Sascha using Ableton Live for DJ sets

[Dunks]

This ones good to.

[stevieb19]

So returning to somthing I mentioned earlier how would I be able to cope with a genre change in Ableton mid set.

eg. House to R&B

Is there a tempo change option and how would this be worked mid-set?

Sorry I have not even demo'd the software so I know nothing. Although I aim to remedy this.

[JoeSchmoe]

So returning to somthing I mentioned earlier how would I be able to cope with a genre change in Ableton mid set.

eg. House to R&B

Is there a tempo change option and how would this be worked mid-set?

Sorry I have not even demo'd the software so I know nothing. Although I aim to remedy this.

~

Yup,there is a master tempo control, and you can even map it through MIDI to a knob or fader on your controller.

[stevieb19]

So returning to somthing I mentioned earlier how would I be able to cope with a genre change in Ableton mid set.

eg. House to R&B

Is there a tempo change option and how would this be worked mid-set?

Sorry I have not even demo'd the software so I know nothing. Although I aim to remedy this.

~

Yup,there is a master tempo control, and you can even map it through MIDI to a knob or fader on your controller.

Hhhhhhmmm

Okay I see I am going to have to try the demo and see how I go.

Sounds good.

Thanks for all the interesting comments guys and girls?

[drez]

Personally, I don't go out and see DJ's. I wish I did, but I don't (no time and a family). But what I THINK I'd like to see is actually a DJ that is mixing in Live, but is also playing a synth (or synth controller) along with whatever is going on. I dig seeing people play and the combination of people mixing other people's music but adding their own chops on the fly seems pretty cool to me.

Turntables are cool and all, but if you're just beat matching then I don't see what the difference is between a Computer DJ and a Deck DJ. If both people already pick music that slams, then you can remove that from the equation. I guy turning knobs and running faders up and down is alright I guess (both the computer DJ and deck DJ do that), but seeing a guy playing a monster synth line, looping it, popping to another channel and playing a drum loop in on a trigger finger, loop that, pop over to a bass channel and lay some funk down, pop to an audio channel and sample your own vocal, mangle that, etc all over someone elses tune or grooves to give it a personal touch...THAT sounds awesome and I would love to see it! (Anybody in Dallas doing that, let me know so I can check it!)

Maybe this is done all the time and I'm showing my ignorance, in which case...I apologize When I play live, I don't just trigger my tune, I'm playinig parts on top of it. People like to see that. But then again, I'm not DJ'ing, I've sequenced a tune that is being performed with a full band.

[drez]

So returning to somthing I mentioned earlier how would I be able to cope with a genre change in Ableton mid set.

eg. House to R&B

Is there a tempo change option and how would this be worked mid-set?

Sorry I have not even demo'd the software so I know nothing. Although I aim to remedy this.

~

Yup,there is a master tempo control, and you can even map it through MIDI to a knob or fader on your controller.

Hhhhhhmmm

Okay I see I am going to have to try the demo and see how I go.

Sounds good.

Thanks for all the interesting comments guys and girls?

You can even define the tempo on the scene itself! Very cooooooo.

[phankiejankie]

but seeing a guy playing a monster synth line, looping it, popping to another channel and playing a drum loop in on a trigger finger, loop that, pop over to a bass channel and lay some funk down, pop to an audio channel and sample your own vocal, mangle that, etc all over someone elses tune or grooves to give it a personal touch...THAT sounds awesome and I would love to see it!

Richie "Plastikman" Hawtin does this. 303s, 909s, Laptops you name it. He is among the first to enrich the DJ performance.

Aphex once used a drill in a DJ set but I don’t know if this counts for killer monster riff

[stevieb19]

Personally, I don't go out and see DJ's. I wish I did, but I don't (no time and a family). But what I THINK I'd like to see is actually a DJ that is mixing in Live, but is also playing a synth (or synth controller) along with whatever is going on. I dig seeing people play and the combination of people mixing other people's music but adding their own chops on the fly seems pretty cool to me.

Turntables are cool and all, but if you're just beat matching then I don't see what the difference is between a Computer DJ and a Deck DJ. If both people already pick music that slams, then you can remove that from the equation. I guy turning knobs and running faders up and down is alright I guess (both the computer DJ and deck DJ do that), but seeing a guy playing a monster synth line, looping it, popping to another channel and playing a drum loop in on a trigger finger, loop that, pop over to a bass channel and lay some funk down, pop to an audio channel and sample your own vocal, mangle that, etc all over someone elses tune or grooves to give it a personal touch...THAT sounds awesome and I would love to see it! (Anybody in Dallas doing that, let me know so I can check it!)

