Many of you use Ableton Live to DJ because of its flexibility, but conversely many of you have tried it and been turned off by its limitations in some aspects. Max For Live promises to turn the Live experience into a near infinitely expandable tool, delivering the faculties to do more or less anything you want inside Ableton’s already highly adjustable DAW.
Archive for May, 2011
DIY Laptop Stands
In today’s article we’ve pulled an old relic out from the archives, polished it off, and realized- hey this is still pretty good! Take a trip down memory lane as we explore several excellent options for DIY stands from yesterday and some new ones from today!
Review: Avid Torq 2
The managers at AVID’s R&D department must have been bouncing off the walls with joy when they were set with the monstrous task of competing with the boys at Serato and Native Instruments. A lot of time and effort seems to have been spent creating Torq 2.0; packed full of effects, live editing options and connectivity with studio software such as Ableton Live, and of course, their own Pro Tools. The intended highlight of the show is the Traq Morph, which Avid have described as ‘The Crossfader’s Second Coming’ – a typically bold statement for them to live up to. Fortunately, they have delivered in the past. The question is, can they deliver again, and draw in enough of the rest of us to break the Serato/Traktor divide?
Brand New DJ TechTools Web Store Now Live
As you may know, Dj TechTools.com has been built on a very simple premise. Provide mappings, ideas and valuable content for free and then sell great hardware to support the development of new articles. In my quest to improve that service, we recently re-designed our web store to make it easier to navigate and more fun to shop for DJ gear on the web. If you can, please go check out the new store today, and support this fine site with a purchase. There are even two store launch specials that will help you save some cash!
Introducing The Midi Fighter Pro Controllers
For the past year we have been experimenting with various Midi Fighter configurations in our search to find the perfect controllerist instrument. After much exploration, I settled on four popular layouts that combine function, strength, and playability into one powerful surface. The resulting Midi Fighter Pro’s are available now in our brand new web store. Continue reading for more photos and details on each of the four models.
Continue reading Introducing The Midi Fighter Pro Controllers
Improving Your DJing With Free Improvisation
Improvisation. The knack of feeling a crowd and adjusting the music intuitively is one of the few things that elevates the DJ above an iTunes playlist. So while we still remain ahead of the machines in that respect, is there anything to be learned from the improvisational musician? As the boundaries between DJ and musician become ever more blurred (turntablists, controllers, etc), can we find any parallels in the way they approach a performance?
Continue reading Improving Your DJing With Free Improvisation
Two Brand New Ways of Scratching Wirelessly
Several videos have popped up on the internet this week that each explore an interesting concept for using a standard turntable as a wireless controller. One creative gent from Stanford managed to use iPod Touches as controllers, while another inventive DJ has built a wireless turntable head-shell. Each video is a decent proof of concept, but neither has quite convinced us that they have much of a future in the professional DJ world yet. Check out our thoughts on the videos after the break and decide for yourself.
Continue reading Two Brand New Ways of Scratching Wirelessly
The DMC – A Brave New Era
DMC is an institution. Since its inception, the DMC world DJ championships has been a turntable focused competition – but that’s finally all changing. DMC recognises that DJing isn’t just about turntables anymore, and Sally McLintock, DMC’s World Events Manager, tells us that when it comes to allowing controllers into the championships, “it’s up to the DJs, we go where they go – we’re open minded”.
Review: Denon MC6000
The MC6000 is Denon’s flagship 4-channel MIDI controller and mixer hybrid that allows full control of your DJ software while allowing line input and phono sources to pass through for a seamless, all-in-one unit. With a full 4 channels of mixing power, some might wonder if it is a worthy challenger to the s4. We take a look at how it fares. Continue reading Review: Denon MC6000
Advanced Controllerism – Cue Point Layering
Several emails have landed in my inbox lately asking for ways to use four decks inside Traktor effectively. The obvious use-case is playing four songs simutaniously, but as you will quickly discover, that rarely sounds good. Usually the extra decks are better when employed for specific tasks like ready to go one shot samples. In today’s video, I propose a totally new way of using decks C and D as sample batteries that are layered under your cue points to create a unique audio effect when cue point juggling. In my quest to take controllerism to the next level, this method gets us one step closer to the DJ as an instrumentalist with another layer of expressive voicing.
Stuff We Like: Touchable iPad App
The first round of “DJ” apps, made a lot of people rightfully question their place in the clubs. Sure enough though, with more refined iOS features and a new breed of sophisticated music app’s emerging, we are starting to see iPads comfortably show up in clubs. In the video above, touchable shows three amazing use cases for their Ableton interface on the iPad (the club scene is last). Technically, there is nothing out of this world in the videos, but they do a great job of showcasing how iPads (and their software) can fit naturally into the music world. Continue reading for one more examples of iPads showing up in the wild and really spreading their wings.
