Richie Hawtin’s DJ setup

In light of recent discussions, I thought some might find this interesting. Looks like Richie has ditched the decks altogether.




Richie explains to Beatportal exactly what the hell he’s doing behind the laptops.

“One laptop is running Traktor DJ Studio 3 and the other is running Ableton Live,” he says.

“There’s so much new music to play with these days and my new set up allows me to take control of the music much more than, say, the typical DJ setup of 2 turntables and a sampler.

“With my current setup I can search inside of a track, find the parts I want to use and mix them.

“Now I don’t need to worry about outdated skills such as beat matching and I can fully focus and concentrate my attention on more creative details of the mix.”

Unlike many Traktor-based DJs, Richie Hawtin doesn’t bother with timecoded CDs or vinyl and instead just uses the software’s sync function.

He also midi clocks Traktor and Ableton by having Traktor as the master.

“People say that beatmatching is the art of DJing, but I’m sorry, beat matching isn’t really creative, it’s just a skill,” says Richie.

“Sure, you can be pretty creative just by beat matching and cutting up records, but I prefer to spend my time in the DJ booth thinking about the construction of an interesting musical journey and less about timing two records together.”



http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/ric ... -dj-setup/

Check out what Sasha's Using



http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/04/0 ... -yourself/

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/03/ ... oller.html

And there a lot more in store than just that...

Just you wait .... Controllerism the next thing in DJ-ing

is Traktor's syncing even that good?.... i've used traktor before and i've noticed that the mixes never seem to be exactly on point... u always seem to have to play with it alot to get it right....

I guess using Traktor synced to Ableton would let you pull-in un-prepared tracks, then sample and add effects with the Ableton features on the fly.....but as djrobroe mentioned, Traktor seems to drop the beat too often, and usulaly when you are concentrating on something else like an effect or a loop....nothing worse then hearing a double kick, then watching the poor dj frantically scramble for the slave/sync button!

I'd rather spend the 10 minutes per track prepping into ableton. I usually do the following:

1) Run a new track through Mixed in Key - Label Accordingly
2) Save the new track into Ableton
3) Pull the new track into a dedicated prep scene
4) Warp mark this first clip and leave original start point - Label as Original
5) Duplicate this clip 6 times below
6) On the second clip down, start the track from the first main beat and also set up a nice auto trigger loop on the end so you never run out of track.
7) 3rd clip down starts on the first main beat/bass drop and has the final loop.
8) 4th clip down starts on the breakdown and has a different loop set right at the end of the build (peak).
9) 5th clip down starts on the second drop and has the final loop.
10) 6th clip down has a nice groove loop chopped out of the track
11) 7th clip down has a hook or recognizable sound/sequence from the track, usually set as a single play, but easily loopable.

Generally I only use Clips 2-7, so 6 clips. The first original clip only gets used at the opening of a set, or if im using the track in a demo.

After I have all these clips set up and labeled accordingly, I simply shift-click all the clips (selecting all), and drag them over to save in my library. That way the next time i want all those clips, i simply drag and drop the root file over from my library into my performance template, and there they all are, 7 prepared clips, ready fro me to jump around inside the track, or simply use elements like the groove loop or the hook (eg acapella).

At the moment im just using an M-Auidio X-Session Pro, mapped as a 4 track controller, using the buttons at the bottom as a Play/Stop, faders as normal, bottom pot is Bass EQ, middle pot is balance, top pot is a variable controller for whichever effect I have selected for that track (macbook keyboard is midi-mapped for these effects).

As soon as the new Vestax VCM-600 comes out, I think i will switch.....i just wish they's hurry up and release the damn thing. It looks a lot like what Sasha is using in B-Side's post.

I usually do the following:

1) Run a new track through Mixed in Key - Label Accordingly
2) Save the new track into Ableton
3) Pull the new track into a dedicated prep scene
4) Warp mark this first clip and leave original start point - Label as Original
5) Duplicate this clip 6 times below
6) On the second clip down, start the track from the first main beat and also set up a nice auto trigger loop on the end so you never run out of track.
7) 3rd clip down starts on the first main beat/bass drop and has the final loop.
8) 4th clip down starts on the breakdown and has a different loop set right at the end of the build (peak).
9) 5th clip down starts on the second drop and has the final loop.
10) 6th clip down has a nice groove loop chopped out of the track
11) 7th clip down has a hook or recognizable sound/sequence from the track, usually set as a single play, but easily loopable.

Generally I only use Clips 2-7, so 6 clips. The first original clip only gets used at the opening of a set, or if im using the track in a demo.

After I have all these clips set up and labeled accordingly, I simply shift-click all the clips (selecting all), and drag them over to save in my library. That way the next time i want all those clips, i simply drag and drop the root file over from my library into my performance template, and there they all are, 7 prepared clips, ready fro me to jump around inside the track, or simply use elements like the groove loop or the hook (eg acapella).

i like the way you think!

Philip....a question for you...

Is there anyway I can get the wave at the bottom of the Clip View less dense but still be able to see the whole track (ie still zoomed right out).

Basically i have switched over from Serato, where the wave views are so clear in that you can almost read forward in the track visually for cueing and cutting.....the colours help of course, but I would imagine that if I could get the ableton wave a little less dense, i should be able to do the same thing.

I'll post the question over at Abletonlivedj.com as well, but i thought you might be able to shed some light.

Cheers. I will post some new Ableton mixes here soon as my Laptop has just this minute arrived from Oz....JOY!