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Ultimate DJ Template

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:46 am
by Goran@Irrupt
hello guys,

after a lot of time spent searching this forum for the best and most practical DJ template i stocked to this one, 'couse for me it seemed very well organized and easy to work with.

it was made and written (there's a really good Lesson chapter included) by Chad Carrier, as a supplement to Ableton Live 4 Power! book. i'm sure a lot of you are using this template already, but i wanted to make your attention to it once again 'couse it was originally written for Live 4 and i have added a couple of Beat repeats here and there, min/maximized some tracks (because it's now possible to do that ;))and assigned knobs and buttons of my X-Session to it. so, the benefit of this template will find mostly noobs and people who are using X Session to Dj with Live. if it helps to anyone else, even better.

first, i'd recommend you to check out the Lesson, it explains really good what's going on in this template. to simplify it a little bit, you have - four decks (A1, A2, B1 and B2), one Cue channel, one Impulse channel and one channel for Loops/Accapelas (or whatever else comes to your mind). there are also three eturn tracks (mix-cue, delay & reverb). you'll notice, i minimized A2 and B2 decks, that's because i don't use them.

now, check out how i mapped keys of my keyboard and knobs and buttons of my X Session. o/p - up and down, q/w/e/r/t - triggers rows. that way you can easily fire-up any clip in your session. every "deck" that i'm using (A1, B1, Loops) have four knobs assigned to it. one to send (to ping-pong delay), two to Beat repeat (Grid, Pitch) and one to EQ3's Freq Low. one of the buttons of X Session is assigned to Beat repeat's "Repeat" button. BR's output is set to Ins, because i've found out i'm getting the best results in that way (no flange). i've also found out that assigning only one knob to EQ3's Freq Low will do the job just fine. i wanna say, you can save a couple of knobs for some other functions, you don't need to assign knobs to every button in EQ3. Freq Low will cut the kick and bass and that's what you need when you mix two songs. if you need Hi pass filter, there is one on the master channel. two knobs are assigned to it ;)

did i forget something...? oh, yeah, there are buttons assigned to the effects on the master channel. on/off of the filter and chorus.
X fader is assigned to... erm... :roll:

ok, that's about it. i want to thank Chad again for making this great template and for sharing it with us. great job!
if you have any comments about it, if you'd assigned X Session in any other way, if you'd put some other effects in to it, please share your thoughts here.
i know i'm having a lot of fun playing with it and am quite pleased with the results.

you can download template HERE.

w :!:

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 10:22 pm
by rentanutta
Tried opening the file, but it is coming up with an error. (that this was created for a more recent, incompatible version of live)

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:43 pm
by Nixon
there is an error unpacking the .rar

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:47 pm
by Goran@Irrupt
i've downloaded it myself. i unpacked the rar file with no probs.

w :!:

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:46 am
by smog g
yey! there are some outstanding 808 samples in there. i only miss my beloved cowbell

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:00 am
by The Phat Conductor
no offence, but this template is totally basic. calling it the 'ultimate dj template' is a bit much.

where's the beat repeaters set to do hiphop style juggles on the master? where's the iac midi bus programmed to do automation and triggering on multiple tracks with a single mouse click? where's the supatrigga crossfade bus? where's the utility plugin to take out all mono sounds in a mix? why is the cueing done in such a backwards way?

i really don't think this template is even worth a download unless you have never djed with ableton before.

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:03 am
by Goran@Irrupt
:lol:

fancy to post yours? :wink:

w :!:

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:08 am
by Goran@Irrupt
no, really...

i'd love to see you playing live. any mixes of yours online?

w :!:

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:21 am
by The Phat Conductor
sure

track 1 = spare clips/live sampling, routed to track 2 when i need it.
track 2, 3, 4 = decks, output to multiple outputs and mixed with a hardware mixer.
then i have a bunch of impulses with stabs and samples to trigger from the trigger finger. i automate arpeggiators on and off when i want to stutter things or randomize them. those midi plugins are cheap on the processor and can really do a lot.

on each track

-eq4s set to hp/lp mode for filtering,
-eq3s in case i need a little boost somewhere,
-beatrepeaters on every track. (set to 1/4 note interval, with 1/8 note grid to get hiphop juggles... automate to taste)
-that utility trick where you eliminate mono panned sounds...

busses and tricks

-delay bus with an eq4 hp/lp and feedback adjustment
-supatrigga crossdfade for when you want backwards/slowdowns
-live sampling with built in laptop mic, or plug in mic
-beatrepeater on the master
-iac midi bus (go into audio midi setup on your mac and activate it) then you can have an automated pair of hands to do whatever you like, put the midi data into clips and trigger em to your heart's content. automating little juggles like this sounds nice...
-make a program on the trigger finger where it sends midi cc numbers and then use it to poke fx on/off really nice for little flanges or mashes or whatever.

scenes

i cannot stress how important it is so use scenes if you do a lot of tempo/genre changin or want to do any live remixes of old funk tunes or whatever. you need to be able to switch tempo fast (name them xxxbpm and they change when you click em).

it is also really nice to be able to start your old funk sample with the eq settings set all perfect and a beat ready to be mixed in.

i see a lot of people only having one or two clips on the screen for each track, and i just can't fathom it. it would be so limiting! i have three or four clips for each song with different cue points and automation settings. there are probably a few hundred clips in my pa.

anyway, that should keep you busy...

the rest is top secret ;) for my students and musician buddies only...

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:23 am
by The Phat Conductor
my site is www.thephatconductor.com you should check out the live at shambhala mixset here www.thephatconductor.com/tracklist-shambhala.htm . i used that template for that set.

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:24 am
by Goran@Irrupt
cool! 8O

thanks.

w :!:

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 2:33 am
by The Phat Conductor
only for good... never evil.

;)

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 5:47 pm
by Peter Doubt
Great set bro!! Do you use MP3s or AIFF/WAV ?? I have found its a pain in the butt for Live to always have to reload/decode the MP3 files every time. Any suggestions?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:11 pm
by djshubs
Phat Conductor,
I would really appreciate it if you could load up your tempelate set so as to better understand the workings of Ableton. I personally want to make my own set (on the grounds of Sasha) so i guess i can't call it my own, but you get my drift.

I really want to figure out how to break up big songs into individual bits of intro/break/beats and stuff like that.

Would anyone be willing to help?

Shubs

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 8:46 pm
by hambone1
Fantastic stuff! That's the kind of innovation and creativity that sets talented Live DJs head and shoulders above those still using record players.