Kaizen Beginners Guide

Please click here to continue

part 2

A BEGINNERS GUIDE TODJ’ING WITH ABLETON LIVE

www.DJ KAIZEN.com

The lazy person’s edition

Ableton Live is music creation, production and performance platform for both Mac OS and Windows. However, today we’re discarding it

potential as a producing medium and focusing solely on the DJ side of things.

How to DJ with Ableton Live – Pre-requisites

• You are familiar with the art of mixing on CDJs, with Vinyl or through another computer based software programme.

• You have a copy of Ableton Live 5 or Ableton Live 6. This tutorial is written using Ableton Live 6.

• You are mixing tunes that are not ripped from vinyl, tapes or from none digital formats.

Creating a DJ Template

TTraditionally DJs use Decks and CDJs to play and manipulate music to their needs – normally beat matching and cutting (scratching) tunes.

Live in one sense is simply another medium through which to do so. However, my own view on this is that Live usage is only limited by your

creativity, whereas for “traditional” DJ’s you may not have enough hands or speed to do exactly what you want.

www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

The reason for using separate channels is simple – no more than one tune from the same channel can be played simultaneously. The samples

channel is used as it allows for quick reference when dropping in acappellas for example.

ThThe loop channel has a slightly different usage. Within Ableton, you can edit, delete & re-work tracks while they are playing, all from within the

programme. Whats even better, is that its non-destructive; allowing to work with essentially another copy of a tune (even if it’s the one playing)

and make loops, or samples in real time. Copies of the loops made from tracks are then kept in the loop channel for use throughout the set.

For more advanced users, looping can be done on the one track (in either the Sample Display / Note Editor or in Arrangement View), but for

beginners this method is much easier. This will be further detailed in the Loops & Samples section.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

To map the keys click on the control you wish to map - it will become highlighted – and you then simply press the key you wish to map to that

key.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

In the example below, you can see that the cut switches within EQ Three with Channel 1 have been mapped to the numbers 1, 2 and 3 on the

number keypad. Once the Key mapping mode is turned off, these numbers can then be used to toggle the low, mid and high cuts on and off at

the touch of a button. Within Live 6 it is also possible to map multiple controls to a single keystroke.

To map Midi parameters simply click the “MIDI” button and as described above, select the parameter you want to change and move the

respective midi control. This alike the keys will show in the midi mapping dialogue box and show within the respective parameter.

TTo begin DJ’ing there is generally only one other parameter that should be adjusted as part of your template. Unless you are playing chilled

house or ambient, or on the other scale of things hard techno, the general tempo of your tunes will be around 124-128bpm. To set the template

at an average speed you can adjust this by clicking on the tempo button (originally set at 120bpm) and by moving the mouse up or down or

clicking the up or down arrow keys, you can set your new tempo. Remember this can be adjusted anytime and by the same method, we are

just setting this as the template tempo.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Only kidding, once the warp button is pressed, you will see that a warp marker, in this instance a green colour, with the number 1 above it has

appeared in the scrub area.

This is the 1st warp marker that live has placed onto our track, generally this is close to the beginning of the track. Each indicator is numbered

there after, if you zoom into your track you will see these indicators and the sub indicators between them.

ThThe first warp marker is probably the most important of all, as this is the one you base all other placements of warp markers throughout the

track. To effectively place the first marker, you should understand the waveform and place the as close to the first downbeat of the tune.

Warping of more complex tunes with ambient starts will be covered in future notes.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Autowarp suggested drop point

DJ Kaizen suggested drop point


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

To set the Loop length to 2 bars we simply type 2-0-0 into the appropriate boxes. If it is necessary to move the loop brace manually, do so by

left clicking on it and moving it to the left or right. It also good practice to move the start marker to the first warp marker, however this can be

changed to anywhereelse in the track at a later stage.

With the loop brace set correctly to a 2 bar beat aligned with the first warp marker its time to hit play on the scene. This is done, by clicking

on the play button in scene number within the master channel. Ultimately, this launches all tunes on this row (scene) at the same time.

AAs the beat plays through the 2 bar loop you can hear that towards the end of the loop, the tune gets slightly out of sync. Turning off the loo

button and hearing it play further you can hear how the song would sound against the drum loop, if it were left like this.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Stopping all tracks and turning the 2-bar loop back on, it’s now time to begin warping the rest of the track. This is done using the principals

designed by Josh Von in his Rock solid Warping guide.

