Controversial Discussion, Opinions Needed

Fairly new DJ myself, but what I have learned is part of being a great DJ is being able to read the crowd and play tracks that they will respond to.

My biggest fear in recording a premade track would be the crowd not responding to it as they would switching to a different genre or losing the ability to drop in something with a catchy hook to bring them back in.

Outside of that quite a few DJs I know have mixes made that they play early in the night as the room fills up.

There is actually already a topic about this. Look through it and i think you will find some very useful stuff.

http://www.digitaldjtips.com/forum/threads/do-you-know-any-djs-who-dont-mix.3959/

Producer/DJ’s that write their own songs, such as your friend, tend to have a slightly different view of live performance. The line gets blurry with titles anymore but these producers tend to see themselves as more original musicians and DJ’ing as a necessity for live performance. In other words if you were in an original rock band you’re going to play your set of songs that you wrote, maybe you’ll switch up the order or throw in a cover song but you’re still not deviating much from that piece of paper taped to the floor….. even if the crowd isn’t digging it. Now I’m sure someone would say a DJ should read the crowd and adapt but that’s where these individuals will fall back on my original point that they view themselves more as original musicians & not DJ’s.

the same unwritten rules don’t apply to producers, they make the stuff that makes everyone move… if they want they can do something regular dj can’t do, which is modify the track live, if they wan’t a section enlargened or shorter ableton makes it very easy to do, they can also tweek synths and effects live which brings a whole new level of performance… It sounds like the perfect solution to play your songs with well known songs short of bridging serato, rewiring your daw into vdj or torq or hacking in traktor using jack and the midi clock.

If I produced that is what I would do and stay busy, but I have never been able to make something I’m happy with so prefer to keep my ears tuned in to the mix and myself busy with beatmatching. For me sync takes a lot of the fun out of it and i guess it’s like smoking I like to keep my hands and mind busy.

I’m not really sure what you mean by “too advanced,” isn’t that kind of what you’re doing already? You’re an Ableton user, but you don’t use any of the production or performance horsepower Ableton offers? What was the point of buying Live then? A production set is usually played “MPC style,” with a long string of flexible sequences comprised of a ton of various tracks, all triggered and looping as designated, but with each sequence having it’s own characteristics, forming a “pattern.” There’s also mini clip launching, but that’s more of a song/mashup tool than a flexible performance option.

To answer your question, I don’t really understand the point of making a prerecorded set and tweaking it, when in fact doing that is way more of a pain in the ass then just stringing the sequences and patterns live.