Hardware Ableton Live

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Ableton DJs please let me know: What's the best sound card & best midi controller for DJing with Ableton Live ? Also what's the smallest Mac laptop you can realistically get away with using with it?

― Go Pez, Monday, 4 July 2005 05:31 (7 years ago) Permalink

depends on what you want to do.

all my lecturers use mackie's m-box, it ships with a version of ableton, so they'll work well together. its cheap and easily the best option if you don't need lots of ins and outs.
some places are selling it for £170 in the UK.

midi controller wise, do you want faders? knobs? keys? m-audio make cheap controllers, they're quite flimsy, but for features : price i doubt you can do much better.

i wouldn't get anything with less than a 1Ghz/256mb ram. it depends on how many effects you'll want to run.

― death of tom (death of tom), Monday, 4 July 2005 08:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

I hear the indigo DJ is pretty good as it has output and cue functions. but itll only work on a laptop with a PMCIA slot.

you can get away with any mac laptop using ableton. are you going to use hunners of midi VSTs or just a load of loops?

get the fastest processor you can afford but by the time youve got used to it and have started to Push the envelope, you be needing to upgrade anyway.

go to www.ableton.com/forums although prepare for a mac/PC war.

― Danny boy, Monday, 4 July 2005 08:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

darn it, mackie m-box = mackie spike

digidesign, the guys behind pro tools make the m-box, its worth checking out too.

― death of tom (death of tom), Monday, 4 July 2005 08:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

If your going for a tradition DJ setup... I like using a soundcard that has at least 4 outs. This way you can run two stereo channels into a DJ mixer and do your mixing there... I hate the feel/action of midi crossfaders and EQs. Personaly preference though.

Also this prevents people from throwing beer cans at you when you have your head in the laptop for 2 hours "mixing".

This is my NEW card of choice...
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FirewireAudiophile-main.html

I currently use the discontinued Emagice A6|2.... 6 outputs so I can run a third channel into a DJ mixer for loops and weirdness. You might be able to find one for cheap.

I use the Evolution X-Session midi controller at home to make mixes and mess around, nice unit, not too expensive.

http://www.evolution.co.uk/products/evo_xsession.htm

― Justin Baum (prosume), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:30 (7 years ago) Permalink

If you're willing to spend a bit the Metric Halo boxes are great. The 2882 if you need 8 channels and the ULN-2 if you only need 2. They're very well built, rugged, sound great, firewire bus powered, and fit perfectly under a 15" powerbook.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:37 (7 years ago) Permalink

Oh, and for controllers checkout faderfox http://www.faderfox.de/
I haven't used them but they are designed just for Live and look quite nice.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

how do you "DJ" with abelton?

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

I'd stay away from the MBox. It's only 2 channels and for the same price you can get a good 4 or 6 channel box. When you buy the MBox you're paying a premium for decent mic pre-amps and the ability to run Pro Tools LE.

PS. I've been beta-testing Ableton Live 5 and the new DJ/Remix features are killer.

― jeffery (jeffery), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:44 (7 years ago) Permalink

Step 1: Play a track. Step 2: Crossfade to a new track. Step 3: Return to step 1.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

I cant wait to get my hands on live 5... Ive stoped converting mp3s to aifs and adding warp markers in version 4. Hope it comes out at the end of the month.

Jeff, how tight is the auto-tempo detection? Had any tunes that it cant figure out?

― Justin Baum (prosume), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

Step 4: Argue endlessly with vinyl purist

― jeffery (jeffery), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

Why do you need Ableton to do this?

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

You didn't ask why, you asked how!

Live 5 is awesome! The auto detect stuff is pretty good. The only real problem with it is that it doesn't really know where the downbeat is but you can nudge the tracks now (in any increment, determined by the quantize settings) so once you get 2 tracks lined up they stay locked pretty well. And the complex warp mode sounds a little better than any of the older ones. But it works best with dance music that has a steady beat.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:56 (7 years ago) Permalink

You need ableton so you dont have to pay 14 dollars for import 12"s from europe. You can buy tunes online for 2 dollars and skip the boring b-sides. It took me 2 years of not wanting to let go of vinyl and not beeing happy with final scratch or traktor to see the ableton light.

I can also keep more bicycles in my studio apartment without all the vinyl!

― Justin Baum (prosume), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:59 (7 years ago) Permalink

The auto-tempo detection is pretty good; I did have problems with a couple of things, but fixing messed up warp markers is still faster than trying to tap a tempo and setting your own. It works almost flawlessly on anything that's quantized.

I did a 70 minute mix for my brother-in-law this weekend, it took about 2 hours to import all the tracks, tweak beat markers, sequence it and output the file.

― jeffery (jeffery), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:02 (7 years ago) Permalink

live 5 is out already?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:03 (7 years ago) Permalink

live 5 is out as a beta.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:05 (7 years ago) Permalink

Ditto what Justin said. Now if more labels will just wake up and start releasing things digitally...

There is really no distinction between DJing and remixing when you're working with a tool like Live.

― jeffery (jeffery), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:08 (7 years ago) Permalink

twitch, you use live when you perform?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:09 (7 years ago) Permalink

Last time I looked at Ableton it looked like it didnt like mp3s. You needed WAVs or AIFFs or something. It seems like a big fucking hastle to use something as powerful as abelton if you just wanna DJ.

