Last month BentoSan posted a great tutorial about routing Traktor audio into Live in Windows. It’s here and I recommend you at least skim his article if you haven’t already read it, it has plenty of relevant links. Here is how to do exactly the same thing on a Mac, using free software.
What to expect:
- Routing of the audio of each Traktor deck into Live.
- MIDI clock sync from Traktor to Live. Allows to use Live VST beat synced. Allows to start armed clips in Live on the beat.
- Record your set in audio directly in Live.
- Low latency and excellent stability.
The basic principles of this technique will not require a rocket science degree. I know we usually just turn over the TKS file but in this case I would like to walk you through the basics so you can learn the principles yourself. I was asked the other day “why guitar hero”? The answer is simple, its a medium that the audience can relate to. Tapping on arcade buttons or keyboards may look cool and in many cases work much better but unless the audience can understand and relate to what your doing, they just wont get it. At this point just about everyone has either seen or played guitar hero so when you bust it out in the club the learning curve just got a lot shorter.
Continue reading ‘How to Dj with Guitar Hero’
Native Instruments has a impressive record in the software department but their hardware products have less of a history. So when the audio 8 was released many months ago, I was speculative, and held off giving it a try due to the fact that I had already identified several good sound card options. One thing that remains elusive though, is a reasonably priced, high quality sound card that supports direct phonograph inputs. With more and more people using Ms. Pinky, Deck a Dance and tools for Ableton Live time code control, Phono inputs are a good thing to have around.
Continue reading ‘Native Instruments Audio 8 Review’
The moment frequently pops up when you must come up with the next song in a hurry. The clock is ticking backwards and you find your self with only 1 minute left in a track and then you think of the perfect song, but wait- what was it called again? This is one area where 12″ records offered a serious advantage, instead of requiring the memorization of 4000 song names- you became emotionally attached the the visual image of the cover.
Many djs could NEVER remember the name of their go-to record but instantly pull up the most minuscule details about a cover. “Yeah- its the purple one with the little orange dot on the corner and Erika’s phone number scrawled on the back”. Hey we are artists people, and artists are a visual group of folks.
So, how to work this problem out in the digital age? Well, there are a few tricks up my sleeve that I can share with you. Next week we will expand this concept into a full blown I tunes management class but first I want to share one simple little trick that will go a long way.
Continue reading ‘Find the next Tune’
By: Bento San
The following Windows tutorial will get Traktor and Ableton all synced up and implement the concept of smart mixing into your set up. Some of you may be thinking, “What is smart mixing”? This is a good Question, and the Belvario Smart Mixer site answers it well. “”Smart mixing” is a term introduced by Moldover, a controllerist digital musician who uses a sophisticated software and hardware configuration that allows him to make fast changes to the mix with a minimum of control movement. One component of this is his “smart mixer” Reaktor ensemble, which makes it easy to do basic automated EQ mixing with a simple fader move in Ableton Live (in Live 7 it’s possible to do with only native audio effects).
You will learn how to:
1) Route Audio From Traktor and into an Ableton Live smart mixer.
2) Sync Abletons Midi clock to Traktor which will be hosting the master tempo
3) Allowing use of a midi controller in two programs at once.
Continue reading ‘Smart Mixing Traktor with Ableton’
First off, thanks for your patience. We all want things to happen fast but sometimes it takes a little extra time to make good things happen. This is certainly a good thing, and its because of all the emails you guys sent to distributors and the community of dj tech tools this special edition vci-100 is happening for real.
The web store for pre-orders is getting the final touches and will be up on Friday morning. In the mean time here is the information you have all been waiting for:
Continue reading ‘Black VCI-100- The official update’
This is where you can find a central collection point for TKS files (Traktor midi settings) from around the web and Dj Tech Tools. This post WILL get updated and the following list is just a starting point. If you also want to contribute to this list send me an email to ean @ eangolden.com or post something here in the comments. I will then update the post with the files and a link to your site.
Continue reading ‘Traktor TKS files for Controllers’
The manufacturers don’t want you to know this, but the truth is you don’t have to plop down $1,500 for the latest Allen & Heath mixer or $3,000 on a JazzMutant Lemur to do creative things with MIDI and DJ software. Sure, having a brand new DJ controller with all kinds of bells and whistles will get you excited about trying new ideas, but you might get more mileage out of something at a fraction of those prices. There are many inexpensive two-octave keyboards that offer mappable controls in a small footprint. Perhaps you still have an M-Audio Oxygen 8 ($149.95 for the Oxygen 8 V2; www.m-audio.com) lying around from your first foray into music production. Take it out and imagine how you might DJ with it. Think of how each knob and slider might best control two or more songs on the fly. It’s actually a lot more realistic than you might imagine, so let’s turn the zillion-selling Oxygen 8 into a controllerist’s dream rig. Continue reading ‘Oxygen 8 Controllerism Layout’
This one is for the Traktor users out there although some other software may have similar tools. Lets say you are using a VCi-100 to control decks A and B. Everything is working well expect that every control is used up and now you also want to get your hands on decks C or D. How do you do that without buying a 2nd VCi-100? Its easy- and all you need is ONE free button.
Continue reading ‘Double your Controls in Traktor- with one button.’
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