Kind of a basic question but am wondering what are the pros/cons of each. I feel like Ableton will give you more control, and everything will be cleaner, and more planned out, cohesive. However I feel like my production/mixing skills aren't up to par compared to my live mixing skills on decks. I am still new to production. If I plan on creating a professional sounding mix (mix as in a 30 minute mix for a mix/podcast), will it be easier for me to do it in Ableton, or do it live on decks and just record it?

Thanks.

EDIT: If I do it the mixing the live way, is it recommended that I open the mix in my DAW and tweak it a bit and add final touches of compression etc? Or leave it as is?

 

Ableton will definitely give you more control, but only over things you have thoroughly pre-prepared already. The whole purpose of "live" mixing is to be able to "gauge" the crowd and play tunes according to the "mood" of the event, which is something you wont be able to do with a predefined set. I wouldnt put any compression on your mixer, but would add effects you are going to use in the mix such as filters, echo and delay and definitely a brickwall limiter at the end to stop clipping. IMO this is completely from a mix point of view and has nothing to do with production as you mentioned in one of your sentences. As long as you know all of your ques and have it setup correctly (experiment with the things i mentioned) then the mix will turn out great. Some people also enjoy the imperfections of a "live" mix in the sense of effects too, it has a slightly different sound that is unreplicable to a prepared mix (due to DAW beat syncing etc.)

If you were to do a set in Ableton, i would emulate what a hardware mixer would do (filter, effects etc) by adding in the plugins i mentioned and using some sort of midi controller to manipulate them while you go through the podcast/mix, which will give you the best of both worlds.

 

i had the same doubt some times ago, depends on set. if you are using hotcues,loops and stuff like that cdj are a better choice, if you think to just insert a tracks and nothing else Daw based mix is better. Since you are talking about mix/podcast the Daw choice (atleast for me) is a better choice. i have a pair of Piooner CDJ, i believe "master tempo" function just sucks, it skips sometimes and slightly degrade the audio depending on the BPM range.
I don't like Ableton's warp at all, i suggest you to try Studio One for this kind of purpose, because it's easier and the stretching alghorithm is better. And like Ableton you can use a controller to controll your effects.

 

I run Traktor through Ableton live which i love because i can use all the fx I've made/ acquired and you can quantize clip drum bits of songs you have sliced to midi and edited to play in different order or whatever then flick it back to the track

 

Is it possible to hook my Traktor S2 (original version) to my mbp and link it somehow to Ableton? I think i've seen it done before. I'd like to do the mixing live but the track selection and effects are in ableton? Is that how it works?

Thanks.

 

you will find everything you need here:
http://www.traktorbible.com/en/default.aspx

Doing a mix in ableton live and on the decks is completely different.
Just try it out, compare the both and decide what you like better.

 

Any suggestions what effects to put on the master? I know delays, reverbs, filters, but which ones exactly are the ones that are most close to the effects of cdjs? Thanks.

 

Try Piooneer RMX 1000 and 500 vsts

 

dblue glitch is also great as a dj effect and as a bonus it's free

 

read this:
http://news.beatport.com/interview-speedy-j-on-the-benefits-of-djing-in-parts/

and watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=datRWR1B2Dc (i found the video thanks to fraifikmushi's webzine)

There are a few djs like them who speak about the benefits of digital mixing, whereas a lot of people always tell you "spinning records the old way is better", "turntables = true djs", etc.


If your way of djing is about spinning records on CDJs /vinyl, you spend your time to synchronize records on 2-4 channels and drop some effects, you're stuck with the entire track you're playing (everything or nothing is playing).

If Ableton does the sync job for you, then you can concentrate on layering harmonic clips together on 4-8 channels, or even more.
You can also add a nice hihat or kickdrum whenever you want, you can play 3 synths from 3 tracks together, while you couldn't play the three entire tracks where the synths come from with turntables, etc etc...

Playing parts of a song (and mostly: of YOUR songs) lets you totally rearrange the way you launch tracks, how you stop progressively a bassline and just keep the drums playing, etc.

To me, the ableton way is obviously an improvement of spinning records. Native Instruments is also copying the ableton way with its last controllers: F1 /S8 /Maschine /etc... Their motto is "the future of djing" ... which is true, only if you know how to use this expensive hardware and not only play two mp3 with the sync button, which is the only thing that each dj has understood !


But it is something that nowadays djs just don't want to admit yet. It also requires a lot of work by yourself to choose the right clips, and it adds a production part, where you create your own clips. There are endless ways and setups to make a dj or live mix with ableton live, it depends of how much clips you use, how much channels you need, how many crossfaders you want, etc...

Djs always debate a lot about differences playing MP3 /vinyl /CDJs, but the real challenge they should all go for is the mix by splitting tracks into clips (to my opinion), rather than just playing tracks.
The worst part is when they often react like: "i dont use ableton ! I'm not the production guy !" are they so unable of being creative and innovating that they refuse to change their way of considering the djs work ?

 

There is actually a video about chris liebing's setup that's even better (also in my webzine *cough* *cough*) ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pohTY2x0J2Q

Really incredible how he does it and a major inspiration.
But I understand it's not for everybody ;)