Maybe this is done all the time and I'm showing my ignorance, in which case...I apologize When I play live, I don't just trigger my tune, I'm playinig parts on top of it. People like to see that. But then again, I'm not DJ'ing, I've sequenced a tune that is being performed with a full band.

I think Paul Oakenfold did a tour like this a few years ago. I've seen footage of him playing a synth during a club session.

Back in around '88 I saw Adamski do a live set in a club where he combined elements of dj'ing with synths to play live acid house. Awsome.

To be honest I think this where dj'ing is going in the long run anyway so embrace it I say.

The futures bright for performance dj'ing

[krushing]

A DJ plays a DJ set with a program originally intended for DJ use! I'm shocked!

[BertKoor]

[rant]Why all the fuzz? This ain't news, it's just another bloody endorsement deal!

Ableton & M-Audio made a deal with Sasha. He gets some gear for free (and probably some "expenses") and in return his familiar name (ahem, I thought at first y'all were talking about our Sasha Frank ) and friendly face will be used in advertisements with his finger pointing at their products with quotes of him he wouldn't know what to do without them.

So all the suckers that wanna be just like him go out and buy the stuff.[/rant]

[JoeSchmoe]

A DJ plays a DJ set with a program originally intended for DJ use! I'm shocked!

I think using Live to DJ is more of a side-effect than the actual goal of the program.

[raikard233]

but seeing a guy playing a monster synth line, looping it, popping to another channel and playing a drum loop in on a trigger finger, loop that, pop over to a bass channel and lay some funk down, pop to an audio channel and sample your own vocal, mangle that, etc all over someone elses tune or grooves to give it a personal touch...THAT sounds awesome and I would love to see it!

Richie "Plastikman" Hawtin does this. 303s, 909s, Laptops you name it. He is among the first to enrich the DJ performance.

Aphex once used a drill in a DJ set but I don’t know if this counts for killer monster riff

Personally, I don't go out and see DJ's. I wish I did, but I don't (no time and a family). But what I THINK I'd like to see is actually a DJ that is mixing in Live, but is also playing a synth (or synth controller) along with whatever is going on. I dig seeing people play and the combination of people mixing other people's music but adding their own chops on the fly seems pretty cool to me.

Turntables are cool and all, but if you're just beat matching then I don't see what the difference is between a Computer DJ and a Deck DJ. If both people already pick music that slams, then you can remove that from the equation. I guy turning knobs and running faders up and down is alright I guess (both the computer DJ and deck DJ do that), but seeing a guy playing a monster synth line, looping it, popping to another channel and playing a drum loop in on a trigger finger, loop that, pop over to a bass channel and lay some funk down, pop to an audio channel and sample your own vocal, mangle that, etc all over someone elses tune or grooves to give it a personal touch...THAT sounds awesome and I would love to see it! (Anybody in Dallas doing that, let me know so I can check it!)

Maybe this is done all the time and I'm showing my ignorance, in which case...I apologize When I play live, I don't just trigger my tune, I'm playinig parts on top of it. People like to see that. But then again, I'm not DJ'ing, I've sequenced a tune that is being performed with a full band.

I think Paul Oakenfold did a tour like this a few years ago. I've seen footage of him playing a synth during a club session.

Back in around '88 I saw Adamski do a live set in a club where he combined elements of dj'ing with synths to play live acid house. Awsome.

To be honest I think this where dj'ing is going in the long run anyway so embrace it I say.

The futures bright for performance dj'ing

Djing with a pc and djing with decks are basically similar but to me give totally different sensations.
One thing is find beatmatching with a slider, to rewind, forward and search a track point with my hands and an other thing is doing all this things through an interface.

Surely if you don't apply some fxs unit to your 2decks and mixer setup you are limited to be an human jukebox...but i don't know if this thing is totally true...look at Sven Vath (he play only with two 2decks and a mixer, a classic dj), i saw he 2 weeks ago for the 4th time and as ever he changed tracks every 5-6 minutes (sometimes more), not a great technical performance, but the people on the dancefloor weren't stopping to jump and scream, he did some PR shows like dancing out of console and other things that a pure technical dj never dream and never had time to do because is so busy to make his djset (see Jeff Mills...also in this case people jump!!).

