Dont knock the Ableton until you have tryed it people or know enough about it, its just brilliant, it opens so much up creativity for djing and production, it may cut out the beat matching, but allows greater use of effects and looping and layering of different tracks and sounds.



I think its ridiculous for a dj, producer or raver not to embrace and accept the changes and advances in technology (not just Ableton), or to turn there back on it, otherwise eventually your be left behind. Why not use technology to its maximal potential to improve and get the most out of your dj or live set? I remember a few years ago djs who used cds use to get slated, now its standard practice! The age of computer djing and performing is coming, but of course it would also be ridiculous to forget about the skill of mixing Vinyl and how this has shaped djing.



Those knocking Ableton seem to forget the amazing live set from Daft Punk, some people even said this was the best ever live dance show, which shock shock horror was all done useing Albeton! In terms of forward thinking its great to see the likes of Josh Wink, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, James (Merlin) Zabiela, Dave Robertson and Cadgedbaby (Yes he did use it on NYE) all useing Ableton like Daft Punk.



Its also important not to forget that useing Ableton does not just involve sitting at a computer looking like your checking your emails. The mixing part is still there with the use of midi mixers and keyboards. There is not generic way of useing it, which is great as it means that people can use it in so many different ways or both djing or creating your own live sets. The way myself and chemicalfan use it involves a midi keyboard being used to trigger tracks and samples, with a midi mixer with a crossfader (yes crossfader) to mix the tracks, we then wack all this through an EFX 1000 and fuck about with the sounds Zabiela style.



Regardless of all my ranting, there is no right or wrong, worse or better way to dj. As long as the dj can jack the club and select the tunes thats all that matters, personally I love it when u see a dj set up like the one I saw Pete Tong useing in Brighton where he had decks, cdjs, mixer, laptop and midi mixer all to create a hybrid dj/live show.



Apologies for my sarcastic tone in this post, I just think people need to open there eyes and give Ableton djs more respect and credit for there hard work and skills.



Oh and yes sneaker, I think a chems dj set cd would be great, even if it?s a promo would love to have a cd with all the current chems dj set classics.

Hey Acid - i see youre point.

For me tho - i dont know ANYTHING about ableton AND about playing with vinyl - i just have my opinio based on what i see- and i think playing vinyl is just very...charming! X-D

Yeah it deffo has a charm factor and great sense of history and culture behind it.



My post wasnt meant to slate the way any djs work, if they dont use Ableton then fair enough, for example the chems are great as they are.



Forgot to mention that 2manydjs also use Ableton in there dj sets as do The Prodigy in there live sets.

I've been into DJing for some time now, about 4 years. Started off with software eventually switched to decks, but there are pros and cons of both. Personally I think I found the consensus, and it's not either going straight into software, nor into vinyl.



Okay, there are some drawbacks of using only a regular setup:

1) beat matching takes a while, and even if you make a perfect beatmatch, it can be fucked up because of the flutter of your decks or just unstable surface.



2) Vinyls weight a lot, and imagine carrying them all to a gig, not to mention how much they cost, that they wear out, and the sound quality which for some is 'warm and cozy' and for some it just takes a lot of sounds from the music.



3) Rare vinyl stuff is expensive and .... hard to find.



The pros are:

1) You actually use the hardware, and you LISTEN to music, not LOOK at it on a computer screen



2) There's more interaction with the crowd, and you look credible.





Using only software has its own drawbacks too:

1) You stare at the screen, and everybody thinks that you're checking your email or something. It looks weird and you loose credibility as a DJ. Some might even accuse of you cheating, since they don't know what's going on behind the screen. But then again....why would you want to call yourself a DJ if you went to a gig and play a ready-made set using winamp?



2) Bad software has a tendency to crash, and when it does, you're fucked.



And the pros:

1) You have more space for creativity, which means using fx, loops, time stretch etc.



2) You don't waste time for things like looking for a cue point, beat matching.



3) You don't have to put up with your deck's setup drawbacks, like low pitch range (+- 10% pitch range anyone?), wow/flutter (you can lock the beats and they will never go off beat), so you're safe with your blends (if of course, you want your software to do that automatically)



4) You get perfect sound quality, if you choose to rip your CD's to flac, or 320kbps mp3s.





So yeah, why not take the best of the two worlds and use it as creatively as you can? That's what I did, I hooked up my decks to software called VirtualDJ. It comes with special timecoded vinyls which you put on your decks. Then you load up a song in VirtualDJ and if you press play on your deck, it will play the song that you loaded up in the software. So basically, you can have any song transferred directly onto your setup, and mix it using your setup just like a regular DJ.

The other cool thing about it is that using that combo you don't have to worry about things like short pitch range, the software can adjust it for you, hell you can even set the soft to beatmatch the songs together for you if you like. Or you can just match the songs using your decks and lock the songs together in your software, so they don't go off beat.

You don't have to worry about skipping of the needle, you can put the cues on your songs and position your songs onto these cues with a push of a button, ready to play.

I don't think it takes away anything from DJing with regular vinyls, it just gets rid of all the time consuming obstacles and leaves you and your creative mind to create a great mix. And eventually you are standing in front of a crowd, using your decks + a laptop on a side, which is credible enough and turns the dancefloor into your personal playground. I really recommend it, and no, this is not supposed to be a shameless plug for their software. (there's plenty of software like that on the market, you choose the best that suits you).



PS. I'd really like to learn how to use ableton in live mixing, help anyone? I approached that thing 3 times now, and I still don't get it...