What do I need to complete my Electro House live setup

[shwinky789]

Hi, I am trying to start to play live electronic music with my friend. As of now, I have a macbook pro running ableton live apc edition, alesis micron (used for midi), an apc 20, and an alesis io2 express interface. My friend has a mix track pro running with virtual dj le. We want to incorporate all we have, and if we can't we will divide gigs into dj sets and live electro house sets. My only concern is do we have enough to play live for the electro house sets with just the apc 20, the micron, ableton, and the interface?

Thanks, Shayne

PS. How would the djm800 work well with ableton and the apc?

[ksandvik]

Sell Ableton Live and the Virtual DJ and get Traktor S4.

[shwinky789]

But we need ableton live to run the apc, and the micron. we are looking to make our music live most the time, as well as only dj our tracks occasionally.

[shwinky789]

Originally Posted by oldschoolmind

dependz on how bigz you wanna go manz!

we don't wanna be the next daft punk, but we do want to be playing gigs. We mainly need to know what to do to complete the electro house setup, so far I have Alesis Micron, alexis ion express, an apc 20, and a macbook pro running live.

[Dubtek71]

Originally Posted by shwinky789

we don't wanna be the next daft punk, but we do want to be playing gigs. We mainly need to know what to do to complete the electro house setup, so far I have Alesis Micron, alexis ion express, an apc 20, and a macbook pro running live.

Is there a specific list of equipment required for electro house?!?
Not that I am aware of. Any way what you have could be fine. If you feel you are missing something when you play live you will realize it and then add that piece in the future. A good question to consider first is;

What can I not do now? Adding another piece of gear would bring....????

[shwinky789]

Well after thinking about it, I think adding a kaoss pad would be good, but I don't know which one, and would not know how to hook it up to my computer. Would i be able to play it live separately without my computer through an amp?

[Dubtek71]

Originally Posted by shwinky789

Well after thinking about it, I think adding a kaoss pad would be good, but I don't know which one, and would not know how to hook it up to my computer. Would i be able to play it live separately without my computer through an amp?

Well okay sure you could add a Kaospad. But you have thought about it for what 10 minutes at the most? You have a couple choices here. Just start randomly adding shite, or not add anything and use what you have. Learn it push it, try different configurations.when you are missing a piece of YOUR puzzle you will know. I can't really tell you what you need anymore than you can tell me what I need or want to use for myself. For me it's about sound, process , method, user interface, gear quality, budget, ectra...Lots of factors affect my gear choices. As you can see from my sig. Research, experiment create. Let's apply my sig.

Do you have a functioning set up? Yes. So create. While creating you will also be researching what is missing. When you have found the hole. Then research what pieces of gear fill that hole. Have a couple of choices. Experiment:Try a couple out down at the local music shop.. Make a selection. Take it back to the lab and continue the experiments. Integrate it. Continue the process.research experiment create. Altho it does not always involve buying. Its just a process to arrive at a desired outcome.

On the othe hand if you want I can just shout some completely random ideas. Here's a few to get the ball rolling buy any one of the following:
Akai s950
Jupiter 80
Tr-808
Korg poly 800
Sherman Rodec
Sp-1200
Manley Vari mu
Cs-80 (some people might say this isnt practical for live setup. To those people I say, just buy a forklift already!)
Dsi tetra

I will leave it at that. Best of luck.
D

[Dubtek71]

Originally Posted by oldschoolmind

hey homez, lookz like you missed the point of live dj. not sure how you going to lug and plug all that gear around witcha. manz you really do mean random. atleast with da kaoss pad you'd be the same ballpark. you be playing lingerie bowl when we be play'n smash'em up footzballz manz.

No i didnt miss the point of live dj. You missed the point about playing live. He said he would break the set up of he could not do it all woth the gear he currently has. I suggested he examine what his studio/live set requires.

For you: I am going to suggest you START working on your reading comprehension. And STOP also playing smash up footzballz because it is clearly affecting your intelligence!

Futhermore You are polluting this thread with information that is freely on the web. You haven't offered a single piece of constructive information. The fact that you try to insult me when I am only offering the OP constructive advice with a bit of humour and approach really adds to your method of supa cool street slang of a 12 year old. Go back to school.