I'm not sure that RichieHawtin and Paul Oakenfold doing all the things properly live, i thing that the 90% of their performance are preprogrammed in Ableton Live (surely they manage live their samples and loops...adding fx and samplings..but is this to be considered a total live performance?)

The only one that i'm sure do a total live performance is Jamie Lidell
http://www.jamielidell.com/, i saw he in Rome Dissonanze Festival, he did some vocals live samplings then with fxs (and other things, he was sorroundede by electronic machines) managed this samplings to obtain drums, basses, Synths etc....in a continous way...and he was very amazing!!

[stevieb19]

Surely if you don't apply some fxs unit to your 2decks and mixer setup you are limited to be an human jukebox...but i don't know if this thing is totally true...look at Sven Vath (he play only with two 2decks and a mixer, a classic dj), i saw he 2 weeks ago for the 4th time and as ever he changed tracks every 5-6 minutes (sometimes more), not a great technical performance, but the people on the dancefloor weren't stopping to jump and scream, he did some PR shows like dancing out of console and other things that a pure technical dj never dream and never had time to do because is so busy to make his djset (see Jeff Mills...also in this case people jump!!).

Oh how times have changed eh!

When I started DJ'ing mate my first two decks we'rnt even varispeed and I mixed. And to be honest I have nor have an y of my friends ever been jukeboxes

To prove my point the techinics 1200 mk2 deck was only released 4 years before started dj'ing

We tend to forget that techology has moved so far in a short space of time and we expect more now from a dj than ever before.

I am exploring the way forward but there are to be interesting times ahead.

[drez]

Djing with a pc and djing with decks are basically similar but to me give totally different sensations.
One thing is find beatmatching with a slider, to rewind, forward and search a track point with my hands and an other thing is doing all this things through an interface.

Surely if you don't apply some fxs unit to your 2decks and mixer setup you are limited to be an human jukebox...but i don't know if this thing is totally true...look at Sven Vath (he play only with two 2decks and a mixer, a classic dj), i saw he 2 weeks ago for the 4th time and as ever he changed tracks every 5-6 minutes (sometimes more), not a great technical performance, but the people on the dancefloor weren't stopping to jump and scream, he did some PR shows like dancing out of console and other things that a pure technical dj never dream and never had time to do because is so busy to make his djset (see Jeff Mills...also in this case people jump!!).

Are you saying that it was cool because he just set his decks up, let them play, and then had time to jump around while the computer dj (Is that what you are referencing to when you say a "technical dj"?) can't because he's got to baby sit his laptop?

If so, that really changed with Live5's follow actions. I can completely walk away and have it randomly OR programmatically "do its thing". You can have cells changing pretty randomly or in a set pattern, etc. I can walk off or grab my controller and start improvising over the top while its going on.

I'm not sure that RichieHawtin and Paul Oakenfold doing all the things properly live, i thing that the 90% of their performance are preprogrammed in Ableton Live (surely they manage live their samples and loops...adding fx and samplings..but is this to be considered a total live performance?)

The only one that i'm sure do a total live performance is Jamie Lidell
http://www.jamielidell.com/, i saw he in Rome Dissonanze Festival, he did some vocals live samplings then with fxs (and other things, he was sorroundede by electronic machines) managed this samplings to obtain drums, basses, Synths etc....in a continous way...and he was very amazing!!

Even if they only did 10% live, to me it is far more exciting than seeing a DJ pick up a record, set it down, letting it spin up while he stares into oblivion (just like a computer DJ) and beat matches it to something thats already going on. There's no difference between that and a guy searching for samples on his laptop. Again, alot of it comes down to whether the DJ can pick good music or not because to me, that's the crux of being good or not. If your music choice stinks, then so will the rest of it no matter how good you can spin or play your synth.

I hope I don't sound like I'm putting down DJ's all over the world. On the contrary, I think that being an awesome DJ is a killer job! I'd love to have it! But for me to want to see it, its got to blow me away and most of that is listening to great music but the rest of that is "HOW" he does it and if its boring to watch then I'll lose interest. They could just play a well mixed CD and I'd be as happy as I could get with it either way. The Performance is what sets it apart and playing an instrument live does it for me.

DJ's who can rip it up with killer scratching and awesome sample placement are IMHO playing an instrument so they completely qualify. They are workin at making it unique on the fly.