DJing with just Laptop Software & MIDI Controllers

ve

Hi, I used to DJ years (10+ years ago) but still have a humble knowledge of what I'm talking about, or so I would like to think . A good bit has changed over the last few years and I want to help out my younger brother select some gear. He has some electronic music production experience, and wants to get in to DJing and instead of forking out on the best Pioneer gear (not really an option financially right now), we want to keep costs down and have been looking at using the PC/Mac software and MIDI controller alternative to the more standard CDJ/DJM approach.

I have some recent experience in this area but have found that some software really automates "too much" of the DJing experience. E.g. I do not want the software to automatically pitch and beat match, I would much rather be able to do this with my ear (as would my brother). Yet when I look at the likes of Ableton demos on youtube, it's all click here, click there and you end up with a beat match but a modulated audio stream that sounds like a poor (24kbps) audio stream off the internet from the days before broadband. I see how popular this approach to DJing has become and it certainly brings the cost of equipment down, but surely it's not all automated. My brother has an excellent ear and is rhthmically brilliant (a professional drummer), and would be insulted if I suggested he use something that takes the skill out of it.

Surely when I used to use decks myself back in the day it was just firmware in the decks/mixer themselves that did the digital signal processing before sending the final sound to the amp. I appreciate that this is probably a really simplified and somewhat ignorant view and I ask someone to please bring me up to speed on what is going on out there?. We just want something fairly inexpensive that will let us DJ manually with a hard disk full of MP3s and produce a sound that isn't processed to death.

I have looked at the Vestax VCI-100 as a cost effective controller option, but again when it comes to the best software to use we're absolutely lost.

Please any help you can offer we would really appreciate it, cheers

chordtype

Traktor maybe?

Stab*City

i use ableton and the akai apc40.. as for the poor sound quality after warping tracks there are a few settings in ableton to improve the quality of track playback after "beatmatching" called warp modes..

strange though that you think this type of software takes the skill out of djing.. as in my mind there is not much skill involved in syncing two records/cds together.. its pretty easy anyone one with a good ear and a set of headphones can beatmix after being shown a few times.. The majority of djs i have heard can all beatmix quite easily its the actual mixing (the end result, what comes out the speakers) in my mind what makes a dj, and this is where 90% of "dj's" fail..

im quite happy with my choice of software/kit.. it retails for around 350-400 and comes with a version of ableton live lite.. both are totally made for each other.. and now that i dont have to worry about scratching in a beat or holding pitch in time on a deck it frees me up to actually mix.

Download the trial versions of all the mixing software and see what takes your fancy..

electrogrimey

I'll let Mr.Hawtin explain why digitally beatmatching is ok:

vinylbomb

Seconded. Use the gear to free you up to do other things. Its been said before but monkeys can be trained to beatmatch.

BTW thats an excellent video of Hawtins setup, its a little out of date now (the rig used for the recent M-Nus shows was like something out of the Apollo landing!) but the basic idea is the same, and as relevant as ever.

Dragan

Ideally, added simplicity to beat matching makes for more interesting possibilities, especially for the Producer/Performer.

My last couple of tracks have all been written in FL and exported to clips, the loaded up into Ableton and i get to play around launching differ 8 bar sections of drums with different sections of leads and bass etc.....an effective "live performance" scenario.

Traktor has gotten great reviews wherever i have seen it talked about, i use Ableton myself.

You generally get "lite" versions of things with a midi controller, so it should only be a one shot layout of little cash to get your brother what he needs to start experimenting.

rayhartjnr

I splashed out on 800 decks and 600 mixer a few years back, I often wonder would i have been better served with ableton or traktor and a decent controller.

I would advise anyone thinking of investing in a dj set up to get a novation contoller with plenty of knobs and sliders and a copy of traktor.

It's what all the young ones are doin'!! e.g. surkin, bobmo etc.

and they don't even seem to use a soundcard or nothing, just straight outta the line out!!

I do think you lose that hands on feel a bit though and the 'flow' of the mix can be a bit rigid.

and some tracks dont seem to beatmatch properly in software and better results are achieved doing it on real decks but this is propably cause I'm not using the software properly!

Anyway software all the way!

rayhartjnr

sorry didnt read the original post properly, ya can manually adjust tempo in traktor if ya want, you could just assign the tempo control to a slider on your controller.

Pingu-D

serato scratch is quite nice if u want to keep using your vinyls.....its basically the "industry standard" problem is it comes with no built in effects....other alternatives are traktor scratch pro....iv used serato and it is really easy to use and is reliable as hell in comparison to the other software! after that Ableton Live with a midi controller is the way to go! with a bit of thought and work on ur mixes before hand it really does free you up creativity wise! and once ur usin 320 kbps tracks and not tryin to do the impossible like making a genres that have massive temp changes work jus via warping, the sound quality is usually spot on!

electrogrimey

Pingu-D wrote: »

serato scratch is quite nice if u want to keep using your vinyls.....its basically the "industry standard" problem is it comes with no built in effects....

Wouldn't really agree with that, I'd say since Scratch Pro came out, Traktor has become the industry standard of digtal DJing, althought it's pretty tight, after looking it up.

Serato have Dave Clarke, DJ Yoda, A-Trak, Steve Aoki, Sasha, Diplo.

Traktor have Richie Hawtin, Carl Cox, Carl Craig, Grandmaster Flash, Speedy J & Chris Liebling, Dubfire, Pete Tong and Umek.

I think Traktor takes it TBH.

Pingu-D

electrogrimey wrote: »

Wouldn't really agree with that, I'd say since Scratch Pro came out, Traktor has become the industry standard of digtal DJing, althought it's pretty tight, after looking it up.

Serato have Dave Clarke, DJ Yoda, A-Trak, Steve Aoki, Sasha, Diplo.

Traktor have Richie Hawtin, Carl Cox, Carl Craig, Grandmaster Flash, Speedy J & Chris Liebling, Dubfire, Pete Tong and Umek.

I think Traktor takes it TBH.

Traktor has seen massive improvements in the last couple updates and its gettin very very tight but iv used both and always found serato to be a lot more reliable....and less likely to crash etc!

electrogrimey

Pingu-D wrote: »

Traktor has seen massive improvements in the last couple updates and its gettin very very tight but iv used both and always found serato to be a lot more reliable....and less likely to crash etc!

A lot of that would rely on the computer running it, I've had no problems with Traktor. Although, seeing as Traktor Pro is relatively new, I imagine new Firmware will continue to be released making it more stable.