As the loop is two bars long, you should therefore adjust it to match exactly the waveform. Ableton gives you a rough guideline to work to, and

it is simply a matter of zooming in on the un-highlighted 3 and moving the marker to the appropriate point at the start of that beat. With house

music or tunes with a typical 4 / 4 beat, the start of each waveform may be very similar, again more reason to spend a bit of time analysing the

first waveform.

TTo confirm the position of warp marker 3, double click it and it will become highlighted. Zoom out again and left click the loop brace, this again

highlights it and in doing so allows you to increase the size of it.

With the brace selected, hold ctrl + the up arrow key and the brace will double in size. Ctrl + the down arrow key while the brace is selected, will

half it again.

Although many argue you can warp a track with just the first beat marked, as a beginner this method will help you understand the tracks, and

allow to place loops and prepare your track for playing.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Doubling the loop brace shows you where to place your next marker, on position 5. You may well find that it is close to the actual waveform

the further through your track you progress, this is due to warp markers being positioned properly towards the beginning of the track. If the

track is recorded through none digital means you may find that this is not the case. Press the play button on the scene and make sure it’s

warped properly. It is? Good Job! If not, go back through the process and check all markers.

FolloFollow the same process of placing the warp markers on 5, 9, 17 and 33. Once you position these markers correctly, the warping process

becomes much quicker. Furthermore, the more practice you get, the quicker this process will become.

With the first 32 bars looped, click on the loop brace once more and instead of the previous process, press the up arrow key and the brace will

jump from 1-33 to 33 – 65. Repeat the warping process on the second 64th bar (number 65). In doing so, all bars in between will automatically

become warped. Repeat this for each 32-bar loop until the end of the song.

IIf you find that the last loop is less than 32 bars, you can reduce the loop brace size and finish off the warping that way. Finish off by checking

your track against the drum loop to ensure everything is perfect.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

To further prep your tunes, you may want to set loop markers on breakdowns or places you want to loop you track for mixing. This is done by

click on the numbers above the bar you want to loop, highlighting them and then creating a loop brace between the two points. Ableton does

not currently support multiple loops braces with a track and so we I will outline how to create loops & samples to mix with below.

To finish off the warping process click save on the sample view, although an .asd file will be created in the source directory, the warping data

will not be saved until this button is clicked.

TTop tip – It is best practice to set up a dedicated filing system for you Ableton tunes. Each track you bring into Ableton, will further create an

.asd file within the source folder of your music. This file stores all the data Ableton needs to remember the warping details etc. it must be kept

in the same folder as the original tune with file names remaining the same.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Loops and Samples

So you have your tunes warped, placed in the record box (virtual) and ready to play, but you want to add a bit more to your mixes. Enter the

loop and sample. These tools can and are used by DJ’s across the world to edit tunes on the fly and create individual mixes that stand out.

However, as with all things in Live, how you wish to use them is what makes them work best.

EssentiallEssentially a loop and sample are created using the same processes however, their use is what differentiates them. A sample is to be activated

played individually, whereas a loop is one, which generally is played a more than once in immediate succession. While this crosses over quite

considerably, it makes them easier to identify when in separate channels.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Taking a ready warped tune, create a loop at the point you wish to repeat. In the example above the 8-bar loop starts at the 110th bar. Now

once the playback of the tune reaches the 110th bar, the 8-bar loop is activated and will playing continuously until told otherwise - hitting the

stop or loop button or clicking anywhere else in the tune – obviously if you keep the loop activated and click somewhere before the 100th bat,

it will loop once again when it reaches that point.

AAs within the warping guide, if you left click on the warp brackets above the loop you can move these. If you move it to the left during play, the

loop will follow it backwards, if you move them to the right, the loop will then be activated further into the tune.

Another way to move the brackets is to set the loop position numerically. If you know your tunes, it is extremely easy to see the bar number

you want to loop. Alternatively if you hear a part during playback that you wish to loop, you can type the number of that bar in and it will jump

to its current position within that section. Be careful using this live though as it takes plenty of practice to get it just right.


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com


www.DJ KAIZEN.com

Documents

Kaizen Beginners Guide