softcore

I’d prefer Logic too, if we are talking about DAWs – I thought the question was if you can use Maschine alone for music production – hence my first answer.

Finally got around to make that video for a music-tech website interview so here it is! This is only a small portion-demo of my set up – nothing fansy really but I think it gets the point across. 😉

[media=youtube]qr7-K8YEGdA[/media]

Maximlee, post: 30822, member: 2165 wrote: It surpirises me that almost everyone is defending mp3s compared to WAV.

That was not my point actually – I hope it didnt come across like this… 😉

EQ:
Apulsoft Apqualizr
reasons: transparent, accurate, FFT analyser built in
http://www.apulsoft.ch/apqualizr/

limiter-maximiser:
Voxengo Elephant
reasons:transparent, I love Voxengo plugs
http://www.voxengo.com/product/elephant/

Slate Digital FG-X
reasons: punch, warm sound, listen to it and you tell me 😉
http://www.slatedigital.com/products/fgx/

Wouldnt use the Launchpad with anything else other than Ableton Live as it is a controller strictly attached to Live’s workflow. It “can be used” with other software, but in reality it will be just a matrix of buttons (it only sends note on-off messages) and unless you are a Max/MSP programmer freak there’s not much else you can do with it – dont get me wrong, its a great device for its purpose and I love it – not regreted getting it, BUT its purpose is not what you are trying to achieve with your set up!

The rest of the stuff seem all like they could do what you are planning to do but better wait for more informed replies by people who use them.

And actually what is your preferred software? I think this will play a big role in choosing the right controller-mixer.

😉

Maximlee, post: 30560, member: 2165 wrote:
Softcore you say that my statement is wrong and im not really in a postion were i have a system to prove it but you have to ask yourself the question… what is happening when you convert a wav file to mp3? you cant not argue that information is compressed and lost. there is 1091 kps taken out… you have took out rough 4/5 of the information and your saying that there is no harmonics and overtones in that.

Of course we have a degradation of quality because, of course, we have subtraction of audio data. What I meant is that the specific statement: “subtle harmonics are not there” is wrong. Do make a research on what actually science defines as harmonics and overtones and then you will understand that mp3 encoding is a lot more complicated than just saying that it takes harmonics/overtones out – the statement simply doesnt makes sense.

Secondly, I will disagree with the notion that our bodies feel a greater range of what science, up to now, tells us we are able to hear. Unless again, you have any official research and theory to provide me links to – its easy to all just go about and talk based on our thoughts, ideas, theories and/or misconceptions/preconceptions but when I discuss about sound in the way it should be discussed, scientfically, all these notions have to go out the window.
Surely, i’ll say that very low bass can be “felt” due to the vibrations it is causing to the environment and our own bodies – even then one would argue that its not the sound we feel, its the effects it has on our surroundings – you cant tell by the bass rumbling of a room anything about the tonality of the bass (what note is it)…As for higher frequencies? I higly doubt so, again if there is any official creditable research you can point me out to, I’ll happily study and learn more about my favourite subject: sound. 😉
The “i felt it with my body” thing, for me is definitely placebo effect when we discuss about sound quality. Finally, we didnt even touch the subject of WHAT exactly speakers one used to feel such frequencies as all the speakers I currently know of, are built on the notion that we do not listen to anything lower or higher, WHAT tracks we listened and felt such frequencies since all are made with content in the standardised 20hz-20khz range and generally what equipment one used because all the manuals of all the equipment of sound do tend to prove that nothing is reproduced lower than 20hz and higher than 20khz. So how does anyone feel anything?

128mp3s DO sound worse compared to .wav and that is not due to “pur bodies feeling the sound” – there is a huge difference in the reprodcution of especially the high frequencies where an effect similar to ring modulation takes place and the stereo image in a low quality mp3 format.

Finally, I will totally agree that, as you mentioned, we should strive to educate listeners to at least use more sensible formats and sound reproduction devices because thats where the real problem is. In that sense, this is why Im not such an enemy of the mp3 – its a format, which when used with a bit of knowledge, you can have a decent result to the end user without taking up big space in his storage device.

Maximlee, post: 30538, member: 2165 wrote:
[FONT=Tahoma] if you are playing 320 mp3s… all the subtle harmonics are simply not there… [/FONT]

This is a wrong statement!

it is true however that the lesser the sound is processed by the DJ (so, by the software/hardware he uses) the more accurate the sound will be (therefore “better”). Especially with the auto-gain/limiter combo things can get nasty. Given the fact that 99% of all today’s tracks are compressed and limited like there’s no tomorrow, there really is no point in using an input gain (the gain in traktor). Most likely, you are gonna cause the track to go clipping, which will in turn force you to rely on the limiter of Traktor, which in turn, its not that great of a limiter.

My advice is to never use auto-gain, in fact never use Traktor’s gain – if you have an older track that sounds “lower” in volume, normalize it in an external wave editor. If it still sounds “lower” in volume, just decide if you are gonna play it or not – maybe, as a production it cannot “stand” in a mix with another track. Traktor’s limiter on the other hand is useful to catch the odd clippings here and there when you are mixing two or more tracks – but thats just about all it can do. When you are mixing more than 3 tracks, if you dont know how to mix them, the limiter will not suffice – the sound will go out nasty and distorted.

P.S: the reason I used “lower” in brackets is because sometimes a track’s perceived loudness is lower – that does not necessarily means it actually is lower in volume. Perceived loudness is dependent on stuff like the dynamics processing that has been done to the track (compression, limiter), the orchestration-genre, the structure of the mix and the mastering process – in these cases, gain cannot do much because usually the track is not actually lower in volume – it still reaches 0db so there is no point in applying gain. In fact when you do apply gain to it, you just cause it too get “extra-limited” which, with the Traktor’s limiter will not yield the best of results. Long story short, a track which is perceived lower in volume but is not, is a hard thing for a DJ to fix.

Tip #3 – Ableton Live does not have a native “templates” system – you only get to define one default template with which the software opens. You can however, start a new project, add the channels, return tracks, instruments and effects you use most often and save the whole project as something like “My_x_template”. Create as many projects with varying instruments and effects as you wish.
Next time you want to start Ableton Live with one of these pre-defined projects (templates), just double click on any of them (instead of the Ableton Live application shortcut) to start a new working project. For ease of use, you can also create shortcuts of these projects-templates on your desktop – just remember that upon adding content, you might want to re-save with another name so that you keep your empty, starting project-template intact.
Of course, the same can be done if you are DJing with Ableton Live – after setting up all the channels, effects, controller mappings, etc. that you want to DJ with, and before adding any tracks in the project save it as something like “My_DJing_setup” and use that everytime you want to build a set-playlist.