[Christophocles]

Originally Posted by Dubtek71

No i didnt miss the point of live dj. You missed the point about playing live. He said he would break the set up of he could not do it all woth the gear he currently has. I suggested he examine what his studio/live set requires.

For you: I am going to suggest you START working on your reading comprehension. And STOP also playing smash up footzballz because it is clearly affecting your intelligence!

Futhermore You are polluting this thread with information that is freely on the web. You haven't offered a single piece of constructive information. The fact that you try to insult me when I am only offering the OP constructive advice with a bit of humour and approach really adds to your method of supa cool street slang of a 12 year old. Go back to school.

Be cool! Why do you have to insult him? He took the time to contribute great information about the korg kaoss hierarchy to the thread starter.

On the topic of what is needed for the OP- I think you simply need to decide whether you would like to be a musician or a DJ. If you want to play your own lines and create music, then tools like synthesizers, effects, drum machines, samplers, acoustic instruments, etc come into play. If you guys simply want to go spin, you really don't need much more than the right software for you and a controller, assuming that you are playing digital music.

If you two have produced tracks and play them live, a sampling situation would be ideal, so you can play a particular line on the keyboard or throw passages around- whether the sampler be on a computer or hardware. Seeing as the general public thinks that synthesized sounds come from a magical turntable and a 3 band EQ, you could get away with just playing with filters and stuff while your trax play back. I think it would be more creative and fun if you guys considered really deconstructing your tunes, to where you can sort of manually unmute and mute layers and passages to get the audience into what you're doing. Also, maybe laying down shakers live and programming sequencers, etc would add your own flair.

Cheers!

-Chris

[Yoozer]

Originally Posted by Christophocles

He took the time to contribute great information about the korg kaoss hierarchy to the thread starter.

Copying and pasting is not contribution, especially if you can cut down that meter-long post to a single page if you just linked to the actual page the information was already on. Plus, there's not even attribution - so you could even call it copyright infringement.

Originally Posted by shwinky789

We want to incorporate all we have

Are you sure?

How many tracks do you have? Are you thinking in terms of actual songs? Because that Virtual DJ software would only be useful if you already have two wave or mp3 files of your own tracks and then blend them seamlessly, or include other people's work and throw something of your own stuff in there.

That's one option; you doing stuff w/ Live, then your friend takes over with a regular DJ set, then you take over with your songs again.

Another option is to leave his laptop at home and switch places behind your own.

What do you have in terms of your own music? Have some examples? How many tracks have you written?

"Live" can be a sliding scale between you hitting the PLAY button and tweaking some knobs, or building everything uniquely from scratch. Most importantly, you don't want to "just stand there". When you're behind your laptop there's no way the audience is going to see the difference between you checking Facebook and you playing clips; and you want that difference to be there. The alternative is to just DJ and make it look like you're doing that; in that case the audience doesn't have the expectation of you doing something live.

My only concern is do we have enough to play live for the electro house sets with just the apc 20, the micron, ableton, and the interface?

Yes, though whether you can still call it "live" is debatable.

PS. How would the djm800 work well with ableton and the apc?

It won't work with the APC because the APC will only talk to Ableton. Basically you'd be treating Ableton as just another incoming turntable. If you're going to spend such an amount of cash, do it on something else than just a mixer.

[ksandvik]

Justz get Traktor S4 and getz the job donez.

[shwinky789]

I want to be a musician, but my friend wants to be a dj, I would like to recreate my song in a different way, and also make stuff up live, with the micron, and maybe a dsi tetra.

Also, I'm thinking about getting either the tetra or the mopho, any pointers?

[rachel]

Whatever you need to do first up is rehearse rehearse rehearse with your live setup until you know it backwards. whatever gear you use in your bedroom and not taking outside with you should not be used. Try to keep your setup as self contained and minimal as you need to perform. Get you and your friend used to working off a single master clock or they will end up doing all the dj glory while you are still trying to work out what BPM it is. Whatever you do for your show, make sure it works, first.


rachel

[louis.lbnc]

It sounds to me like the problem isn't lack of gear but that you and your friend aren't sure what you want to do. I think you do have enough gear to get started. I think you will buy much more helpful gear if you start doing it and find out what's missing. Do you have any tracks you've made together yet?

The mixtrack can be used with ableton to a certain extent too.