x

A Life Story and a Young Man Seeking Advice

Home 2023 › Forums › Introduce Yourself › A Life Story and a Young Man Seeking Advice

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • July 24, 2012 at 5:35 am #1008463
    Kyle Windsor
    Member

    Hi Matt.

    My name’s Kyle and I’m an 18 year old university student near London, Ontario (Canada). I’m going into my second year of university to study astrophysics. I was the tech kid too.

    I can’t answer your question about doing live mashups as it’s never appealed to me.

    However, if I were you, I’d just use Ableton. Mashups in a club setting are very, very rudimentary at best – I use Traktor because I just do mixing when DJing. Ableton’s extremely flexible, but Traktor’s far more simplistic.

    I’m not sure what you mean by requiring a mixer with XLR out, as you could just record mashups in advance and play them from Ableton/Traktor/VDJ/etc. Personally, that’d be my choice because again, I just mix. Using a launchpad and doing mashups and finger drumming live only has the “wow” effect in parties and on YouTube, reason being that in a club people are just dancing really. It’s up to you, kind of like how some DJs manually beatmatch just because it adds challenge and satisfaction.

    As for picking a controller, if you do it live, you’re gonna need a 4-deck controller, or you won’t be able to mix out in time. If you prerecord mashups, you could get an S2 or something a bit cheaper. Save up if you can – I bought a Hercules DJ MK4 and now it’s a moderately-priced paperweight.

    Welcome to the wonderful world of DJing, anyways!

    July 24, 2012 at 6:21 am #1008466
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    welcome to the forums. quite a story you got there friend 🙂 I like it. being interested in many things and broaden your horizon is always a good thing.

    now to your first question: yes, there are several DJs who use ableton and launchpads (or launchpad style interfaces like midi fighters, midi drumpads,…) to DJ and make live mashups and mixes. I cannot comment too much as I use ableton solely to produce before a gig and then use VDJ to DJ, but I have seen very nice things done with that kind of gear and if it is your cup of tea, by all means go for it.

    July 24, 2012 at 1:46 pm #1008493
    Matt-C
    Member

    Thanks to both of you!

    Kyle, I agree that it would be tough to do a mashup live, and make it sound polished. I would likely just do them in advance at home and then have a library of my own personal tracks that I could play via VDJ or Traktor on a controller. As for finger drumming, its not needed in a club setting because, as you said, people are just there to dance.

    Terry, thanks for the encouragement!

    Overall, I think I’m leaning towards the idea of just starting with a LaunchPad for home producing. And once I’m comfortable with that and have built up a small library of my personal mixes/mashups, then I’ll look into getting a controller to accomplish this. Is it possible to use a LaunchPad simply as a sample back in Traktor? Because if it is, then I think I would do that. Just to have some extra options. And you’re right Kyle that if I had my own mashups already done that I could get away with using the S2, but I’m looking at the S4 and thinking “I want it now” ahaha. I’ll just have to save up my pennies and dimes then!

    Thanks for all your advice! Much appreciated 🙂

    July 24, 2012 at 1:51 pm #1008494
    Terry_42
    Keymaster

    Good stuff. Just start with the Launchpad and then see what floats your boat.
    For Traktor and the S4 you better ask Steelo, as he is an avid fan of both. I am more known to be a great critic of Traktor and the S4 😉
    You should prolly also checkout Serato and VDJ just so you see what alternatives there are and both also integrate with Ableton very well or of course you can just use Ableton also for live performance.
    Try all alternatives and then choose.

    July 24, 2012 at 2:08 pm #1008499
    Matt-C
    Member

    Yes for sure. I’ve messed around a little bit with the free VDJ Home but I get a little frustrated with my lack of a controller. I like the LaunchPad a lot but I’m also looking at the APC40 for the extra knobs. Just wiggling my options and trying to figure out what I must have, would like, and don’t really need. Decisions, decisions….

    July 30, 2012 at 3:28 am #24816
    Matt-C
    Member

    In case you were wondering, I picked up a Launchpad 😛 I’m currently just trying to create my own loops in Ableton using my Keystudio and then I’m going to mash ’em together on the Launchpad afterward 🙂 Thanks for the advice!

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • The forum ‘Introduce Yourself’ is closed to new topics and replies.