Sean Nash

Over on the crack, I mean ALDJ I have met several great guys, but no one has inspired me like Sean.  A one time aldj, he has gone back to using CDJs for DJing, but is still using Ableton to produce with.  And produce he does.  It seems like at least once a week he has a new track that he is trying out, and each track is better than the rest.

What's really great is that a couple of his tracks have been released on an EP.  It just goes to show you that talent will be discovered.

Justify It

One of the major complaints that people have about Ableton DJs is that they have lost the interaction with the music because that are not beat matching. The rebuttal to that argument is that by using Ableton we as DJs have so much more power available to us through effects and multiple channels that our DJing sets have a potential to be much more exciting. Unfortunately, many Ableton users don't back that up, but instead do a traditional a-b approach that looses the organic nature of having to manually beat match but has no gain from using computers.

Danny Stamp, a DJ based out of London falls into hat category. And this posting is not intended to bash on him by any means, far from that. In reviewing one of Danny's recent mix I told him that although the mix was decent, it did not take me to the next level and suggested that he break out of the two channel paradigm. Being the big man that he is, Danny listened to the criticism and gave four channel mixing a try.

Below is Danny's mix along with my review from the ALDJ forum:

Danny Stamp - Mood Music (tech/deep house)
http://www.myspace.com/dannystamp

Decided to do something different and try running a mix with 2 or 3 channels pretty much constantly on the go, with 4 active at some points. It's allowed me to squeeze in some tracks I otherwise wouldn't have been able to include. Tracklisting may be confusing as some tracks are only used for a small portion of the mix.

Download it here (right click save as)

Total time: 61:09

[01] Tarekith - Coil - [artist MP3 - www.tarekith.com]
[02] Andy Stott - Massacre - [Modern Love]
[03] Tarekith - Tidal - [artist MP3 - www.tarekith.com]
[04] Ricardo Villalobos - Primer Encuentro Latino-Americano - [Sei Es Drum]
[05] Rufus Wainwright - Tiergarten (Supermayer remix) - [Polydor]
[06] Gel Abril - Very Wrong (Chaim remix) - [Be As One Imprint]
[07] Cirez D - Teaser (Deadmau5 remix version 2) - [Mouseville]
[08] Marascia & Dusty Kid - Plumbi - [Boxer Recordings]
[09] Daniel Portman - White Russian - [Unreleased Digital]
[10] The Rice Twins - Goatee - [K2]
[11] Anja Schneider - Belize - [Mobilee]
[12] Danton Eeprom - These Eyes - [Fondation Records]
[13] Henry & Denis - Catabolism (Efdemin remix) - [Dessous Records]
[14] Efdemin - Just a Track - [Dial]
[15] Samuel L Session feat Elbee Bad - Off the Chain (main mix) - [Klap Klap]
[16] Andreas Heiszenberger - Perfect Moment (Efdemin's Cremant De Cramant mix) - [Brut!]
[17] Gabriel Ananda - Trommelstunde - [Karmarouge]
[18] The Rice Twins - Can I Say - [K2]
[19] Oliver Moldan Pres. Prawler - Club 69 (Jim Rivers Club 96 mix) - [Audio Therapy]
[20] Danton Eeprom - All I Can Say (Shonky's remix) - [Freak 'n' Chic]
[21] DJ Koze - All the Time - [Philpot]
[22] Paul Kalkbrenner - Press On (Joris Voorn remix) - [BPitch Control]
[23] Jamie Lloyd - May I (Quarion remix) - [Future Classic]

My review:

"So I gave the mix a solid listen this morning. First off I am impressed that you are making an effort to push the boundaries. It takes a lot to put yourself out there like that, and if you don't mind I want to post a blog about this.

I enjoyed your mix. I think that this mix had a much looser feeling to it than the last one, and the way the tracks came in and out it felt more traditional just because the rising energy. However, after 45 minutes of listening sonically my brain needed a rest from all the activity that was going on. I think it was Richie Hawtin that said that the silence is just as important as the music.

What I think you should work on developing is a balance of straight a-b mixing and layering of sounds (either as loops or just multiple songs). What I would suggest is start mixing a-b with a couple of extra channels left open. As you are playing and cueing songs you will hear things, maybe a riff, some drums, or a voice that stands out and makes you think, this would really work good withe the song that is playing. When you hear that, bring that element in. You can either loop that element throughout a song, or grab several elements and play with the transition. The key is to be free and experiment. by fine tuning your approach a little, i.e. I have 4 channels open to me, but I don't have to use them all of the time, you will let your mix breath. Overlay 4 elements and bring the energy way up and then drop that bass line for that key track and let it play.

You are definitely on to something here so keep up the good work."

- Charles Cushman

Xlr8r TV

Xlr8r has a pretty cool video podcast that I have been watching for a while and this week's episode they started a new segment called "What's Up Willits?" with Christopher Willits in which he shows his set-up for recording and performing with his guitar.  What's great about it is that he goes pretty in-depth to how he sets up Ableton Live to capture loops including how he runs the audio from the guitar into the program and how he sets up multiple channels to capture the loops.

What really caught my interest was the capturing of the loops on the fly. I am going to give it a try this weekend with my DJ set-up. This might be a great middle ground between the added interaction with the music that I feel with beat matching and the looping capabilities of Ableton. On a side note the pocket fader he is using in the video seems like a nice way to add multiple faders to my studio.

Get the video here.

Looping on the Fly in Ableton Live

Here is another subject that keeps coming up over at the ALDJ forum, looping on the fly in Ableton without using a mouse or keyboard.  Ableton's looping capabilities is one of the key reasons why i use the program.  Being able to create loops on the fly on time and not having to monitor them as they play is a great asset.

From the ALDJ Forum:

"Here is a tip for looping on the fly that I though most people already did. I thought this one was kind of easy, but based on this quote and a conversation I had with someone else maybe it is not so obvious:

In Live 6, to loop on the fly assign a midi button to the "Track Status Display" for each track that you are using. Then also assign a midi button to the loop on-off, start point, and end point button. I have my global quantization set to one bar, but if you want to create finer loops set it for something smaller.

To capture a loop on the fly hit the button for that track's status. Note that the status button only works if the track is playing. Now that you can see the wave form for that track hit the start button where you want the loop to start and the end button where you want it to stop. If your warping is tight, you now have a perfect loop. To exit the loop turn off the loop button.

A couple of notes.

- Make sure that you are looking at the correct song before you start the loop. Every now and then I loop the wrong track and it takes a second to realize what is going on.
- If you hit the track start button the track will go back to the beginning.
- If you turn off the loop, but realize it was the wrong moment as long as the playhead is in the loop brackets you can turn it back on.
- If you are not sure where you want the loop to start you can "ride" the start button, i.e. hit it over and over to it feel right. The loop open bracket will just keep on moving. Then when you feel that you have it right just close the loop. This works because the loop automatically defaults to include the entire song."

-Charles Cushman