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How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:18 pm
by Leskey
Yo!

I am feeling a bit lately that I would like to incorporate some of my own stuff for my mixing/djing. So I guess the easiest would be to somehow incorporate alt. completely switching to mixing in ableton.

Anyone here have some experience with "live + regular mix hybrid"-sets? And what's your tips on how to make it work? At home I only have access to 1000-players so no midi-clock.

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:00 am
by victer
the easiest way would be to burn your stuff on a cd. I did this in the past for dj sets so I could hear my tracks on a proper system but you really have to trust your stuff as it has to stand against the "pro" tracks you will play. In my case I was rather disapointed so I went full Live and level the whole set down to fit my bad tracks :D

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 12:54 pm
by terly
What sort of samples do you mean? Or do you mean your own productions? Or do you mean live remixing with a set of samples/clips?

On 1000s the best way would be to put your tracks on USB or CD (who uses CDs anymore?) and mix them in. I usually play a few of my own in my sets. Just leave enough headroom so that you aren't maxing out your tracks to get them to sound loud enough in the context.

If you want to use short clips/samples, the best way is probably with Traktor. You can have two main decks and two "sample" decks. I have never really done this but I know it's an option.

Another way would be to have your computer running Ableton, play your live set or whatever, and then mix into it with your decks. I've never used Ableton like this but there are ways to tempo sync and get it to play in time without a MIDI link. On 1000s you'd be using your ears a lot, unless you have a set tempo for your set and don't alter it, but that would be pretty boring.

To be honest I'm not exactly sure what you are asking!

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 5:34 pm
by Root
I play vinyl sets and bring my own tracks on usb to mix them via cdj. There you have a vinyl mode and with a bit experience it's easy and a fun way to play things that you don't own on vinyl.

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:31 pm
by Planar
Interesting topic as I'm currently making my DJ setup a little more hybrid myself. But its pretty simple to do with Serato. With just some CDJ's to play with I'd just burn my own tracks and play them, I'm not sure its worth the faff of trying anything more complex.

Back when I was doing it, I used to mix my Ableton sets into the previous DJ's by assigning a fader to the master tempo in ableton and riding it like a pitch slider on a deck. Totally doable with a little practice and a controller with the right stiffness to the faders (a little resistance helps for slight adjustments).

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:37 pm
by Leskey
Yeah to use my own productions during sets. But not a whole track. Just to load in clips during my set. Mixing into ableton from the currently playing track seems like a good way to kill the vibe...

So victer you only mix via Live? What controller do you use and do you still mix externally or internally?

My problem is probably not owning enough cdjs to just have one designated for segments of track for glueing together my mix. Also at home I only have a 2 × 2 channel xone23 mixer. I mean i could make all channels line level, it's kinda easy, but don't see any easy way of cueing the third source... Unless everything is based of ableton?

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2017 9:42 pm
by Leskey
Planar: So you just use an external midi controller for your sets? Or what's your setup?

I kinda wanna keep the feeling of "standard cdj / Vinyl mixing" but just add a little extra originality by mixing my own loops in...

I dislike the idea of the traktor mixing way where the job wheel is basically abundant.

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:43 am
by Planar
I played exclusively with Ableton for about a year maybe 10 years ago now. I used a dedicated controller to do it and chopped up lots of tracks and tried to reconstruct stuff in my sets. It was a lot of work to keep fresh and to be honest I preferred beat matching the music and being more involved in that sense. I always felt a little detached from the process when it was all in sync for me.

I've been using Serato since 2008 in a basic 2 channel DVS setup with my 1210's. But I've recently got a Xone DB2 which can run Serato itself so now that opened up an extra 2 channels to play loops and samples which the software can keep in sync with my tracks playing from vinyl (I have no realistic way of controlling their pitches manually). So I've added an old NI X1 controller I've had for ages back into the mix to control the starting/stopping of the extra decks. I'm still working through a lot of it, which is why I haven't done a mix for a good while now (that, and the bloody kids!).

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:41 pm
by Leskey
Planar wrote:I played exclusively with Ableton for about a year maybe 10 years ago now. I used a dedicated controller to do it and chopped up lots of tracks and tried to reconstruct stuff in my sets. It was a lot of work to keep fresh and to be honest I preferred beat matching the music and being more involved in that sense. I always felt a little detached from the process when it was all in sync for me.
Yeah, that's been my feeling when mixing on traktor midi controllers. It just feels as though your putting a spotify-playlist together. It's not as engaging imo.
Planar wrote:I've been using Serato since 2008 in a basic 2 channel DVS setup with my 1210's. But I've recently got a Xone DB2 which can run Serato itself so now that opened up an extra 2 channels to play loops and samples which the software can keep in sync with my tracks playing from vinyl (I have no realistic way of controlling their pitches manually). So I've added an old NI X1 controller I've had for ages back into the mix to control the starting/stopping of the extra decks. I'm still working through a lot of it, which is why I haven't done a mix for a good while now (that, and the bloody kids!).
Yeah ok. Well, I don't really have that money to put there you know. I mean I theoretically could by a whole lot of gear, but pritorities with the kid and the mrs have to come first, eh?
I guess I'm stuck at mixing the good old fashioned way... for now :lol:

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:43 pm
by msl
Planar wrote:Back when I was doing it, I used to mix my Ableton sets into the previous DJ's by assigning a fader to the master tempo in ableton and riding it like a pitch slider on a deck. Totally doable with a little practice and a controller with the right stiffness to the faders (a little resistance helps for slight adjustments).
Really cleaver idea, never thought of it! Thanks! :shock:

Re: How to incorporate own clips/samples when mixing

Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:05 pm
by over9000
well you could get a mixer with digital integration, like the a&H 43c, and get a controler to trigger the extra decks. or i jsut realized, for the same money you could get atleast two used cdjs, 350s or something. iam thinking about getting a third one too