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:18 (7 years ago) Permalink

i certainly do. i've been using it for about 4 years but i still use vinyl too. usually a set would probably be 50% ableton / 50% vinyl. i've done a few sets just using live but i find i miss the physical aspect of mixing vinyl and think you get a slightly different energy from vinyl mixing. i doubt i'll ever go all laptop.

xpost

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

Agreed Jeff.

Although I am amazed at the progress over the past 6 months. Not sure what type of stuff your into but for me..

beatport.com, djdownloads.com, bleep.com and kompakt-mp3.net

.. all keep me well stocked on all the big releases. The fact that I can get everything distributed by Kompakt via digital download is still extremely exciting for me.

yet It is painful to look at a site like juno.co.uk or nuloop and see all the awesome "little guy" 12"s that slip through the cracks of the digital download sites.

A joke with a buddy of mine is... "hmmm do I want this $1.50 dancefloor fodder mp3 ... or a bottle of diet coke?"

― Justin Baum (prosume), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:21 (7 years ago) Permalink

Choppa, in live 4 it was a hassle, we had to manually set warp markers to lock in the tempos of each tune. And we had to use wavs or aiffs... now with Ableton 5, it does the warping automatically, and accepts mp3s.

stirmonster, I agree about the energy thing. For me the fix was running ableton into a DJ mixer at gigs. IMHO there is nothing better then running 3 channels from ableton into a DJ mixer.

― Justin Baum (prosume), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:26 (7 years ago) Permalink

... now with Ableton 5, it does the warping automatically, and accepts mp3s.

SWEET

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:27 (7 years ago) Permalink

i'll need to investigate that method justin.

i didn't download the beta as when i downloaded the beta for 4 it corrupted all my sets and i wasn't really up for risking that world of pain again. but, i am immensely excited about the auto detect thing as i spend hours setting warp markers every week (boring!!). how well does it work with tracks with slightly sloppy live drumming?

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:33 (7 years ago) Permalink

Give me an example and I'll test it out for you.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:34 (7 years ago) Permalink

stirmonster's records + live is done to excellent effect as witnessed at the Glass House in Brooklyn a few months ago. I especially liked the way he took the accapella drop from Konk's Your Life, which I had just played on moldy old vinyl, and dropped it on top of some slamming record to great effect.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:39 (7 years ago) Permalink

how well does it work with tracks with slightly sloppy live drumming?

multiplies "everything is everyone's fault"?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

thanks dan!

walter - if you can be bothered that would be great. try this -

http://s36.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=18OFTZSWI566Y1JK05K1GSB9PC

cutty - ha ha! that multiplies track was a warp marking nightmare.

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:50 (7 years ago) Permalink

where did you guys get the live 5 beta?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:53 (7 years ago) Permalink

I checked my bittorrent site but search was down :(

― get to thA CHOPPA / A++++++ SELLER (ex machina), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:57 (7 years ago) Permalink

Here you go stirmonster
[admin: link removed at poster's request]

I threw 3 mp3s in a set, didn't change any of their warpmarkers and it worked fine.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 19:14 (7 years ago) Permalink

The live beta is up here but it's currently full.
http://www.ableton.com/index.php?main=live5tour&sub=beta

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 19:16 (7 years ago) Permalink

Thanks people! You are the greatest!! I love you all!

― Go Pez, Monday, 4 July 2005 21:36 (7 years ago) Permalink

thanks walter!

― stirmonster (stirmonster), Monday, 4 July 2005 21:38 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

I can't work this thing out

: (

it's very complicated

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 9 September 2005 06:51 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

Hi guys any of you got the crack for live 5 pls mail me if so it will be of big help :)

― rendy pisani, Saturday, 1 October 2005 17:55 (7 years ago) Permalink

you are a cunt!

― TOSSER, Wednesday, 12 October 2005 10:49 (7 years ago) Permalink

no he is not. in some countries average gross annual income is less then 250 pounds. would you buy a copy?

― zxing, Thursday, 20 October 2005 14:23 (7 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

anybody messed with one of these?

― juniper jazz (haitch), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 01:34 (3 years ago) Permalink

it hits the shops here tomorrow.

― stirmonster, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 10:05 (3 years ago) Permalink

have had it for an hour and despite having the most minimal manual in history, i can say without hesitation it is amazing.

― stirmonster, Thursday, 28 May 2009 15:46 (3 years ago) Permalink

I've had this on pre-order from Musician's Friend for the last few weeks. I think they are supposed to have it very soon - I hope it isn't delayed! I've been itching to get my hands on it.

Check out the video at this link. Dude literally pops it out of its box, plugs it in, and starts jamming. Amazing!

― Moodles, Thursday, 28 May 2009 16:16 (3 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

i am seriously considering ponying up for an APC and live 8, i've fucked around a bit with ableton in the past but i get the feeling that the APC would really open it up for me.

― daniel merriweather post pavillion (haitch), Monday, 22 June 2009 03:06 (3 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

kinda excited for this: https://www.ableton.com/en/push/

― Anime Mann (diamonddave85), Friday, 26 October 2012 14:56 (6 months ago) Permalink

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