Archive for the 'Equipment' Category
Live DJ Remixing #2 -The Gear
We kicked off this series talking about the software end of the deal in live remixing. But banging on your laptop keyboard and mouse can only take you so far. If we’ve noticed anything from those who perform well in live remixing, it’s that you need the right gear for the occasion.
Thankfully with technology the way it is, you have a plethora of options at your fingertips. You can spend a little or a lot and still get great results. Let’s have a look at the hardware options available to you.
Live DJ Remixing #1 – Get The Software & Sounds
Back in January, we made the New Year’s resolution to learn something new. To make an attempt to go beyond our normal realms of DJing and just try to “take it to the next level”. Some of you are already taking on this idea in our new Scratching For Controller DJs course – but this is just one way of making your DJing stand out. Another is the newer methodology of fired samples, loops, and chopped up pieces of music – a major element of what is often called “controllerism”.
Today’s article is the first of a three-part series where we’ll get you started and explore the world of basic controllerism, and give you some ideas on how to bring these techniques back into the basic DJ set. We’re going to start things off with software and finding sounds to use.
Design Your Own Tablet DJ Controller In TouchOSC
In 4 Easy Steps To Adding A Tablet Controller To Your DJ Set-up, I dove into how to set up and use TouchOSC on your smartphone or tablet in your DJ set-up. While it was a little complex, the end result is quite remarkable.
While the layouts included with TouchOSC are fun and cover a wide array of potential set-ups, part of the fun is being able to make your own customized control layout, and today I’ll show you how easy it is.
Review & Video: Traktor Pro 2.5 & Traktor Kontrol F1
This article was cowritten with Phil Morse of DigitalDJTips.com
With the just-released 2.5 version of its popular Traktor Pro software, Native Instruments has added something it hopes will prove to be revolutionary: "Remix Decks". Expanding on the "Sample Decks" added last year, the Remix Decks boldly set out to popularise the use of samples in DJing.
Almost simultaneously, the company has also released the Kontrol F1 hardware, designed to offer full control over the new Remix Decks. Together, the new hardware and software bring to Traktor DJing a workflow concept which, while familiar to those who know about Serato / Ableton's The Bridge, looks set to introduce a whole new group of DJs to advanced sample use.
4 Easy Steps To Adding A Tablet Controller To Your DJ Set-up
One of the coolest aspects of being a digital DJ is all the new “toys” we get to play with. Our laptops, our timecode set-ups, our Midi controls, and now even the very smartphones and tablets we use on a daily basis.
Ever since the Lemur Jazzmutant hit the scene, DJs have wished for a more affordable way to have a touchscreen controller in the booth. The gang at Hexler answered the call with TouchOSC, and today I’m going to show you in four easy steps how to hook it up to your existing digital DJ set-up.
The Great Debate: Sync
You knew I was going to dive into this topic.
I started with the discussion over media, but now I want to stop beating around the bush and go right into the bigger point of debate that has been endless for a few years now - the sync button. A mainstay of most DJ software titles, with improvements being pushed on every update, it's a function that's become the black sheep child of DJ midi controls, and yet while many admonish its existence, many more are using it, even if they won't admit to it.
Is it cheating as some DJs insist? Or progress? Down the rabbit's hole we go...
