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technology

DJing with Ableton Live Tips & tricks from Mr Aphid Moon Remaining unchallenged at the top of live software, Ableton’s program is less popular for digital DJingyet it opens a whole new realm of possibilities. When introducing their “Live sequencing instrument” in 2001, Ableton instigates a revolution, both on stages of electronic music events and in studios all around the world. Combining a clip-based “session view” with a traditional sequencer, the program provides a playful workflow that is probably more intuitive than any music software before. While Live is an integral part of electronic live acts today, it is less popular for digital DJing. However, it comes with lots and lots of great features for this very purpose. Jules Hamer, better known as Aphid Moon and AMD, gives an introduction into the fascinating world of DJing with Ableton Live.

1. Working with samples

“Live 8 is great for mixing tracks with sample loops once they are warped to be in time. You can create stems of bass, kick, percussion, and sounds from the original tracks plus extra atmos as sounds as you like. You can trigger individual samples or layer them with a launch pad. Another handy function is that you can arrange the samples in a row which you trigger as a scene- this means in effect you can create different sections of your tracks as different scenes just from the original samples, leaving a huge scope for live remixing.”

2. Easy VST implementation

“Another advantage with Live is its great selection of onboard synths and effect plugins plus the capability of using your favourite third party plugs which is a privilege most other DJ software do not grant to you.”

3. Straightforward controller mapping

“I especially like the easy way they have made for you to select any function in Live and to map it to any MIDI controller by just moving the controller slider, button, or pot you wish to allocate. This is by far the easiest, quickest and most intuitive mapping software I have used.” www.ableton.com

Roberdo

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